Monday, February 21, 2011

No, really, I am still alive

I'm just not knitting.
I know. Read that again.
I'm just not knitting.

No, I'm not sick. I'm just not knitting.

I think this is the longest break I've ever taken from knitting since I was 18! My sister Deanna was up for the long weekend, and I was hoping to have her other sock finished to hand over (she even brought up the other one, in the hopes of having a pair - guilt trip!!!) but nope. She said it's because I was knitting like a freak before Christmas. I'll go with that.

So today, I picked up the needles for the first time in well over a month. I did a little bit on her sock, and a little bit on my scarf. Then I drank too much wine and needed to stop or else I'd make major mistakes and need to pick back and it would not have been pretty.

Anyway, knitting now continues. Funny how quickly I realized that I really, really missed it. It's more than just keeping the hands busy. It's the whole process. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka the Yarn Harlot) says there are 2 kinds of knitters: the process knitter, who knits for the pure joy of it; and the product knitter, who knits to be able to say 'I made it'. I think I'm a combination of the two. The process fascinates me. I love watching needles & yarn create something amazing, something wearable. I don't mind giving away what I've made (at least to those who appreciate it!). It's wearable art! But I also love being able to tell people who compliment what I'm wearing that I made it. I love the looks on their faces. Usually they don't believe me, which makes me giggle. But it also makes me sad. We're so far removed, as a society, from the things we wear, that it's almost incomprehensible for most that there are still some people out there who can make clothing. Kind of like people who go to the grocery store or butcher to buy their meat and can't even connect it to the cows/pigs/chickens that they see in the fields when they drive by. Does that make sense?


Two funny stories from this weekend, one knitting related and one not.

Knitting story: I was looking at the mittens my sister was wearing, thinking I could totally knit them, and planning to copy down the design. I asked her where she got them. Turns out I knit them for her! I totally don't remember making them. That's hilarious.

Non-knitting story: We were having lunch at Wendy's before they left and I fist bumped my almost 4 year old niece and said, "Word." She came back with "Door." I adore that child.