Am I a serious knitter?

To feed my new pattern fixation, I was happily googling the day away. And I came upon a link (that I'm sure everyone knew of but me) to KnittingNow, a "newsletter for the serious knitter."

And I thought to myself: Huh?

What exactly is a serious knitter? Someone who takes their knitting seriously? Someone who only knits serious patterns - shrouds, veils, sensible shoes? (No bubblegum-colored boucle for you!) And if you are, perhaps, unsuitably frivolous, will you enjoy their newsletter any less? Will the patterns be too hard for you, unless you move your lips while reading? Will there be consequences if you make their sweaters in fun textiles, or fanciful colors? Will they snub you in private if you fail to be appropriately humorless about your hobby? (Or is it a faux pas to refer to knitting as a hobby? I am, after all, aspiring to be SERIOUS.)

KnittingNow's tagline didn't bother me as much as the above might imply. But it did remind me of another newsletter I read when first learning to knit. On the home page, to make sure we all knew where we stood, the EIC sniffed that she was offended - nay, horrified - by all the janie-come-latelies, sitting around in coffee shops, knitting with (sniff) chunky yarn on (sniff, sniff) oversized needles and (sniff sniff sniff) making SCARVES. (I had really believed that Debbie Stoller was being satirical in SnB when she talked about holier-than-thou knitters. My bad.)

I, while no fan of scarves in general, nevertheless knit a scarf as my very first project, and I was quite pleased with myself for doing so. I didn't realize that I should have been shamed by my crafting frippery, humbled before the gods of real knitting, knowing that only projects completed on double-pointed US5s were worthy of real pride.

I take my knitting seriously. I think about what I would like to make, I try to make gifts that are pleasing and appropriate, and I try to become better every time I pick up my stix. Am I a serious knitter? I think so. But getting past the bouncers at Club Serious Knitter may require you to take yourself seriously as well. Which I'll pass on.

And the next time I get the urge to look past CSK's velvet rope, I'll pick up some fabulous sparkly metallic red eyelash and knit my own.

Worst part of being a knitter? The constant nearness of sharp metal objects when you're coworkers are being a**es.

The urge to skewer is strong...

ACK! Have lost the pattern for the baby blanket... Frantic searching turns up bupkis... still have MONTHS to go before the little bundle is due, but the mag is already out of stores and i've already bought the yarn, so i'd rather not change projects. AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!

(cries self to sleep piteously over thwarted project)

In good news: have figured out how to keep The Cat from attacking current project. Useless skeins of Lambspride Terry Spun (ugh - hateful - continually unraveling terry loops) are now his precious toys, for him to pull to shreds. Keeping him happy? Check. Ridding myself of yarn that hates me? Check check.

The tank is zooming along. As I started the back I discovered I did the front wrong - a seed stitch hem instead of ribbing - but I like it, so I just messed up the back in the same way. The Cat (his highness does not approve of the more familiar lowercase) loves the yarn, and has had to be extracted from the ball twice now.

Already done about 5" of the 13" length, but I need to decide pretty quickly if I want to change the straps. The original pattern has two i-cord straps that just go over the shoulders, side-by-side. I'm thinking of taking the inner two straps and making them longer and crossing them over in the back. But it's a pretty high backed tank, so I'm afraid the straps may cross too far up towards my neck (ick). So I either will leave the straps as is, or I may make the back shorter than the front. I'm dithering back and forth

(Emma - the audiobook - is in the car right now, and I'm feeling shamefully Harriett-like. Who can't just pull the trigger and decide on a darn tank top? If I don't hurry, I'll have to put it away until next summer.)

Well, I know I'm eight kajillion years behind the rest of the world in starting a blog, but it's actually the love of a very old hobby - knitting - that inspired me to start this very new hobby. I love reading everyone else's knitting blogs, looking at their WIPs, and getting inspiration.

And as a writer, I love to blather, so it's the perfect indulgence - a world to babble in ad nauseum without confronting my loved ones (or casual acquaintences) with my wordalanche.

I hope you enjoy my blog as much as I enjoy yours!