I am a runner.  Not a quick one, or a graceful one, but I can go the distance.  It took me 50 years to find a sport that required no skill, and when I discovered distance running it changed my life.  I will run for hours, and it is the one time in the day that I do not multi-task.  I think, have ideas, enjoy the scenery, and just put one foot in front of the other.  Along the way, I will note the passage of mileposts.  I know the points along my route that indicate one mile, 5 miles, 10 miles.  They show me that I am making progress toward my goal.

For the past few years I have been developing a book project. For the first year, I didn’t really tell anybody.  It’s like being pregnant in the first trimester and not wanting to talk about it all of the time.  What sex is it, what will you name it?  Everyone is in a hurry for answers, and you don’t have any.  Well, gestation for a book is apparently about three years, at least for me.  All of the knitting is done, the patterns are written and tech-edited, most of the book is written, and photography is scheduled in a few weeks.  Practically done, right?  Actually, there is a ton of work left to do in turning all of this into a book, and I don’t expect it to launch for many months.  But, I did just pass a milepost. I finished the last knitting project for the book.

Actually, I finished the last pattern for the book months ago.  But I couldn’t quite stop knitting.  I test-knit a pattern inspired by one of the book designs that a friend wrote. I made several versions of one of the scarf patterns, using various yarns.  The pattern was so much fun to knit that I got addicted.  The last project that I just finished was really reaching, and I knew it.  There are two pillows in the book, knit in Frog Tree Yarns Pediboo, a fingering weight.  I wanted the design knit in a larger weight, for a bigger pillow.  With Tina Newton’s help, I chose 2 colorways of BMFA Devine, and reluctantly gave them to a test-knitter because I knew that was the smart thing to do.  But I wanted to knit one, too!  So when I found out that Pediboo was going to come out with a worsted weight, I begged Trish for a couple of skeins, and made a worsted weight version of the Devine chart.  It was really fun, but last night I stuffed the pillow, sewed it up, and that was the end of knitting for the book.  I had to draw the line somewhere, and I reluctantly did.

So, now what do I knit?  I went back to my UFO pile, which is pretty small.  There is the Twist pullover, by Cecily Glowik MacDonald.  I cast this on with Shalimar Breathless, and it has made great movie knitting over the past several months.  I have also been working on Sivia Harding’s Oaken Dreams, on and off.  I am only about half way through.  But since I’ve worked on it, she has come out with a couple of other designs that I am itching to cast on.  If I start another one, will I ever get back to Oaken Dreams?  It doesn’t deserve to languish in a bag. Also tempting me is a shawl designed by Janine Bajus for the upcoming e-book to fund Deb Robson’s research on Shetland sheep.  You haven’t seen it yet, but I got a preview because my husband is doing the photograhy and I have all of the fabulous projects ahead of time.  On modeling Janine’s shawl, I promptly ordered the yarn to make one of my own.  Maybe that would be a good project to cast on?

Or, I could completely go down a different path and warp my Baby Wolf.  That would certainly distract me.  I promised myself that I wouldn’t do that until the book knitting was done, and it is.  But weaving is really going to suck me in, and I still have to spend a lot of time on Book Stuff.

 

Decisions, decisions.  I am going to ponder options, and while I do that I will pull out Oaken Dreams and see if I can make some progress.  There is another milepost to reach, I just have to keep going.  One step at a time.