I could live with this

There are reasons I enjoy knitting in public. One is that I've never gotten over the fear that everyone in the world is looking at me, mocking me (like the girls in my 6th grade class, but I digress) and if I'm knitting I have a pretty solid idea of what they're looking at. Another is that knitting in public, like writing or drawing or being pregnant, is something that occasionally breaks down the personal space barriers so that the complete stranger who sat next to me on the bus today looked at the yarn and needles in my hands, looked at his scarf and said "How quickly can you knit that thing?" to which I responded "It'll take a bit longer than this trip, I'm afraid." 

(Of course this was before I realized that I'd left my pattern at home and while I have the gist of it down, I don't have row beginnings and ends memorized yet. So I had to stop knitting before properly leaving Berkeley. But again, I digress.)

I like sharing what I do. There is something so wonderful about how complex the simple act of knitting (or many other crafts and arts) is and when others take joy in that... Well, there really isn't enough joy in the world, generally speaking. Adding to it is pretty darn groovy.

The finicky socks are done (and when I invest in a digital camera, or beg Clive for the use of his, I'll start putting pictures up here) and the next project, which is really the second piece of a set which is a surprise, is on my needles. I keep looking at the list of projects I'd like to be working on (or have finished and wearing) and get cramps, but then I put the socks on and feel much better. They are magic socks.

Works are works are works. I'm grateful beyond belief to even have a job, but the tapioca-brain thing which has been my norm for more than a week can stop like nowish. Or start feeling normal. At this point I'd settle for either.

I totally understand those people who want to knit for a living. Then I remember what doing theatre for a living did to my love for it, and I think: Actually the office job is not so bad after all.