Designing: A Lot of Eraser Marks

Good evening!  My team at the j-o-b had an EXCELLENT day.  It was probably the first time in a year I didn't feel like just sighing to the point of tears (not that a few other factors in my life don't also contribute to that).  So I was driving home and rapping about knitting with a girlfriend of mine.

Last night, while listening to the Blackhawks game (seriously...ask anyone in section 333 what I do during intermissions), I wasn't knitting.  I was writing down my ideas for patterns.  There is more rubber-shard-volume on the floor of Starbucks than there is dead skin cells from hipsters.  But I came to a conclusion:

I like making very complicated scarves.

And then I came to a second conclusion shortly after that, while on my way home to go to couch:

I can't expect everyone following my series to like making very complicated scarves.

So now I have a whole new direction to go into...five of the patterns are pretty much written, either in chart or in written-instruction, so I have that going for me.  The samples are not as far as I would like them to be, but trial-and-error isn't something I have to do six feet at a time.  In other words, I'll know a few inches into the scarf if the idea is going to work.  But a few of the ideas will need to be simplified.  I know some of the knitters joining me on this journey, and they are all fantastic in the talent department.  The problem is that I don't know all of them, and honestly I want this to be fun for everyone involved.

So now I have something to think about to and from the j-o-b at four in the morning.  I figure if I stay two months ahead on the scarf series, I'm in good shape.  Time to bust out the needles.

On a related note, Arlinda...the recipient of the pink chemo cap...told her sister to please tell me again how much she loves that hat.  Her husband asked me how he could wash it, and I said, "It's yarn for babies.  Just toss it in with the other stuff!"  Whenever I think about my insignificance among seven billion people on the planet, I actually am very fortunate to have several of these moments to fall back on.

See, you don't have to have a plan to change the world.  You just have to be the kind of selfish that makes you feel good for doing nice things for others.  I freely admit that I made that hat for Arlinda because I wanted her head to be warm and non-itchy, and I reap the warm and fuzzy benefits of knowing I made her happy.  Is that so wrong?

So now it's time to do that with scarves.