Do you have dream projects?
Ideas that float in the back of your mind, refusing to let you alone. Pieces that would complete your wardrobe, or use an extra-special skein of yarn, or that you’d wear every day if you just had time to make it.
Most knitters have a lot of those—probably too many. Time and budget constraints and overwhelm (or the appeal of the new and shiny) can keep us from realizing quite a few of those items on our project bucket lists.
But what if we didn’t let that happen?
Old timers who’ve been reading this blog a while might remember my Wool & Pine Sea Glass Tee from three years ago—which I posted about here and here. I love that project and still wear it on the regular, but the colors were totally out of my wheelhouse. And the whole time I was knitting it, I kept thinking, “what if I made this in colors that are a little more…me?” Moody jewel tones, layered neutrals, pops of complex in-between tones—the works.
Life (and knitting) moved on right after I finished that first Sea Glass, but I’ve been dreaming of a rich, saturated Sea Glass ever since. And after three years, I’ve finally saved up enough scraps and leftovers to make it happen!
Isn’t she beautiful?
I tend to be a bit of a realist when it comes to knitting (despite what my wildly varied design portfolio would seem to indicate). I brainstorm, I obsess over color combinations, I source yarns—then I check my wallet and my schedule, and I walk away from the ideas I’ve been poring over. Because who has time or money for that?
Which is why this project actually happening is kind of a Big Deal.
It took time. It took forethought. It took giving myself time to recover from burnout with knitting that still wants to poke its head out now and again. (But it actually took way less money than one might think—leftovers, remember?) And now that it’s coming along, it’s even better than I imagined it would be. The colors sing to my soul, and I’m going to live in this when it’s done.
Recently I’ve been realizing I tend to live my life the same way as I pick projects. I think and I plan and I strategize, and then I go with the “realistic” option instead of the one I’m passionate about. And ironically, it’s been the challenges and the hard things I can’t remove from life that have made me realize—why am I depriving myself of the things that could make it all feel worthwhile?
So I’m sticking all this in a blog post as a reminder to self and anyone else who needs it:
We all have limitations, many of them things we can’t change. Some are bigger than others. But big or small, they can make us push dreams aside without a second thought.
Don’t let them.
Because even if there are obstacles we can’t move, there are still dreams that are achievable enough and flexible enough to wriggle through. They might be as tiny as a sweater in colors that make you happy, but don’t lose out on even the small joys. They’re worth working towards.
