To ravelry, With Love

So I'm not in the best of places today. Work is stressful and keeping me up at night. There is no end in sight, no light at the end of the tunnel, no spot I can point to in my calendar where I can say, "HERE is where I can breathe a sigh of relief." It's simply not there.

Add to that the worry about friends and family losing their jobs, not just as a result of the economy, but because petty, mean-spirited people decided they didn't like the cut of their jib. The woman who brought me into the company I've worked for the past 18 years was fired last month.

But I cling to my job (which, despite the stress, I actually like) with the full knowledge that my continued employment, like everyone else's, is tenuous at best.

Yarn is my escape. I'm working diligently on the Pi Shawl, and having run out of the crappy yarn I was using, I'm now using something else in a different weight and color, and row 11 in the second lace section is whooping my ass. Big Time. I thought I was past the ripping out stage, but apparently, I'm not. And I despise the stash yarn I picked to continue the shawl. It's just fugly.

With a night cut short by worry about the things I'm not getting done at work, I'm too tired to fight Pi today. I'm marking every pattern repeat, which helps, but I can't deal with it. And I'm shying away from some of the patterns I'm really taken with, simply because Pi has temporarily shattered my knitting resolve.

So, what's a girl to do?

When stranded, as it were, surrounded by UFOs but too stymied to pick up any of them, I like to go shopping in ravelry. I never fail to be inspired by the extraordinary creativity and beautiful designs I find there. One of my favorite things is what I call "ravelry roulette," where I type in some random search filters and see what I get. And omigod, what I get!

If you are like me (and I pray you are not!), I get tons of crochet/knit mags and books that I absolutely pore over. And I am contstantly surprised by the stuff I miss in these publications! But for the eagle-eyed ravelrers, I would miss so many wonderful patterns and ideas, simply because I took them at face value and moved on. I mean, how many times do you see a new shawl or skirt and pass it by simply because the color choice, layout, or model turned you off? But on ravelry, I see these things anew, simply because some bright woman in another place saw potential where I could not.

Like my dad was, I am happiest when surrounded by ideas and potential. And I am sincerely thankful that I have access to the amazing creativity of so many others who help me to see things anew when I cannot.