Look what came in the mail today... beauty AND potential!I love to receive packages from artists--even if I've paid them to send me the package in the first place. Creative people typically send pretty stuff, and today was no exception. Except now I'm scared to death!
You see, I learned to knit when I was a little girl. My grandmother and aunt would frequently pass time needling away while watching TV. Sometimes they would knit, too.
It's hard not to revert to that "little girl" feeling when I think about knitting. It's the anxiety that overcomes me when I see patterns that involve anything more complex than *k1, p1*. k2, p1 though?? Are you kidding me? HOW am I supposed to keep track of THAT??
My current conundrum is that my biggest projects to date have been baby blankets, usually intended for the Linus Project. More often than not, however, my endeavors have ended up discarded, before they were even half finished, left to gather dust in a shopping bag crumpled in the bottom of some closet somewhere. My knitting was a lesson in motion to the whole "best of intentions" theory.
I've been working hard to change my past naughty knitter behaviors, though. Just in the last few weeks I have already completed six or seven pieces, mostly scarves. Ok, ALL scarves, but very COOL scarves nonetheless. Leave it to me to get cocky after a few straight knit projects, though. I got myself on the interwebs and started checking a few crafty chick blogs for knitting inspiration from my peers. I downloaded some nifty patterns that ended up looking like a strange experiment in cryptography and eventually decided, "I'm ready for the big leagues!"
I put on my big girl panties and ordered some big girl wool. Oh yeah.
So now what?
I'm terrified. I mean, this stuff is BEAUTIFUL!! And it came in pretty packaging. With a beautiful note card. Addressed to ME. From Jill Draper. She makes things.
I realized on my way back to the sofa (from my fancy pants wool photo shoot) that selecting a special project for this stuff would take a while. I cannot let myself be rushed.
Look what I found when I went to sit down:
This is Casey, my almost 11 year old yellow lab. She had clearly been busy while I was otherwise distracted by, oh, I don't know, some kick ass new yarn...
This little monkey had taken my brand spanking new ball of cotton yarn that I was preparing to turn into a few wicked dishcloths and strewn it across the family room floor. Worse yet? Ewww, it was WET! So much for dishcloths.I was about to share my disappointment in her behavior with Casey when...
I realized how much the yarn looked like her "baby". It's kind of hard to fault her for destroying *my* yarn when it bore such a marked resemblance to *her* toy. (Mental note: don't leave unattended yarn on the couch.)Back to the primary issue at hand--how will I decide what to make with my grown up girl treasure? I think it's going to involve the eye of a newt and a swinging crystal pendant.
Or maybe I'll just ask Casey since she in apparently dabbling in the exciting world of yarn art, too...
