Yes, another blog about yarn...

I think knitting for some people is more than a hobby, it is a lifestyle. I am one of those people.

Although I do it for fun, I can not imagine my life without it. It is my meditation- bring me on a long car ride and you will see me knitting away, distracting me from the highway traffic, that without needles in my hands, gives me heart palpitations. I can't travel without it and stories of the TSA taking away a project and then having to fly with nothing to do gives me the jitters.

I can imagine a life without making soap, but thinking of the days when my hands are too old to knit makes me sad in a way nothing else does. I think my definition of old centers around my ability to knit more than anything else.

It lets me feel accomplished- I can watch TV and still "do something", I can make things for the business, for presents, for me, or just for the fun of figuring out the puzzle of a new technique or pattern. I often do that, knit something with no particular use or person in mind, just to meet the challenge of making something I have never made before- to figure out in my head how something is assembled from just two sticks and some yarn.

Knitting to me is magic. It is only fitting that there is knitting in the Harry Potter books. Magic is accomplished with a stick (a wand) and knitting is accomplished with two sticks (two magic wands??). It amazes me every time I knit a pair of socks- that I follow a pattern and magically a heel appears- that a tube going one direction is suddenly turned to go another direction with just a flick of the wrist and a few rows of stitches..

Knitting to me is community. I have found more friendship in knitting than I ever have with soapmaking. Maybe because I do one for a job and the other as a hobby. I have attended knitting conventions but never soaping conventions. I participate in knitting newsgroups, but not soaping. I blog about all things yarny once a week, while the soap bubbles away in the shop waiting for a stir..

It is not that I would rather be a knitter. I think that would take the fun and mystery out of it. And it is not that I dislike making soap- I love it. But what I love most about the two is the research, the development, the learning, the practice, the wonder of making something out of practically nothing...

What knitting reminds me to do is to bring what I love back into my business. To develop new products, to tweak old ones, to accept and enjoy taking on special orders, and to stop being dragged into the mundane, the high volume of production. I can't wait for my "production" soapmaking to be done this year so I can infuse my business with new life and new energy- all thanks to knitting!