Writing v. Knitting

You'll have to forgive me because I am going to introduce myself and then disappear for the most part, at least until August 15th. That's when the next book is due and for me getting a book done becomes writing v. knitting. Last summer I didn't pay any attention to the signs and was writing and knitting like a fiend and before you know it I was in the physical therapist's office getting hand therapy for early carpal tunnel. Those two words have got to be the scariest to both breeds, writers and knitters. But when you do both, yikes! (or as I said the budget minded engineer husband, "I'll quit writing before I quit knitting.") After 911 revived him, I knew the knitting had to take a backseat until the book was done and I could go into my annual Sept-December Christmas knitting frenzy without worries of the house being foreclosed. More on that in September-the frenzy that is, not the Boyle budget.

However, this year I have restrained myself from picking a summer project that calls to me like a Siren from my knitting bag. Instead, I chose to work on a sweater. Actually, I have three of them going right now in various stages. Sweaters, I find, are like running a marathon, much like writing a book. None of the sweet satisfaction of knitting up a cute hat in an evening in some chunky, funky yarn and wearing it the next day to impress the walking partner with your artistic prowess. No, knitting a sweater is like writing a book. The joy of the finding that great idea (read: cool sweater pattern), searching for the right characters (ie perfect yarn), and then comes the work. Sitting down to knit it. And knit it. And knit it. Like one does when you have 400 pages between you and those magical words "The End." So the sweater progresses slowly, through swimming lessons and ortho appointments and the occasional evening I sit down to watch something, while the book takes up all the extra time and the tendon power.