Wednesday, April 13, 2011

The secret pattern project

Usually I can slide secret projects under the radar here because when in my right mind I aim for quick knits, and can apply in short bursts whatever self-control is at my command to stand decoratively in front of the curtain whistling and knitting away at something entirely different.

Right now though, in spite of all the alluring potential around me of which silk hankies are far from the least,

ALL

I can think about is

THE SECRET PATTERN!

There is a scene in Despicable Me in which an impossibly cute poppet points at a stuffed animal of her desire and says "it's so squishy I'm gonna die!" (okay, squishy might not have been the word; I was distracted every time by the cartoony goodness of the moment.) This captures how I feel about the secret pattern project.

Also, even though it does involve a stitch with repeats that you repeat and repeat in the way that stitches with repeats are often repeated until you really do think you're gonna die,

and even though I had the extra exposure time of coming up with said stitch and doing all the swatching,

I'm not even remotely bored yet. 

And in spite of it not being boring, which to me equals keeping my eyes firmly on the needles because it's so complicated, it's been a while since I couldn't watch TV and knit it at the same time. I even watched a silent film the other night.  I've hit autopilot on something that isn't even stocking stitch.

A long while ago now Trish and I went to hear a knitting designer talk about her work and she said she never knits her designs twice, which struck me to the core at the time.  Now I get it - a pattern can be super exciting the first time you make it such that you want to do it again, but if you've spent the 'again' time up front working out the pattern's kinks and exploring every possible avenue, there's not much left by the time the sample is done.  When I knit my own designs again, it's because I have a need for that particular thing.

But this one?  I still just want to keep knitting it.

Another weird thing that has occurred to me is how fast I'm knitting it.  It's not due for another six weeks and I want to be all done but the blocking by the end of tomorrow.  You know how sometimes when you're running out of yarn and you knit faster so it will last longer?  I'm knitting faster because I can't wait to see how it looks blocked.

It is probably mean of me to tell you all of that knowing you won't get to see it for months and months, but I couldn't help myself. Just like I'm not going to be able to help planting myself on the sofa for every scrap minute I have today.  Toodles!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

That was just cruel! ;). Can't wait to see it.