I blame the reading

A few weeks ago, when I was walking home from work, I happened to overhear a conversation between a group of teenage guys. As an aspiring teen librarian, I find teenagers intriguing, though I do worry that my desire to work with teenagers is like my occasional desire to drink tequila – it seems like a great idea in theory, but the reality of it will likely disappoint.

In any case, there were three of them, bristling with piercings, spiky multi-colored hair and punk rock attitude. They were ribbing each other mildly until one of them got in a real dig, saying “Hey, didn’t you used to play football?”

Silence descended on the group, football being So. Not. Punk. Rock.

The offending former athlete scuffed his boot-clad foot on the ground, ran his fingers impatiently through his green locks, and said “Yeah, I used to do lots of stuff. But then I discovered reading. I blame the reading.” Heh.

I wish I could blame the reading for the recent lack of blogging and the lack of knitting. While I have happily made my way through Dune (awesome), the final Harry Potter (sigh) and The Hero and the Crown (fabulous), that’s not the reason I’ve been such a bad blogger.

I think it’s a combination of things – the new job (which is fine, just the usual stress of starting something new and not knowing anything), doing a bit of contract work for the old job (time-consuming, though lucrative), and a distinct lack of mojo (wherein everything I knit turned out like ass).

Example A of the mojo problem – my friend Blog-Free* Jessica asked me to help her kitchener the toe of her first sock, knit up in a really gorgeous variegated blue merino-tencel blend. That Lucy at Mind’s Eye Yarns is a dyeing genius, by the way. I can’t buy any of her yarn, but you totally should, she has an Etsy shop and everything.

Anyway, Blog-Free Jessica presented the sock for kitchenering, stitches already lined up on two needles, and I showed her how to do the first few stitches. She immediately grasped the main steps, saying “Knit off, purl on, purl off, knit on?” Yes, and such a clever, easy way to remember the stitch! I watched proudly as she continued knitting off and purling on. When she paused to admire the smooth, invisible join we had created, she realized I had cleverly started kitchenering the seam perpendicular to the toe decreases.

Crap.

See? My mojo problem got so bad that I could even make other people’s knitting turn out like ass. Sigh.

I seem to have snapped out of it, thanks in large part to the happy delivery of my Sockapalooza package. It reminded me just how much I love this knitting thing and how much I like knitbloggers (and knitters in general). This stuff is important to me, and I need to make the time to do it.

Since I can’t rely on a secret sock pal package to conveniently show up the next time I lose my mojo, I wonder what you all do when you feel like you’ve lost your mojo?

Coming soon...finished Embossed Leaves socks. An unseemly lust for the Tangled Yoke Cardigan. And a great big apology.

* Shout-out here to Francois for the most excellent phrase "blog-free, not blogless."