Life, the universe, and thoughts on recyling

On my 999th row of round (it's triangular to be exact) knitting on the sock project, I hit the meditation mode. The one where you forget to increase\decrease\change pattern whatever, but start thinking off at a tangent (that's probably how entrelac was thought up). Anyway (OMG only on third sentence and I have hit my anyway start) ... I got to wondering (after the 999 rows of knit only) why people disliked purl. I rather like it and not just because it makes a change from 999 rows of knitting. I like it because:-
It is done at the front! Yes, that's right, at the front where you can see it. No trusting that your needle has picked up all of the yarn and not split it, so that you end up with a quasi increase - a clearly visible entry, yarn around, and exit. ALL AT THE FRONT.
I love the way it makes a smiley face ... ok so this point is not as technical as the previous point, but honestly when you are knitting something tedious and you can see smiley faces as well as arrows, it is cute.
It makes moss (seed) stitch look like naughts and kisses (now if you are from the US this little pun won't mean much as you call naughts and crosses TicTacToe. Actually why? Naughts and crosses I understand cos you either put a 0 (ok in the US that's a zero, over here in antique land it's a naught) or a X (Kiss/Cross - hence the pun)).
Anyway, for a break from the unending 55mile an hour highway that round and round and round knitting can be, I decided to unravel a cardigan. I love the yarn, I really love the colour and texture, I even wore the damn cardigan a couple of times because I loved the feel of the yarn and its colours. But I hated what I had done to this gorgeous yarn ... it had turned out too baggy, too wide and too short ... almost like I had knitted it for someone much wider than me (ok possible) and way shorter (seriously not, at 4ft 10.5ins just really really not possible).
At this point I should confess to having a stash that outdoes my LYS ... I have more (bad) yarn and more (good) yarn and more (middling) yarn than most people within a few hundred miles. Dont want to get into a mine's bigger than yours situation, but we don't need loft insulation.
So why did I unravel and immediately recast on this wonderful yarn. Why didn't I just consign the garment to the sin bin (also known at the charity shop or thrift store)? Well, as I said I love the yarn. More than that though, I felt I had fallen short on this yarn's potential. The thing is, there is nothing else I can think of can be undone and redone but better. That's it. Knitting has the potential to take yarn and eradicate past mistakes;to rise above errors and to become something better.
Cooking - can't take apart the ingredients and reuse as if new, definitely not parenting, nor making curtains, or painting walls ... knitting has the ability to be deconstructed and reconstructed, like the bionic man of my childhood, so that it becomes better than it was. It's also so very "green", a recycling of prime components - all within my lap. Wow.
How cool if life were like knitting - still at least knitting is like knitting!
Sending hugs
xx