Can I Play?

I feel a bit like the dorky kid on the playground who has to ask to be included in the game of tag. I know that knitalongs aren’t really like that, but somehow when I go through the process of asking to join something, I start getting all those kickball reject feelings again. What if they don’t like me? What if they won’t let me play? Even worse, what if they make me play in the infield and I take one right in the smacker? I guess somewhere my brain says, “If you were really cool, you wouldn’t have to ask to play. Your presence would be assumed.” No, I don’t have any issues.

Part of my hesitation with knitalongs* has been my own scheduled knitting and the rules I try to impose about finishing projects before I start new ones. I think to really get into the knitalong you need to jump right in in the beginning when everyone is hot and heavy about the project. I seem to be about three years behind. Knitting Lara now? Most knitters have been there, done that and are already having to darn their sweaters from excessive wear.

Then there’s the pressure of having to finish during the time allotted, something I don’t really do so well at. We don’t need to go into my relationship to deadlines; it’s not pretty. I really surprised myself with finishing my Knitting Olympic socks on time. I’ve got enough stress about deadlines outside my knitting, why add more?

Really, I think I haven’t done them before mainly due to my ever so slight independent streak. Okay, maybe slight isn’t the best choice of words. I’ve been told that “Do it self.” was either my first sentence or my favorite sentence, probably both. (Sorry I was such a brat, Mom. Sorry I still am such a brat, Mom!) I suppose that the independent streak and the dorky kid factor probably go together. “Fine, I don’t care that I’m not cool enough for your slumber party. I’d rather be by myself with a book anyway. So there.” Yeah, really, no issues.

Well, wild and crazy things are happening here because I didn’t just start lurking on a knitalong, I threw myself into two of them!

The Amazing Lace

I really like the challenges aspect of this one and I can even fulfill my goal of finishing things since I have two lace projects on the needles right now. I owe my aunt a finished stole from last Christmas and last summer I started designing a lace sweater for myself adapted from several patterns. I’d really like to do a Kiri shawl as well, but I’m going to stick to trying to finish these two things. It will be interesting to see what they have us do for the challenges so I like the mystery of it all. Lace is one of those things that I’d like to do more of so I’m sure I’ll get tons of great ideas from this one.

Trek Along

This one poses a challenge of a different sort. See, I don’t actually have any of this yarn… yet. Do I break the yarn diet (really, more of a fast)? It’s been hinted that I may be getting some gift certificates from yarn stores for my birthday, but do I wait until the end of June to get started? Again, I love the idea of trekking and picture taking with knitting. This morning I had to go on a cream cheese run (quite an oops when I woke up and realized I had yummy bagels but nothing to spread on them) and I started thinking about how much I like to start my day with a little walk around the ‘hood. I do like hiking too and there are some great trails around here that I’ve never really explored. There could be pictures of the urban landscape around here and then the natural ones in the nearby parks. So… I’m signing up on faith that I’ll have trekking yarn either of my own volition or from friends. Really, this would be a pretty good reason to break the fast anyway. I was planning to buy some of this stuff as one of my first purchases anyway. I’ll just bump it up to June rather than waiting until Rhinebeck.

Okay, that’s probably enough group play for this blogger for now. If only signing up for
dissertation-alongs was as much fun!

*I keep writing kingalongs for some strange reason… waaaaaay too much time thinking about British aristocracy, methinks.