Looking forward

One of the biggest changes that knitting brought to my life is the constant focus on forward.

That isn't my modus operandi.  No.  My usual is to take everything out and turn it over and over again, an epic seeking of right and wrongs.  There always are imperfections and I tend get mired in the wrongs.  

Knitting isn't like that at all.  Oh you can make mistakes, but it forces you to choose what you are going to do in an unthreatening way or you can fix it and move on.  Knitting is unforgiving  enough to teach you what happens to people who choose to just keep on without fixing it but it does it so gently that the only pain you could possibly feel is when you step on the needle as you walk past the corner you tossed the thing into.

But even when it forces you to go back and fix it, it then proceeds to be all about the forward motion.  

I still have a lot of my current pink sweater to finish but I am focused forward.  There may yet be days when my work goes backwards on it, but still, my mind and heart and soul are focused forward.  

What is next?  I've been thinking about Undercurrent  and I am sure that will happen before winter rears it head, but I also have been thinking a lot about something lighter, less causal, and maybe just a tad more conservative.  

OK a lot more conservative.  Its another of those 'my wardrobe could really use a _____ 'garments.  I need a good simple ordinary cardigan.  Think twinset and pearls for the general shape and fit of it.  These days the look gets consigned to 'vintage' and perhaps that is so.  It could very well be an old fashioned look.  Still it is a cardigan style that has no dates and is classic and suitable for every possible occasion.  

I want it to be classic in shape and plain in the knitting except for a tiny element of ...well...something.  I am going through the various stitch dictionaries with great vigor searching for the perfect little element.  It is completely possible that the perfect thing is simply an eyelet every once in a while, maybe with the eyelets becoming more and often in Hanami like glory.

Maybe what I need is a Hanami sweater.  Ah well.  I am looking for just a little something.  

This is the time in a knitting life of the big dream.  It is where your hands might be in the day to day work, but your mind is free to wander forward, ever forward, searching for the next interesting thing to know, to do, to work on, to play with.  Even when you are mired in ongoing things, your heart will be looking forward.

That is one of the things knitting taught me.  Always focusing forward and when you do look back, it teaches you it is OK, that it is normal and will be over in the blink of an eye.