Spring Cleaning

Yesterday was indeed a wonderful day off. Perhaps not so surprisingly, I chose to spend the entire day working with my yarn stash and reorganizing my knitting. It's what I do when I feel a need to calm my mind and put some order back into my life. As I've been so focused on so many outside projects for so long, yesterday was particularly productive.

The main theme for the day seemed to be "renewal" as I cleared out the cobwebs so that my knitting could begin anew. Thus, I faced facts and my beautiful lacewing shawl....

and it was particularly beautiful.....

was frogged so that I could begin again. It's been practically my only knitting for the last several weeks, and I was thrilled when I finished the main pattern Saturday night as I had been looking forward to the insects along the bottom. However, when I measured it on Sunday I found that the body was a full 2 inches shorter than it should have been. (Unblocked measurements are provided in the instructions.)

My mom (and 4-H) taught me that if something was worth doing, it was worth doing right. I've already started over...and oddly I don't mind. I love the yarn and enjoy the pattern. It'll be gorgeous when it's finished, and I'm perfectly willing to put in the time to make it right.

Sometimes, though, you've got to know when it's time to let go. My Forest Path Stole has literally been languishing in my work basket for almost a year since my second attempt at casting on. The problem? I really, really don't enjoy entrelac, the simple lace patterns were boring, and then method of placement for those patterns meant that they weren't going to be easily memorized for a more mindless knit.

So I snapped off what I had done and threw it away. The three skeins of Suri Elegance have been sent back to the stash, and the copy of the pattern was sent to the recycling bin. I'm giving myself permission to let go and move on. This just isn't my cup of tea.

My work didn't end there. Also completed (but not photographed) was the frogging of my Rivendell socks, the start of a summer shawl and the two rows of my Town & Country sweater. The first two were technically removed from my WIP list months ago, but then I never managed to take the extra step to frog them so that the yarn could find a new purpose. The third was supposed to be my third NaKniSweMoDo, but apparently wasn't the right choice for my next project. I've been trying to force it for over a week, and it just wasn't happening. After that I put away all of those reclaimed needles, sorted and put away my patterns and magazines, and then reorganized and put away my bins of yarn. It all felt very good.

There's precious little on the needles right now - and that's fine by me. The cobwebs and clutter are gone, and I'm free to begin again.