I knit outside the lines.

I finished my first hat and scarf for Warm heads. Warm hearts. I showed my hat earlier, and from the pic below, it's obvious I need a new model for the other 11!

I don't knit from a pattern. I've tried. It just doesn't work out well for me. I have to make 3 of anything to get 2 that match. I get thoroughly bored if I work with the same yarn/color/needles for too long. Besides, I like to make things up as I go along.

This hat is based on a double-rib pattern. I put the colored squares in out of curiosity about how to knit different colors together. The flower on the top was from another pattern and added for accent. All three yarns are wool. They're each a different weight for texture. The light yarn has flecks that has some nice blues and purples, too.

I used all three colors in the scarf, repeating the double-rib pattern and the flower motif. There's no real rhyme or reason to the stripes. I tend to look for asymmetry in things I create. As long as things balance to my eye, I'm happy. Now, whether it looks like balance to anyone else is another situation entirely!

I find perfect symmetry (and even numbers) disturbing. What in all of this wondrous, natural world is perfectly even? The hand of man intervenes in nature to produce the "perfect." Think of a diamond. They're beautiful, but it's not until an expert jeweler intervenes that you find one perfectly cut. He cuts away the flaws and colored areas to craft the brilliant stars nestled in precious metals.

I have a perfect diamond. The cut, clarity and color are all flawless. It's beautiful. It sparkles an dances in the light. I can't help but love it if for no other reason than because of the intricate search my husband undertook to find it. He'd have had nothing less than perfect.

That perfect ring perhaps helps balance the very imperfect me. I'm more of a diamond in the rough -- OK, how about a piece of colored glass? I have my own way of doing things that sometimes only make sense to me. My eye finds beauty and balance in places where others don't look, and I create art that others don't always recognize. It's imperfect, like me. This hat and scarf are no different. They are more than created by me. They are a part of me. A small part that I knit together to give to someone else. They are not perfect, but I hope someone finds them precious.