This is one of my favorite quotes. It may also explain why my knitting (and thus my knitting blog) has slowed to the speed of cold molassess. I think the problem I am facing is that I have a reached a point with my knitting that I require a design that still has some mystery for me. A sock that is the same as other socks but just a different stitch pattern doesn’t have the challenge that it once did. I want clever and tricky in my knitting. I want to learn something new. I want to get to the same end result but from an entirely different route. I want to be surprised from beginning to end. I want it to be fresh and trendy but practical.

In theory, all of that is great but it comes with a price. Those types of designs are not easily found. Mindless knitting it is not. Patience and time is required to knit tricky and clever. New and surprising requires constant attention.. These are qualities in short supply here at chez’ Some Knitting. Essentially I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. Is there a fiber equivalent of that analogy?

What do you do when your knitting inspiration stalls?

• Ravelry always has between 5000 – 8000 invites waiting every day.  If it’s true that they send out 800 – 1000 invites daily, where are they new people coming from to keep the total from reaching zero? 
• When / if the total does reach zero will we finally know the total number of fiber lovers inhabiting the planet? 
• Why is it that in spite of the huge number of Ravelers already part of the site, that nearly half the yarns I look up for customers at the store cannot be found?
• Since Ravelry uses Fl*ickr to post images, what does Fl*ickr think of the numerous pictures posted of yarn, patterns, wips, and finished objects?  Is it possible that the fiber community could eventually take over Fl*ickr?
• I love Interweave Knits, but since subscribing to Knitting Daily, I wonder if I should cancel my subscription.  I subscribe to IK for the patterns mostly.  But Knitting Daily keeps offering the best ones for free.  Makes me wonder if I’m wasting my money, if I’m willing to be patient for Interweave to offer it free at a later date.
• I’m not a very patient person.  So the self-debate continues.
• Am I the only one who sees a patterned window pane of an old door and wishes I had paper and pen to sketch it.  Thinking that it would make a fabulous sweater / scarf / lace / cable / detail?
• I see potential knitted designs everywhere in very unknit like things.  I think it would be wonderful to have a group blog / flickr group that uses non-craft items to inspire creativity in their craft – knit, crochet, quilt, paint, etc..
• Then I worry that no one else would see the value in that kind of group and I would be the only member.
• Then I worry that such a group already exists and I am missing out.
• I would love to have a little calendar on my blog.  But I don’t want to mess around with the coding.
• I would love to change the look of my blog entirely.  But I don’t want to mess around with the coding.

See? I just can’t stop procrastinating stay focused.

Countless times I have participated in or eavesdropped on conversations that revolved around the type of knitting one does.  Statements like “I am a sock knitter”,  “I am fair isle knitter” or “I am not a sweater knitter” get bandied about.  If asked I would reply I am a lace knitter. However, I have knit stockinette, garter, ribs, cables, lace, intarsia, and fair isle. I have knit socks, shawls, scarves, sweaters, purses, totes, blankets, dishcloths, hats, and mittens. I can think of  at least one project in every category that I loved and another that I hated. I have knit for myself with mixed results. I have knit for others with mixed feelings of gratitude and grudge. I have knit for the process. I have knit for the finished project.

Are we allowed to stray once a position has been claimed, for example “I am a sock knitter”?  Do you come across a beautiful sweater pattern and tell yourself you cannot knit it because you only knit socks?  If you show up at knit group next week with a shawl after months of heels, gussets, and toes, will you be checked for a fever?  By defining ourselves by the projects we knit or the materials we use, we can become victims of our own fences.  It becomes easy to dismiss the new, the different, the unfamiliar and a convenient excuse to not try.  And by saying emphatically that “I only…” or “I never…” we encourage others to fortify the very boundaries that are hemming us in.  I can recall that one self-proclaimed non-sock knitter was knitting gloves on size US 2 needles.  I didn’t ask, but have often wished I did, was it the absence of turning the heel that made the difference in her project choice? 

If I could only knit for the rest of my life what came after I am, I would choose to be a sweater knitter. Surprised? Were you thinking lace shawls. Surprised me too. Like those quizzes where you are supposed to answer without thought, sweater popped out before I could think lace into it’s place.

However, I can see why that choice fits. There is a lot of potential direction for sweaters. They can be lace, cables, or an infinite choice of textures. Sweaters can use complicated shaping or simple construction. Sweaters can be infant sized or 6′ 2″ husband sized. It is hard to pigeonhole a sweater.   My mother will tell you I have always been anti-pigeonhole much to her dismay during my teenage years.

Defining our knitting provides direction and guidance but shouldn’t be all encompassing of ourselves as knitters. Fences aren’t bad as long as they are built with an unlocked gate. Some way of letting us be on the other side of it every now and then.

I am consistently surprised at how hard organizing your stash can be.  The visual side of me wants to put all the like colors together.  The engineer in me wants all the like fibers together.  The knitter in me wants to put all the like fiber weights together.  Usually the knitter wins the first round, but by the next time it is clear that the engineer and visual side have had their say.    I was finding red lace alpaca next to red bulky wool and another cubby hole had nothing but wool – dk, aran, and lace.  And true to form, I also found multiple purchases of the same yarn for the same project, but let’s not dwell on that.

So, how do you organize your stash?  I am clearly of mixed opinion as any given purchase ends up getting put away differently than the ones before and after.  It is only a matter of time before I find some teal green superwash sock yarn cozying up to some burnt orange silk lace.