A stitch in time saves nine hundred words.

I started knitting while visiting my parents in Austin for an entire week last July.  I had taught myself the basic stitches out of a book a few months prior, but it took a couple days of sitting around Mom and Dad's to really catch the knitting bug.

Mom - "I need to go to Hobby Lobby, want to come?"

Me - "OH DEAR GOD YES. YES I DO."

My first projects were a giant scarf and funky hat that I knitted for Him (who cheated on me in a condom-free foursome at Burning Man with his ex-girlfriend who'd made my life hell for 6 months).  Welcome to the sweater curse on crack.

Of course, I was hardly going to be deterred from my newfound hobby by that little wrinkle!

Like most beginning knitters, I started out knitting scarves and basic hats, but it didn't take long before I wanted more of a challenge.  I decided to start my first sweater, and of course, it had to have cables.  No basic first sweater for me! 

That project is ready for finishing - where you put all the knitted pieces together - but with summer around the corner, I began to itch for something new.  What to do next?  I had a book of shawls I'd been dreaming about, tank top patterns, cotton skirt patterns.  Thought about trying socks, fingerless gloves.  I FELL IN LOVE with Cleaves.  Perhaps an early start on Clapotis for fall?  I couldn't decide, so I decided to wait and see what came to me.

I like to do that sometimes, see what comes to me.  For example, for the sweater I put a search up on eBay for Berroco Softwist Bulky.  When I got the e-mail that someone had listed 10 skeins at a bargain price, I pounced.  And that's how I decided what color to knit my sweater; the color that came to me and said, "Here I am, buy me!"  For the record it's a unique pewter color that I'm hoping will look classy with black pants.

So I had a bunch of potential projects in my head, but I was waiting for something to jump up and say, "Me, me!" 

One of the shawls I'd been eyeing was a lace pattern called Kimono.  It's modeled after shawls worn to Japanese tea ceremonies.  I bought the shawl book at a yarn show where I'd first seen bamboo yarn from an import company out of New York.  A Japanese shawl knitted in bamboo - well, man, do I love a theme.  The night I watched "The Ring" on DVD I made turkey burgers with pineapple rings and homemade onion rings for dinner.  Themes are fun!  And sometimes yummy!

So I'd been dreaming about knitting the Kimono shawl out of bamboo yarn ever since I'd spotted it in the book.  But I'd never seen bamboo yarn in a LYS, and I didn't want to order it over the phone (the only option with the import company).  So I waited for my next project to come to me. 

Cut to a yarn tasting at my LYS (local yarn shop), Unwind, where one of the samples was the new South West Bamboo.  Click!  The fates had spoken, and when I got home I used my sample to do a gauge swatch.  The pattern called for size 5 needles, but because the yarn was thinner than the yarn in the pattern, I found I needed to up my needle size to 7 to obtain gauge.  So far, so good. 

The pattern called for 1,000 yards of yarn which was going to be 4 skeins.  A trip back to Unwind revealed four skeins of South West Bamboo in a wonderful corn blue.  Sold! It was perfect, and I couldn't wait to get started.

Those of you with knitting experience, or perhaps even good math skills, may already see where this is going.  It called for 1,000 yards with size 5 needles.  I upped the needles, so I was using more yardage for each 24 row lace pattern repeat.  It all makes so much sense now.

I, of course, realized this at the end of skein one.  Several weeks into the project.  Several inches into the project.

I needed more yarn, but it's not that easy.  I had one dye lot, and if I ordered new yarn it would be a different dye lot.  Doh!

So what I ended up doing was ordering four more skeins and then exchanging my three unused skeins for three more skeins from the same dye lot.  Which gave me seven skeins from the same dye lot, and the world's largest, most time-consuming swatch EVER.

And I realized that knitting is a lot like writing.

When I started the shawl, I wanted every knitting minute to count.  I knew it would take a long (LONG) time to knit, and I wanted to make steady progress towards my goal.  I didn't want to have to tink back to fix mistakes, and I certainly didn't want to have to start completely over after knitting 250 yards worth of lace.

Sometimes writing can be frustrating like that.  I had this plan to write a full-length story about last May Day to post last Sunday.  I got up Saturday and spent a few hours on it.  And it just wasn't there.  Usually I have phrases in my head, turning points, endings.  And it just flat out wasn't there.  I had to admit to myself that I'm not quite ready to write it down.  I'm hitting a closed door, and I just don't have the key.  And I was frustrated, 'cause here I'd spent time on it.  For nothing.

But it's not nothing, time spent on an unfinished story or an unfinished shawl.  Sure, it won't win you friends or influence people.  It doesn't produce prompt "product."  But it is part of the journey.  It's learning; it's part of life.  It's exercise and practice and time spent.  It's exactly why I started knitting in the first place.  To slow down the race.

Because a knitted item takes time, and you can't rush it.  If you rush it, it will inevitably bite you in the ass and take more time.  You can get faster at knitting, but a 24" by 72" inch lace shawl is going to take the time it's going to take. 

But you can rush writing.  You can try to force it; you can feel pressure to just get through it.  Sometimes you have to power through to be sure, but sometimes just the pressure can sabotage you more.  You've got to learn to enjoy the journey, the process.  So when you do have to power through, you can do it calmly, with confidence.  With at least some level of joy for the process of it.  Knowing it will take the time it's going to take.

So I'm happy that I now have plenty of wonderful yarn for a great knitting project I can enjoy for the next many months, and I'm happy that I started that story.  Because it's simmering, and it's waiting.

Maybe next May Day it will be here.

And at the very least I'll have a gorgeous, blue Kimono shawl.

Comments

[Amy]

... And you even have a nice pillow or doily! :0)