Wednesday, February 28, 2007

the joy of beginning

“Whatever you can do or think you can, begin it.”—Goethe

I’m writing this at our local Thai restaurant, stirring a mug of jasmine tea that’s too hot to drink. A little exhausted. Looking forward to the appetizer.

We—Mom and I—have spent the afternoon searching through yarn stores in our area. Yarn stores! A relatively new phenomenon for me. But I’m knitting constantly these days—finished a scarf a few days ago, and am now working on my third set of legwarmers. (Last week, I shipped the second set to my younger sister, who is shivering in Nebraska.)

Somehow, knitting pairs beautifully with writing. It’s creative and artistic, but structured and patterned. (Two basic stitches; all the directions spelled out for you; glossy pictures if you’re lucky. Not true of writing.) And, the results are so gorgeous, unlike the rough drafts I spin out at the same time.

I learned to knit a year and a half ago (after tripping through my first real yarn store, on the coast of Lake Superior). Now I wish I had learned even sooner—I should have taken that knitting interim class my junior year!

Mmmm. Good tea.

I’ve been reading a book by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, about her yarn obsessions and the projects she’s loved and hated. She writes (hilariously!) about knitting and yarn the way Mom and I talk about writing and books. Pearl-McPhee stashes yarn in odd places; we’re overflowing with books! She forgets about projects; my computer is drowning in paragraphs for stories never finished. But reading about her passion for this art makes me eager to put her book down (regretfully, of course) and to take up my needles again.

I love the relief of working with my hands. I love staring at twisted fibers instead of a computer screen. And I love starting a new project: I don’t have to brainstorm the character motivation behind these legwarmers, or plot the character arc of that lap blanket. I admire the photo with the pattern, choose the yarn, and begin.

There’s so much energy in beginning, in transforming skeins of yarn into something warm and wearable. So, after these legwarmers, I’m onto a huge, beautiful shawl. Well, more like a giant triangular blanket… I think I’d trip trying to go out in public in this thing! It’s seven feet long by two and a half feet at its widest point. And today, at a yarn store twenty minutes away, I bought six skeins of chocolate-colored yarn. Yum. I can’t wait to snuggle up under my completed blanket—though I’ll seek out espresso and brownies if I look too long at the color…

I can also knit while I plot—how’s that for multi-tasking? I’ve found that if I give my hands something to do, I don’t get so antsy. If I stare at the ceiling while I think about my book, I usually move on to other things… reading, cleaning out file folders, shuffling through my inbox. When I’m knitting, my brain worries away at the knot in my plot (eek, excuse the rhyme); then the problem’s solved, and I have a few more rows done! Everyone’s happy.

Speaking of plots: I’m now trying to find my way through the mass that I wrote in November. I’m tearing apart the characters of my story—listening for their weak points, determining their relationships, starting from scratch for some (like my main character—I cannot figure her out!). By the time I understand them, my shawl will be halfway done!—jl

Posted by Jenn Langefeld on 02/28 at 07:37 PM
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