In Which the Pirate Crafts.

Day Seven: 3rd April. Your knitting and crochet time.
Write about your typical crafting time. When it is that you are likely to craft – alone or in more social environments, when watching TV or whilst taking bus journeys. What items do you like to surround yourself with whilst you twirl your hook like a majorette’s baton or work those needles like a skilled set of samurai swords. Do you always have snacks to hand, or are you a strictly ‘no crumbs near my yarn!’ kind of knitter?

I always carry a sock with me, and so if I have more than a few minutes to wait I can knit wherever I am. But when I’m at home, I shut myself into my cat-free loft room, settle in front of my laptop, and spread the yarn out on the table. Especially if it’s a project I’m slogging through, or not particularly enjoying the work on, I’ll force myself to knit so many rows or so many inches and then give myself a reward of checking Ravelry or another website. But if it’s a project I love, then I can’t wait to work on it. As soon as dinner is over, I dash off upstairs, tossing a quick “Going to knit! See you later!” over my shoulder to Pirate-Husband as he’s booting up the XBox or his laptop.

Knitting while watching TV (or streaming Netflix on my computer) is frustrating in that I can’t really pay attention to the knitting or to the TV show, but I sometimes put on music. More often, I work in quiet. My cup of tea usually goes cold while I work. While I often knit “alone,” I’m not truly alone as I almost always have IRC running and am chatting away with friends. Sometimes I go to the #ravelry channel and sometimes to another network.

Soon we will finish up the basement craft room and then I will have another place to sit and knit – but now I won’t necessarily be alone, as there will be plenty of room in the new space for Pirate-Husband and I to work together on our hobbies. I will have to get used to working along with his music, and he’ll have to get used to my muttering “44.. 45.. not now, counting! 46, 47..”

I do miss going to the weekly Stitch ‘n Bitch. Although I didn’t always get very much knitting done, and sometimes I had to rip back everything I did do while I was there, it was always a fun time to socialize with other yarn addicts. It’s unfortunate that I haven’t found another group as good as my old one!