the Village Knittiot

Two major accomplishments on the knitting front.

One. I finished the thumb (again) for The Mitten. It fits. It looks good. It isn’t perfect, but probably nobody else will ever know in what ways it isn’t perfect except for me. I very much want to be excited about this, but there is a tiny little voice whispering in my head that it really isn’t that big of a deal because I am “supposed to be” done with these in one week. I am no fool. I understand that at this rate there is no way I am going to be done with these in a week. And I am one of those people who feels that putting pressure on myself about knitting is silly. It takes the fun out of it and adds, instead, dread and obligation. I hate dread, and I hate obligation. But mostly, I hate deadlines that are designed to make you feel crappy. I rebel against them at my very core. Yet as much as I hate those kinds of deadlines, I sometimes need the pressure of a deadline to get stuff done. It’s kind of a love/hate relationship. Of course, in order to truly work, the deadline has to be hard and fast, make or break. Unfortunately, with Christmas knitting, the only thing that I know for sure about the deadline is that it can easily be eliminated with a quick trip to Barnes and Noble. They didn’t know I was knitting them anything, so how can they be disappointed?

Two. I finally managed to untangle the massive knot of handspun merino that has been sitting in the corner of our den silently crying for well over a month. I have picked it up form time to time and made half-hearted attempts to free it from itself, but never making more than the smallest dent. This past week I focused my efforts and have been rewarded with a skein winder full of my (newly unentangled) handspun. It looks so pretty. I also managed to finish plying together everything I had sitting on my Bobbins so I now have naked bobbins all begging to be covered up, and probably 3/4 of a pound of soft, cuddly merino still waiting to be twisted. Hopefully this weekend I will get the chance to do some spinning.

For anyone dealing with any one of a number of holiday related dilemmas, get your self over to Norma’s and read her entry from yesterday. It’s good for what ails ya’ in the way that perspective always is. Her words, I’m sure, are timely for lots of us. I think it struck something in me, because I’m still trying to figure out how I fit into this season now. I am not big on the consumer mentality, and I’m not a Christian. These two things alone seem to pretty much place me on the outside of all the hullaballoo. Nevertheless, I believe in the importance of celebrations and holy days, and it is the holiday that (for better or worse) I grew up celebrating with my family. I guess I just fail to see what getting stressed out, depressed, lonely and in debt have to do with celebration and spirituality.

Now I know not everyone feels this way around the holidays, but as we are often reminded, it is far more common for people to feel isolated and unhappy than joyful and at peace. This year I have done my best to keep the space around me clear of the holiday clutter. The best decision we made was to bow out of the present game — not just for Christmas, but for everything. We decided that we will never buy each other a present because it is expected, only when the fancy strikes us. When we run across something that we want to give to someone, we will do so, but we will not be trapped into running around like maniacs trying to figure out what to buy people. And isn’t it exciting, then, that presents could strike at any moment and that they will always be inspired?

This entry was posted on Friday, December 17th, 2004 at 2:58 pm and is filed under this Knittiot Life, this Random Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.