Patience & The Try, Try Again
We have all been there at some point in our life. Having sat at the desk or been in the shop for hours we step away from our work and sigh in frustration at yet another failed attempt to move our project forward. The next few seconds will define our future and possibly change it completely.
Option 1. Give up
Option 2. Try again
Within option 1 things are cut and dry. You stop what you have been doing completely, write off the current course of action as a failure, move on, and do not look back. You may regret it, but it’s done.
Option 2 is not so cut and dry, but it does leave open a path that could circle you right back to where you are now. Option 2 is for those with the patience to try again on a similar yet slightly different course of action in hopes of better results.
Neither path is “wrong,” but the option you choose still defines the future.
When designing the current crochet throw blanket (see the title picture), I was determined to have a section of chevron smack dap in the middle. I will spare you the technical details but doing so was causing a huge issue with bunching up all the work underneath it due to the nature of how chevron is created. I knew going in this would be an issue, but I did not realize how massive of an issue it would become. We are talking about days' worth of work being done to just be ripped back out repeatedly. The yarn was even getting angry with me for the abuse I was putting it through. However, I kept hearing my grandpa in my head “Jennifer, Patience is a Virtue.” Now, I know this means I need to wait with grace for what is to come. In this instance though, it meant I needed to have patience with myself and my abilities to continue to learn and adapt gracefully and calmly until I got this design worked out as I envisioned it.
I had already decided that Option 1 was off the table and not an option at all. This chevron section was going to be in there. Period! Which brings me to the “Try, Try Again” doesn’t it? Determined to have the virtue of patience, I still needed the stick-to-it of the try, try again. SIX (6) is the final number of “tries” it took along with my graceful virtue of patience to get this chevron to work out. It looks amazing! I’m so proud of myself.
What if I picked option 1? Who knows? A different stitch would undoubtedly be in that spot and would probably look just as nice. I would have learned nothing new. I wouldn’t know how far my patience could take me. I wouldn't know how to manipulate the fabric and hook combinations to have the chevron behave as I wanted it to. A skill I can now use in future designs.
This can all be applied to your current job hunt or other life challenges (and to my own). Which option are you choosing? What are you learning and how are you growing your skills along the way? Are you allowing yourself the Virtue of Graceful Patience as you Try, Try Again? Or did you choose Option 1 and take off on a completely new path? My theory is that eventually even Option 1 leads to the use of the wisdom of my Grandpa at Sunday dinner.
#knit #crochet #mixedtapefiberarts #determination
