I’ve been somewhat knitzophrenic that school is off and obligations have been suspended for another week. I haven’t quite finished anything, and I probably should be working on my honors thesis (my advisor wants me to write a story a day, and I am two days behind). But that’s okay because I have such pretty yarn:

And with this pretty yarn, I’m making a drop stitch scarf according to a modified pattern in Debbie Stoller’s Stitch ‘n Bitch Nation:

But before that, I made a Knitted Babe:

I guess I had narcissistic hopes of making a little facsimile of myself, and maybe treat it like a voodoo doll but for good instead of evil, and instead of sticking pins in it, maybe knit a big pile of gold for it to swim in a la Scrooge McDuck. Instead, though, it kind of looks like Tyra Banks to me (well, after a few potato chips). It even has the huge forehead and everything! I guess if I really wanted to be mean to Tyra Banks I could add some more stuffing to the middle or put it in the cat toy repository.

And then I also knit this fingerless “hobo” glove:

I seem to be stuck on gloves ever since the Knitting Olympics. I like wearing gloves but I’d like to be able to keep them on while doing things like writing, doodling in class, or, of course, knitting :)Oh, yeah, and I guess I’ve still got that scarf I was making for Henry to finish. Oops. Hehe, I’ll get right on that.

I knit all the time now (as if that weren’t evident from the pics).I knit on the bus, when people come over and chat, during movies, while reading for class. Though knitting is trendy now, it’s one of those fads which, even if it stops being cool again, I don’t really foresee giving up. It’s so useful and even if everyone abandons wearing knitted items permanently in favor of space-age lycra bodysuits, I’ll probably still knit. It’s a great stress release and it’s so productive - I can zone out and watch awful reality TV for hours and still feel like I’ve not wasted time because hey, I have a scarf now!

Also, in uber-meta terms, I love the idea of participating in such a long tradition of women’s crafts. I also love Debbie Stoller’s introduction to Stitch ‘n Bitch and her answer to feminist qualms about knitting - isn’t it patriarchal to slam traditionally female crafts, just because they’ve always been associated with women? Her essay might be a bit outdated, though, as most feminists I know these days knit proudly (also, there is a nice bonus to constantly having pointy sticks on hand for self defense).

And more guys are knitting now, too. I spent last night showing the boy how to knit, and he’s advancing quite rapidly - he got to the point where we could both knit and watch Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Wererabbit (which all knitters should have in their possession, by the way, and use Gromit as their model. Seriously, he knits so fast).

For me, knitting is not only fun and useful but a good way of bonding with people. Last time I flew, I was on a tiny plane attempting to land at O’Hare in the midst of a rather unpleasant storm. The plane rocked and dipped a few times and I kept knitting throughout to keep my mind off our impending doom. Afterwards, this woman who had been sitting a row behind me actually thanked me for knitting.

“I get so nervous on planes and I was about to hyperventilate,” she explained. “Then I saw that you were knitting and I just kept focusing on your needles, and I was okay.”

Hence I saved someone from having a panic attack with my awesome knitting skills! And finished a hat, to boot. This is one of the many reasons why I knit. So why aren’t you?