day working on a beanie for 4 yos. As I knit I was reminding myself to be sure to make it big enough because, in my impatience to finish, all of my beanies end up a bit short and need to be frogged and re-finished (5x to get this one right), or, more likely, worn just a bit too small. Why am I always in such a rush to finish something? Don't I enjoy knitting? Isn't that why I do it?I know for a fact that I LOVE buying new yarn. I drool over patterns, get overjoyed when I cast on for a new project, and delight in the first few rows. But then, after about a day or so into the project, my focus turns to finishing. I begin knitting to finish. Now a good interesting cable or lace project does a much better job of keeping my attention... like a good book, I don't want to put it down. I'll stay up late to finish one more repeat - or chapter. Housework goes ignored (well, this pretty much happens anyway). However, as much as I want to finish a good book, I enjoy every last minute of it and am often somewhat sad when it's over. I missed Emma and her friends terribly when I finished Jane Austen's novel, and I cried over Frodo and the departure of the elves at the end of the LOTR trilogy. I wanted to keep reading, to know more. (Fortunately Frodo, Legolas, and the rest live on in my 7 yo who only recently stopped wearing his elven cape.)
But there comes a point in every knitted project that lilting joy turns to utter perseverance to finish. I may still be enjoying the knit but the end just can't come soon enou
gh. I wish I could just knit and enjoy it beginning to end, one project at a time. That's how I read books (mostly). I never find myself persevering just to get through the rest of a good book. Well, except for Atlas Shrugged which I read about 20 years ago. I loved the book but some guy went into a 60 page philosophical speech and I never finished. I read 1160 out of 1200 pages and never finished! I tried several years later to finish but didn't remember what was going on. This still bugs me. But I digress.Why am I always looking for my next pattern? Why is it always on my mind? If I enjoy it so much, why aren't my beanies way too big instead of too small?? And why am I writing about it instead of doing it??
Oh well, just thinking... now, with sheer grit and determination, back to Midwest Moonlight.
BTW - Isn't the Morehouse Rattlesnake Scarf cute on JoJo? Yep, I think it's on the floor of my car now. He refuses to wear it... what-ev-er!
2 comments:
Oh...this is so how I have been reading lately.
But, perhaps it is the book
Crime and Punishment.
My daughter and I are reading it at the same time. I asked her if I could stop cause it is so slow and boring....she told me 'no'. You have to finish it.
So....I trudge thru it...and wish I could be reading something else.
I think the answer is adreneline (sp?)
We get the adreneline rust at the beginning of a project...and it just sort of runs out.
Beginnings are always exciting!
Love the snake scarf! He'll probably surprise you with it... you'll go to put it away, and he'll freak out all over the place, telling you how it's his favourite thing in the whole world!
I think part of the thrill of knitting is the possibilities, the creative juices flowing as we look at yarn and patterns. The fact of life is that it takes a good long time to knit up a sweater. Sometimes the juices don't last that long! :0)
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