Last fall I met up with Binnie for one session of a fabulous author series, in which one of the authors described being approached at a party by an avid reader who said "I want to have written a novel." What she meant, this author said, was that she wanted to skip over the hard work of writing and go straight to enjoying the glory of people loving it.
We'll just skip over the fact that the moment of relief (note I did not say glory) involved in finishing a novel passes quickly into more waves of anxiety and hard work and self-doubt and the drudgery of promotion, and go straight to how this relates to knitting, shall we?
I want to have made a Swallowtail Shawl, as designed by Evelyn A. Clark. Apparently Ravelers have made over 3600 of them and why shouldn't I be one of them? It's not as though I don't know how to do the stitches that make up lace. And they are beautiful. I mean, look at this one that Joanna knit! and this one by Karen, for Phyllis, complete with the heartbreaking story about why, and what happened next.
I also want to have made socks. I'm a practical knitter with limited time; I have to have a good reason to choose one project over another, and my reasons for knitting socks are as tumbleweeds blowing through a ghost town compared to, for example, the crowds lined up for ice cream on a hot day that are associated in my mind with a good sensible vest. And yet... there's Kathi with a sock book coming out, and here's Helena with a story of socks that made me laugh.
Maybe having a good laugh is a good reason to to take on a project? You know, after I finish the hat in progress. And the novel.
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