Menokreatikkul; Saturday Stitches

The process of creating is what brings joy in any crafting or artistic pursuit. The end product is the reward. Creativity is a many-faceted jewel, reflecting not just the dexterity of the hand, but also the mind, as well as the malleability of the material used, be it words, paint, cloth, wood, or yarn.

For the one doing the creating, the value added to life goes beyond the completed item. There is all the "blood, sweat, and tears" aspect... the working out of cadence/pattern, the adaptation to unforeseen snags, as well as the courage to know when something isn't working and being prepared to scrap and start again. It can be character-building, particularly if this happens over and over.

That turquoise cotton? You know, the one that seems to be endless and has produced three successful items? There have been several froggings, too. More than completed projects. The latest attempt, which I teased you with a couple of weeks back, has only progressed another dozen or so rows, and it got put down in frustration. That lovely knitting stitch I learned just isn't working with this yarn. Despite being strict with my stitch counts, it is still managing to 'walk' to the right, and after several pull-backs and reworks, I simply cannot get it to behave. So it is going to get fully frogged, and I will return to the crochet hooks for this yarn.

I looked back at the golden-yarned Tunisian project, begun back in January. It is at its halfway point and ought really to be completed. Then there is the striped pastel scarf I began even longer ago, still sitting staring at me, awaiting a bit of love. However, I needed to create something fast and freaky to get over the failure funk. It also needed to be knitted, to prove to myself that it wasn't a lack of ability with the twin needles that caused the flop. 

As I was sorting through the yarn stash, I came across the leftover from the jacket I made Aitch last summer... I wasn't sure there would be enough, but gave it a go anyway and ended up with this very warm tea cosy of an item... yes, it's crochet, not knit, but it was a four-hour job and a great antidote to the decision to stop with the cotton scarf.

That done, it was over to the twin pins, using up a skein of aran-weight acrylic with a contrast colour, with a simple k1, p1 alternation pattern. I used large pins (8mm), to keep the fabric loosey-goosey and drapey. I have, in fact, completed that item and a matching hat, but am reserving the show-and-tell for next week. Today, just a sneak peek of the work. This was a joy to do and brought back a smile as I worked out the stranded colour-way and made decisions about how it was going to lay out... then designing a hat to echo that same pattern. This is why we creatives do what we do. The finished product is fun. Getting there is funner.