I feel led to write about something that may seem ordinary, it’s the blanket I am currently crocheting. That blanket is a great analogy for several things in life though and here’s how I view it.
A friend commissioned me to crochet a blanket. We discussed what she wanted. In particular, she wanted a design with lots of squares and a certain background color.
I started with the squares and was super excited with how they were turning out. That was a project within itself…squares. I had several piles going. After making each square, I then bordered the squares with the background color. The project still looked like it was going well.
After making most of the squares, I started combining them into the final blanket. I chose the only join I knew how to do. I didn’t care very much for the join, but I had not found another join I liked or felt confident about trying.
Yesterday I looked at that blanket and was just completely unsatisfied with the joining of the squares. It was annoying me that the blanket wouldn’t be laying flat because the join I chose was a ridge type join.
So, I stopped joining and started taking the blanket apart. I thought I would have to take the blanket apart in a way that would have given me more of a project to recreate, but then, thank God after prayers, I remembered I’d crocheted the blanket only in rows one way and it was nothing much to take the blanket apart that way. This was a huge improvement as I only lost a couple of finished squares in that effort and not the huge backward slide I felt I would be doing.
I then went to Youtube and looked up crochet joining squares. One of the videos actually listed the join I was doing. I was glad to find it’s a valid join, but it wasn’t a neat join. In other news, I did come across a project where that join fit nicely and complimented the blanket. That helped me see the join I was doing had value, just not with the project I was doing.
I came across a video that showed a join I figured I could try. I watched the video twice, saw that it would be the perfect join for the square design I had made, and attempted it.
Let me tell you, I was SO happy to see that the new join was bringing the blanket up to a better level of beauty than the first one and my feeling about completing that blanket as an exceptional bit of work was much better than before.
What did that involve? It involved trying what I knew, not being satisfied, ripping out some of the work and time I put into it, and seeking out a solution that simply had to be better for this particular blanket.
I am going to tell you, ripping out a crochet project really isn’t for the faint of heart. Crochet projects take time more than anything. To rip means some of your time is like double gone. However, I just couldn’t look at the blanket and see where it would be extra lovely when finished. Now, because I backtracked some and found a new join technique, I am definitely creating a blanket I know will be extra lovely when finished.
Maybe you are in the same situation with something in your life…maybe a crochet project, maybe a different kind of project, maybe even a relationship. Saying to yourself, “I’ve invested time, money, and feelings into this (especially a relationship), I must not rip it apart,” is just setting yourself up to keep that uneasy feeling within. It’s not thinking of how the unraveling, while upsetting, will help you to find a different way to create or live and make something marvelously lovely in your life.
I want to encourage you with this post. I want to encourage you to rip apart what isn’t really giving you that awesomely good vibe. I want you to seek something else and try it, no matter how different and new it is. I want you to be bold for yourself. I know somewhere in your life you were bold about something. I sometimes remember times when I was bold and it amazes me today that I did those things. Somewhere in your vibe is that boldness. Wear it with all the awesomeness you can hold.
Serenity with God 