Now with 90% more knitting!

So my blog has felt completely unmoored by the lack of raw foodism going on around here, which is good for me, but leaves little writing fodder. And as it turns out, I like to write.

I am, however, a girl of obsession - if not food, then school or another project- and my longest running obsession has been my aforementioned knitting habit. I love to the think about projects and yarn, pairings of color and construction details. I rarely work from patterns, preferring to sit down with a tape measure, a calculator , graph paper and my trusty copy of Vogue Knitting to calculate the things in my head. My favorite phase of knitting comes prior to picking up the needles, that breathy anticipation of possibility. I am the seemingly rare monogamous knitting who works on one project straight through to completion.

This summer has been particularly fruitful (ha! fruitful. I slay me.) in the knits. I've cranked out a half dozen kerchief scarves since spring, which are my favorite accessory. I have also knit 1.5 sweaters. Although it feels more like three or four, since the 2nd sweater has been frogged twice at near completion due to some serious shaping flaws. And I have this cardigan that's been flowering in my head all afternoon.

It ebbs and flows. Last week I was feeling very stagnant, frustrated with the constant frogging-and-reknitting that my current project seemed to require, but today I feel excited and energized. So much so that I logged into blog about my love of knitting.

It's an odd coincidence, then, that as soon as I logged in, the first post to appear on my blog reading list was Jacey's latest podcast over at Insubordiknit. I have a crazy knitter crush on Jacey (ask Madeline, who was roped into my game of 'Let's see if we can meet her' at this past year's Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival- we did, as documented here), and her podcast is so smart and funny, but this one is particularly special, to me anyway. In it, she tells my story.

I haven't listened to it yet, although I will as soon as I get home. I'm excited! And nervous! It's not a story I tell often. The whole Christian-girl-turned-mental-patient-to-finally-become-gay-and-happy is too convoluted for cocktail parties (or the open bar nights I'm more likely to attend), and there's a lot of raw emotion still associated with it. As far as most of the people in my life are concerned, I am distant kin to Athena, mortal (not goddess) sprung forth fully formed at 19 without a past and moving only forward. It's comfortable that way. But everyone has a story, and this one is mine. Maybe you can relate. And maybe it will facilitate understanding. Or maybe you'll be entertained.

So go listen!

-Eloise

P.S. Ever important yarn details: both knits pictured are small generic triangle shawls made from the following yarns:

1. Drops Alpaca and Bijou Basin 50/50 Yak Down/Fine Wool trimmed with Koigu
2. Noro Silk Garden Sock with picot bind-off

There would be more pictures of many more kerchiefs, but my camera is being repaired by Canon. Again.