Easy and Hard

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about stuff that is hard for me that should be easy.

It’s hard for me to prioritize. If I did a better job of it I might spend less time on putting out fires (meaning hurrying to do all the stuff I am behind on).

It’s hard for me to not procrastinate.

It’s hard for me to keep a forward momentum on things that I am not sure about. That’s something that slows me down all of the time.

I wove the silk warp and cut it off the loom last week. Now it needs to have some stitching done to secure the last rows of weaving, the ends sewn in, the places where threads were repaired need to be woven in and then it needs to be washed and ironed and dried flat. After that it will be ready to be cut and sewn into a Kimono for me. The sewing in of the ends will take less than 90 minutes I think. the whole finishing process less than 3 hours. Know why I haven’t done it? I don’t know what kind of needle to use. So it sits there. I have needles. Lots of them. All I have to do is try one and if that doesn’t work, try another.

The Jacob sweater is languishing in a pile. I haven’t knit on it for a while. Know why? I think I might be to the part where I do the bottom edge and bind it off. I’m not sure. I have to put it on and stand in the mirror and look at it. I want it to be to my hip bones. I’m not sure how close I am. Close though. But because I’m not sure, it is there in a pile.

I have some wool that I want to spin. How thick should it be? 2 ply or three ply? I know I want a sweater out of it but woolen or worsted. I don’t know, so it sits there. I know the answer to this one. Sample. make 10 yards of a few different yarns and knit them and see. I haven’t done it.

This morning on Twitter my new friend Amy Christoffers said that she had ripped out everything she had knitted over the weekend. That is courage right there. That means she is trying things and making progress toward being smarter.

All the while my stuff sits in piles because I’m not trying things.

I tell my spinning students all the time to sample and try things and see what happens. This morning I looked at my current record of trying things without having a real idea of the end. I need to improve.

Dear students, today I will begin again to practice what I preach.