Lackadaisical

My knitting + blogging has been a pretty failed endeavor thus far. Oh well.

Knitting goals for this year (and maybe next year, depending on how things go). Learn entrelac. Learn fair isle. Learn intarsia and other kinds of colorwork. Learn brioche. Of course, by "this year" I really mean "starting in May" because I just can't commit myself (or give myself the temptation) to learn something new like that. Unless the opportunity presents itself.

For example, tonight I was looking over notes from one of my classes from spring semester last year. I have been much better about this in my second year, but often in my first year I would write random notes to myself interspersed with class notes when I was getting particularly bored or just had to write something down so it'd get out of my brain and I could go back to concentrating. Anyway, at one point (from a class in February, I believe), I saw a note that said something about how excited I was that I had just tried cabling for the first time, and had finally learned how to knit in the round and how to knit on double pointed needles. And it's hard to believe, but yes, I've only had those skills for less than a year now. I believe it was the week off during Snowpocalypse that encouraged this. I also believe that the first hat I ever knit, a couple of baby hats aside, was during Snowpocalypse. Plus, there's only so many blankets a girl can knit before she wants to try her hand at other things. But the point is, for the first 4-5 years of my knitting life, all I made were blankets and scarves. And until 2009, it was two baby blankets, just a few scarves, and two and a half ish regular blankets. I mean, really, I don't know what I did with myself knitting-wise for so long! But then, I guess I didn't have a lot of what I do now. I knew basically no one who knit (aside from the influence of two of my college friends who were the impetus for me teaching myself in the first place), and didn't know the vast knitting resources that were online. 2009 really started it, and I got that afghan-making book and some large needles to go along with it, and thus started my obsession with afghans, and I did some baby booties and a hat...hm...how did I make a baby hat before learning how to knit in the round? Must have seamed it up the side, I guess...hm. Or I learned knitting in the round earlier than I thought. Except I know I didn't have double pointed needles when I made those baby hats...well, in any case, I avoid seaming now whenever possible.

Point is, I've knit more things in the last two years than I did the four-ish years I could before. And it's been so fantastic. Knitting has been one of my saving graces these last two years. Graduate school has been good for something! Haha. And it's fun because there are awesome knitting sites to go to, and I now notice knitting in movies and things (30 Rock mentioned knitting in one of its episodes in the fall, which was really funny, and tonight on the Office there was a woman knitting! Very briefly, but it was there. And another show I watch has had a character knit a couple of times), and I get distracted by pretty knit things in movies and in real life (at the March for Life on Monday, there were lots of hats I wanted to knit. I just kept seeing cute hat after cute hat. Not really the point of the day, but fun nonetheless).

I just love knitting. The more I do it, the more I want to do it, and be good at it. I've had a number of things in my life that I did for a little while, but wasn't disciplined enough to get really good at. Violin comes to mind (which is still a regret I harbor). Being a good graduate student is another...haha. But knitting? Oh, I just want to keep learning, and keep getting better, and ensconce myself in this world of yarn and needles and lovely gifts and projects. I want to work at this. I want to understand it better. I want it not to be just some thing I do once in awhile, half-assedly. I want to be good at it. I don't want to make disappointing projects. I have, many times, but I would like that to decrease exponentially. I want to be happy with what I make, and I want the people I make things for to be happy, too. And not just "Oh, I like it because you made it." Genuinely happy, and appreciative. That's what I want. I hope I can make that happen. I'm encouraged by the progress I've made in the last year. I want to keep going, though. When I'm settled somewhere, I want to start getting involved with a knitting group, somewhere I can go and learn from other people for once. There's only so much a person can do alone (although, I've managed to teach myself quite a bit thanks to the wonder of youtube and awesome people who want to help others get better at this lovely craft). It'd be nice to have a group, though. Much as I am an introvert.

Anyway. Rambling. I could talk about knitting all day. It's kind of pathetic, probably, but whatever. It makes me so happy. Almost as happy as pictures of Nutmeg. :-)

Knitting. The love of my life. Hahahahaha.