Inch By Inch

You've heard me say it before that most people quit when they don't know what to do, when they don't know how to do what they want to do, or when they're bored. True with art, with sewing fashions, with knitting, with much of life. True for me. After months of ribbed knitting and twelve inches of - boring - cowl, getting to done was getting hard. I decided to take it inch by inch.

If you do not change directions, you may end up where you are headed. - Lao-Tzu



One inch equals 5 rows equals 800 stitches. The orange marker is at the halfway point. The turquoise ones mark each additional inch. The markers are visual. They're motivating. Knitting just five rows didn't seem as never ending as twelve more inches. After knitting five rows, I could place a marker, go do something else, and then come back to the project and knit another inch and get another marker. Just one inch. Being hugely competitive and extremely goal oriented, I was motivated to get more markers. LOL - whatever it takes!

Efficiency is intelligent laziness. - David Durnham




Twelve inches equals 60 rows equals 9,600 stitches. With goals, it can be useful to focus on how far you've already come whether that's with the current project or with previous ones. When I felt like quitting, I reminded myself of the twelve inches already knit and that - in the months previous - I'd ribbed one never ending black sweater and a dozen winter toques. I'd done this before. I could do it again.

A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two different things. Diligence overcomes all difficulties, sloth makes them. - Benjamin Franklin




Twenty-four inches equals 120 rows equals 19,200 stitches. There are gentler ways than the total truth to begin or to keep ourselves on task. For some, the intensity of the project prevents them from beginning and that in turn prevents them from moving on with learning and creative growth. They're producing repetitive, easy, peat and repeat, make it today projects. When you're past that skill level, those kinds of projects can really sap your creative energy. It's time to step it up a little, stretch just beyond what's comfortable, and step outside your box in some way. Bite by little bite is an easier way to a "bigger" project, however bigger may be defined.

It has been said that idleness is the parent of mischief, which is very true; but mischief itself is merely an attempt to escape from the dreary vacuum if idleness. - George Burrow




There are tedious parts to every project. Ribbing is my favourite knitting stitch and I love intense threadwork on my art pieces, even on my fashion pieces like the grey ribbed fabric from last week. Ribbing and intense threadwork both require staying seated and sticking with it. While I love the finished results, getting to done is not always fun. That said, intense but mindless stitching is a fabulous opportunity to think, to resolve, to work out problems, and to make decisions. Your hands are moving with ease. Your mind is free to contemplate other issues.

Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent. - Dr. Samuel Johnson




The cowl is for my daughter. I'm not sure how she plans to wear it. Finished, there's a lot of fabric that can be pulled and turned in many directions. It will certainly tuck down into her coat and up over the back of her neck and keep her warm in the wind. Apparently, knitting a never ending ribbed cowl is one way of bundling up your adult child, giving them a hug and a kiss, and telling them to keep warm, even from many miles away.

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. - Maya Angelou

This past weekend was slow and leisurely, filled with planned activities and empty spaces that flowed together easily. I accomplished much including reading a romance which isn't at all unusual except that this one contained numerous quotes about sloth and laziness.

Quotes make me think. They make me question. Some resonate immediately and some I have to contemplate more thoroughly in an attempt to grasp their full or intended meaning. What do you think Oscar Wilde meant when he said that to do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual. When I have had periods of nothing at all, they have darn near turned me inside out. Are they also intellectual? Certainly, they've led to what I've previously labelled as over thinking. Now, I wonder since that over thinking has also led to some interesting life directions.

One of my favourite quotes comes from a key figure in Canadian politics. As a politician, I'm not that impressed with this man however, those words of his made me realize that even when we don't agree on some points, we may agree on others. That's a door opening awareness. By we, I mean the general we as in all people because if it's true with one person, it's most likely true with others. Keeping that in mind has helped me to find points of connection with individuals that at first jar my senses.

Grenville Kleisure says that periods of wholesome laziness, after days of energetic effort, will wonderfully tone up the mind and body. The adjective - wholesome - is a clue to his meaning, an indication that this laziness is restful and restorative as opposed to lazy deadbeat as we commonly think of it. Heading into the Christmas season, many of us are about to run ourselves ragged with the never ending to do list of one short twenty-four hour day. That does seem rather ridiculous.

Periods of wholesome laziness also allow us to evaluate what's truly important and what we are willing and what we are not willing to do. Years ago, in one such period, I decided that I was not willing to turn myself inside out with consumerism and event planning and in the doing so make a mockery of what I believe is the reason for the season. I chose to slow down and simplify, a choice I'm ever so glad to have made and have been making ever since. I now enjoy December.

Know the true value of time: snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today. - Lord Chesterfield




Part of my December enjoyment is setting goals for the next year. By the time January begins, I like to have an outline for many areas of my life including what I want to accomplish with my work, whether that's my paying work or my creative work. That outline indicates what I want to learn.

Typically, I set business goals in September with the start of the school year and personal goals in December for the start of the new year. Some goals are small and more easily attained like finding a fun shoe to go with my new grey top and some goals are long winded requiring me to divide them into inch by inch segments like widening my vocabulary and learning to write more creative non-fiction, a goal I'm debating for 2011. What are you debating?

One shoe can change your life. - Cinderella

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - finished the cowl and a fabulous weekend