reversed reservations

There is something wonderful about being wrong.

I finished The Elegance of the Hedgehog last night, a novel that just a few days ago I felt I was forcing myself to read. But boy, was it beautiful. I wept at the end, partly for the story and partly for the thought that we endure life's difficulties for rare, fleeting moments of beauty. These moments are so worth suffering for because beauty is simply that profound when experienced. Okay I'm terrible at articulating this. Let's just say if I'd stuck with my initial reservations I would have missed out on so much literary goodness.

A similar thing happened with this sweater. I picked up some Noro Retro on sale over the holidays thinking I could mimic a sweater I'd seen at Banana Republic. After researching, I figured trying Cecily Glowik MacDonald's Idelwood would be a close enough match and more of a sure thing than winging my own pattern. But when I started knitting all these doubts started surfacing. Would I have enough wool? Was the cowl too much? Did I like the striping that was appearing? I decided to knit only half the length of the cowl (I do have a short neck, so thought this might work) but when I hit the waist shaping and tried it on, I really thought I should abandon the whole thing. But for some reason I didn't. I knit to the end, tried it on, thought it was horrible all over again. Then falling asleep one night I realized that maybe it was just too long. Ripped it back a few inches the very next day and finished it up. But I didn't actually wear it until a few days ago. And once again, I was totally wrong. I quite like the final sweater and the shortened cowl works well. The Noro has a nice, hazy effect and the striping is pretty subtle.

First lesson of the year: persevere through all reservations. Projects and books are always worth finishing.

For more reading and knitting stories, visit Ginny's Yarnalong.