Push

"It takes courage to push yourself to places that you have never been before... to test your limits... to break through barriers. And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

-Anais Nin

I used to push my life where I wanted it to go. I was a real driven type A personality. My family cowered when Susan got on a tear.

Now I have learned to ride my life, realizing that all will unfold as it is meant to, whether I push or not.

That being said, there are timers when you just have to push through.

The past few weeks have really tested my resolve that work would never come before family. I have been babysitting Conner on a weekly basis and have had many family and friend commitments.

My work has suffered.

That is why I took Saturday off from stash sale-ing. I needed the time to devote to actual knitting.

It doesn't help matters that I have been in a fever of design illumination. In the past three weeks I have gotten three lace shawls and two DK weight designs in the hopper. They are all charted out and four of them are on the needles - enough for me to order the necessary additional yardage to complete them. On the final design ( a red cable and lace triangular shawl for the holidays) I just bit the bullet and ordered blindly. Hope I got enough yarn.

I am always a bit concerned that unless I get a design down on paper I will forget what I intended.

So I chart and make notes for future construction. I swatch and then put it aside to pick up at a later date.

Sometimes the ideas don't pan out.

I want to do a matching cowl for the Innisfree gauntlets. I will include this with the mitt pattern as a set. Anyone who has already purchased the pattern will get the expanded version free of charge.

So I ordered more MadTosh in Norway Spruce, this time in the worsted weight merino. The yarn is great - very soft, but the color is too dark.

See what I mean? So I have ordered some of the plied worsted from Loopy Ewe, hoping that is a better match.


This year's free holiday pattern is almost ready to be written up. I can't wait to wear this neckwarmer myself. The Rowan Lima is a little tough to knit (splitty) but the light weight and softness level make it worthwhile. Wouldn't want to do an entire sweater in this yarn, though.

And this is the beginning border to Druid, a lace stole in Rowan Scottish Tweed 4-ply. The color is Celtic Mix and I fell in love with it. It is primarily green, but with an incredible depth of color, which includes peacock, earthy brown, and even red. The yarn is just gorgeous. Had to use it. I have Celtic Knot charms on order from Artbeads for the points.


But most of my time has been spent in completion of Chrysanthemum, the October (OY!) issue in the Garden Variety Collection. I completely underestimated how much time this one would take to complete, forgetting that each row is longer than the one before.

You would think I would know better, wouldn't you?


I have completed the main pattern and am almost through the transition to the edge pattern.

Friday - may it please God...

Pushing through...

PS. For all you Drizzle fans out there, I think I have a solution to the longstanding design difficulties that have beset this piece. I am redesigning as a beaded cowl, a la "Smoke Ring". Hope to knock it out after the holidays.

Speaking of which, the scarf vote was overwhelmingly in favor of Facets, so it moves up the pattern queue...thanks for voting.