Yesterday I spent 3.5 hours at the Department of Motor Vehicles, waiting for Gingko to take a driving test.
3.5 frickin hours! I finished the book I had brought within the first 3/4 hours. I didn't have any knitting with me. (No judgment! We all make mistakes now and then, right?)
When another half hour had gone by I realized I needed to take action. I walked a few blocks to where I recalled seeing a drug store. I rushed to the magazine stand! Not a very extensive selection.The cover of Martha Steward Living drew my eye, so I bought a copy and marched back to the DMV.
The remaining 1.5 hours reminded me of some desperate moments during my 4 months of traveling through Europe, Turkey, Cyprus, Israel and Greece on something like $3 dollars a day back when I was young and willing to sleep in a lean-to on a beach in Myconos. On that trip finding something to read became an obsession. That beach on Myconos? Two times through Rise & Fall of the Third Reich (I chose this one because it is very very long.) Half of Turkey? A Penguin paperback collection of Somerset Maugham stories. I swear I can recite some of them today. But the nadir of my reading came at the end of the trip: Brussels, waiting for the charter flight to leave in two days. So little money--two of the daily meals were frites (French fries) with mayonaise, sold by street vendors for pennies. In the youth hostel I found a copy of Cosmopolitan. Cosmopolitan! A life saver. I read it cover to cover to cover. So did my boyfriend.
That's desperation.
At any rate, back to yesterday and the DMV and Martha Stewart Living. I had time to read the February issue very closely. Suddenly, a couple of photos sparked my imagination, and I had the start of two new designs! I always carry a little Moleskine notebook, so I was able to sketch the vest and the sweater that couldn't wait. Today, I pulled out the yarns and began to play.
Because the two photos share a lot of color families, I pulled for both of them at once.
At first they are in a jumbled pile, and sometimes they don't look all that promising:
But then I arrange them by value (how dark or light something appears) and the beauty is revealed:
Finding inspiration serendipitously like this often happens to me when I'm nearing the end of a large project. My mind is moving ahead, waiting for that little bit of excitement. I've vowed to finish Birch by Madrona so I can launch into these new projects when I return.
Whew! Being without a colorwork knitting project that excites me is just as bad as being without something to read....
Nothing to read! I can feel your desperation - there's nothing worse. Even having nothing to knit isn't as bad, since you can read about knitting.
Still smiling at the thought of the boyfriend reading Cosmo.
Posted by: Gretchen | January 24, 2013 at 09:44 AM
3.5 hours! I would have gone insane. Good for you, surviving and conquering.
Posted by: M-H | January 24, 2013 at 03:51 PM
When you start the notebook for this sweater, will you also include this story? It's also nice to know someone else's mind starts wandering to a new project when another is ending. We'll look forward to some color test swatches! Did Gingko pass?
Posted by: Deb Tanner | January 25, 2013 at 12:40 PM
so did gingko pass her test?
Posted by: tori | January 26, 2013 at 06:06 AM
Smartphone + books + download = sanity
Posted by: Helen | January 29, 2013 at 10:48 AM