When you do what you love

You love what you do.

I love knitting lace. When I knit lace, I kind of go into the 'zone' - I often say it knits itself - and to an extent that's true for me. I don't feel as though I'm making any effort at all when I knit it - the only tedious thing is that it takes so much time - but I absolutely love every stitch. Can't put it down in fact.

Compare this with what happens when I knit a sock. Useless at it. Hate it. Can't bring myself to finish one let alone two - the thought of doing ten 72 stitch rounds is too much for me to bear. I'm such a wannabe sock maker, I love having handknitted socks but I just do not enjoy making them.

When I knit a row of lace, particularly a long row, a 'voice' in my head repeats a sing-song like code to help me along and this, coupled with looking at the row below as I go, makes the repeats easy to remember and easy to duplicate. It's difficult to explain, and if I tried saying my little mantra out loud when I was knitting I'm sure it wouldn't make any sense at all. But still, it helps me ...

Do you have an inner knitting voice that sings to you when you knit?

Here's the progress of the peacock shawl on Sunday - just as I was about to enter the second chart.



Here it is today, ready for the fourth chart (not so pretty - but you can see it properly).



I don't have to work for the rest of the week so I'm hoping to get a lot done in the next few days. It's going to get very difficult to photograph from now on, so you might have to put up with just a bright pink blob.

My 2008 knitting resolution is to challenge myself and knit more socks and garments. And I will too, just after I finish the peacock and the frost flowers and leaves and the morning glory wrap and the hidcote garden and the sarcelle and the mediterranean lace.