The Knitter!

I love The Knitter. I love that the internet came up with the idea of a knitting supervillain. I love that suddenly, knitting is cool. Knitting is hip. Knitting is something anyone can do. It can be a force for good (charity! warm fuzzy socks!) or evil (robbing banks ala The Knitter), beautification (yarn bombing!) or vandalism (also yarn bombing, but from a different perspective).  

For me, knitting is a stress buster. I knit to keep myself sane. It's a procrastination technique, but it's also soothing. The repetitive motion of stitch after stitch, row after row, one needle to the other, lets me think. With a simple pattern, my mind can sort itself out. I think in song lyrics, or about my day, or about any amount of work I have to do, or planning for a zombie apocalypse. When I have a more complicated pattern, I can't help but concentrate on it, and my worries sink for a little bit. It's lovely. As an added plus, I get cozy warm and hopefully awesome items out of the deal. 

I think everyone should learn to knit, for all of the above reasons (except the robbing banks one). Yarn bombing can free the artist in you, as well as the rebel and that inner ninja. Knitting for others unlocks compassion, as well as an appreciation for the work and love that go into making something unique and custom. And knitting for yourself is the ultimate win-win situation: wearable items, and distraction. Perfect!

Hard Comfort (or New Year's Resolutions)

Do I believe in New Year's resolutions? They're hard: hard to say, harder even to contemplated, hardest to go through with. I don't know what I'd resolve; probably to procrastinate less, work out more, get things done, all the normal things I see so many people try and do every day. I have no idea if I have the willpower to go through with even one bit of those huge ideas. Change is hard, really hard, harder than I'd like to admit on a daily basis. It's so easy (too easy) to go with the flow, keep up with the old routines, sink softly into the comfort of everyday existence. Comfort feels right. It's not always the best choice, and that scares me. Change scares me more than almost anything. When I think about the future, about going off to college, it seems so big and uncertain. It's hard to imagine living without my family, considering fending for myself in the real world, not having a safety net. My mind has a hard time processing that I'm four years away from The Real World.
Taxes and jobs and oh my god dating and spouses and no not ever having kids and living somewhere that
I
Don't
Know.
I only hope I can do what feels right, what I know to be good for me and my life. I hope to do what I love, what makes me happy. I can't imagine being stuck in a dead end job, the proverbial cubicle, purgatory. I want to write, make drinks for people, share the love. I want to be Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett and Anne Hathaway and that guy I just read about in Dwell Magazine and every single hipster chef/farmer ever all rolled into one. I want to wear clothes that I like and feel good and dye my hair and knit crazy socks and grow my own food and cook and make music and beautiful things. This is what I choose
to
do.
It's not always the big things that matter. Keep telling yourself that, kid. Maybe it'll work out. Happy New Year to me!

On Procrastination

It's a plague. It's a scourge. It's here in my room with me, and I can't get rid of it. It's procrastination! *insert dark theme music*

Funny thing is, I've been meaning to write about this topic for a while, but I didn't because, you guessed it, I was procrastinating. There are so many things that distract me!

Distractions:
1) The internet and all it's wonderful colorful graphics.
2) Skype and Facebook (not under the category of internet because they are different).
3) Knitting
4) Reading
5) Schoolwork. Yeah. That stuff.

It's terribly difficult to blog when I've got so much on my plate, and so many tasty delicacies to choose from, be it sleep or Tumblr-stalking or a new Terry Pratchett book. But I shall persevere, namely because it's good for me, but also because blogging is a way of not feeling so bricked up. The whole wide world of the internet can see this, and even though I've taken precautions to keep this blog from most of my friends, I have no issue with total strangers reading it. Strange, but possibly a bit of basic psychology. Who knows?