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The Path

The graphic below speaks to me that's why I have saved it for years.  It reminds me that those simple notions about how things should be are just that, SIMPLE; and that almost everything is more complicated than it appears at first blush.


As a young person it seems fine to believe life is like the left-hand drawing, that a direct and straight line is the way to progress through it.  Everything appears to be as easy as it can be for others and it should be the same for you as well, right?  All that's necessary on your part is to set out in a particular direction and just follow the path that apparently is supposed to be clearly laid out in front of you.

But if you've been around the block and are older than a teenager, you know there is no easily identifiable, clearly laid out path for you to take.  You know that life and its success is much more like the right-hand design.  It is easy to get stuck in the weeds, drawn into going the wrong direction, or waylaid by life's mishaps.  Decisions about the path may be sincerely thought through and intentional and others may be happenstance and either way the end result may be a success or a failure.  

This is my little intro to knitting and success with the projects I knit.  I sometimes, and apparently not often enough, have to stop and wonder why I think knitting success should be any different than another other type of success.  My raging knitting inner teenager (click on the link to read about her) seems to expect that every project put on needles should be a cinch, that knitting problems will be minor and success will be easy.  Apparently my knitting inner teenager doesn't check her assumptions with that mature(?) woman that is me.  I am well aware there are bumps, impediments and roadblocks on any life journey, knitting would be no different.  Frankly I have trouble trying to understand my knitting inner teenager's impatience, and her frustration with a knitting project that isn't going her way.  So rather than constantly fight with her, I put my WIPs away for a while until she gets over her little tantrum and I'm more in control.

Within this last week it appears I have my inner knitting teenager better under control when it comes the Linen Stitch Scarf.  It should be off the needles in a few days, and I'm bound and determined not to have her stop me moving forward with the wallflower hanging either.  My goal is to have it done before June.  I think I can keep her in check for that long, or at least that is my hope.

Paul, ever the realist, told me this week he continues to see me knitting on the Linen Stitch Scarf but really can't detect much progress.  He's right, I knit, tink, knit, tink.  So here's a photo of the Linen Stitch Scarf to provide evidence something is actually happening:

Can you see the sun was shining again today, too!



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