See all those little loops of yarn? Each of those is its own individual stitch, that took up its own piece of time that can’t be used again. Even the holes are a type of stitch (called a yarnover, in case you’re interested) and they are important and add to the beauty of the whole product.
Now, this particular scarf happens to be cursed, because I had to start over about 12 times, then learned to do lifelines to make mistakes not so costly, and I’ve still had to pull out stitches back to those lifelines multiple times and reknit whole sections. It’s frustrating. But see how pretty that is? (This phone camera doesn’t even do the color justice). Unlike other areas in my life, with knitting I have already learned that each individual stitch is a joy, because each and every stitch is vital to the end goal. As I stitch and stitch, I am having fun because I am thinking about how wonderful the end product will be and I already know how important each stitch is, so I know I’m not wasting my time. It helps to have a realistic but challenging goal. It also helps to see progress along the way. Some projects are harder to see the progress, especially at first, but because I learned to have faith in the process, and I even came to know that the process works because it worked on a previous project, I have faith that the harder projects will work out, too.
I used to do cross-stitch as well, and the faith in the tedium is similar. I remember thinking, in a way as I create this image of a little girl, it’s like I’m creating her in another dimension. Each stitch is part of her being, and it’s all important, every stitch. She will never be complete unless I finish every stitch, and when I am done she will come to life. OK, I’ll admit that’s kind of weird. But it was another way to reinforce the importance of every stitch, every step.
Seeing that in other areas of my life has been harder. But it’s still true. Even every step towards learning that every step is important, is important. Whoa, that was too meta. Time for bed!
Wow, that looks super complicated. 🙂
Not that bad, actually. It's a relatively tight lace (which is easier, at least for me) and only 67 stitches across. Now, the shawl I'm working on that's 300+ stitches across is quite another story!