Whoa, let’s not get crazy now…

Hypnic Jerk – the experience of falling right as you’re drifting off into sleep.

I’ve come up with a new term:

Fiber Jerk – being startled awake by the inspiration to knit (crochet, embroider) something you would otherwise never consider.

A week ago I wrote a post where I talked about how most of the yarn I had on hand had come into my possession via friends and friends-of-friends and how some times, really strange yarn that I wouldn’t purchase for myself kind of calls to me. Below is a picture of one of the yarns I received that I felt I couldn’t pass on to some one else or donate to Creative Re-Use (this is a craft supply thrift store kind of thing in town).

The fiber that dragged me out of bed.

Fibers find me for a reason but up until last night, I had zero clue as to what to do with this particular yarn – to tell you the truth, I was kind of scared of it, because: the colors. But as I drifted off to sleep, I saw it in my mind’s eye and thought: Shawl.

Well that was enough to fully wake me. I looked over the yarn bin and went to check it out. Just looking wouldn’t hurt right? One can’t really look at yarn with with their eyes, especially not at 1am, so I dug to the bottom, pulled it out and took a picture, because yes, I had just had that thought and even after coming face to face with the yarn, it still seemed like a good idea.

It’s worsted weight, and kinda drapey…. It’s also a pop of color to my otherwise neutral fashion palette… There was a voice in my head telling me that there is no reason not to try it and another telling me to slow my roll because I’d have to be an 11 year old girl to pull that color scheme off. Twenty minutes later I took this:

Because who ignores ideas that wake them in the middle of the night?

I could have kept going and possibly finished the shawl that night. The yarn is a pleasure to knit, and more importantly, as I’ve recently learned, it wants to be this shawl. I was even happy with how these first 23 rows looked like right off the bat but I decided to wait and just in case I decided to scrap it the next morning. I took another look and then decided that my apartment is a bit dark, so I set it out by the window and it looked like this:

In the light of day.

Oddly enough, I still like it. I asked The Spouse if she thought it was age appropriate and we both laughed. All this time I’d been thinking it was 11 year old girl yarn, and she thought it was a 60 year old woman yarn. If you split the difference, you get 35 which is close enough to 37 to make me think that I need to finish this shawl. Worst case scenario: I have to dye the finished product. I’m not entirely sure it will come to that, so for now, I’ll just keep listening to the yarn.