Day Two: Squares Are Not Bad

In a wonderful book called Squares Are Not Bad, by Violet Salazar, circles do not like triangles.  And triangles do not like rectangles.  And rectangles do not like squares - in fact, they have been known to say, "Squares are stupid and ugly and bad, bad, bad!"  None of them like each other at all, and they never play together.  Until one day, the circles are playing at the top of a hill, and one of them accidentally rolls down to where the triangles are playing below.  The circle topples one of the triangles and lands on its upturned side.  Everyone steps back and gasps.  They've made an ice cream cone!  Suddenly all of the shapes are laughing and playing, combining to make trees and houses and cars and boats.  No one thinks anyone is stupid anymore, or ugly, or bad.  And they all lived happily ever after.

Maybe I've mixed up some of the details, but then, that's the point of the story - everyone is happier when they mix and mingle and make wonderful new shapes by working together.  Day Two of Knitting and Crocheting Blog Week invites us to reflect on a pattern to which we aspire, something we have not attempted, something we have always imagined was just beyond our reach.  My pattern is...a sweater.

Any sweater, really.  I've queued and favorited sweater patterns on Ravelry (I especially like Patti, Vesper, Clara, and Buttercup) but haven't yet really believed I could handle a project that wasn't...square.  Or rectangular.  It's not that I think other shapes are stupid or ugly or bad, bad, bad - it's just that I've thought they would be too hard!  Most of the projects I've made are shawls or blankets or scarfs or dishcloths.  I've made a few socks and fingerless mitts, and learned some nifty new skills doing both, but in the end knitting in the round is really just knitting in a straight line, which is sort of rectangular...

For now I'll probably keep knitting at mostly right angles, but am looking forward to one day tumbling down the hill and discovering that if I make a sleeve here, a neck opening there, a back, a front, a hem, and some waist shaping, all those shapes will come together to make a sweater!