Until tonight.
Tonight I began a quest. A quest to renew my yarn fervor. A quest to distract me from the dull necessity of finishing some rather complex knitting I failed to finish before Christmas (my brother and my brother in law are both waiting anxiously for me to finish...). I had a strong surge of work right before Christmas - Monday-Wednesday of this week it was nothing but knitting. I was on a roll! But as soon as Christmas was over, and the big deadline had passed, my enthusiasm for both projects took a big nosedive. Last night I resolved to get some work done on my overdue Christmas gifts.
I began working on one, the one for my brother. The pattern is not difficult, but the execution is, a bit. For anyone who knits: the pattern is knit on a 36-inch cable, with size 5 needles. Long, and tiny. At the beginning of the project, I cast on a whopping 360 stitches. Its a neat pattern, with alternating forward- and backward-stocking stitches, forming a tight wave. With the alternating stitches, you also alternate between two colors of yarn, so that the tight wave creates a grey scarf (in my case) on one side of the work, and a black scarf on the other. It is really quite remarkable and fun to work on. Or, at least I thought so. I sat down to work on it last night and got halfway through a row (approximately 175 stitches) before realizing that I was purling when I ought to have been knitting.
Oh, bother.
I made an annoyed note in my notebook, marked off the row I'd failed to mark off last time, and put the work down. So much for effort.
Tonight, as Hubby and I sat looking at each other wondering what to do with our Saturday evening, I came to a rather desperate solution to my apathy toward my knitting engagements. I decided I would learn to crochet!
I know what you're thinking, doesn't that just seem like a distraction? Possibly. However, in the past I have found that when bored with a particular yarn-y project, switching to a different one for a time creates a newfound interest in the first, when I happen to return to it. I have placed a challenge before myself to finish both of my tardy Christmas gifts before the first month of 2009 is complete, and I do plan to limit my crochet distraction in order to achieve that goal.
But, in the meantime, I have succeeded in shocking myself beyond all expectation at what I am capable of creating with a crochet needle and yarn. Below is a photograph of my partially-done "Victorian Dream Square."
About two hours ago, I pulled out some yarn and practiced making an even chain. This was a big challenge for me. After I felt I'd achieved some mastery there, I moved on to a single crochet. I worked about 6 rows of that before getting bored (hmm, is there a pattern here?) and itching to try something new. So I pulled out some of the free patterns I'd accumulated from Hobby Lobby and took a gander at them. Got confused by some directions, turned to my trusty computing machine for clarification, and continued on. Then, about 30 minutes ago, I came across this pattern: :click!: I thought "hey, I can do this, sure!" and now, I have this!
Don't laugh, all you experienced expert crocheters. This is my first attempt! Of course you can see I'm about half way through the 5th round. After exclaiming to Hubby every 10 minutes, saying "holy cow, can you believe I'm actually doing this!" and "look what I've made now! it actually looks like the pattern," I figured he was probably tired of my shocked-ness, and that it was time for me to get over it.
So I resort to you, dear void, to absorb all of my unbelieving and amazed feelings regarding the wonderful art of crocheting so that I can finish this silly project and get back to business!
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