Fighting the Urge

  Sometimes I'm a perfectionist, and other times I'm willing to let minor details slide. Many times I find these two sides of my personality fighting each other. When that happens, I can count on productiveness flying out the window. This is one of those times.

  I was making great progress on my Grannies in a Love Triangle shawl, but then I got that order for an elephant rug... That is going nicely at least; it's easy for me to follow the well-written pattern with no mistakes to rip out. But when I couldn't access the PDF on my PC because of more (severe) thunderstorms, I had to set the project aside. Not wanting to waste time, I picked up the shawl again.

  I finished the last round before the edging starts. Yay. That's a sarcastic "yay", because I found a mistake on the opposite side. It's not a big mistake; I simply missed one stitch, and you can barely see it. It won't cause any problem with working the final round. It doesn't even make any difference in the shape. I think many crocheters would say "oh well" and keep working. But I'm fighting the urge to take it all the way back to my mistake and fix it.

  As I kicked the question around in my mind, I took a few photos that would be usable for the pattern, mistake not showing. My camera refused to focus properly, the lighting kept changing, and now we're in the middle of another thunderstorm, so I need to get off the computer anyway... Sometimes I wonder if all these setbacks are bad omens telling me I need to fix my mistake.

  And I'm back. I thought more about it during my break: I think too much. This is just a test pattern, a pre-pattern, a FREE pattern that I'm writing to see if people like it... I kinda like the combination of stripes and squares, but I also think it looks a little weird. I want to design a similar pattern to sell, but I'm not sure if I like the stripe/square design after all. Just because I missed one stitch while creating the shawl doesn't mean I can't keep working, finish the pattern, and get it published so I can see how it goes.

  So, fudge it. Fudge the fudging mistake, and get on with the fudging pattern. The missed stitch blends into all those lacy loops, and you'd have to be picking it apart to notice it. I need to stop thinking that every thunderstorm, bad photo, and anything else that holds me back is a sign that I should rip my work back even farther. It's called July in Florida, an almost dead battery, and life situations. I often look at crochet as a metaphor for life, but life doesn't have to be a metaphor for crochet. Sometimes you just have to say "fudge it" and look past the mistakes to admire the beauty around them. There, how's that for a metaphor?

Happy Crocheting!