Letting Go, Moving On

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something. --Neil Gaiman

Three days into 2021 and I can say that 50 percent of the year so far it has rained. I think there are no better statistics than that, as it rained for most of New Year's Day and pretty much all of January 2nd. It stopped this morning. We ran outside and basked in what little sun there was and then went out again this afternoon for another walk before the clouds rolled back in. T'is January on Vancouver Island. It's a time of year when you just have to let go of the idea that you will be able to get out for a walk every day because you just have to take what you can get:

I was off all week and decided to make use of the time by online shopping and finishing up projects at home. The online shopping only lasted for as long as the credit card guilt stayed away, and then I was left to my crafts at home. That was probably for the best, but I won't tell you how much of that online shopping was for yarn... ahem...

This is the time of year when I reluctantly go back and think about what I learned over the past year. I say reluctantly because no one likes to look back at your "learning experiences" because they are often synonymous with tough times, and goodness knows there were plenty of those. The best I can come up with is that it was a year when I had to learn to let things go. 

Here are some examples:

I pulled my first woven project off the loom this week, and I think it's a pretty good project for a first-timer, and in particular, for a first-timer who is teaching herself via YouTube videos. It was also an exercise in letting go because as I was weaving it, I really had to let go of trying to make it perfect as I went and to just absorb everything I was learning. I'm quite impressed at how nicely things turn out on the loom, even when there are obvious things I could have done better. The yarn helps a lot as well. This is a skein I bought from an indie-dyer ages ago that really deserved to be made into something:

I was particularly pleased with how nice the hemstitching looks, which I also learned via YouTube:

The weft is obviously wavy and the selvage edges are all over the show, but I am still smiling at the result:

I also had grand designs on catching up on the unfinished spinning I had lying around the house. I had two bobbins of singles sitting next to my wheel for months and months. It felt really good to finally ply them into a proper skein. This is a skein of Corriedale, probably about 180 yards in a worsted/Aran weight. I still have a bit of the combed top left to spin, so I'm planning to get that spun up within the next few weeks before I lose my spinning mojo again:

My spinning catch-up plans were a bit messed up because I had also planned to finish spinning some brown alpaca that was sitting on a spindle in the house for the greater part of a year (or maybe two), but I could not for the life of my find that spindle. Where does one lose a spindle? How does that even happen? I searched all my cupboards and drawers and bags and baskets (my house is a stash house if you haven't noticed), but I have absolutely no idea where it went or what I did with it. I have a vague memory of it sitting in a project bag, and I also have a possibly false memory of getting rid of said bag, but that is the only plausible explanation I have, however improbable.

The Adriene from last year would have turned the place upside-down looking for it, but if there's anything I've learned over the past year, it's acceptance. I let go of the idea that I was going to find it, and you know what? I felt a tremendous sense of relief. I mean, I am not happy that I lost a spindle full of lovely alpaca singles, but putting pressure on myself to find it? Must I do that? I think not. And if it ever turns up again, I will be happy and grateful, but until then I forge onwards...

It was absolutely pouring yesterday, so I took the opportunity to warp my loom again to have another go at a simple project. It is very pleasing to be able to get the warp directly onto the loom, and it was even more pleasing when I realized that my kitchen island is the perfect place to do it. The island is on wheels, which means that I can alter the warp length to whatever I need. Who knew such a thing would be so handy?

But even this project was a bit of a practice of letting go because I had planned to use up the remainder of the merino/cashmere/nylon fingering weight yarn I had leftover from when I made my stripey cardigan a couple of years ago. It was only after weaving the first few inches that I realized I was missing the orange pumpkin spice colour. Another search ensued, and then I realized that I had used it up last year when playing around with a brioche project. I thought about subbing in another orange yarn, but the thought of adding a different fiber to this just didn't feel right. And so I had to let go of that plan and just go with what I had. 

Heh. Letting go. Growth. How about that.

You might have guessed that my YouTube video history is full of weaving tutorials, and you would be right about that. They have been really helpful as this time around I think my warp has better tension and my selvages are pretty even and tidy. I'm excited to see how it turns out, even without the orange yarn:

I have one more project on the go at the moment, which has turned into much more of a marathon than I had planned. This is the bathroom mat I am making with the Helios Mandala as the centre. My brain always ranks crochet projects as quicker than knitting, so I was not prepared for how long and tedious this project was going to be. I finally finished the mandala itself, so I am now working on squaring it up and turning it into a rectangle, but I have no idea if I have enough yarn to do that so this may yet be another plan I have to do some letting go of somewhere along the line as well:

I think what I had to work on a lot last year was letting go of my perfectionist ideals: wanting to get my half-marathon body back, trying to be faultless and perfect at work, worrying about every single thing I ate, every hour I slept (or didn't sleep), wanting things to fall into perfect lockstep every day. Turns out that life is better when I let go of that and focus on moving every day, eating things that make me feel good, resting when I can, and having faith that things will work out whether I force them into submission or not. I think I kind of already knew that when it comes to my projects. Maybe I'll know more about how that works with life sometime soon.

Mr. Seymour would like to remind me that he'd like a snack. I better put this laptop away and get on that:

 Have a great week!