Introspection - The Art of Not Unraveling Your Knitting Project
Life has its ups. Life has its downs. Life has its surprises. That's what makes it . . . Life. And as we are all the captains of our own ships, it never hurts to assess the sanity of the person turning the wheel. The encouragement for introspection and understanding your own motivations is an interesting, if frightening, idea. Sometimes it's hard to admit you're the captain, and you can't blame a shipwreck on the crew.
Originally, I was going to title this blog "Drama!" and it was going to be all about the vacation that was not a vacation (we've all had those) . . . but frankly, I've vented to my friends about all the stresses caused by cat, family, cat, husband, mother's cat, cat, family, cat again . . . and I realized that I want to let go of that negativity and turn on a more positive course. I put some of the concepts I've been reading about into practice, and when I was nervous, or stressed, I would repeat the phrase "My life is enriched by the friendships I have." And guess what? This last week has been going great! My cat seems to be making a full recovery (although we have to dose the poor thing 5 times a day for 12 days, so I'm sure she feels like it's only been two minutes since the last time we had to grab her and ram nasty-tasting pills and liquid down her throat). There has been an overwhelming expression of support - and several of my friends even offered to take me to lunch to help make up for the mangling of my vacation. I even received one of the increasingly rare credit card offers that has no balance transfer fees and a 3.99% APR on balance transfers until 2014 (which will save me thousands in interest) . . . all of which are things I should celebrate.
How does knitting tie into this? While I was stressed, I was working on a knitting project for A. I'm new to knitting, and arts & crafts have never come easily to me, so this project is a challenge on multiple levels. Not only does it require skill - it requires patience and the ability to be gentle and forgiving with myself instead of critical (harder than it sounds). In the midst of my vacation, I finally gave into the frustrations and unraveled my whole project so I could have a fresh start. In a sense, I think this was the right thing to do - but if I continue to unravel it every time I make a mistake, the hat I'm trying to make will never come to be. It's an exercise in balance. It's funny how you see the reflections of your Life in the small choices you make. Who would have thought a ball of yarn would be a mirror for the big picture? I've managed to take a deep breath and cast the project on the needles again (yet another new skill . . . and one that helped me stay up until 2:00 a.m. so I could dose the cat), but the true test will come when I drop the next stitch.
Words of wisdom: If Life is a ball of yarn, knit yourself a hat. If you don't like the hat, reassess, unravel, and knit yourself a scarf. If you don't like the scarf, reassess, unravel, and look within. Put down the knitting book, the advice won't help. Once you know in your gut that you want a pair of mittens . . . knit knit knit - and don't worry about the dropped stitches or other delays - everything that goes into the making is what makes your mittens, YOUR mittens.
Maybe it doesn't make sense to you, but it makes sense to me.
Originally, I was going to title this blog "Drama!" and it was going to be all about the vacation that was not a vacation (we've all had those) . . . but frankly, I've vented to my friends about all the stresses caused by cat, family, cat, husband, mother's cat, cat, family, cat again . . . and I realized that I want to let go of that negativity and turn on a more positive course. I put some of the concepts I've been reading about into practice, and when I was nervous, or stressed, I would repeat the phrase "My life is enriched by the friendships I have." And guess what? This last week has been going great! My cat seems to be making a full recovery (although we have to dose the poor thing 5 times a day for 12 days, so I'm sure she feels like it's only been two minutes since the last time we had to grab her and ram nasty-tasting pills and liquid down her throat). There has been an overwhelming expression of support - and several of my friends even offered to take me to lunch to help make up for the mangling of my vacation. I even received one of the increasingly rare credit card offers that has no balance transfer fees and a 3.99% APR on balance transfers until 2014 (which will save me thousands in interest) . . . all of which are things I should celebrate.
How does knitting tie into this? While I was stressed, I was working on a knitting project for A. I'm new to knitting, and arts & crafts have never come easily to me, so this project is a challenge on multiple levels. Not only does it require skill - it requires patience and the ability to be gentle and forgiving with myself instead of critical (harder than it sounds). In the midst of my vacation, I finally gave into the frustrations and unraveled my whole project so I could have a fresh start. In a sense, I think this was the right thing to do - but if I continue to unravel it every time I make a mistake, the hat I'm trying to make will never come to be. It's an exercise in balance. It's funny how you see the reflections of your Life in the small choices you make. Who would have thought a ball of yarn would be a mirror for the big picture? I've managed to take a deep breath and cast the project on the needles again (yet another new skill . . . and one that helped me stay up until 2:00 a.m. so I could dose the cat), but the true test will come when I drop the next stitch.
Words of wisdom: If Life is a ball of yarn, knit yourself a hat. If you don't like the hat, reassess, unravel, and knit yourself a scarf. If you don't like the scarf, reassess, unravel, and look within. Put down the knitting book, the advice won't help. Once you know in your gut that you want a pair of mittens . . . knit knit knit - and don't worry about the dropped stitches or other delays - everything that goes into the making is what makes your mittens, YOUR mittens.
Maybe it doesn't make sense to you, but it makes sense to me.
posted by Andrea Peach | 10:29 AM
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