i have a friend from high school who is fighting a battle against cancer. her friends and family are putting together a spaghetti dinner and silent auction to help cover medical costs. wanting to do something to help, i volunteered to knit an item for the silent auction.
i have some lovely dusty pink lace-weight alpaca in my stash that i thought would be perfect, so soft and lovely. i found a gorgeous pattern - the juno regina stole by miriam felton (rav link or pattern) and cast on.
then i knit and i knit, and i knit and i knit, and i knit and i knit some more. then for good measure i conitnued to knit away.... days passed, a week passed.... i was still knitting.... but the progress was SO SLOW.
i began to worry about making the end of september deadline... i knit and knit some more. i began to worry about the other knitting commitments i've made (birthdays, raffle prizes... more on all that later) but i kept on knitting.
then on monday, after an hour and a half of knitting (which only gained me 9 rows of progress) the immortal words of kenny rogers entered my mind...
"you've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em." and it was time for me to fold 'em.
and as soon as i said it, i felt a rush of relief. i could still knit something fabulous for my friend that did not involve lace-weight yarn. i could still knit something fabulous for my friend where each row wasn't a painstaking 15 minute journey into dante's lace-inferno.
a raverly search brought me here: to the mara shawl by madelinetosh (rav link or pattern). it's garter stitch (win!) it's worsted weight (win!) and it's completely gorgeous (win-win!!).
so i cast on. and i knit and i knit and i knit. and (hip-hip-hooray!!) i have progress to show for it!!
turns out kenny rogers is right, "every gambler (and/or knitter) knows that the secret to survival is knowin' what to throw away, and knowin' what to keep...."
-melissa
ps - totally unrelated, but still in the category of "completely awesome," - it is impossible to do a youtube search for, "kenny rogers the gambler" and not come across this gem.... oh dolly parton, how i love you:
