Losing the Pattern

Sweater-No-Longer-In-Progress
Sweater-No-Longer-In-Progress

I have looked everywhere for the pattern for my partially completed cardigan. The only thing I can think of is that I laid it on top of the newspapers on the kitchen table and it got scooped up in the recycling. Can I remember what magazine it was in? No. Have I looked everywhere? Yup, pretty sure–darnit.

 Now what do I do?

I had just about reached the decreases for the neck and sleeve shaping on the left front. Now, I have to figure out what I did with the right front and reverse it.  The decreases are very difficult to see in the pattern, and, of course, I will have to invent a sleeve pattern, too, to finish the piece.

Is it possible for me to do all this? Yes, probably, if I had lots of time and patience and was willing to slog through a lot of trial and error to get it right. And I’m sooooo not in the mood to go there. The yarn is lovely to work with and I want to get back to the feel of it slipping through my fingers and making its unique colour pattern as it grows.

Solution? Tear it down. Frog it. Find another knitting pattern (and make several photocopies of it!) and start again.

Has this ever happened in my writing? Definitely! I have lost the pattern there, too. Or rather I’ve found that the pattern I was following was the wrong one. Sometimes I’ve realized that I’m writing in the wrong voice. I change third-person to first and suddenly the story takes on a new life. My main character gets a little cheekier, takes more risks, and has more fun— and so do I. Sometimes, the plot lands in a bog where it threatens to sink into complete inaction. In that case, I need to drag my characters back to the crossroads and point them down a different road.

Today, I’ll be winding balls of yarn and looking for a new knitting pattern. Tomorrow, I’m going to go back to my young adult work-in-progress and get my character into a lot more trouble than she was expecting. And I’m going to enjoy doing both!

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