stitch 'n' bitch

When I first expressed an interest in starting knitting, Bill snorted and made some comment about women picking up knitting for a week and then never touching their needles again. Almost a year later, I've proven him wrong. Muahaha.

I'm not completely innocent. Years ago, in college, I went through a very short knitting phase that I quickly got bored of. Mostly because I sucked, and it was boring. My tension was all out of whack, and there is nothing more tedious than garter stitch. Endless rows of the same thing ad infinitum, and once a scarf reaches a certain length - that awkward length where you want to stop but when it isn't quite long enough to comfortably go around your neck - it seems to stop growing and develop into a black hole of yarn - no matter how furiously you knit, the damn thing doesn't grow any longer! And that's where many beginners quit, I think.

My first scarf this time around did end up being a little too short for perfection, but being able to hold up a finished product definitely helped spur me on. I'm still pretty much a beginner - I've knit three hats for Bill and none of them are quite the right fit - but just last week I managed to fix my first stitch without having to frog a bunch of rows. I'm feeling quite proud of myself.

There is something comfortingly Zen-like about knitting - like cooking, you kind of fall into this state where the world disappears and there is nothing but you and the yarn. You are the yarn, the yarn is you. But there is no yarn. :: cue mystical chimes tinkling in wind ::