Because of the constant stream of Very Bad Words that’s been coming out of my mouth ever since I started this sewing thing last week (and because I had someone ask me why I would do something I hate) I do feel the need to point out: It’s totally worth it.
A few reasons. For one, I like learning interesting new things, even if they piss me off in the process of learning them. I like pushing myself out of my comfort zone.
But more importantly, because Sue is one of my favorite people (and Artos is pretty darn cool, too) and while I may never understand why people voluntarily have children, I can’t think of anyone who’d do a better job at it than they will. I really wanted to do something special for them. I think the cursing & swearing & frustration that went into it makes it a lot more special. I mean, I could have done something that would have been really easy and didn’t push me at all. But I think the extra hard work going into this means something. There aren’t a lot of people I’d be willing to put myself through this for, but Sue & Artos definitely are.
A lot of the stuff I make is pretty basic (this is on purpose — I can’t do a lot of complicated knitting on the bus, which is where about half of my knitting gets done), and it’s easy for me to write it off as such. And I do, because even if a non-knitter wouldn’t have been able to do it, that’s not the point. It’s not about impressing other people (ok, maybe a little about impressing other people), it’s about impressing myself. I have to impress myself before I care what anyone else thinks. Like the card that Jenn & I made for Danielle’s birthday. It was… well, let’s just say that it’d fit right in on the local kindergarten class wall. But that wasn’t the point — we poured our hearts into it, and THAT’S what made it special.
I’m looking forward to finishing the “real” version of this blanket. It’s going to be awesome, no matter how much I swear, curse, sweat & bleed over it… and will in fact be more awesome BECAUSE of the swearing, cursing, sweating & bleeding.