Friday, February and 5th

Well, well here it is Friday and February and my 5th Blogiversary!

Being Friday I can now report a week of monogamous knitting on Ranger! No screaming progress as a result but sleeve #2 is underway and if I hadn't been faithful goodness knows where on sleeve #1 I'd still be.

Being February is also not being January - a month where I kind of mentally checked out. I can't say for sure how much of that was by choice or just portions of my brain taking a breather. I've pushed myself past my physical limit in the past to the point of feeling ill with exhaustion but never has my ever busy and hungry mind ever been more sieve than steel trap.

I'm not talking about sadness or depression or being disinterested in things. Just not having capacity to manage commitments to anyone or even any thought. I could feel it beginning to happen after Christmas and I just went with it as a necessary passing thing, I was relaxed about it, kept up exercising and eating right and now the clouds and fog are lifting.

Good thing too as today's new found clarity has me suddenly recognizing its the 5th Anniversary of this blog documenting the adventure of "catching up" my knitting skills with those of the talented young knitters I'd been following on line.

I feel like now I am at the point I was aiming for - I did catch up...

I know lots of ways to cast on, I've steeked and felted, learned Continental, struggled with altering patterns and understanding fit. I've taken lessons from big time designers and workshops aplenty.

I've ordered yarn on line and done regular rounds of the many shops in our Great City.

I have (DKC)Frolicked and Modelled. I've maintained a membership in that guild, tried Stitch and Bitch drop ins, attended Knitty Yarn Tastings and joined a regular craft group.

I've bought expensive hand dyed skeins, knit with pencil roving, fine alpaca, heavy cotton and mohair lace yarn. I've worked sweaters with more than a dozen colours within them and re imagined colour schemes from scratch. I've used Intarsia Bobbins and done one and two handed stranded colour work.

I've explored the many three dimensional attributes of Gloves, Hats, Mitts and of course socks from top down and bottom up using Bamboo, Birch, Addis, Vintage straights and handfulls of dpn's.

Zippers, buttons and linings have been installed in my knits. I've dallied with lace and seen firsthand the value of woolly wool.

I joined Ravelry, made real life knitting friends and attended Yarn Harlot readings where I knew so many in the room I shocked myself. I met knitters in person after coming to know them on line.

I discovered Elizabeth Zimmerman and have tried to channel her as well as work her "rules" and I've considered many of Annie Modesitt's "heretical" ideas.

I've learned about and used safety lines and stitch markers, row counters and stitch holders. I've bought T pins and blocking boards, blocking wires and SOAK. I've built up from a wee collection of knitting magazines to a bit of a knitting library with books and pdf patterns, stitch dictionaries and instructional manuals.

I've watched YouTube How To's and listened to knitting podcasts. I taught beginner knitting to school children over an Academic Year.

I've received gifts in the mail from knitters all over the world and blogging awards too. Thrilling!

I haven't yet joined a KAL  (I did an Olympic Knit Sweater if that counts!) I haven't knit with beads. I haven't spun my own yarn or bought a loom. 'Haven't knit from silk hankies or thrummed. I have never travelled to a knitting event or gone on a knitting tour. I don't regularly attend an LYS knit night and I have yet to try out an on-line Craftsy-like course.

Once I bought yarn on sale without a pattern in mind for two projects. That yarn burned a hole in my brain for almost three years before I knit it up and was free of its silent but unrelenting pressure. Needless to say I have never developed a yarn stash.

Through all of this the biggest lessons have come from making stupid mistakes. The biggest victories are the sensations of confidence to now try pretty much anything out there and/or to work up something from my own imagination.

Over all five years people have pointed out I could always buy that (fill in the blank) faster than make it myself, suggest I must be a very patient person and have helpfully observed I clearly have too much time on my hands.

None of the members of my family have become any better at standing in a yarn shop without having an anxiety attack although the knitting-related gifts I receive from them are starting to increase and improve dramatically.

Oh and somewhere along the line I came to think of myself as a knitblogger ; to self identify as "Sel and Poivre". I've even introduced myself as such.

So what now? Now its time to enjoy.

Enjoy more monogamy with Ranger, the longer days, brighter sun and clearing mind of February and maybe tinker with how things look around here. I haven't even checked into all the new doo dads Blogger offers these days. And I'm going to enjoy the weekend!

Hope you do too. Thanks so very much for dropping by!