One day we'll forgive you, Georgia Nicholson

I have turned a new corner in my knitting.  I say new corner because I'm not a new knitter anymore, I've knitted the heck out of anything that would sit still long enough to let me for a while now (thus able to read and produce most patterns), and what I'm doing is nothing like what I've usually done.  Hubby calls it "burn out," I call it "re-prioritizing."

Everyone knows of the "Knitted Christmas" that just passed in which, thankfully, everyone appreciated what they got.  Everyone knows how that carried into January and February, trying to catch up on other gifts I said I would do or just thought they were a good idea.  Then there was the frogging of the sweater and baby blanket that not only liberated knitting needles and supplies, but my personal sense of accomplishment.  In the past month I have been knitting on one pair of socks (that's it.  No new sweater, no nothing (um, anything), and I wasn't getting any inspiration and enjoying it) and I was getting sick of it.  Not just sick of the project, but sick of knitting.  I was (finally) looking at the stack of books at my side of the bed thinking "those look interesting."  I was gazing outside thinking "Playground.  That sounds like fun."  Those things have never happened.  So here it is.  I am actually playing outside with the kids again.  I still carry a sock or knitting project to car pool and various appoinments but not to the playground.  Gosh-durnit the kids are only little once and they love that Mommy goes down the slide and plays chase.  I haven't quite caught up to the reading but I'm working on that.  The regular schedule still isn't allowing sit-down time longer than 5-10 minutes but it should soon.  Hopefully the stressors then continue to be eliminated and we aren't running everywhere hauling everyone at all times.

But I digress.  To sum it all up, I discovered that I'm addicted to stress and I'm going to cut that out.  I know it won't be easy, especially since I do get a sadistic thrill of piling on the projects and responsibilities, but I've decided I've had enough.  I'm saying no to anything new and only sticking to the few things left that I can't get out of.  Anything new isn't limited to knitting, it involves lots of parts of my life and the great thing is everyone understands, even if they are a little curious to what all really is going on.  I just say it's nothing that no one hasn't been through before, no one's hurt, nothing serious, just lots of little things piled on at once and I've hit my breaking point.  I don't like going into all of it because compared to most everyone else's problems, mine sound like a whiny little pig.  And I'm also trying to cut out the complaining.  :)

In all this, I also discovered that everything I knit I give away.  I like only a few knitted things.  Everyone else seems to enjoy my knitted stuff more than I do at times so, yes, I will finish my special, for-me-every-day-wear dark blue cardigan one day but the pattern hasn't shown up yet so I will wait until that prince comes.  I really do love knitting and I'm reclaiming it for myself by choosing NOT to do it all times just because I felt like I should be busy at something.

I also had a laugh but a thought while reading the last of the Georgia Nicholson books.  She was talking about one of the teachers she has who's single and a little out-of-touch with the "modern" life.  This teacher had been the one supervising after-school detention and walked with Georgia out to the gate of the school and Georgia was not just appalled to be seen talking to a teacher, but that this teacher was wearing a knitted hat with (of all horrors) BOBBLES!!!  She didn't want to be associated with "knitted people" ever!  I had a good giggle, thinking of all the knitted things I have, have knitted, and people adore but then paused when I realized I hadn't worn much of anything knitted in a while.  I have 2 wraps I wear on Sundays, sometimes as big scarves, and a short-sleeved cardigan I wear once in a while but the hats, the scarves, etc. only came out in the real cold we had this season because it was so darn freezing.  Otherwise, Hubby and the kids wore theirs all the time but me not so much.  Am I really a knitted person or do I just like making things?

Makes you think, especially with the kind of money it's easy to drop on certain hobbies.  Georgia Nicholson is by no means an authority on anything (but very entertaining series to read) but here she unintentionally exposed a personal possibility.  I'll keep contemplating but there's one thing I know no matter what, I love you knitted people.

SBJ camoflauged... with duckies!

 

And I am very happy to say the mommy was thrilled.  She's put in an order for knitted footie pajamas.  I said sure.  Next year.

Recycle day

There comes a time in everyone's life when they have to clean out the dirt in their lives.  Sometimes that's literally what is going on but sometimes it's in reference to the dysfunctional relationships hanging around like a grease ball at the prom.  Mine came in the form of those projects I started knitting nearly a year ago, knowing full well I was knitting enough as it was, and they were still sitting in their bags with all the supplies I had desperately needed for other projects (since finished, regardless) no where near completion.

Like the previously blogged conversation, this has been brewing for a while.  It came to a head last night when I was knitting away at the "Amazing Technicolor Dream Cardigan" while watching "Lost in Translation" (she was knitting a scarf in that, briefly!)  I looked at the WIP and started thinking, "you know, this looks way too small to fit an adult."  I slipped the sleeve stitches on ribbon and tried it on.  Guess what.  It was a little too small.  Getting it over my bust was literally a stretch and the bottom with all the cabling had drawn up so much it was barely seen from the front.  This led to me trying to bend my mind around any way to salvage the project (wider button bands...?), sleeping on it (not literally, of course), and an early morning phone call to LMSS to get the knitting shrink's opinion.  She said frog it, frog it, and don't look back, trust your mind and don't resist.  Stop before more time is wasted, time wasn't wasted because you learned so much from the project, rewind the yarn and use that knowledge to find the RIGHT pattern for it.

So I did.  And I feel so good about it.  I loved the cables but HATED the bobbles and the stripes were all off on my body lines that I wanted to accentuate.  Frogging that led to me taking the other long-a-waiting projects out (just 2 more, thank goodness) and looking at them without the rose-colored glasses.  The Calming Wrap was saved (good construction, good quality pattern) but the baby blanket that resembled a Muppet wig was laid to rest.  It took me an hour to frog that thing and rewind the colors (I considered just throwing it away) but I did it and I FEEL SO GOOD.  It's like finally cutting ties with that loser college boyfriend who was only dating you to cheat off your papers:  there's always hurt and regret but once the weight is let go you feel like you can fly.

My list is updated and it's holding less "to-do."  I'm almost finished with one of the paying "to-do"s and that will be crossed off today.  I have nothing to add to the "to-do" and I'm not letting myself find anything either.  Keep it simple, stupid, I keep telling myself.

And I feel so good about it.