knitting as a respite

So I'm a knitter. I started knitting shortly after I finished studying for the bar as a way to fill my newly-found free time. At first I started out simply-- I made a (really horrible) scarf for my sister. Bless her heart she actually wore it despite the HUGE mistakes.

I then moved on to a baby blanket. I don't have any pictures of it on my computer, but it was HUGE and took FOREVER to finish. My friend Christa (hi Christa!) was so happy to receive it though, and that made all the work worth it. Plus it was insanely good practice as I was still very new and the pattern was easy.

Then I started a baby sweater. It was going to be for the aforementioned baby, but.... let's just say that apparently a "gauge swatch" is something important when you're making things that aren't rectangles. The sweater fits a teddy bear, but nothing really larger than that.

Not to be dissuaded, I tried the sweater again, this time for the baby's older sister. It worked out a bit better when I learned that the suggested needle sizes in the pattern were not gospel and actually DID a gauge swatch. It's a little bit bigger than it should be, but better that than too small!

Then I wanted to do something complicated. You know, because by this point I'm a total knitting badass. So I found this pattern online and totally wanted to give it a go. How hard can it be, right? Surprisingly enough, not very. And it looks totally awesome, right? (Yarn is KnitPicks Chroma Worsted in Roller Skate)

Despite its awesomeness, it ended up not being a very functional scarf. Even with blocking, it was still too short (I didn't buy enough yarn), and the yarn was itchy on my neck. That's ok! Onward with more projects!!

I made an infinity scarf and gave it to a friend. Then I made this Rainbow Brite-esque scarf out of banana yarn (because why not?).

That didn't take very long, so I started on a cardigan for my sister (which I'm STILL working on, btw).

The cardigan bored me, so I thought about what I should work on next. I decided that I'd try my hand at socks. I mean, they look hard! I can do it though. I'm a knitting badass, remember? Voila! A sock!

Of course, being the beginner that I am, I had to promptly frog said sock because I made it out of bamboo yarn, which is HORRIBLE for things like socks. You live and you learn though. I'm currently making C a pair of socks out of much more appropriate yarn and he's very excited to have them completed.

I've also got a dishtowel for the kitchen and my sister's interminable cardigan on the needles right now. Still I can't stop thinking about what I'm going to knit next. [Hint: It's this, for one of my pregnant friends.]

I'm what some in the knitting world call a "process knitter." Here's a brief description of what one is:

Process knitters knit for the joy of knitting, never happier than when learning a new stitch, experimenting with a new self striping pattern or planning the next challenging project. Perfection of the craft, joy in the creation and the process of the craft mark the process knitter.

Product knitters knit for the glory of completion. The oohs and ahhs of the recipient, the kudos from others (particularly non-knitters who are STUNNED by our brilliance ). For a product knitter, the reward is in the finished product, and the process is just what you have to do to get there.

I've never made the same thing twice (unless you count the baby sweater that I totally screwed up the first time around), and I would think it would be terribly boring to do so. I can barely make it through one project if I feel like I've mastered whatever new skill said project is supposed to be teaching me. It's really fun to me to figure out the new techniques and watch a piece take shape. It doesn't matter to me that I usually have no purpose for whatever it is that I'm making.

So what does all this have to do with my student loan journey? Well, nothing really. Except for the fact that knitting is a relatively cheap hobby and fills up my time that otherwise could be filled with internet shopping or copious amounts of drinking. It also gives me little projects that I can complete while I'm waiting for my loans to be paid off. There's nothing more disheartening than working on something for months and months only to feel like you have nothing to show for it.

As for my knitting problem, I really want to knit this. I have the pattern, all I'd need is the yarn. It is SO far outside of my skill level that it's not even funny, but it's gorgeous and I want it. We'll see... :)