19 May 2008

Failed Blogger

I'm a multiple time failed blogger, but the only time that I was even remotely successful was when I was blogging about knitting. So, why did I stop last time? After years of some interesting projects such as three baby blankets, three tops, and about fifteen pairs of socks, I decided I would knit my husband a Harry Potter scarf and do NOTHING ELSE. I eventually stopped knitting. I stopped blogging. I started to draw and cross-stitch and do other artsy things. Mostly I just sat on the internet.

After a bit of light prompting on my husband's part, I finally finished the scarf, and I was pretty proud of it, but reluctant to move to anything else. Then, two of my good friends decided they were going to have a child, so I started knitting them a baby blanket. As anyone who has ever knit a blanket knows, it can take a good long while, so I hunkered down on that.

By this time, I was almost over knitting. Then, I found out I was going to have a baby! I knew I had to knit just a few things for my own baby, including its own blanket and hat, and maybe a small wee sweater or socks. I finished the baby blanket for my friends Paula and Tom and ordered the yarn for a hat for my own baby. I told my boss, Helen, that I'd teach her how to knit, and I gave her one of my knitting books and some beautiful Cascade Pastaza yarn and some nice bamboo needles.

Bad luck struck at this point for me, I got a blood clot, and a nasty one and ended up in the hospital for several days. Bored, angry, tired of playing Tetris on the DS, I told Paul to bring me the yarn for a second sock I had never finished as well as my needles. Over a year earlier, I had made the first sock in a ribbing that I ended up hating beyond all belief, and I had refused to start a second sock pair without finishing this pair. The small, light project was the perfect thing for laying around drugged up in a hospital bed. I finished the second sock in two or three days. By the time I got home, I was in fine knitting form. My yarn had come for my baby's hat and it turns out my knitting magazines were easy light reading for the bathtub (where I spent most of my time), and knitting was a nice activity to do as it allowed for me to fall asleep into a drugged haze easily. I could knit in bed or on the couch. Since I could read my stitches easily, I never got lost on where I was.

By the time I had finished my baby's hat (or nearly finished it depending on my baby's eventual gender), I had ordered the basic yarn for my baby's blanket and started knitting that. By this time, I had gone back to work (while on blood thinners) and found out about something called Ravelry. I applied to join Ravelry and forgot about it. Then Bryan sent me a link to his friend Sophie's Knitting Blog where she had beautiful work, and the next thing you know, I was writing to her about her blog and listening to her discuss Ravelry.

I joined Ravelry a few days later, and then rapidly became OBSESSED with it. If you see this and you want to see my projects, I'm Septy on there.

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