Going Back to the Beginning ... Sorta

When I think back to when the decline of knitting started to take place my mind goes to December 2010-ish.  I had just finished my sock yarn blanket and decided I wanted to explore the possibility of going to law school.  Once I committed to the law school thing LSAT prep and applying to law school took over my life.  Then I started training for my first race.  Though I was still knitting, somehow knitting got pushed into the background of my life.  That is until I realized in November 2011 that I had committed to making my mom a sock yarn blanket for her bday in 2012.  That's when I really picked up needles again.

By the time I was finished with mom's blanket, I was well intrenched into my responsibilities at Chick Lit Central and running, PLUS quite honestly the sock yarn blanket really burned me out.  Sure, I made a few pairs of socks and a few hundred Molly scarves, but I just couldn't seem to commit to a "big" project again and I was getting bored with with the little projects I had taken on.  Additionally, it was also around this time I decided to move.  Since I had been at my place for sometime and acquired more crap than I had when I first got there I resolved that before I moved I would de-crapify my home.  This was a task I knew would take quite a bit of time... and it did!  Hours upon hours, days upon days I spent going through my stuff making difficult decisions as to whether or not things should stay or go.  This also meant getting rid of some knitting related items including buttons, books and all the little balls of yarn that were meant for my sock yarn blanket.  All those things and more were GONE! GONE! and... GONE!  Though I hadn't gotten rid of all the clutter, but a good part of it was gone.  Crap that I had carried around with me for too many years was no longer part of my life.

Have to admit... It was such a nice feeling!

Before I moved, I did recon on the various knitting groups in the area.  Given the vast ground the city covered I knew there would be several to choose from.  Ideally, I wanted to stay local, but wasn't opposed to traveling some for the "right" group.  Immediately I found two groups.  One that was within walking distance and another that required me to take transportation to.  Of course, my preference between the two was the one I had to travel to, but that was okay.  That's not what was bothering me about knitting groups.  What bothered me was the fact that I still didn't feel inspired to knit anything.  What's the point in going to a knitting group if you're not working on anything, right?!  This feeling would stick withe me until I attended Stitches Midwest in August.  

Though I didn't spend as much on yarn as I have in years past, I did walk away that day with two hanks of sock yarn.  The first was every so soft to the touch navy blue and red sock yarn from a dyer called Fresh from the Caldron and a UBER BRIGHT colorway from KnittyandColor.  I affectionately call the
KnittyandColor yarn "the ketchup and mustard" yarn because that is the first thing I though of when I saw the sample sock it was used in.  Furthermore, I really liked the pattern used for the sample sock called, "Burning Rings of Fire" by Kirsten Kapur, which just happened to be a free pattern.  SOLD!  Just a day or so later I started a new pair of socks!

Though the socks took me longer to make than they have in the past (didn't work on them as frequently as I usually work on socks), it was nice to have a project to work on at knit group, and when I was out and about.  By the end of the second sock they traveled with me almost everywhere.  I was hell bent on getting them done.  Once I was finished, I felt lost once again.  However, this time I was more anxious to find a new project.  After looking around at patterns on Raverly and not finding anything I wanted to make I remembered a scarf I had seen a sample of at Stitches and pulled up the picture of it so I

"Cocoon Me" by Rose Beck.

could find the pattern at a later.  This time, the pattern was one I'd have to pay for.  Seeing that I got burned the last time I paid for a scarf pattern I was reluctant to pay for another one.  However, I kept staring at it and couldn't ignore it so I took a chance and bought the pattern.  First let me say, this pattern includes instructions on how to make a cowl, infinity scarf and shawlette - DEFINITELY worth the money you pay for it.

I haven't started the infinity scarf yet.  Though I have enough yarn for it in my stash, I am thinking this beautiful design deserves new yarn.

Until I got to this point in this blog post I wasn't sure where I was going with all of the above.  I didn't feel like it had a point to it beyond the fact that it appears I've caught the knitting bug once again.  Then, as I thought about that statement I realized that I was returning back to something I truly love.  To be honest, I wasn't sure how into knitting I was anymore until recently.  How much I truly enjoy it; how much I truly love, it.  For awhile I thought maybe it was gonna be one of those things I use to do, but had moved on from... but it appears isn't that case.  I guess that is true of anything in our lives.  Sometime we have to walk away from things we love to realize how much we truly love them.  Or, sometimes we walk away and realize we didn't love them as much as we thought we had.  Guess it falls into one of those reason, season or lifetime type of scenarios.  Furthermore, I think all this rambling has made me realize that part of the reason I took a break from knitting was that after my sock yarn blanket project I needed a new knitting challenge, however there where so many other challenges going on in other parts of my life that I couldn't manage yet another one and had to give something up.  Now that things appear to be settling down more in other areas of my life I can now focus more on attacking more challenging knitting patterns.  Though not super-duper technically challenging, "Cocoon Me" does have a high stitch count and adequate difficulty which I'm sure will become nothing once I dive into it.  Lastly, knitting is something that genuinely makes me happy.  It always has, and apparently always will. And, it it is one of my top priorities in life to surround myself with the things that make me happy.

Happy Knitting to all!