Sometimes ...

Many, many years ago my grandfather was a farmer out in Winnipeg. He brought a richness to my life from those experiences. A richness that I do often miss. I remember spending hours and hours with him in the flower gardens, drawing charts so that we would remember where things were, and him letting me choose flowers to plant. He had an earthy wisdom that meant a lot to me. I learned some very valuable lessons; lessons that I strive to pass on to my family and friends.

One saying that he did NOT impart, however, is this: Sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug. This little gem came from one of the newer animated movies, and I'm not certain which one. I *think* it was the Bee Movie, but having never seen it I can't be sure. I just know that I heard this line, and it resonated.

What does it mean? Well, sometimes you're the windshield (and life is good):

This is the Spring Flowers Cardigan from the May 2009 Creative Knitting. I used 8 balls of Filati Carezza, colour number 9, and the suggested needles (US 4 & 6). I expect the gauge is a wee bit off -- on the larger size -- but otherwise I'd say the cardigan is a success. One thing I have yet to accomplish is to sew the buttonholes a bit closed as the buttons I selected weren't quite as large as those envisioned by the designer. All in all, this was a fun and delightful romp.

Here we are, once again, the windshield:
This is a basic little hat made with two strands of fun fur and two skeins of Noro Kureyon. The fun fur was Schachenmayr Brazilia Lungo, no. 210, and On-Line Smash, number 0007, held together. The Noro was colour number 211. You might eek by with only one ball of Noro, but the balls seem to be running short of late and the second ball was a necessity. Of course, since I was breaking into a second ball, I lengthened the hat enough to completely cover my ears. Again, a truly delightful outcome.

And sometimes you're the bug (and get splatted all over the windshield):

This is Wavy Baby from the Spring Knitters. The design is flawless; the technique is likewise flawless. Does anyone see the problem? Yeah, I thought so too. The colours are different. Not different colourways, but different in intensity. One ball of yarn has obviously come from the beginning of the dyepot and the second from the end.

So having splatted unceremoniously against the windshield of the Knitting Gods, I will frog this one. My lovely husband feels that this could be salvaged if only I weren't so fussy; that no one will see the front AND back simultaneously, and thus frogging is not warranted. I, however, will KNOW that there is a mismatch on the colours. So a frogging I will go.

The project will be repeated -- I'll be using two rows of the intense colour followed by two rows of the faded colour. The yarn is way too nice to put away, and I like the design and colours. (The yarn, after all, IS Handmaiden Casbah.)

And so ... remember this little gem: Sometimes you're the windshield, and sometimes you're the bug!