I see where this is going.

When I realized yesterday that I'm about to finish weaving in the ends on my Crocheted Motif Tank Top and immediately -- automatically -- started compulsively searching on Ravelry for yet another dress/tunic/halter top pattern that has essentially the exact same shape and design, I was like, do I have a problem?  These tank tops are all I've been able to work on for the past 2+ months, and yet I still want more.

image via Berroco.com

But, I realized as I completed my first few rows of the chest section of the Celia tank top, I'm going through something big here.  This is starting to feel familiar, in the same way that after my third top-down raglan sweater, I started to be able to anticipate what was coming next in the pattern, because I got it.  I wasn't just blindly following the instructions, like one of those grid method drawing games, waiting to see what it could possibly turn out to look like in the end.  

Same thing here -- though the numbers and stitches are just different enough from the various patterns I've been dabbling with in all my recent creations, as I made my third turn chain on the fist bra cup I realized, I know where this is going.  This feels familiar.  I've done this enough that I can start adapting as I go along, taking my favorite aspect of one pattern and increasing enough stitches for this pattern here, adding my favorite border there, using the best bust shaping I've found from another source...

I do have a tendency to rapid-fire make what I know and love in 100 different versions (I've been seriously restraining myself all week from casting on for an identical Bronze Beauty pullover, in a new colorway), and I think that has to do with that feeling of mastery, of having yet another template tucked away in my repertoire as not just something I've made, but something I know how to make, in a more general sense.  Crocheted tank tops?  Yep, that's kinda something I do.

So my point is, I think what all this crochet infatuation has come down to is just getting to the end of this tunnel and realizing I was scratching an itch, crossing "learn how to crochet tank tops, in an utterly profound and thorough way" off my list.  

In other breaking news, look what one of our customers made out of three ounces of this summery, rainbow blend (incidentally, using the same variegated cotton that yesterday's tank top was borne from).  So freakin' cute!  

She's contemplating writing up the pattern to sell here at the shop, so let's keep our fingers crossed!