By Holly Burnham

I am so set in my ways……when did I reach the age where ‘can’t teach old dog new tricks’ fits me to a ‘T’?

Knitting is my passion and I devote far more time to it than I should. That said, wouldn’t you think I would be anxious to learn every technique out there? Well….you’d think…..and you’d be wrong.

I have knit the most luxurious and warm wool socks for my husband and myself for years. We almost look forward to the first crisp autumn day as we know I will soon be replacing our summer socks with something far more heavenly.

I have always just used double point needles to knit my socks. I have suffered through snapped needles, needles falling out of the unmade sock, readjusting stitches as I knit and the fear that as you take your project out of the knitting bag you will destroy the previous day’s efforts by dislodging the socks from the needles.

I have read with utter disinterest the joys of “Magic Loop” and how I can soar using two circulars. Using either method, doncha know, would mandate giving up the “right:” way to knit socks.

I recently I visited my friends yarn shop. The fact she owns the yarn shop is of immense delight to me. She offers, and I accept, a healthy discount, which allows me to stash enhance in a way I might not have been able to, if say, she had decided to be a librarian instead. She was sitting and knitting a sock using two circular needles. In the minutes I visited I watched the cuff of said sock emerge from a cast edge to measurable inches! What is going on here? Looks like my socks…feels like my socks…but grows like the whiskers on my middle aged chin.

I cautiously purchased two 16″ – #2 circular needles and proceeded home to my rocker.

I am here to tell you …..there is no greater pleasure than admitting you were pigheaded about something like this. My sock drawer is going to be full! I love socks on 2 circulars.

Now…..what’s this I hear about knitting two socks at the same time on 2 circulars? Rubbish………I’ll never do that.

Holly Burnham is a self admitted yarn addict. The addiction will be life long and there is no hope of remission. Her constant knitting has put the cleanliness of her home in peril. Her yarn stashes are havens for generations of moths. At the risk of contracting this affliction, visit her at http://www.knittinghaven.com

Article Source: Holly Burnham => I Am A Stubborn Old Knitter

By Holly Burnham

If you are a passionate knitter; you know who you are…..you are the person who, just for a fleeting second, wonder if it might be worth taking your knitting into the bathroom with you instead of a magazine. You are also the person who feels a smidgen guilty you spend too much time fondling yarn.

Recently there was a topic thread on a knitting forum I visit asking how much time we all spend knitting every day. I lied. It was a forum; I didn’t know any one personally on it….and I lied. I believe I recorded a quarter of the time I actually do knit every day. That was a clear cry for help.

That was also the day I started to think about my knitting passion and how it affects my life.

I am lucky enough to be a stay at home wife. My children are grown and have homes of their own, so I also have a lot more free time than I have had at any other point in my life.

You might think my house is clean, orderly and well run; that I make a point of keeping in touch with good friends; spend time nurturing my relationship with my children and projecting the essence of grandmothering onto my eight grandchildren by making and mailing them cookies as a treat. You’d think my husband would be greeted by a delicious home cooked meal every night when he came home from work and that my gardens are visual delights for neighbors who stroll by my yard. You’d think……but……I knit. I knit all the time. When I’m not knitting I’m reading about knitting, or I’m in knitting chat rooms talking about knitting.

I don’t know how many people out there might be quite as addicted as I am, but it’s a serious issue. If I were drinking or doing drugs there would be a number of well intended folks interested in stopping me and helping me to develop a more well balanced and productive life. But, I knit. It looks harmless. I sit in my rocker, and click needles. No apparent need for intervention. There appears to be no hope for a cure either.

I knit a few rows, leap up, put in a load of clothes in the washer, take the vacuum out of the closet and set it in the parlor….then, sit back down and knit. A few rows later I take the clothes out of the washer put them in the dryer and dust the parlor. The parlor gets vacuumed a couple of rows later. Now it’s mid-morning and I finally think about taking a shower and getting dressed, unless I’m turning a heel on a sock, which really can’t be interrupted. Exchange these chores for others and my days all pretty much follow this routine.

It is far worse in the warm months when I can sit on the screened porch or out on the patio….hours can pass. Also, during this period I am too far from the house to do any chores.

I have a knitting bag in the car for those long trips to the corner grocery store. I sat in a meeting last week in church trying to work up the courage to ask the minister if he really truly would find it vexing if I knitted during services on Sundays. If he were just going to be a little annoyed….well, then I think I might knit. After all, from time to time he annoys me too.

How do some knitters do it? How do they reasonably allot time to their knitting and maintain the rest of their lives appropriately? I have no will power or self discipline; to suggest I work this out on my own would be like expecting I’m only going to take one potato chip from the bag….right…..that’s going to happen.

If my Grandmother was right and we should always look for the silver lining, I do have to say, my husband and I have drawers full of wool socks for the winter, my grandchildren have warm sweaters in every imaginable color and style and even the cats have a hand knit wool pad in their bed.

The dust bunnies under the beds….well….does anyone know if they can be spun and knit?

Holly Burnham is a self admitted yarn addict. The addiction will be life long and there is no hope of remission. Her constant knitting has put the cleanliness of her home in peril. Her yarn stashes are havens for generations of moths. At the risk of contracting this affliction, visit her at http://www.knittinghaven.com

Article Source: Holly Burnham => I Am A Knitting Addict