There are some times I’m quite grateful that I didn’t weigh in on a specific topic. And other times when I have to have some empathy for people who do it in a less-than-artful way.

Pre-Assumptions When Weighing In

Most often when I find myself wanting to give my opinion, I start with an invalid premise. That everyone sees things the same way that I do. It seems unthinkable that anyone couldn’t see the validity in my strongly held opinion about something. Even when that strongly held opinion is a knee-jerk reaction to something.

The most recent kerfuffle at the Oscars was one of those.

First of all, I don’t watch the Oscars. I don’t care about the Oscars. Each year they seem to try and gin up excitement by presenting the event in some “interesting” light. But I just don’t care.

So, when I read what happened the morning after, I was able to just acknowledge it to myself and I had no desire to comment. And I’m glad. My immediate knee-jerk reaction…the one that I incorrectly imagined everyone else would also have…wasn’t at all thought through. And my assumption that it was the prevailing opinion…also not true. Not caring about the event saved me having to back-pedal on any publicly expressed ideas about it all.

Concurrent with this conversation in my head was a comment on my blog entry from Monday. In response to my frustration with not finishing either of my two WsIP, Walter writes:

Both are very nice, but you put too much on your plate. Knitting is suppose to be fun and relaxing. It is not a race. Slow down.

Thank you Walter for your comment. I’d like to suggest that your ideas on knitting might not be the same for everyone. You seem to infer that having “too much on your plate” might not be fun and relaxing for some of us. Or that racing to finish a project is a bad thing.

For me, I enjoy a bit of pressure in my knitting. I like feeling a certain sense of being overwhelmed. There is a middle ground between boring and stressful that I find to be the perfect sweet spot. I also find MUCH more satisfaction in completing a project than in the process of working on it. So I push myself and race to a WIP more than you would (I assume). So your advice to “Slow down.” is not useful for me.

I’m still grateful for your comment and advice. It reminds me to consider that others may have very dissimilar ideas about something than I do.

Current Knitting

Despite pouring on the pressure, I still wasn’t able to finish the Aha Wrap. But I was able to finish the first Jacob handspun hat..

I did frog back the Jacob handspun hat to just past the ribbing. Two comments gave me advice I did find useful. That the stitch pattern should be taken out.

Overall, I’m quite pleased with how it looks and I think it will sell. But it’s still not really my style. And the ripping back of the body of the hat only allowed me to make limited progress on finishing the Aha Wrap.

I’ve finished 11 of the 13 panels and should have some completed photos on Friday. I’ll be racing to finish it…trust me.