In Which the Pirate Aims High.

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!

For a dedication of skills that I’ve not yet acquired: I would like to knit a sweater for myself. I have dreams of knitting a Bohus sweater and then I have nightmares of it not fitting me well. I have a store-bought cabled cardigan that I wear to work sometimes, because my office is cold, but it is old and pilling and not very warm, so I’d like to knit its replacement. I already have the itchy Irish yarn to knit a sweater for Pirate-Husband. I’d like to knit a more casual sweater for myself, something like the Ribby Cardi. Or Eris (the website is currently down, so this is a link to the pattern page on Ravelry.)

And then there’s the colourwork. I am drawn to patterns like the Autumn Rose Pullover, the Charlesfield St. Socks, the Garden Gate socks, and – though it’s not stranded colourwork, it’s still a play with colours – Alice’s Illusion Socks, with the Cheshire Cat that appears and disappears as you change your viewing angle. Some other things that have caught my eye are the Elephants in Stripes and the Swirly Gig Earflap Hat, which I aspire to knit up before next year’s trip to Winterlude.

A dedication of time: I would love to knit (or learn to crochet) a blanket. Not just any blanket, though. One that is big enough for a queen-sized bed. One that I could snuggle up under and be ridiculously warm. (Pirate-Husband says I can fold it in half and keep it just on my side of the bed. He’s already ridiculously warm.) I love the Prairie Star afghan, or Lizard Ridge, or the ones that are blocks of cable samples stitched together, or one of the wonderfully geeky Woolly Thoughts afghans. I suppose a project of this size would also be a dedication of money, because if I’m going to be knitting on a project for that long, you can bet that it’s going to be made of wool and not acrylic.

I also have fibre goals: I’ve already made a pair of handspun socks, but what about spinning enough yarn to knit a sweater? Mastering the long-draw, spinning finely and evenly enough to make a cabled sock yarn, blending fibres on the drum carder, learning to dye… growing a dyer’s garden… it just never ends. There’s always more that I want to try.

The idea that I might not “have any left of the mountain of learning yet to climb” makes me laugh. I don’t think I will ever reach the point where there’s nothing left to learn. But that’s okay, I like it that way!