Challenges.  Even in pleasure there are challenges or maybe your challenges are your pleasure.  Knitting gives me a high level of pleasure but I could list an abundance of challenges that knitting has brought me:  stitch difficulty, yarn disappointment, confusion with directions, size issues, and the list goes on.  Any project that you deemed a good idea may turn awry at any time.  As an advanced knitter, I have learned some techniques that ward off or, at least bring to a minimum some of those issues that I have encountered.  However, I believe the biggest challenge I continue to battle is the time limitation I have for knitting.  And, it does not help at all when I peruse the knitting site and see how some can produce many projects very quickly.   Knitting is not my career so the time I have for it is quite limiting.

So, being an advocate for myself, I have found that careful and thoughtful planning about what I am going to knit within a season becomes imperative to ward off those uncomfortable feelings of frustration that I sometimes (often) develop due to the fact that I simply don’t have more time for it. Goal setting in knitting!  For me, the planning begins giving thought to the length of time it takes me to knit a particular piece and continues with the calculated number of pieces I can successfully knit within a year.  I know that because of experience.  I do NOT over plan.   Then comes the more difficult decision of the order of those projects.  Difficult I say because I love all the projects in my stash and can’t wait for any one of them to be completed.  And, yes, this infers a stash.  Again, so as not to frustrate, I opt to knit the simpler projects during the school year and the more advanced during the summer when my time is less interrupted.   One last thought that comes into the equation is any project I may want completed by a certain date like a gift item or an item for an upcoming trip or for a particular occasion.  That always needs much consideration far ahead of time to ensure its completion when wanted.  It is really a carefully thought out process that when done right, truly eliminates this time frustration for me.

I guess I am talking about this because of my recent accident and writing this is therapeutic for me.   As usual, this summer I had my line-up all figured out.  All was going according to plan. Until the accident.  More bewildered than hurt at first and now ten days into recovery and in reflective mode, I am attempting to turn this around and instead of thinking oh, woe is me, I won’t complete what I wanted this summer I WILL think that this recovery period is giving me opportunity to pause and appreciate what has been accomplished and what a gift time and good health really are.  And, maybe I’ll sneak in a surprise project to show I can be flexible, too.