Shawl as life metaphor?

Recently I have been trying to again learn to knit but with fewer rules, refusing to follow patterns, not listening to the needlepoint and knitting police, and just going my own way while I build some skills. So, I took my skills, old and new and make a beautiful shawl, using yarn that I had received after my great-aunt died and knitting needles I received from her and my grandmother and only recently rediscovering. I have been crocheting since age 12 or 13 as a way to get out of sewing class in junior high, getting my grandmother to teach me, and needlepointing since age 13 when a friend of my mother's had a needlepoint business and gave me a pillow to make as a gift and would steer business to me to finish projects of other women who didn't have the patience for it. I made some good money in those days, especially as a teenager, finishing other people's work. Yes, I'd had tried to learn to knit before but it never really clicked, maybe the timing wasn't right, maybe I just wasn't focused, maybe I just wasn't ready. So, instead, now I am learning, and feel that it is sticking, that the time is right to begin this part of my journey, and returning to lessons learned in the past and applying them to now and the future. And, while I was creating this shawl from the remnants of yarn left from probably about 20 years ago, using old and new skills, old skills from my family and new skills from friends, sometimes making mistakes, and lacking in perfection, but learning as I go, isn't that really all about life? We take skills and lessons learned, and add our personalities and creativity, make mistakes along the way, discarding what we don't like and can't use, and still end up with something beautiful and warm and that can be passed along and shared with others after we are gone. It will be something to wrap ourselves in and remember all that came before it to get to a point where it could be made, even with its mistakes, and what will come in the future from the lessons learned while making it and wearing it. Most importantly, it will be a special gift for a special friend after I am gone to pass along this history and these lessons.