Turns out that I am an introvert at heart. I have friends who insist I am not (and what's up with that -- telling me I'm wrong about my understanding of myself?!), since I like people and find them interesting and inspiring; funny thing is, the times I've taken a Myers-Briggs test, I've been rated an INFJ, the description of which includes the observation that folks who fall into this category enjoy people, but need time alone. In the end, I am renewed by being alone. I have friends who tell me that being alone exhausts them, that they need to be around other people to relax. I believe them, but I don't understand it. I find other people tremendously interesting and invigorating, but unless I get some alone time, I end up feeling overwhelmed and raw, like my skin is sunburned.
This is all by way of saying that yesterday wasn't just exhausting because I was in classes or meetings straight through until 7:00 in the evening, but because I was with people straight through until 7:00 in the evening. Sigh... However, it was a productive day, and it needed to be done, so that's good.
And then I got to go home, and my husband and kids were waiting for me, as was my new ballwinder! Boy, talk about the ultimate in soothing activities -- even though I didn't have to, I wound the yarn for the Kauni, just because it makes such pretty rainbows when it's in its little squared-off wound-up balls. I also figured out how to solve the problem of having part of a purl stitch show through when you switch from one color to another and from knit to purl at the same time. Basically, I just have to knit an entire row with the new color pattern, and then switch over to purl for the relevant squares. If you do that, you get this:
(see the pretty balls of yarn? aren't they lovely?) Am I the only person who is tremendously entertained by watching the colors of the yarn chase each other around? By waiting to see which colors will end up next to each other? Sometimes it's nice not to have to make those choices, and just to wait and see what will happen, and I think that this sweater is going to be the ultimate in just watching the beauty unfold.One of my intents in choosing to knit this sweater was to learn to handle yarn in both my right and left hands (I knit with the yarn in my right hand), so that I could have both colors going at once without the constant picking up and putting down of yarn. So far, though, I have not felt like dealing with the awkwardness of handling the yarn lefthanded (even though I am a lefty -- I just learned the other way); my excuse is that I would not only have to knit with the yarn in my left hand, but also (gasp) purl that way, and that it's just too much to ask of any one person. Really, though, I'm feeling like I'm facing enough challenges and new things in my life this week, and picking up and putting down yarn is less stressful than feeling awkward while doing one of the few things that I am comfortable doing right now. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
1 comment:
Don't stress! There's no one way to do this knitting thing, as far as I'm concerned. I love those yarn cakes! Unlike all those folks who obsess about the colors pooling, I'm endlessly entertained by the ways colors chase and line up with each other and the Kauni is just an exponentially satisfying example thereof. Can you tell I'm doing the vicarious thing to the hilt, here? (I think I'm an INTJ, by the way -- but the main thing I remember about Myers-Briggs testing is that it completely validated the radically different ways my spouse and I react to the routes we drive each day and how we give directions to others. Like magic.)Congrats on making it through those meetings and all those human interactions!!
Post a Comment