Friday, March 05, 2010

Searching for Inspiration

I have to admit that knitting for the Ravelympics was exhilarating. However, after the torches were extinguished, I have to confess that I was left feeling a little flat. With the completion of Cables & Lace, I had reached my goal of 12 sweaters in 12 months. I earned the medals I was competing for and then . . . pfffft!

I've lost my knitting mojo. Everything I picked up looked boring. "Been there, done that," became the mantra as I thumbed through books and magazines, looking for something - anything - that might get my blood pumping once again.

I was resolved that I'd have to explore some new craft - or resurrect an old craft to find inspiration. Not a horrible thing but knitting has become such an integral part of my identity that I was afraid friends and relatives wouldn't recognize me without my ubiquitous knitting bag and needles in hand.

Then, today, as I was teaching the sock knitting class at our local homeschool cooperative academy, lightening struck!

In front of me was Wendy Johnson's Socks from the Toe Up. As I thumbed through it and talked with my class about the different toe and heel configurations Wendy demonstrates in the book, I realized that I had barely scratched the surface of toe-up sock construction. Here in front of me was a recipe book for endless explorations into sock construction and design. I began to feel like Julie in Julie & Julia (which I just read recently) when confronted with Julia Child's monumental tome of French cooking.

Why not spend the next 12 months knitting my way through Wendy's awesome book? What is more, when her second book comes out, why not progress through that one as well?

That is not to say I won't be working on other projects along the way. After all, I do have a few other UFO's floating around here that could stand some attention. And Shepherd's Harvest is coming up and attending that always gets my spinning mojo back in gear.

But what a fun goal to have - knit my way through a book. A pair of socks a month would leave plenty of time for other projects, since I could knit a pair in a week if I really concentrate on it.

And it will be much less fattening than cooking my way through a Julia Child cookbook.

A Win-Win situation, don't ya think?

8 comments:

CrisisMaven said...
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sheep#100 said...

It is cool having a plan and a goal!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a fun plan for blog fodder. Maybe I will join you if I can ever get myself together.

Guinifer said...

I feel the same way about Cookie A.'s book!

Rani said...

I think you should take up crochet.

Just kidding. I think this sounds like a fantastic knitting adventure! Socks Ahoy!

Julia G said...

What a great idea! I just got Wendy's book too, and I like the idea of trying new sock construction techniques to expand my horizons beyond my usual hurry-up-and-finish sock pattern.

The natural knitter said...

Yes, I just saw a copy of the new toe up sock book on Wendy Knits. Good for you and remember, Creative Fibers has lots of sock yarn. See you Monday I hope - don't have the Chiro job anymore so I'll be there at 6 pm.

Ellen said...

Does she have any two at a time toe up socks? I could really go for that . . .