It's the Little Things...

SaroyanProgress (1), originally uploaded by ontheroundfiberart.

This weekend I did a considerable amount of organizing in my knitting life. I went through all of my knitting needles and rubber banded all my sets, I dug out all my projects that needed finishing and sewed in all my loose ends, I updated my Ravelry project list, and began organizing my stash and ripping out unworthy projects.

One such project that got ripped out was this terrible triangle "shawl" that I knit years ago using some yarn that my Aunt gave me for Christmas. I knew the yarn was fabulous when I received it, but this was before Ravelry and it was only 2 skeins, and well...I just didn't really know what to do with it, but i knew I wanted to knit it.

As I pulled out each stitch I thought back on my old knitting days. Back when there was no Ravelry, in fact, you could barely find any patterns online. My Nana who had taught me to knit originally had long since passed away, and I had a particularly negative experience with the owner of one of the LYS' in town so I kept my distance. I became a process knitter. I didn't really care what I knit, as long as I was knitting, I was happy. I knit lots of mittens, since that's something that my Nana originally taught me, miles of garter stitch scarves, and hats over and over again. If I actually finished something I would give it away or donate it, the finished product never really meant that much to me. Mostly, I just played. I would knit and rip knit and rip. What was the point of the finished project, I just wanted to be knitting. That was all I knew, and that's what kind of knitter I was.

Fast forward to this weekend. As I ripped out my project I quickly recognized this yarn as Malabrigo Merino Worsted~ 2 skeins worth! I couldn't really be mad at myself for using such beautiful yarn so poorly, only because at least I had the good sense to keep this mess of a project, and at least I never cut the yarn or did anything particularly cleaver with it that would have made it difficult to rip out! So here I was with two skeins of perfect merino wool yarn in beautiful variegated blues and greens, and a serious need to start knitting (I have 3 gift knits that are due to go out ASAP). So I did what most knitters do nowadays, and I turned to Ravelry. I started my search by looking up Malabrigo Yarn and then I began searching through the 73,432 projects using this yarn. I didn't look for long before finding the Saroyan Shawl pattern, which has been in my favorites for quite a long time. It was perfect, and free! Within an hour I had found 2 skeins of beautiful yarn, the perfect pattern for just the amount of yarn that I had, and was casting on with a set of size 10 needles from my perfectly organized needle stash, all while barely getting up from my rocking chair! I get goose bumps just thinking about it. Sheer knitting perfection.

I'm not sure when exactly this knitting evolution took place for me, but I'm happy it did. It's not 2 even days later and I'm almost done with my Saroyan Shawl and still just tickled pink by the whole experience. It really is the little things....