Thursday, August 2, 2007

Knitting


I am obsessed with knitting.

It's all I want to think about. Every other thought in my head is accompanied by some aspect of knitting. As I write I'm thinking about mulberry colored dk weight wool. I can see the stitches lined up, just regular stockinette, in the background of any other thought I have.

I can't stop thinking about the physical properties of yarn. The springiness and gentle fluff of wool, the tensility of yarn, the way each strand spirals together to make a flexible cable (the kind that holds up suspension bridges, not the knitted kind) that loops together to make an equally springy and flexible fabric.

I can't stop thinking about colors, cables, bobbles, openwork, the different weights of wool. Leaf green super-chunky. Turquoise-spattered pale blue light worsted (the above is Koigu from http://www.purlsoho.com/purl) Charcoal grey worsted knit into over-the-elbow cabled gauntlets. The same gauntlets but with bobbles in a muted raspberry cashmere, or maybe a camel color. Great big mushy tam o' shanters.

I've had an idea for a tam o' shanter sculpture since last summer. I haven't got far into producing it yet though. There are so many things I want to knit and otherwise make that I get clogged up. It's a big bottleneck and I end up not getting much made in the end. it's just easier to go do something I don't feel as strongly about.

Plus knitting looks like too much fun to other people*. I mean it doesn't look like work if I'm sitting in front of the T.V. watching a movie and knitting. People* think I'm just slacking off.

Thinking about knitting is an example of how I prefer what's going on in my head to reality. Reality is tedious and irritating. Life's much easier to take with a beautiful color and interesting texture riding along in the sidecar.

And that is the constant state of my life. Right now I'm entertaining myself with thoughts of knitting. Back in January it was candy - the pretty kind I don't like to eat. Maybe it will be something else when the weather turns cold. Probably just more knitting though.

*Pete

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey! Quit slacking off! (Smiley face emoticon would go here.)

Jenn said...

I'm always tempted to buy those candy necklaces that are pastel and pretty except I never do because I know I'll never have the heart to eat it *or* take it off which means that soon I'd be walking around wearing a disgusting grubby candy necklace and really, I don't want to be the girl who wears gross candy as jewelry.

I like the Koigu. Pretty colors.

Anonymous said...

Quilts, traditionally women's work..are now regarded as fine art and collected by both major museums and private collectors.

Knitting has also been traditionally viewed as "women's work", and it is only a matter of time before it too gains its well deserved "fine art" status.

Creating is creating, and in my personal experience, all aspects of one's art and life are inseparable.

I listen to music when I paint...how is that different from watching TV and knitting?

Nice work with those needles.