Sunday, April 09, 2006

A Special Guest

So I received all these beautiful skeins Friday.

Have you ever felt that you and yours skills are not worthy of some beautiful yarn? You keep searching for this very special pattern from the books or from your head, and disregard every single one thinking, the yarn is way too lovely to be wasted on this ... or this... or that
And it goes on and on and on until you have wasted yourself.

I have been swatching for appropriate pattern - I haven't touched the beautiful skeins yet, I have been using the left overs so far - and am getting to the point where I will cast on with one of the beauties. But lack the final courage to jump in. What if I end up ripping and spoiling the yarn?

Maybe the timing is not right at all. Maybe Sunday afternoon when the worries of the coming week make me a bit uncomfortable is all wrong. Maybe the weather is not right since the sky is grey. Maybe I should be all alone at home. Or with someone very special so that the special yarn would always remind me of this special somone. Maybe the yarn should wait for like Christmas or someone's birthday or vacation. Or maybe it should wait for a moment when I'm very down and need desperately something to cheer me up... or when happy, this yarn would undoubtedly double the happiness.

The more I think the more I'm convinced that this Sunday is as good as any other day.

This is what I will do. I'll get prepared like if I was meeting someone special tonight.

So I'll sort out all the tasks for the coming week, write each one of the must do's down. So my mind is not clogged with all sorts of little annoyances and I can concentrate on my special guest.
Then I'll clean thoroughly my knitting spot and the surrounding area. All the pattern books will be piled neatly, as well as all the magazines and notebooks. And WIP's organized.
I'll cook the dinner and feed the kids. It is so embarrassing to be talking to someone new when children come to interrupt saying that they are hungry. And then I'll tell them that my night is taken.
I'll write the blog.
Make us fresh pot of coffee and take out my best coffee china.
Then I'll be ready to meet this special someone called Gem's Pearl.

Ps. I have been knitting. Few rows on the shawl. And I finished the first grey stocking.

22 comments:

  1. Anonymous14:46

    Good luck with the first date - I hope it goes well and don't be shy to give it a goodnight kiss if all goes well!

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  2. Anonymous14:46

    Good luck with the first date - I hope it goes well and don't be shy to give it a goodnight kiss if all goes well!

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  3. Anonymous17:09

    Hello Lene, I'm new to your blog, directed here from the YarnHarlot blog. Lovely posts! I thought I might chime in on this one, as it's something I've been thinking about recently too. For me, it's a struggle with perfectionism. If I make something--something I haven't thought about and anguished over for months--and it comes out not quite as I had envisioned, then I feel bad that I've wasted the beautiful yarn (or fabric, or whatever). So I wait and wait for the "right" thing to occur to me.

    I like your plan for tonight! I hope your date goes well. I'm going to think about incorporating this idea into my own crafting blocks.

    Oh, one more thing--I love your first stocking. It's so pretty!

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  4. Sometimes your perfect choice of words gives me the shivers...

    You make me long for that perfect knitting spot (that won't be mine until our house is built, this house being taken up by our family business...). Right now I'm sitting on a hard-back chair in the middle of our office (livingroom) with piles of filing staring at me, trying to relax and knit. No wonder I have the tightest gauge in history...

    As usual, beautiful stocking!

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  5. I think I know just what you mean. I have some very special yarns tucked away, waiting and waiting for me to find the "perfect" pattern. Of course, the "perfect" pattern never quite comes along! I also have some yarn that I know exactly what to do with, but I fear that my skills aren't good enough yet, and I'll "ruin" the poor yarn and end up with an amateurish-looking sweater which I'll never wear. It isn't easy being a knitter, is it?

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  6. Beautiful sock! And good luck!

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  7. Anonymous19:25

    Enjoy your first meeting with Gem Pearls! Any knitter who can produce the beautiful work that you do has all the skills needed to work on those beautiful yarns. Why do we always sell ourselves short and think we are not worthy of such beautiful fibers? Is it a female trait? If so, just find something you have always wanted to make and cast on! Life is too short to work on bad yarn!

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  8. Anonymous23:34

    Enjoy your evening with Gem Pearls, hope you'll see the light... You're right: you've got to be in the right mood (i.e. no mundane distractions) and the right environment (a special place clear of clutter to free the mind). Good luck!

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  9. Anonymous00:49

    Cast on! We can feel your mojo cooking!

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  10. Very lovely post; just as it is hard sometimes to let go of a project that has taken a lot of time, so is it hard to move past fondling and looking at the yarn and begin the stage of turning it into something else. I love the idea of starting with ceremony! Your sock looks fabulous - the dog seems to approve, too.

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  11. Anonymous01:33

    Oh Lene! You need some sunshine. Everything will be better as soon as you see some color, and some flowers.

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  13. Hi Lena

    Hello from Australia! Just found your blog last week (thanks to Yarn Harlot). I love it so much I've made it a link on my new blog. I'm still learning about blogging but I'm so inspired by yours. If I can make mine as lovely as yours I'll feel like I've achieved something!

    I love your stockings! I hope to make some like it one day.

    Bells

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  14. Why is this post making me cry?

    Sock is lovely, I'm waiting for my own special yarn to start my special socks.

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  15. Anonymous03:09

    I never wait for a special occasion when I get new yarn. I don't have your self control! I have to make a swatch right away to see how it will knit up. And I ignore the clutter in my house too. Lovely stocking, by the way.

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  16. Anonymous05:14

    I am another who has found your blog due to the yarn harlot. I love reading your posts. Lucky you to have yarn and a book in the same mail delivery. Enjoy.

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  17. Anonymous20:27

    I've been carrying around (and petting) some lovely yarn that leaped into my hands last Saturday: 100% alpaca, handpainted in lovely shades of spring.

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  18. The respect you have for knitting is so clear in your words -- thank you for helping us to look at the act of sitting down to knit in a new way.

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  19. You have some gorgeous socks, there.

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  20. No crying this time Lene. This time it's a sigh and a smile. An intimate encounter with special yarn is what everyone needs. It's a wonderful experience and you really do a great job of expressing those feelings. Thanks again. :)

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  21. I had a strong feeling of recognition while reading this post. It's crazy how we feel unworthy. Hope your date went well.

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  22. I hope all is well with you. IF you celebrate EAster, Happy Easter. If you celebrate Passover, have a sacred Passover meal.

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