Friday 12th May

I think I have blogger fever ...

So this Secret Pal 8 is making me think recently about knitting. Thank you Kathleen for you lovely comment - I am starting to realise that knitting (and all creative pastimes) does indeed define and shape us.

I recently bought 3 balls of Rowan Kid Classic to knit the Sleeves from Scarf Style again in a deep red this time. I was wearing my sleeves last night as I sock knitted and thinking about much I just LOVE the yarn! So much so I would prefer to knit a jumper or cardi than another sleeves.

So I began to briefly search for patterns - I realised this morning (whilst filing an update at work) that the "Under the Hoodie" from the Stitch n' Bitch book is made from Kid Classic.

I was honestly so excited I thought I'd explode - I feel like it's Christmas such is my excitement to get home and find out how many more balls I need - and whether John Lewis still has more of the deep red in the same dyelot!

I looked around and there was no-one to tell - I find it difficult to understand how non-knitters exist without knitting and everything that it brings to life. My boy tries his best to look interested when I start spouting ssks and decreasing codes at him during frustrating knitting moments - but really he struggles I think.

He is happy enough to congratulate me on a (rare!) FO as he can see it's prettiness, and can appreciate the time that has gone into it (having sat with me through every minute and expletive!) but the understanding of the joy of knitting is lost on non-knitters.

Rowan Kid Classic is not my favourite yarn to knit with - it's 'splitty' and quite simply unfroggable if any mistakes are made - which happen a lot with gauge square avoiders like myself! But still - I love the FO so much that I will knit a jumper with it just to feel the sumptious quality of another Rowan Kid Classic item.

Why knit?
One reason I knit is because I am a 'worrier', an 'over-thinker' with an addictive personality. I have drifted through various addictions in my life; smoking, reading etc but none have stuck in the way that knitting has.

I never do anything by half - when I was addicted to reading I bought hundreds of books from Amazon - when I smoked (now quit for 5 years), friends made me cigarette box-shaped birthday cakes with cigarettes instead of candles ...

When I started to meet fellow knitters I realised that this level of addiction when it comes to knitting is OK. To take knitting to the level where you have 10+ projects of the needles and literally a room full of stash and always more coming in the post is ... OK. In fact it's positively normal. The only knitters who are not like this it sees, are people at the beginning of the craft - feeling the bite of the addiction and starting to learn about the myriad resources out there to help them feed their addiction - and knitters are always keen to help each other find this place!

Well this is me - typed out this lunchtime!