Reporting live from amidst boxes and books.

Tomorrow my beloved and I pack all of my things into Bessie and make the first of two important trips to Tennessee. We'll be making a return trip before I drive back down South by myself (and for the last time), so I'll be out of the house and away from the blog for a while. I hope to soon be reunited with my stash, and have a pair of socks to show you when I return. In the meantime, here are my answers to a survey from Kate A., but seen on The Purloined Letter. Aside: I'd been reading her blog for about a month before I finally got it. Purloined! Like a purl stitch! Get it? I worry about my mind with an increasingly disturbing frequency. Anyway, here goes: The Knit-Geek Questionnaire (unrelated to any swaps or secret pal exchanges) 1. What's your worst habit relating to your knitting? Knitting instead of reading/writing. It's just so nice to be able to see progress on something tangible and useful (as opposed to progress while doing research, which is largely intangible until you print out the paper, and useless to anyone except yourself or your professors). 2. In what specific ways does your knitting make you a better person? I love making other people happy, and I think (mind you, everyone could be lying their socks off) that giving them handknit gifts does so. And in some way I think this makes me a better person. A better person than I would be if I were, say, giving people un-asked for raw fish or the flu. 3. How might you or your life be different if you were suddenly unable to knit? I'd have loads more free time and money, and more space in my closets. So, I guess I'd be more well-rested, well-dressed, and well-organized. 4. If money were no object, what one yarn, and what one tool or gadget would you run out and buy first? I would love to have a closet full of expensive sock yarn (instead of the basket full of knitpicks sale sock yarn that I have now). Also: just more yarn. I'd like to have a stash of solid colors in various weights that I could pull from whenever I saw a pattern that I liked. This buying-yarn-as-you-go thing is easy, but I want to hoard stuff, man. 5. What knitting technique or project type are you most afraid of (if any)? What, specifically, do you fear will happen when you try it? Making a garment for a baby. What if this results in my thinking that all babies are "cute" or that I "might want one someday"? Both of these things are unacceptable. 6. Who is/are your knitting hero(es), and why? Elizabeth Zimmerman. Need you ask? Also my mother, who taught a 5 year old to knit, which couldn't have been the easiest thing in the world. 7. Do you consider knitting, for you personally, a mostly social activity, or a mostly solitary activity? Solitary. But then, I'm not a very social person by nature, so if The Boyfriend weren't and I weren't living in sin together, I'd do 95% of everything by myself. 8. Is there a particular regional tradition in knitting that you feel strongly drawn toward (e.g., Fair Isle, Scandinavian, Celtic, Orenburg lace)? Any theories as to why it calls to you? Nope, and no. 9. If you were a yarn, which yarn would you be? Is there a small, neurotic yarn with poor eyesight? I'd be that one. 10. Some statistics: (a) How many years have passed since you FIRST learned to knit? About 18. See# 6. (b) How many total years have you been actively, regularly knitting (i.e., they don't have to have been in a row)? About three. I didn't knit at college, but I would knit when I was home on vacation. It wasn't until I moved out On My Own that I started knitting with any real consistency. (c) how many people have you taught to knit? Well, I tried to teach TB, but I don't think it took. So, um, none. (d) Roughly what percentage of your FOs do you give away (to anyone besides yourself, i.e., including your immediate family) About 75%. See #2. 11. How often do you KIP (knit in public)? i.e., once a week, once a month, etc. Where do you do it? I've knit in my office before, and that's the closest I've ever gotten. I'm afraid that if someone from my academic life sees me knitting, they'll wonder why I'm not reading instead. 12. If a genie granted you one hour to stitch-n-bitch with any one knitter, living or dead, who would you choose and why? Elizabeth Zimmerman. Or, if she isn't available (I imagine she'd be booked solid if other knitters had access to this genie) I'd love to have an hour's chat with The Harlot. 13. What aspect or task in knitting makes you most impatient? Weaving in the ends. I can handle the blocking, but those ends drive me crazy. 14. What is it about knitting that never lets you get bored with it? All of the brilliant designers out there now. You know who they are. 15. Describe how and where you most often do your knitting - where do you sit, what is going on around you, what tools do you use and how are they (dis)organized? On my couch (in my growing butt-dent), usually while watching the news (local, national, then Jeopardy!). I've got a coffee table next to me with my needles and scissors, and the windowsill next to the couch holds my pattern books. Lately I've been knitting in the car, too, and I'm sure you can imagine what that's like. 16. Which one person is the recipient of more of your knitting than any other? Probably one of my family members? I really have no idea. 17. What's the oddest thing about your knitting, or yourself as a knitter? I'm very, VERY, plain and conservative about what I knit. I don't like fun fur, anything colorful (Those Jaywalkers I'm making? I'll never wear them out of the house.), crazy, arty, or revealing. So no ponchos, sweaters in colors other than dark, subdued colors, funny hats, skirts (those things make my skin crawl), or swimsuits. I'd make something colorful and whimsical for a gift, of course, but I'm just not attracted to anything that screams "I MADE THIS WITH YARN FROM WALMART AND I'M HIP." 18. What do you see yourself knitting - if anything - twenty years from now? Hopefully things for my nieces and nephews. I like the idea of making something for a child that they'll treasure for years, even decades, to come. Of course, by then I'll be over my irrational fear of babies. 19. If you were stranded on a deserted island and could have only ONE SKEIN of yarn, which yarn would it be and what would you do with it? Um. An edible skein that doubled as a 2-way radio. 20. If you were allowed to own only one knitting-related book, which would it be? (you'd be free to browse others, but you couldn't keep them) I was tempted to say something by EZ, but I really use The Knitting Answer Book far more than I use hers. TB's parents got it for me for Christmas last year -- it's the first and last thing they've ever bought me that has actually been useful. (If anyone's curious, I could give you a list of the things they've sent us this year, including a jack-o-lantern flashlight, shampoo, and a plastic chicken that lays bubble gum eggs.) 21. Is knitting the new yoga? Why or why not? No. At least, I hope not. If knitting is done entirely for relaxation, you're doing it wrong. Which reminds me something we used to say in ballet class: If it doesn't hurt, you're not doing it right. For knitting, I could say: If it doesn't require any mental activity, you're not doing it right. Off to the new apartment and the beautiful mountains of eastern Tennessee. Otto and I will see you on the other side.