Life Imitates Art

Slacker |ˈslakər|
noun informal
a person who avoids work or effort.

I would say I am lacking effort. I don't like to blog when I don't have a picture and I don't take the pictures because I like to make them pretty, and I don't have any inclination to make a pretty picture beyond just the notion of, "hey wouldn't that be pretty", passing through my head, only to be shot down the next moment by "eh". So, no pictures, no blogs. This however, does not mean that I am not busy with things.
The other day I was at Treadle and one of the ladies behind the counter was knitting a toddler sweater from a pattern she found at The Yarnery. (Aside: these are my top two "happy places" so any story containing a reference to both must be significant!) So she was knitting away and I was, of course, chatting and asking about this cute pattern. Then she tells me that there is also an adult pattern for this sweater and I instantly resolved that I must have one. Here comes the significant part. You see I have been a knitter for about 13 years and have only attempted two sweaters in all of that time. Neither was very successful. This produced an aversion and, might I say, fear, of knitting a sweater. Then suddenly, here I am, with a new baby at home, deciding that this is the time. I will make a sweater.
For a long time now I have been mulling over this theory that, for me, it is not that "Art Imitates Life", but rather that "Life Imitates Art". I find that as I work out my issues with projects I see all these parallels in life. Project problems are like a microcosm of how we deal with larger issues. It is enlightening because it is simplified. All the gray of relationships and situations are stripped away and you are faced with something that only has the gray of creativity, but it also has the absolute of math. Where there is a right or wrong answer. How you go about struggling through to find a solution can be really revealing about how you operate as a person. If you can overcome a fear with needles and yarn, then maybe those bigger things aren't so scary.
So anyway, there I was, a few days later, with my hands full of yarn, and my new found resolve to conquer a fear. And while I was there I also decided what the next sweater will be, with every confidence that there will be a next.
Check back sometime when there might be a picture of this sweater in progress. Because it is in progress and coming along quite nicely. But I can't promise that the pictures will be pretty.