Alarm bells go off in my head on row 18 and that Electric Six song “Danger! High Voltage” cranks up in the background. I am trying to make my yarn bend to my will, but it’s not working. No matter how I try, Blueberry Wine just does not want to become Emily Shmemily.
No! Don't make me into Emily Shmemily!
It’s funny how that works. You would expect that any yarn in the given gauge would work for any particular pattern. Why wouldn’t it? But sometimes it’s just a disaster in incubation, waiting to burst free and stomp with big ol’ combat boots on your hopes and dreams. The color isn’t right, the pattern doesn’t work, the needles size is just all wrong. I can sense it, I really can. I cast on with all the best intentions. I knit a few rounds, and suddenly I find myself stretching out my half inch of knitting progress with a critical eye and second guessing all my decisions. Do I keep knitting and push that creeping suspicion down, or do I frog before I have too much invested and search again for that perfect marriage of pattern, color and fiber? Me, I keep searching for that harmony. All good fiber deserves the perfect match.
I gave myself permission to start a flood of new projects now that my Cherry Fizz, Jaywalkers & BSJ are all finished. But I feel jinxed. Emily Shmemily was a bust and so was the scarf I started with some Frog Tree Alpaca sport I have in my stash. That one, I’m still trying to decide if I like or not, so it’s waiting to be worked on or alternatively frogged. Then I started Little Momo for Knittymunchkin and had to restart it about 6 times due to gauge issues, and a few small errors I seem to have found in the pattern. With Momo, I managed to have found the perfect yarn, but technical issues (rather than design ones) were the things holding me up. So I feel kinda all over with my knits right now. I’m longing for that sense of calm and purpose I find when I am in the natural rhythm of a project and I can just pick it up and work here and there, knowing that the mixture of yarn and pattern are comfortably settled. When I know right where I stand with my knit and we understand each other. It’s at that moment that I feel the peace knitting brings me, the peace I crave so much. But I think I finally found it with my newest pattern choice for Blueberry Wine: Multnomah.
Life has been super crazy here. Knittymunchkin is walking (WALKING!!) and I am busier than ever. But I did manage to meet my friend Troy on February 12th for a book signing at our LYS. We got to meet the super sweet, fabulously talented Rebecca Danger and have her sign our books. I love her patterns and she just published The Big Book Of Knitted Monsters in January. Of course, I had to buy a copy. What’s even super cooler is, she’s local! I don’t know why, but knowing someone that talented lives in my community makes me kinda happy :) I can’t wait to make a bunch of these for Knittymunchkin when he’s big enough not to chew their arms off!
The lovely & talented Ms. Danger
R. Darling is being a true sweetheart and skipping his run this weekend to give me a chance to take a wee bit of a break. So, I believe I am now off to have a cup of tea and a little bit of work on Multnomah! Hope your weekend is fantasterrific !
