My Epic Elephant Task

When I was working in the accounting department with a UK finance company, the finance director sent the whole department for training in Time Management. That was the first time I came across the term - an “elephant task”. An elephant task, our trainer told us, is a task that is so big, so overwhelming, involves so much effort and time, and very often it is something we want to avoid…so we keep putting it off. But it is also something that must be done if we stand any chance of achieving our goals.

Among my craft projects, I have three projects that are of the elephant size category: a patchwork, a table cloth and a spider wrap.

I first saw the spider pattern back in the 80's. It was far too complicated, and the size of the projcet was too overwhelming, so I carefully removed it from the magazine and safely stored it away…I thought one day.After I had purchased my first spinning wheel I started spinning the yarn required for this project. I showed the pattern to my husband but realised he doesn’t like spiders at all. So I gave up the bed cover but thought a spider shawl would still be nice. Over the years I kept spinning the yarn for the spider wrap, but somehow I always ended up using the yarn for something else.

It’s like I have a mental block, the shawl has become such a big elephant task, I have been putting it off and putting it off….well no more. May this year, I cast on the spider wrap. Hurrah! I have just finished my first spider. If I finish this in 2009 I might even enter it into the “Grand Prize - Epic FO” challenge. On Ravelry the finish-or-frog-it group issued a year-long challenge where you pick a project that you simply can’t frog, but that you’ve ignored for too long. This is a challenging pattern that requires dedication, concentration and determination.

Well, my spider wrap is certainly epic but not so daunting anymore. I am off to do some spinning now for 8 more spiders.