Potential

As Bailey acclimates to his new home, and we fall ever more deeply in love with our new pet, I'm thinking a lot this week about the beginnings of things. 

Whatever I'm working on, at whatever the stage of the process, I'm always looking ahead to the next thing.  It's not proactivity, or project management, or anything else so noble:  It's good old fashioned Start-Itis.  String Lust.  Wanton neglect of the old in pursuit of the new.  I'm meant to be working a button band for the last thing, but all I can think about is the new blue hat, still in skein form.

We knitters all suffer from this need to move on, to some degree.  It's part of the whole Knitter Mystique.  I'm wondering if there isn't some way to harness the crazy energy of the infatuation stage of a project.  Then I could lay it aside for later, when the Doldrums hit.  Imagine going to the cupboard for a wee dram of New Project Excitement, just when the sea of stockinette, or the nasty heel turn from hell rob us of our knitting momentum...

There must be a way.  I'm sure it would involve some sort of suction, and probably a distillation process.  Then, of course the patenting would be a nightmare, but well worth the trouble...I'll leave those details to my people. 

When I get some people, that is.

For now, my only assistant is a sassy blonde, who would like his ears scratched, please, as soon as possible.

The excitement of the beginning is all about the clean slate, for me.  As long as the yarn is still in skeins, I've yet to make a single mistake.  The project is still completely perfect, as long as it's only in my head.  I can see how someone with this mindset would eventually find themselves with a house full of yarn, and not a single finished object to show for it.  Not that I would know personally, you understand - this is entirely speculation.  Perfectionist Much?

Fortunately for me (so far), my unbridled lust desire to play with the string always overcomes my need to preserve its unspoilt beauty.  Sooner or later I always cast on.  Binding off, of course, is another matter entirely.  And what goes on in between may or may not be made of magic.  I suppose that's the really driving force for me:  What makes one song a hit and another one elevator music?  We'll never know why some designs are loved and others tank.  And dreaming up the next one is where all the charm lay for me.

One thing is for certain:  My production schedule is really going to take off once these Scottish Terriers learn to knit.

When OCD Dreams

So there I was, deeply asleep.  Or so I thought.  Turns out that OCD is just another name for nothing left to relax about.

I dreamed that Phillip had accidentally thrown away all the living room furniture.

Now this is ridiculous on so many levels that I hesitate to even mention them, but because I can't stop myself, here are just a few:

1.  Phillip's natural habitat is prone, on the sofa.  He would really notice if it wasn't there.

2.  There is no way in the world that anything bigger than a gum wrapper could be thrown out by his hand unless he were under duress (i.e., I made him do it).

3.  Our living room is so small that even one less knitting needle would render it a barren wasteland.

4.  Did I mention that Phillip would be really sad, nay, deeply distraught, if there were any less furniture available than usual?

All of those obvious notions notwithstanding, its germane to note that I am the sort of person for whom sleep is more of an interruption in activity than anything else.  So when I go there (sometimes for minutes on end), it's driven by my physical self needing to go unconscious more than my intellectual self requiring rest.  Sometimes the body checks out while the mind remains in overdrive.  No one who has met me is surprised by this.

But in my dream (the sort where when you wake up, actual reality is the jolting state that requires you to suspend disbelief), the reality that Phillip had accidentally thrown out the entire living room suite was really plausible. 

How could that happen, your conscious and cognisant minds may ask?  Easy:  He DID throw away my fleece once.  Something so pivotal to my daily life and so much a part of my yardstick for personal development that I could not cope with its loss on any plane.  It really happened, and however much I have forgiven him, and however often I let him sleep indoors since it happened, It seems that my subconscious is still not done with it.

The (remaining) fleece is spun.  The sweater from it is knitted.  There is even a whole second sweater, that you can see if you go to an event where Black Water Abbey Yarns is represented.  And the pattern made from that project has been received with kudos, and even sold out upon its debut.

My sleeping self is still pissed off.

Poor Phillip suggested that (yet another) blog post would help me work through my grief.  And maybe get him closer to being forgiven by my inner knitter.  Forgiveness that his wife and roommate has already allegedly granted him.

At 3AM I actually woke him up and demanded to know how he could get rid of something we needed so much.  He groggily asked me what he had done this time.  "The living room furniture!" I answered, unable to believe that he had not been right there with me, in my dream.  "No honey," he replied, "I'm sure it's right there where you left it", and went back to sleep.

Easy for him to say.  All he has to do is sit down to feel fulfilled. 

I know that it's really time to let this one go, and my laboring brain is running home to unresolved issues so that I won't have to focus on pertinent ones (Book Deadline, anyone?).  Your suggestions, Gentle readers, are welcome and appreciated.  By Phillip.

About A Boy

Once upon a time, when I was checking my e-mail, I noticed a bulletin from Aberdeen Scottish Terrier Rescue.  The notice was not unusual - I'm on the mailing list, and I always glance at their goings on.  From time to time they throw fundraisers, recruit volunteers, and generally share information about my favorite kind of dog.  Becoming useful to this group has long been a goal of mine; one that I had hoped to achieve once I fled the cube farm and reclaimed my time schedule.  Haven't got there yet, you understand, but hope springs eternal.

And that's when I read about Bailey.

Bailey is a four-year-old puppy mill refugee.  He lived for his entire life in one room, a poorly-insulated, converted side porch in a neighborhood widely known as one of Portland's armpits.  Bailey shared his one-room world with 7 other dogs of various ages and stages of health.  Nobody in the room was house-trained.  Gobs of newspaper everywhere were allegedly there for that need.  There was one big bowl with kibbles in it for everybody to share.  There was a bowl of water, too, but it was much too dirty for anybody but the most desperate to drink.  None of the dogs got to go outside, because 8 barking dogs might alert the neighbors, and thereby, the authorities.  All 8 stayed in.  All day.  Every day.

Bailey was taken from this dark place to a foster home, where three happy and well-loved Scotties already live.  For a week, Bailey was in shock.  He would not play with the other dogs.  Didn't know what toys were.  Would not drink water, which his foster family had never seen, in their many years of Scottie rescue.  Jeannie and John, Bailey's rescuing Angels, gave him sips of water with a teaspoon every hour for several days. They taught him about potty training.  And they took him, for the first time ever, for walks.

For the first time in his life, Bailey went out into the crisp cold air and walked on a leash.  He waked happily, enthusiastically, and always politely.  The singular joy of being outdoors was the first and only happiness Bailey had ever known.  He responded to the air and the light and the love by relaxing a little, inch by inch.

On the sixth day after Bailey's rescue, someone threw a switch.  Bailey began to eat and drink on his own.  He made friends with the other Scotties.  He discovered toys.  But he still loved his walks the best of all.

Bailey stayed with Jeannie and John for over a month, gradually becoming familiar with what it means to be loved by humans.  And then Jeannie and John realized that Bailey was ready for a Forever Home, and out went the e-mail.

What happened next, you can probably guess.  The Huff Family, led by our boss, Paisley, elected to recruit Bailey for membership.

He fits right in with us.  He's really helpful when it comes to writing knitting books.  Not easy for someone who can't see in color, if you think about it...

Paisley can do it, though, so she's a great help to us both:

And so Bailey is here with us now, and we are doing everything we know to help him forget the dark times.  

Our house is small.  But our hearts are not, and neither is Bailey's.  He is opening up like a flower.  Still flinches if we move too quickly toward him.  Still waits to be told when it's time to eat and drink.  But he wants so much to please us.  And if ever we are in doubt about what he might need, we only have to take him for a walk.  Funny the way things are:  How little it takes to give love.  How easy it is to offer the smallest kindness, which I now understand, can save a life. 

God, please let me endeavor to be the person Bailey thinks I am.