Thursday, November 4, 2010

Lessons of a baby blanket

Over the summer, I learned to knit. My boyfriend's mother taught me, as well as loaded me up with supplies (I have more yarn than I know what to do with). I track specifics on ravelry for those of you who are fellow knitters, but my big project right now is a baby blanket for my boyfriend's godson, who is due in a couple of weeks.

Except that he's coming as we speak!

I am a schedule person. I may plans for everything. Monica Geller from Friends? Yeah, she and I are a lot alike (though she's funnier...something about having writers...). We'll put aside my cleaning obsession for a moment and talk about plans. I make them for everything. I make plans for things that haven't happened yet. For things that might never happen. It's how I process the world.

The baby (whose initials are KET, which I find very cute) is on his way. He's early, like babies often are. He's off the plan. The blanket is not done. It's nowhere near done, actually. I have a whole ball and a half of yarn to do still and I really want to make an edging of some kind and add his monogram. Because of all of this, I've had to accept that it's late. KET will get his blanket when it's done. And that's okay. It has to be okay because that's how it's going to be.

Stressing about knitting is counterproductive. I find that when I'm trying to rush or am stressed at the knitting, I make mistakes, which cost time later and countless frustrations. So when I pick up my needles, I have to take a deep breath and relax. Otherwise, the knitting suffers. I think it's because of this that knitting has become my favorite hobby (though I do still want to learn to quilt). Like training Indy, my dog, that he sits when I pick up his walking collar so I can put it on him, I have to train myself that picking up the needles is a relaxing thing. Associations are strong tools and I use them for other people all the time. I just need to develop an association with this.

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