Reader, let’s talk about vision for a second, shall we? Vision as in seeing what is, and vision as in seeing what could be.
Sometimes I feel I have none of the later, and sometimes the later so completely fills my sight that I can’t even see my present reality. An example: my bedroom. I’ve been living here for three years and the garret still has not undergone any of the thousands of transformations that I have dreamed up for it. And really, I feel it hardly needs too. I can see my current idea so vividly, and such imaginings are so much easier to change on a whim than reality. Also, I can adjust things like furniture quite easily in my mind, so that the fact that my bed is about four inches longer than the distance between my two windows hardly matters. In short, my fancies are so perfect and practical that there seems no reason to solidify them into hard fact.
This ability to envision the way things could be is not without its pitfalls. Here is a picture I took a few weeks ago of my current sewing project:
This is Gertie’s Wiggle Dress in a nice blue knit, probably cotton, that I received from my grandma. The fabric is easy to work with (though I find I don’t like knits very much in general) but probably a little lighter than should be used for this pattern. From my vast, second hand sewing lexicon I believe I should have gone with a ponte or double knit. Or else a heavier stretch woven. As it is, this dress will need a slip under it for sure. Of course, it has to be finished first, and that is where vision has ruined me. I was all excited about this dress in January, and then my enthusiasm spread to the promise of other projects in store and suddenly I couldn’t see the merits of this very real, mostly cut, 1/3 of the way completed project for all the imagined glory of a half dozen prospective ones. In short, my progress has stalled becasue all I can see is what I could be working on.
It really is too bad that these two kinds of sight can’t work in conjunction instead of competing for dominance. The only way to prevent utter anarchy in this situation is to put beauty-blind Order in charge, whom, unable to see any merit in a project beyond its status and start date, cannot be persuaded to change them every few days.
If only I could train Order to see the potential glory of the garment I’m supposed to be working on. Oh well, there’s always my knitting.
