When one door closes, another one opens.
Like most cliches the above saying accurately sums up one of life's little facts in just a few words. Sometimes we open and close those doors by choice, other times opportunity knocks incessantly until we invite it in, and occasionally life slams the door behind us, advising us not to let it hit us on the ass on the way out.
Lately our household has experienced a number of closing and opening doors. In January my daughter, Jessica, made the tough decision to leave an unhappy marriage and move back to Canada and the family home. Shutting the door of her old life firmly behind her, she has entered a new phase of her life, one of promise and a myriad of possibilities. A month later my eldest son lost his job at a manufacturing plant. Being shown the door came almost as a relief to Matt since he had been growing increasingly dissatisfied with his position anyway but was reluctant to leave the security of a steady, well-paying job. Fortunately, with money in the bank he can use this time of unemployment to explore potential career opportunities and start taking the first steps towards establishing a more fulfilling professional life and gaining access to a greater number of doors.
Given Jessica's and Matt's recent experiences, perhaps it is not surprising that I started taking a good, hard look at my own life. I realized that while my personal life brought me great happiness and satisfaction, the same could no longer be said of my job at the yarn shop. As much as I've enjoyed my work in the retail craft industry over the years, I came to the conclusion that it was time to move on to something else and decided to give notice to my employer last Wednesday. I'll finish out my shifts until April 22nd then spend a week visiting my sister in Toronto, as planned. And after that, who knows? Although I know it's time to close the door on this part of my past, I don't have a clue as to which door leads to my future. Thanfully, like Matt, I too can afford to spend some time thinking about what direction I want my professional life to take and don't have to rush my decision.
Endings and beginnings have been the theme of my knitting lately too. I officially finished Twist Thursday morning when I sewed on the buttons, just in time to wear it to work.
This is one of the few knits I am 100% satisfied with. The yarn, the pattern, the finishing, the fit--everything came together.
I could not have timed it better. My first Year of Lace shipment was waiting for me when I arrived home Thursday evening. The yarn is a striking paprika-coloured silk laceweight, the pattern a triangular shawl called Phoenix Rising by Sivia Harding.
I immediately wound the yarn and cast on for the shawl right after dinner; over the next few days I completed two 32-row pattern repeats but set it aside for a while to work on a much less exciting shawl for my mother. She needs it next month for a costume and I decided that the sooner I got it out of the way, the better I'd feel. Finishing it up took me longer than expected (what else is new?) but I did complete it yesterday and tried out my new blocking wires on it.
Considering it's knit from a department store "big ball" of yarn, it actually turned out pretty nicely. Which just goes to show that just about anything looks good in lace. The pattern is Shoalwater Shawl by Fiber Trends.
And what's this about unfinished business? Well, it turns out I have a lot of it. With March Sweater Madness out of the way, Michelle is hosting a UFO KAL for April so I started going through my trunk to see which project (or projects) to work on this month. As I pulled bag after bag out of the trunk and spread them out on the living room floor I was mortified to see just how many sweaters I have in various stages of completion. Or, more accurately, incompletion.
With so much left undone, how to choose? I skipped over projects I know I am never going to complete, for one reason or another. One day when I am feeling destructive I will turn those back into stash. I also passed on those projects that I've only just begun--a few inches of ribbing here, half a back there. Even if I haven't worked on them for a while, I still consider them WIP's, as opposed to UFO's. What remained were those sweaters that were more than halfway done, in some cases much more than halfway. From this group I have narrowed it down to three items: a cabled tank, lacking about 1/3 of a front and requiring some recrossing of cables; a sleeveless Fleece Artist garter stitch jacket; and a long-sleeved wrap cardigan missing 1 1/4 sleeves and the front bands and ties. My goal for April is to complete at least one of these projects, in addition to working on my Year of Lace shawl, a mystery sweater (one day all will be revealed), and the ever-present socks-on-the-go.
As we begin a new month (where did March go?) and a new season (at last!) I anticipate the endings and beginnings to come in the days ahead, in both my life and in my knitting. Meanwhile, I will try to accept that there will always be at least some unfinished business along the way and won't let it stand in the way of stopping to smell the flowers.
Here's to Spring!
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