Today I decided to restart a project I've been trying to do for the last year or so. Last fall, I knitted some adorable fingerless gloves out of a gorgeous purple yarn while vacationing at my brother's house for a week. Last fall after returning from said vacation with a new set of pretty glovettes, I thought that I should also make the matching neck warmer too. However putting the neck warmer into reality has taken me a bit more time than I had hoped for. My main issues into making it a reality... 1) it jumps into cable work in the first row! and 2) I always seem to mess the pattern up right off the bat, and that drives me crazy (can you say perfectionism?).
I've done cable work before, but right after the cast on row?... I tend to cast on pretty tightly, so jumping directly into cables has given me cause for pause. I would drop stitches, mix up my pattern, get really confused, and rip it all out. I have ripped out the beginnings of said neck warmer about 4 times now. But today I had an epiphany! Do I really have to jump into cables right away? Is there some universal law that says "You must follow the directions without question?" And I realized, there is always room for adjustments! Soooo... I made the executive decision to do a beginning row of pattern BEFORE doing any cable work. Well, the world hasn't ended, nothing has exploded, however the US dropped in its credit rating.... But i doubt that was caused by my adjusting a pattern to fit my needs.
Now to solve problemo number two, I had to get creative and put a bit more thought into the solution. I had to ask myself, why oh why did I keep fudging on the pattern? This didn't happen to me on the glovettes! And yet again, the solution was staring me in the face. I need stitch markers... Where one pattern ends and another begins. For this one though, I had to be unique, creative, thrifty. We are broke, and with impending unemployment, I can't just run down to the store and get some. After a few minutes of pondering, the light flashed on (must have been an environmentally friendly bulb, it took a bit to warm up), and I thought "Safety Pins! Those would fit on the knitting needle!" But, a roadblock appeared when I went up into the master bedroom (Corner of it is for my crafty side) and discovered they are all in use on the quilt that is waiting to be hand quilted... But while I was at work, I brought my project with me to work on during my lunch break. And another thought occurred to me. We have billions and billions of paperclips laying around work. Like confetti, they are everywhere and hard to get out of the carpet. And viola! They work fabulously! Issue 2: Resolved. Hopefully I will have a neck warmer for the chilly weather that is around the corner.
So this lesson has taught me a couple of things: 1) There is no set rules for life, you have to make adjustments where needed. And 2) any pattern can be adjusted to fit your body and/or your life. And so my friends, I bid you Good Night, off to work another row, and maybe come up with another post tomorrow.
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