My my, how time flies! I haven't gone anywhere... more than that, I've actually been around, but o so busy! There is no longer time (or privacy) to be able to write anything on this here blog at work, so my only bloggable time is after work and on the weekends... and guess what I'm doing then... cleaning and knitting... and dyeing. That's my new favorite hobby... I've dyed around 2000 yards of yarn so far... and I've made exactly 3/4 of a something out of it... actually, it's a great something... this picture is a close up (turned 90deg the wrong way) of the scarf I've been knitting up with it....
I've been learning a lot about knitting, and in doing so, learned a little something about myself. I've learned that I think I'm smarter than just about every other knitter out there... and every time I use that sentiment, I get into trouble in the form of ripping out miles and miles of stitches. I think this time I've got the lesson learned... my mom always said that a lesson is repeated until it's learned. Well I learned the lesson yesterday on my lace shawl... in no way do I ever want to repeat the fear and angst I felt when I realized that I did a biggo mistako and thought I'd have to rip the entire thing apart. Lucky for me I DIDN'T have to rip it apart, but I think from now on, once I've read the pattern, checked the interwebby for known pattern mistakes and seen that 300,000 people have successfully made their item USING THE EXACT SAME PATTERN, I shall not assume to know better than every single one of these people and just KNIT THE THING THE WAY IT SAYS TO! (I'll let you know if my lesson sticks)
Other items of noteworthiness on the knitting subject. Four separate people (FOUR) have checked out my various items posted to our little knitting community and decided that they LIKE them... in fact the DESIGNER of the scarfee I made for my bestee liked mine enough to add it to her favorites list! What the heck do you know about that! I felt so flattered. It's really quite nice to have fellow knitters, and good good good ones at that, recognize my projects as noteworthy! Especially since I've been knitting exactly 4 months.
Actually, as a related item on that, I learned something else during my knitting experience thus far... and it is this: People who are new to a craft (some, not all) are much more daring when it comes to starting things.... what do I mean? Well there are 'old' knitters, who have been knitting for years and years, and they're terrified to make a lace scarf or a cabled bag... not because they're not amazing knitters, because most of them are, but because I guess they've been brought up to think it's hard. New knitters on the other hand, like myself, don't know that something is supposed to be hard, so we dive right in with both needles and learn the stinkin' technique. I've made three cabled (one fairly complicated) handbags (LINED!), three lace scarves and I'm now working on a lace shawl that's knit in the round... one piece... around and around and around... so cool! But I thought the analogy was neat, because one wonders if there are things in our lives that are the same... where we 'think' it's hard, or uncomfortable, or not doable... but if we just dove right in with both feet and learned it, or perservered, we'd probably do an amazing job of whatever it was and then look back and wonder what all the fuss was about.
I'm off to my Dad's place this coming weekend for a much needed holiday! I'll have the good old cabin to myself for two and a half days and then he'll get home and we get to hang out together for 2.5 days and then take the drive back to town (2 hrs) to dump me at the airport. I have big plans for my time and they involve knitting on the beach... knitting in the paddleboat... knitting in the hammock... dyeing yarn together (lol, I can't wait!) and having campfires and roasting marshmallows... doesn't that sound like the most awesome time ever??
Anyway, it's late and I have to go stalk the Ravelry forums for a while before bed!
