No More Aran Knitting

Almost as soon as I was finished eating dinner last night I did the last two rows of the ribbing on the child's aran sweater and I was sooo impressed! This thing was gorgeous! I stopped and did some things around the house, then sat down to do the first row of the body. I knew looking at the pattern that it would require quite a bit of concentration, so I wanted to wait until I was ready to sit and think (sometimes a challenge in itself!). There were only 89 stitches on the row, but by the time I was about 3/4 of the way finished with the row I had tears streaming down my face. I have carpal tunnel and usually it is no big deal at all. I sleep in a brace and that takes care of it. But I discovered last night that all the cables and twisting of an aran sweater are not what I need to be doing. I sat and thought about it a bit, then pulled the whole thing off the needles and ripped it out before I pushed myself any further. There is really no sense in putting my body through all of that and I wanted to rip it before I threw caution to the wind.

I was fairly upset by this last night as I really wanted to do this sweater and learn aran knitting. But then I thought about it more and realized that I can still do the sock knitting I enjoy and I do want to do more lace knitting, so there is still room to grow. And I pondered it more and came to the conclusion that there are many other things in life I cannot do - brain surgery comes to mind! - and rather than focus on the can'ts I'm going to move on and enjoy what I CAN do! (But I still would like to do the sweater - grumble, grumble!)

~ Elizabeth

Trials, temptations, disappointments -- all these are helps instead of hindrances, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fiber of character but strengthen it. Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before. James Buckham