You've Come A Long Way, Baby

I know of people who never go back to old projects. They look at them, see the mistakes, or see how much their technique has improved, and scrap the whole thing for the real or perceived flaws in it.

Not me. I love to look at them, cherish them as a reminder of where I was, a milestone on the road to where I am now, and a reminder that I had the courage to start something, even if I wasn't sure it would be perfect when it was done.

Isn't this where most of us should be in life? Nothing is ever perfect, or turns out as planned. Instead of bemoaning our lack of perfection, or lack of that new car, or new job, or hunky husband, shouldn't we look at where we are now and view all these things as what made us who we are? No, you may not have gotten that promotion, but if you had, would you have met the really neat person in the cubicle next door? Maybe your car broke down, but if it hadn't, would you have ever discovered the fantastic coffee shop next door to the car repair place?

Today's featured finish is Midwinter's Eve, which was started about two years ago. Since then, I've discovered I was twisting my stitches when knitting, learned a lot about lace knitting, and knitting in general. There are several mistakes that, to me, are glaring. You know what? It's still wonderfully warm and cozy. It still impresses people to find out I made that. You can still see the pattern - the snowflakes coming down over the snow covered mountains, with the trees, stream and snowbank at the foot of the mountains.

Yes, you've come a long way, baby, but you wouldn't be here, if you had never been there.

(p.s. It appears Blogger is testing my theory. It's refusing to load pictures right now. I promise they exist - looks like I'll have to edit the photo in later. Now off to figure out what I'm supposed to be learning from this.)