Wabi-Sabi and Knitting

I came across the word wabi-sabi awhile back and took it as one of my own personal descriptive words. Basically the word means "the art of imperfection." You can look it up if you want, but that's basically the gyst of what I remember.  I think, "How wonderful! There is a fancy word for something that is screwed up."

Or maybe not screwed up, but none-the-less, "flawed" somehow. Thankfully by grace, I am made perfect as a daughter of Christ who thinks my wabi-sabiness is perfect. But I digress. Back to the point (stop laughing, I have a point :\ !

There are some who actually intentionally create a flaw as to add wabi-sabi to something. Creating beauty in the every day or mundane for balance or what not. Well, I tend to have enough wabi-sabi in my creations that is random so to this point I haven't had to intentionally add any of it to my work.

The great thing is, that when I do make an error, in my knitting, let's say and I don't realize until it's too late, or I realize it, but make it worse trying to fix it—I just think "wabi-sabi". I'm not really a perfectionist my nature with most things, I don't fret about it.  There is some art to my mistake.

Which brings me to my latest knitting project. A beautiful little baby blanket. I picked up the yarn at A  SheepyYarn Shop in White Bear Lake last week. (I was of course going to just browse, but oh well.) I have a terrific friend due in September and I figure if I start the blanket now, there is a good chance that it will be ready on time.  The Plymouth Jeannee yarn I chose is really wonderful. So soft. I hope I got enough skeins to finish it all or, or darn, I will have to run back down to the shop.

The colors I chose seem fairly neutral for boy or girl, but my family says the coral red color looks more girly. So on the 23rd, if she finds out it is a boy, I may be back to choose more yarn and stash this blanket for the next girl on the list.

Saturday was cooler here than expected and basically a quiet day for the Thompson house, so by the afternoon I decided to start in on the blanket. I picked a pattern from a blanket I saw in Sheepy Yarn when I was narrowing down the colors. All the rows of colors were even which I thought I would change up a bit since I'm a bit more on the whimsy random side. But I considered the babies mother. She is exceptionally organized. Random stripes would drive her crazy, so I'm keeping them as even as I can. Plus, the colors I think are a bit whimsy in themselves.

I'm including a picture of the skeins of yarn that I picked out and another photo to show the progress I have so far.

  << Pottery bowl I made in college. I new it would come in handy one day!

  << Thirty One bag I got to add to my tote/bag addiction! This one works perfect for holding yarn!

Which brings me to the Wabi-Sabiness of this blanket. I have a dropped stitch in row one, that I couldn't fix. It shows. Basically the edge has a bit of a "nik" in it. Wabi-sabi I thought and kept going. Row 8 or so ended up with a hole of some kind also. Small enough, but still, wabi-sabi.

The second color stripe I was able to catch a dropped stitch and figure out how to fix it without a run to the yarn shop, whew. That particular stitch would have stuck out like a sore thumb. Thankfully I kept going.

Now if you are a perfectionist, then you would have by now started over I'm sure. But k'syrah, I am not and find it a bit unique or wabi-sabi. So on I go. I know it is a gift, but I think this beautiful little baby needs something wrapped around her in love that is slightly imperfect but adored none-the-less. Maybe she too will embrace wabi-sabi and know as she goes through life, and things aren't perfect, that there is still beauty in each breath.

Looking forward to working on the rest of the blanket, wabi-sabi style. Oh,