Very often my knitting time is also my time to let my mind wander explore whatever thoughts happen to pass by. But what happens when I am not knitting? Do I stop thinking? Do I stop daydreaming? Well I hope not because I would be an incredibly crabby person if that were the case. Yet, I am still a little crabbier when I have not been knitting, as I have not of late.
It is not like my life has been fiber-free. I have been fondling my yarn, imagining sweaters knit and imagined, more imagined that actually knit at this point. I love these imagined sweaters. They fit beautifully. Imagined sweaters are always perfect. But one can't actually wear imagined sweaters or crush them between one's fingers, or feel the softness or weight, or admire the beauty of the stitches. Oh well, I suppose I shall have to knit again.
And I will. Knit that is.
But this week I started reconstructing my database. It is a slow process because I can't just pull out the yarn and count it, record it and forget about it. I have to try to remember what dreams originally prompted the purchase, I have to imagine its future life, I have to savor its presence. This all takes time, and it takes time away from knitting. I am finding projects that had slipped into the back recesses of my mind, projects I want to knit soon. Projects that will have to wait a little longer, because truthfully every time i hold a bit of yarn and imagine it as a sweater I want to be knitting that sweater RIGHT NOW. But I can't knit them all right now, can I?
Actually I am having trouble knitting any of them right now, due to the simplest and most stupid twists of fate. I have a paper cut. Actually it is a cardboard cut, incised on the edge of one of those cardboard storage boxes used to start files and charts. I never realized that such a thick piece of cardboard could be so sharp, could cut so quickly, could be such an inconvenience. I think of a paper cut as a simple thing. But a cardboard cut, quickly made yet wide and deep might require stitches. A cardboard cut on pad of the index finger puts a bit of a brake on one's knitting output, but not on ones knitting dreams.
The painful part is almost gone. The stitches and the little cut are beginning to heal up. Knitting will resume.
In the meantime, the life of the mind continues on as well. I actually read a book for the first time since all this other stuff in my life started.
The book led me to think and let my mind wander and once my mind was wandering, of course it wandered from ideas to fabric and yarn and dreams of future projects. The hands may be idle but the perigrinations of the mind go on, and there are enough dreams to supply a lifetime of knitting (not to mention yarn).
Yes, I've had cardboard cuts too, even from corrugated cardboard, which really amazed me. The worst part is you can't knit. Hope you're soon back to it!
Posted by: Liana | Saturday, May 12, 2007 at 11:59 PM