April 13, 2004

Boring.

The Boring Cardie is done.

boringcardiedone

You will note that I have given up adding cats, flowers or handcrafted fleece eggs in an attempt to make the boring cardie anything more than what it is. As I looked at it now, I realized what purpose the cardie is here to fulfill. It is The Zen of a sweater. It exists as a sweater in it's pure form, with no distracting colour, style or varied stitch pattern. Just miles and miles of pure, unadulterated, mind-numbing, stocking stitch. The Boring cardie is an expression of the essence of a sweater, without the distracting design elements that stand between the knitter and the perfection of its simple sweaterness.
I gave in to the cardie and it's lesson for me, and became one with the sweater. I was given the opportunity to reflect on my act of knitting and enter a simple meditative state where I was capable of deep inner realization and reflection. In this trancelike state, one can reach deep introspective places, and ask complex questions of your inner self, and find answers that lead you to greater harmony with your spirit and an opportunity to become more fully centred as a human being.
To meet these lofty goals and yield gentle understanding I asked myself questions like this.

What am I, a masochist? What the *&^%$$#! was I thinking when I designed this thing? What's wrong with stripes? Who doesn't like stripes? Who does this to themselves? How long do people read your blog if you knit navy boring cardies? What kind of a knitter am I? Will this sweater ever *&^%$$!!!! end? Will I die before it ends? Will I be glad if I do? Will someone stop me if I ever try to knit another one? Are these arms long enough? Could they be?

As I embraced this opportunity to examine my own sensory and perceptual experiences while knitting the boring cardigan, I reached a level of true knitting and was rewarded with a virtually flawless sweater. (To tell you the truth, if it wasn't just about flawless I'd want to choke myself with dirty alpaca roving, but I'm sure it's all contributed to my personal growth) For those of you who care about these things (like Ken...who has what can only be called an unnatural interest in seams, picking up stitches and the reverse sides of knitting) I give you a detail shot.

boring-details

This sweater is intended for an eight year old boy. Tomorrow, we embellish in a manner that would be agreeable to an eight year old boy. As the mother of three daughters I'm at a loss. Ideas? (Say "navy" and I find out where you live. Seriously...no more navy)

(And I'm still waiting on the snowdrop baby. While I am a gentle and loving woman who has a great deal of faith in nature's own timing, I'm about 3 days away from shaking the mother until the baby falls out. Sheesh)

Posted by Stephanie at April 13, 2004 11:55 AM