The big Christmas project of 2010 is out of the bag. After years of ignoring what I was working on with my needles, the spouse decided to actually ASK me what I was working on. He suggested at one point that perhaps it was for my Dad? But, weren't those cables pretty?
A few days ago he mentioned that he thought it was too big for my Dad, and was I sure I was making it for him?
After an exasperated sigh and a deep mumbling about men who are only observant when they SHOULDN'T be observant, I confessed. I also had him try it on.
I'm making the Hedge Fence Pullover by Elinor Brown. It's a delightful pattern - well-written - with scads of yummy cables. Although it wasn't finished it time for me to claim NaKniSweMo victory (National Knit a Sweater in a Month for those on the outside of my Tribe's coolness), I haven managed to finish all but one sleeve.
And emotionally, I'm done with it.
I've reached that point in the pattern when all I want is to knit something else. Cables cross and uncross in my dreams... and I found myself looking at our picket fence out back and thinking how what was needed wasn't a paint job, but rather an artful crossing of two of the beams.
When I pick up the project now, I want to weep. Hell with weeping... I want to CAST ON my next project.
HOWEVER, even though I don't win NaKniSweMo points and even though he knows it is for him, I still have the pull of this being a Christmas gift to help me learn to love the project I'm with. It has to be enough.
This is a common enough theme in my life - whether it be knitting or a project for work. I swear, sometimes I think I preach only because each week it's a new challenge and a new pericope to play with. I don't want to resent my current projects, spending my passion fantasizing the next thing on the needles (only to look at it with disdain a month or so later). Somehow, in some way, I need to learn to love the one I'm with.
