Process vs Product

I am making this lace scarf. The yarn is very thin, the needles are tiny, the pattern is picky. I've had the kit for 3 years and just ignored it. Bigger, faster, easier projects always won out.

But when I needed a new project, this one jumped at me. It was all there, ready to go, I didn't have to find a pattern, match it up with yarn from my stash, find the right sized needles.

And now, I'm committed to this scarf which will be lovely when it's finished and will feel like a real accomplishment...when it's finished and will contribute to my deteriorating eyesight...when it's finished!

Finishing projects has never been my forte. I knit to the end, but then the pieces lie around, waiting to be sewn together into whatever garment the pattern promised. I've unraveled entire projects just to reuse the yarn and avoid sewing up.

So, it's not the end that interests me, it's the process. I love the technical, repetitive, meditative, mechanical process of creating the individual stitches that together become something so different from the ball of yarn it started out as.

When my kids attended Montessori preschool, I was introduced to this idea that the process was as important as the product. In this society, we tend to focus on the end result, moving quickly through the steps because the thing at the end is the prize.

When I foster, I know the end goal is to adopt this pet into a home. But that's bittersweet since I have to say good-bye. I've learned to enjoy my piece of it, which is the pet's process of healing from injury, or raising a litter, or learning to be a family member again.

Through time and with gentle guidance, they emerge and blossom. I can only hope for the same outcome with this scarf.