Red Faery

Remember when I was carrying on about not wanting to duplicate any more projects?  Yeah, I take it all back.  I found the love again, and its name is Faery Ring. 

What better gift could knitting give to me, than a reminder that I still love this design?  I might even love it more, now that I'm not creating it for the first time.  It's relaxing; almost as if I'm making someone else's pattern.  There is a huge luxury inherent in the assumption that the pattern you are making will actually turn out to be the design you expected.  This is not something designers get to enjoy when making a brand-new project.  Not having to count every single stitch eight times because it's being written down for someone else to follow is really nice.  I can remember what it was like to knit before I was a designer, and the freedom and joy that go with diving into a project for which the heavy lifting has already been done.

When I made my first Faery Ring, I had no guarantee at the beginning that the sweater I got at the end would be any good.  This one is a different experience, with that element resolved.  I know it will be good, because the first one is proof.  At last, I understand the advantage of making the same thing twice: If I liked the first one, the second will be even better.  I even think I may be starting to understand how some knitters latch onto a pattern and make it over and over again (horrors!).  There is a huge degree of comfort and reassurance in knowing a recipe so well that you can make it by heart.  What could be better than knitting like that?