Doubts

This is an unusual crafting week for me, which is perhaps why I’m plagued with doubt.  First, I have both a knitting and a crochet project going on at the same time.  Second, both projects are using colors that are outside of my comfort zone.  And, both are intended as gifts, which will hopefully be loved by their recipients.

I’ve finished the ribbing for the orange cabled hat I’m making for my friend, JP.  This hat is part of a larger plan I have to use stash yarn to make winter holiday gifts in advance at a slow pace.  (If you’d like to play along with my Holiday Stashdown Challenge, check out this post for details.)   I’m pleased with how this project is coming along.

No doubts here… yet.

One observation: I’ve heard so many great things about Malabrigo yarns that I was sort of expecting that whenever I touched it, I would see a muse playing the lyre, or, at the very least, the clouds would disappear and the sky would turn sunny.  None of that has happened yet, but I’ll keep you posted.

On Saturday afternoon, I suddenly had the idea to make my mom a pineapple shawl for Mother’s Day (which is this Sunday, for those of you outside of the U.S.).  By the time this brilliant idea struck, the yarn shops were already closed and I didn’t have much green or even enough of any light weight yarn in my stash.  I bought the yarn on Sunday, and immediately started crocheting.  Originally, I was planning to make this shawl after hearing about it on the Crochet Chat podcast, but then I started thinking that a much better Mother’s Day gift would be a shawl that I designed myself.

After a few hours crocheting on Sunday, it looked like this.

(Note to my future self: Don’t try to design a pineapple shawl and make it in an unfamiliar yarn within six days.)  After a bit of ripping back, I finally settled into a good rhythm.  At first, I was really excited by the color.  My mom has green eyes and looks great in greens.  I thought this would be a wonderful, vibrant semi-solid that she would love.

But as soon as I started taking some pictures with it outdoors, I wasn’t so sure.

Yesterday morning, before work.

It looks sort of… neon to me.  My mom isn’t really a neon person.  Even in the ’80s,  she was more of the black eyeliner type than the neon bangles type.  Now I’m worried that maybe this will be a gift where she says, “Wow, it’s so nice that my daughter made this for me, but what the heck was she thinking??!!??”

Yesterday evening after work. It’s grown a bit since then.

And then there’s the fact that it is super tiny.  I know it’s only Wednesday morning, but it seems to me there’s a good chance I can’t finish this by Mother’s Day.  Or that if it does magically get finished, I won’t have time to properly block it, and it will just look like a rumpled, neon mess.  (Some Mother’s Day gift!)

If I don’t finish it in time, I can always buy something at the last minute and finish up the shawl as a Christmas or birthday gift.  But now I’m not even really sure this color will be good on her.  My sister will be back in town in a few days, so I plan to get her opinion on the matter.

As for reading, I haven’t gotten much further with Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, but I have been talking about it with friends and colleagues quite a bit.  It’s really very thought provoking, especially for those of us who are introverts and who work and/or live with introverts.

I’m planning to do a lot of reading next week because (dramatic drum roll, please) I’m planning to take my dream relaxation vacation (as discussed in this Knitting and Crochet Blog Week post).  It’s also possible that the doubts about the shawl are just me feeling stressed out by life in general, so I’m hoping a few days of peace and quiet will make me feel more confident about my project choices.

 

For more Works in Progress, visit Tami’s Amis.  For more Yarn Along posts, visit Small Things.

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