Knit and Crochet Blog Week - Day 2

Today's task is this:

"Blog about a pattern or project which you aspire to. Whether it happens to be because the skills needed are ones which you have not yet acquired, or just because it seems like a huge undertaking of time and dedication, most people feel they still have something to aspire to in their craft. If you don’t feel like you have any left of the mountain of learning yet to climb, say so!"

Where do I even begin?
I wish I could knit and crochet and take pictures as beautifully as Bonnie.
I wish I could design like Norah Gaughan.
I wish I had knit an Alice Starmore sweater when they were all the rage in the Nineties.
I wish I had the time for some really involved lace, just to say "Why yes, I made that!"

I'm not that good at spinning (yet!), either. I'm getting there.

Knitting, crocheting, spinning, dyeing - the possibilities are so endless, and that's why working with fiber has kept my interest for so long. There really is something for every kind of taste, skill level, and budget.

But when I really really think about the above task, when I ponder the one project that I really aspire to, it's that I want to write my own knitting book. I want to not just design a sweater here and there, I want to sink my teeth into a project that has several, maybe 18 or 20 designs in it. Write about the how and the why. Talk to fiber producers and get their stories.

You know I have that book in me. I thought I had it ready about a year ago, but then I let one tiny piece of criticism get the best of me and I talked myself out of it. In fact, I spent a whole year talking myself out of the one thing that I really want to do.

After my little episodes this winter/early spring where I wasn't feeling so great, I realized that I need to stop talking myself out of things that I really want to do. I need to keep going with the book. So I worked up my courage and talked to a wonderfully supportive person I met at the Sock Summit last year. She read what I had so far and has been very encouraging. She is my mentor who will tell me honestly what works and what doesn't. So I'm going to give it my best shot.

The plan is that while I recover from surgery, I will hunker down and re-visit the manuscript. I'm not giving up this time, not until I've done my darndest to give this book a chance.

There, how's that for a "project to aspire to"?