Yesterday, I was asked a profound question by Someone Who Shall Remain Nameless (but you know who you are!). "I'm enjoying your blogs," she said, "But I have to ask: isn't there more to life than knitting and cats?"
After my first disbelieving gasp, I thought maybe I'd consider the question in the cool light of reason. So.
#1) Cats: Is there more to life than cats? (Why, no!) There has been a little more energy than usual attached to the beasties this last week, as one of them has been afflicted with a mysterious stomach ailment. Which has resulted in nightly vomiting, and mornings stumbling bleary-eyed out of bed trying to avoid stepping in the results. YUCK! A visit to the vet and some kitty-gravol seem to have helped. We'll see when he's done his round of medication. Meanwhile, a little extra TLC seems in order, both for the invalid and, in the interest of fairness, the other two.
#2) Knitting: Is there more to life than knitting? Well, yes, there is - so much more! There's fondling balls (of yarn); S.E.X. (Stash Enhancing eXpeditions - a.k.a. buying yarn); there's planning new projects, admiring finished projects, inquiring after friends' projects, teaching my ESL student to knit, meeting friends for coffee to knit or discuss knitting, checking out knit-a-long message boards, tinking, frogging, re-knitting....even, when I don't want to knit, taking out my bins of yarn and looking at all the pretty colours and seeing if any of them speak to me just yet and whether I can bear to knit it up or if that particular skein is just for loving always in its unknit state...
And while all of that is enough fun to keep me entertained for hours and hours (we don't have cable, FYI)...what really keeps me at it is the community of knitters, off- and on-line, both. There's the knitting meet-up in town, where I get to meet cool women I wouldn't otherwise encounter. In the Blogiverse: Somebody's doing a hat drive for their local shelters, or for kids in Mongolia, or fundraising for another knitter's husband, newly-diagnosed with a nearly-always-terminal cancer. Somebody's cat has passed on, and condolences can be sent. Somebody else's cat has re-appeared after an absence of several months, and is in critical condition - more good energy sent out. Somebody's completed a project, yarn-ish or otherwise, that has challenged them and is dear to their hearts, or got married, or become an uncle for the first time - congratulations are in order! A couple of the cool knitters I now know in person, I have "met" through blogs, so it's not just a bunch of computer geeks unwilling to leave their houses. For all that a lot of the interaction takes place on-line, it really is a community, with a lot of sharing and generousity and support. It's a very cool example of a good thing that's come out of all this new communication technology - but that's a whole other post!
And frankly, there's the fun I have knitting-in-public, especially at a pub. The confusion it causes people to see someone knitting, With Beer! And Rock Music! Oh my! (Also, there's the personal safety thing - I have sharp pointy sticks at hand at all times, and I know how to use them!)
How's that for a long-winded answer?! Now it's back to the cats, since the puke-a-saurus has just upchucked between me and my brewing coffee...what fun!
2 comments:
nuff said - I feel purrroperly chastized
It must be summer. Nobody would even thing of asking that in the winter with toasty toes from hand knit socks, a cat or two on your lap to keep your legs warm and a shawl round your shoulders to ward off the chill!
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