The children are our future.

So I was sitting in the dojang last night, waiting for the family class to finish so the adult class could start, and I pulled out my knitting. And panicked. Have you ever had that feeling when you realize, you have no idea where you were in the pattern and you realize you may need to start the entire damn thing over? Of course you're scared because it took you this long to pick the damn UFO -back- up and now, if you have to rip out even further back, well hell, you might as well just rip out the whole thing and use the yarn for something else!

So I sat there and stared at it for a good long time. I counted the stitches at least four times and made sure, yup, 60 live stitches on the bottom of that cuff. I pondered... I couldn't understand why on one cuff, the stitches were perfect and on the other, it seemed that I had started a short row. Was this an error? Had I dropped stitches? Was I on crack? As I sat and really began to wonder about my sanity in picking back up this project, a girl (about 12 or 13) sat down next to me on her water break and said:

Girl: "That's cool."
Me: "Thanks."
Girl: "What are you making?"
Me: "Socks. This is the cuff."
Girl: "It is hard? You look worried."
Me: *blink* "No it's not hard, and I didn't realize I looked worried. I was just trying to remember where I was in the pattern."
Girl: "Why didn't you just write it down? I do the same thing with my taekwondo forms so I remember where I am. Especially, like, before school breaks because then, I know where I was when I come back and I don't forget."

With that she smiled and jumped back up to finish her class.

That girl is a genius! When I knew I just wasn't going to be working on these socks for a while, why didn't I just mark where I was in the pattern? I sat there and pondered that then calmly looked at the pattern to figure out where I was and made a check mark right near the row it was now painfully obvious I was on. Genius I tell you!

So once that was all sorted out, I cast on and started working on the toe. And that's when I remembered, I really dislike this yarn. Oh yeah. That's the other reason I put this project down, I hate this yarn. Can't stand it. That look must have been obvious too because once again, my little friend was there.

Girl: "What's wrong now?"
Me: "Oh I'm beginning to realize, I really am not happy with this yarn."
Girl: "But you put all that work into it already. You're not going to give up are you?"
Me: *blink*
Girl: "You know, cuz I really didn't like the form I had before this one but if I had, like, given up, I wouldn't have the belt I have now."
Me: *blink*
Girl: "So finish them because you can't give up, cuz then you'll be all upset and you won't know what to do and then you won't do anything else. And, like, that's stupid."
Me: *blink* "Good point. Thanks."

The whole rest of the evening, I thought about what that girl said. She's right you know. I've agonized over these socks for a long time now. No more! I'll finish them and wear them proudly.

And then I'll thank her.