getting serious

knitting is serious business. it might be going only a little too far to say that knitting saved my life. when i was doing my phd it kept me sane when everything else was crazy. now i cant stop, and i dont want to. it is the most creative and productive thing i do, and it makes me feel cleverer than all the the french psychoanalytic theory in the world ever did!

when i started off i had no idea how to even hold the yarn when i turned the work to start another row. my first baby scarf wasnt even straight because of this slight problem. today, i have a whole knitting corner, my own swift and ball winder, can make socks without a pattern (i am even thinking about designing a pair of my own), am comfortable making garment modifications (for this part i might even get really serious and swatch first!), and today, i wrote my own chart for a lace pattern - see:

but where knitting really saved my arse is the people. every so often there is a wave of posts in knitblogland about the 'right' way to blog, or the right way to knit, or even the right way to have knitting meetings. i find this intriuging - i just dont get that there is a right way to do anything in this world! no one is a more serious, or better knitter, than anyone else. some people might be yarn snobs, maybe even i am (no acrylic, no feathers) but i dont begrudge the people who do knit with that stuff, just like i dont begrudge the people who spin die and knit their own. but there is no knitting royalty, we are all just people making stuff with strings and stricks. its not solving world hunger, after all.

simply put, the meeting, blogging and ravelry part of knitting have bought people into my life that i never would have thought possible. not all of them i have liked, not all of them like me. not all of them have become close friends, just like i have not become their 'bestie'. that, as they say, is life. there are lots of people everywhere i dont like, who i dont become friends with. just because we all knit doesnt mean we all have to like each other, but i would hope that we could be civil! variety is the spice of life, and it takes all types to make the world go round. we would all do a lot better to be more accepting, less judgemental.

at the same time, i have met people who would drop everything (well ok, maybe not the baby) to help me out during a tough time, who would change their plans to eat cake with me and help me feel a bit better, whose words of wisdom helped restore the balance, and without whom i dont know what i would have done this weekend just past.

you know who you are. love yas all :)

k xx