Wednesday 21 August 2019

And Away We Go

After finding the yarn and needles, I took the time to cast on my version of Myrtle.  What you see here is the ribbing...of the bottom edge.


Yesirree, Myrtle is a bottom up sweater and wouldn't you know it, I have to go and fall in love with a bottom up sweater, when for months I have been fearing knitting from the bottom up.  My fondness for Myrtle is more powerful  than my worry about not being able to try it on as I go.  Yes I could have changed it all to knit a variation from the top down.  I did think of that a lot, but sometimes, the answer is to just boldly and blindly jump in at the deep end.  I did the calculation based on my gauge swatch in the lace pattern and cast on that amount of stitches.  If the ribbing is too tight, I can pop it off and re-knit it later.  It is much more important that the lace body fit right. 

It was going well, and I cannot begin to say how nice it is to work with wool again after a summer of bast fibres, but as the photo shows, the ribbing is black.  I would still like to be knitting it, but even my very well lit (big light in ceiling fan) living room is not lit well enough for black.  Time to do something else.

So, here I am, doing the writing in the evening.  I'm am seriously going to work harder to do this in the evenings regularly.  Mornings are very natural for me to write, but it takes a lot of time.   I want to work hard to build a better routine for myself and mornings, being my best and most energetic period of the day, are very important to making and keeping new routines.    I need mornings for other important things, like weaving and spinning the mass of fibre I have.  And sewing.  I am developing a larger stash of fabric than I have room for. 

Knitting is easy.  I will always knit.  Since those epic days when I first understood knitting, I knit through the highest points of my life and the darkest lowest days.  Knitting is like coming home to something safe and comfortable and cozy.  I will always knit. 

All the other stuff, is work of a sort.  It is work that I dearly want to do, and to understand at its most basic level, but it is work none the less.  The things that are work are things I need to trick myself into doing, to force myself out of my comfort zone. My friend and I were talking about this today while spinning and I think starting with her suggestion of small increments of  weaving and spinning, done early in the day when my head is clear and my will is strong, ably abetted by coffee/tea will be a sensible place to start. 

Sewing is easier.  When I have no pants, I will sew. 

I was sort of planning all this a while ago and then kids came for a summer vacation, and shortly after that, they came while their mom was doing family things far, far away, and my plans of changing my routine just never really got off the ground.  Now these things are done, and I am here back to just me and it is time.

Just like Myrtle, I need to jump straight in with both feet.  If you hear screaming, ignore it.  It is just the sound of me conquering my little fears. 


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