Knitting With My Muse

My Muse woke up and asked, "Why are you stuck in a follow the pattern mode?" Most often I feel that a pattern is just a suggestion. Maybe it is my southern thought process, perhaps just a contrary personality, or plain cussedness. Think what you will, but I am please to let you know that the follow the pattern phase seems to be over.

Witness this no pattern, no plan project. Right now, I don't even know if what I am working on is a back or a front. And it does not matter. This funkiness is based upon a rectangle. I will make another based on the same stitch count, make both the same length, sew up sides leaving arm holes and stitch in shoulders. Probably at that point I will declare one side to be the front and the other will, by default, become the back.

I know my height. I know my width. I have string and needles. I know that ribbing brings knitting 'in' and stockinette is vertically straight. Cables add texture & dimension. Colors are pretty. Moss stitch does not curl. I know all of this and more.

So, trusting me and my muse, I cast on stitches and started knitting. Took a guess on number of stitches and ribbed for a bit. So busy adding in color was I that I failed to notice that the stockinette was a tad too wide for my width. And here is the joy of following a muse rather than a pattern - - by tossing in ribbing in the middle of the stockinette the rectangle cinches in! It is waist shaping with out decreasing.

Go ahead an ponder why I did not just decrease. Take a moment. The reason is simply because this is a rectangle in stitch count; it is not an hourglass.

Having made this much progress with no plan is quite freeing. I have no idea where this path will take me. I am enjoying the knitting by the seat of my seat. Creativity is flowing. The brain is in a groove. My Muse is happy.

PS - The pen in the background of this photo has nothing to do with knitting. Nothing is being written down. Don't ask.