confessions

This past week, what with finishing project after project, I have been winding up a lot of yarn, leafing through IKs to pick out my next projects, and just thinking a lot about knitting and its role in my life. Now I've already come to the conclusion that I maintain a knitting weblog not for personal gratification but so that I can have a staked-out space in the grand internet knitting world. I don't think I could have joined any of the many swaps and knitalongs without this pink page you are reading here. However, why I KNIT is another matter. I've always known I was a "process knitter" who was more interested in the act of making something, and less interested in having the finished product. I don't know what would happen if, for some reason, I was suddenly unable to knit. I have plenty of other things to do. I'd miss it, but would I miss it forever? Would my mother miss her handknitted Christmas socks more than I would miss the knitting of them?

And that brings me to a confession I need to make: if everything went topsy-turvy and my stash went from x skeins back down to nothing, would I keep knitting? Yes probably, but I would probably only knit socks. I would be happy knitting nothing but socks. However I am seduced by all these cute sweaters and hats and tank tops and purses... but the only things I am ever truly happy with are the socks I knit. So why do I keep buying yarn for other things?!

One reason I haven't been doing much knitting these days, or at least the kind that is deliciously bloggable, is that I decided to return to reading as my "main hobby." I have gotten a lot of really satisfying reading done this summer, and there is a good chance that I will try to maintain this balance in my life: a little bit of knitting one night, a little bit of reading the next. So now I just need to find a way to stop thinking about when the next episode of House is going to be on. Frankly, that's how this all started. I moved into a new place with basic cable, and the next thing I knew I was watching TV all the time, and it wasn't all "TV and Knitting" either. Sometimes I was just stretched out on the couch watching whatever was on. And that's when I knew I had to intervene before my friends staged a more formal Intervention. So I will let myself have a little of everything: knitting, reading, cooking, House. [Note to Hugh Laurie: if that Bartender won't marry me, will you? Please?]

My new(ish) job is making increasing demands on my time as well, and most days I just want to open a beer, drink that beer, and go to bed. Most days that's all I've got energy for. I swear once the fall hits I will be in less of a haze and more willing to "sack up" and get organized. And I will have Mom's Christmas socks done by the time the leaves begin to turn. I guarantee it.