Knitting and Perfectionism

I love the idea of knitting. I love looking at knitting books and magazines and the patterns they feature. I love going into knitting shops and seeing all those lovely different yarns.

I have conquered knitting scarves and simple hats. I have even knitted a few simple baby sweaters.

All that remains is to knit a sweater for myself. This is my Mt. Everest of knitting.

I have started a handful of times to knit a sweater for myself and abandoned every attempt.

I've known for a long time that I am a visual learner. I need to see a live demonstration.

Back in the 80s, if I wanted a live demonstration of knitting techniques, I could either find someone who knew how to knit to show me, or I could buy or rent a VHS cassette about knitting.

The world wide web and YouTube to the rescue!

I found a knitting website that offered a free, beginner level pattern for a sweater and step-by-step YouTube videos showing how to complete it. Jackpot!

Things went pretty smoothly until it came time to attach the sleeves to the armholes. I watched the accompanying video and my armholes didn't look exactly like the ones in the video. I couldn.t pick up the stitches like the person in the video was doing. I got frustrated and put the whole thing on a shelf.

That was at least a year ago.

God put it in my heart to take that sweater off the shelf and finish it.

Just yesterday, I took that sweater out and picked up where I left off. Once again, I got frustrated trying to attach the sleeve and then it hit me like a ton of bricks: this is the armpit of the sweater. The armpit!

Who cares about the armpit?! If I were to wear this sweater in public, (which I won't because it's way too big), will the knitting police stop me and ask to see if I finished the armpit correctly?

Somehow, I think not!

This was liberating to me with my perfectionist tendencies!

I knitted all afternoon. I just have to do the edging and the collar and then it will be complete.

Then, I'm going to start another sweater. It will be better than the first one. Then, the third will be even better. And then I might just treat myself to some fancy wool yarn from some obscure breed of yak living in a far corner of Mongolia that costs $50 an ounce...

Looking back, I see now that my perfectionist tendencies were not just preventing me from completing projects but also robbing me of an enjoyable hobby.

I think I love actually knitting!

The end of a matter is better than the beginning.

Ecclesiastes 7:8 (Amp.)