The best part about being on the decrease side is not just that I’m more than halfway though the blanket, it’s that I get more rows for my time again. It’s also encouraging, after having just finished a center-out blanket (in sport weight, no less) that took over an hour per row in the last few rows; to have a project that gets shorter as it gets longer. It makes the ending part more joyful in some ways.

Of course, that means that post-project depression sets in sooner. I get the blues after I finish a project. It’s been a part of my life for some time, and now it’s off to go live its own life, where even if I keep the object, I don’t see and interact with it each day. I may walk by and pat a shawl in the height of summer, I may even take one with me to a movie, or to a restaurant that keeps it set to 72 even when it’s 105 outside. (72 is WINTER, dearielove, and I can’t go from midsummer straight to Yule and back again in the space of an entrée!)

But at the same time, if objects kept diaries, I know I would just be a minor player in its ongoing life. I conceived it, brought it to fruition, tied off its little endies, and now it’s off on its merry way to be a warm thing somewhere. Is THIS what it’s like to be a parent?