Yay me!

I'm nearly finished with my second puzzle ball of the set of them for the twids. Twids? you say. Yes, twids. My niece and nephew are fraternal twins and for the longest time they were known as the twinfants. Now that they are bigger however it no longer applies, so they have graduated to twids. I can hardly wait to get their presents in the mail to those little cuties! Thinking about it just makes me want to say, "Yay!"

And speaking of which, I'm working on socks for son #4 and they are going along quite well. Helps that he only has little preschooler sized feet, but still I seem to get better and better at socks with each sock I make. Though it does not however make me dread making them any less, go figure.

Then it is on to my mega project of the year: the wedding blanket for our friend Brian and his blushing bride Shelly. All prayers and good luck accepted, the wedding is a month. Still yay for the small victories!

Some things were never meant to be

Or at least not the way we meant them to be. Events, even objects have a life of their own it seems and trying to make them into something they aren't or trying to mold them to our expectations isn't a recipe for success. They are like people that way.

Take them as they come, look at them honestly for what they are and then see how they will or won't work in your life. And no matter how much you think something ought to be just how you want it to be, trust your instincts. If they are screaming at you don't go there, don't do it... listen, really truly listen. It may save you a lot of grief down the road.

And I'm not just talking about that slinky dress I wanted to knit myself which called for a bulky yarn, which in all honestly isn't that bulky, because if it truly was, using sport weight yarn wouldn't have made it feel like it weighed a ton. We'll shelve that till I either can spring the big bucks for the right yarn or find an incredible sale.

But it is really useful advice in knitting, too. As evidenced by the toddler sweater that was mostly finished, but due to all the special modifications I made, didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. Those modifications just weren't meant to exist in the same article of clothing, at least not without starting from scratch with a pattern of its own rather that patching together pieces of different patterns. I knew in my heart of hearts that I should really put together a brand new pattern, I was just in too much of a hurry to get started and get done to do what my gut told me I should. At least now I can take that sweater and evaluate where it went wrong and give me a good idea of where to do things differently.

All of this has not discouraged me on my quest for the right matching (or complimentary, if I have to resort to it) yarn to finish the prayer shawl for a friend, however. Sometimes I think making prayer shawls do more good for me than the people I make them for, until I give the next one away. Then I remember just how much simple prayer and loving thought and action can do for others, which leads me to starting the next prayer shawl.