Hobbies and Life Away From Writing

You know how there are some days when you just don't feel like working. Maybe you call in sick. Maybe you take the day as a vacation day. But either way, you just don't feel like being at your desk (or wherever you spend your work hours.)

Much as I love to write, there are times when I just need a break from it entirely. I don't want to look at revisions (After the Storm is still giving me a pain), nor do I want to do research, or even read, for that matter. And the last few days, that's how I've been feeling. Maybe it's the weather, maybe I'm just being lazy - but either way, I just don't feel like doing anything even remotely related to writing.

So...

I decided to learn how to knit.

Now, when I was a kid, my mother taught me to crochet. She is the crochet-queen. Each of my kids have blankets (yes, that's blankets). I have several. My husband has them (in NY Giants and NY Yankees colors). My brother. My niece. Friends of ours who've had kids - well, you get the point.

Anyhow, she tried to teach me and, while I wasn't exactly a disaster, I did have a habit of pulling the stitches too tight, which makes whatever you're working on curl up. I made a few blankets for my Barbie dolls, but they curled up into these yarn curly-fries. So I just kind of let it go.

So, I decide I need a hobby. I used to do cross-stitching, but those needles are so tiny, the last thing I need is to lose one and have the Boy find it. So that was out. Could crochet again, but nah... don't really want to...

Why not knitting?

So that's what I'm doing. I'm learning to knit. I've got the garter stitch down (I'm making a scarf for the Boy - also known now as the Guinea Pig) and I'm doing all right with it. A few dropped stitches. A few stitches that I somehow managed to add into the mix. But I'm managing not to pull those stitches tight (okay, I confess, I did it a little in the beginning. But I'm better now, I swear.) So the Boy just may have a very crude scarf in the next week or so. Then I'll try more complicated stitches (ha ha - should be interesting.)

So now I've got something to do when I don't feel like writing. And since I'm gearing up for my next round of edits on Eden's Pass, and just about ready to send out After the Storm (yes, I'm quite optimistic that it will stop giving me a pain - it is almost finished) I think I will take the next few days to knit this scarf. Then I'll drive myself crazy learning the really difficult stuff. By then, I'll probably be more than thrilled to sit down and get back to work.

It should be fun. =)