Perfection

I’ve been considering the nature of perfection.

There are reasons this is at the forefront of my mind at the moment and I won’t bore you with the fine detail, but this morning, I had a very timely reminder of the notion of perfection. I’m sure it won’t surprise you to know that it’s connected with sample knitting and essentially boils down to the fact that the current sample wasn’t working so I had to frog it.

It’s tiresome because it means that in reality the task I’d set myself of completing this sample, this week won’t happen. I’ve got other things to do and simply don’t have the time to knit an entire sample by Sunday as well as everything else. I had an inkling there may be a problem with a particular technique on Tuesday but thought it may well block out. This morning the solution hit me and of course, faced with that, superior method, I felt I wasn’t doing the thing properly. So I had to frog it.

This is only knitting and I understand that. It won’t solve world debt or cure cancer but I can’t knowingly send out something into the world that I know I could do better. And in here lies the point to consider.

When is the outcome perfect enough?

Understanding perfection is an ideal rather than an actuality is not an easy thing for some people. It’s given euphemisms and suggested as a comparison but it should be a yard stick. It shouldn’t be used to beat yourself with. My general rule is if I can look at a piece and think “I can do it better, then it needs doing again. That may sound harsh but that’s how it works for me. That’s why I frog samples that other people wouldn’t.

Maybe the idea should be good enough but then how do you define “good”?

I’m still exploring this, so if you have any thoughts, I’d love to hear them. Meanwhile, I’ll be sat winding up yarn from a deceased sample.

x

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