As a writer, I stick with a project until I’m done. No ifs, ands or buts about it. I’m monogamous when I write. Or so I tell myself. And maybe that isn’t always a good thing for a creative person.
However, when I knit, I am easily distracted by a shiny new pattern or yarn. I’m in the midst of working on an intricate lace shawl, and until this week, I was doing monogamous knitting. But I’ve still got about 100 rows to do, and the temptation to cast on has been great today.
Here’s a picture of Squall many rows ago. It’s not as blue in real life. The yarn is handspun. Not by me. I do spin, but we’d be waiting for a long time for me to produce enough yarn to make this shawl out of my handspun. No, it was lovingly spun for the Fall in Full Color Club by Cheryl Newhouse at New Hue Handspun out of her BamHuey Lace yarn. It it just stunning.
I’m ganking a picture of the finished project to let you see what it will eventually become. Photo is courtesy of Knitspot. Anne Hanson is my favorite designer. I wish I could see what she sees when she designs her patterns. They are works of art.
I’m using the 2 skein option, so my shawl will be bigger than this. I’ve used up one skein of yarn already and the shawl above was made with only one skein. But then I’m a big-boned fluffy kind of girl.
So on this rainy, gray day here in Richmond, Virginia, I put Squall aside and cast on for another Anne Hanson Knitspot project. Motheye.
Again, this picture is from the Knitspot shop. I’ll be making my Motheye out of The Verdant Gryphon’s Mithril lace in The Depths of the Sea colorway.
I ganked this picture from Gryphon’s website. I think it’s going to be beautiful. And you know, sometimes we need to feed that need for beauty. Not that Squall isn’t beautiful. It’s gorgeous. But today I needed to cast on for something else. And Motheye got the nod.
It’s a life lesson I need to pay attention to. Often, in writing, I’ll hang with a particular thread in a plot. It could be stagnating because I’ve been working on it too long and pushing for it to hurry up and be done. Well, things, creative things anyway, are never done before they’re good and ready to be done.
Squall is telling me to give it a brief rest and come back to it. Motheye is winking her pretty dark eye at me and saying, “Cast on.”
Letting go is often so much better than resistance. Casting on, whether it’s with knitting or writing or some other creative endeavor, is not a bad thing.
So for that sticky part in the plot that I’ve been relentlessly working on this week, I’m letting it go and casting on for another thread in the book.
And to feed my creative soul, I’ve cast on for Motheye.
Are you finding that you need to cast on for something different in your life? Try it. You may be surprised with the results and with what happens when you go back to your original project. Let me know what you think. I’m interested.
Kat Jorgensen 