Monday, January 28, 2013

Names are Hard

Naming something shouldn't be that hard.

But it is.

I spent much longer than I care to admit trying to come up with a name for this blog.

I've wanted to make a knitting blog for a while. Most of the time when I get the urge to do something, if I don't do it immediately, I usually lose any motivation I have for said thing like that time I wanted to get my tongue pierced or that time I wanted to drive to Alaska or that time I decided I was going to exercise everyday. Losing motivation is possibly the number one thing I'm good at. And sleeping. I'm pretty good at sleeping too.

So I sat. And thought. And pondered. (And stressed over a name.) A name that would capture the feel of this blog. It's going to be a place where I talk about knitting and whatever the hell else I want to talk about which means it will probably be about food or my anxieties about everyday life.

(I have to give props to Carl Linnaeus. He had to go and name everything that ever lived. I guess he had a system for it though. Maybe I should get a system for this...)

It seemed like everything I wanted to call this silly little thing was already taken by angst-filled writers or scrapbookers or people who set up a blog and then never bothered to write a post. (Talk about losing motivation.) I mean, at this point I've at least MADE the damn thing. I've even made a banner image that took whole seconds and reuses a picture that I've used for no less than two other things. What can I say, I really like that picture.

So finally I came up with a name. It's not the greatest name but I think it fits.

Since I have deemed this a knitting blog, of course the first project I'm going to share is a crochet project.


It's another reused picture. I tried to take a better one but it just couldn't match the midday shot I took a few months ago.

I don't know much about crocheting at all really. I know how to make these little squares and I know how to make a granny square and the also popular granny hexagon but besides these things, I can't do anything. I don't even hold my hook like any crocheter ever. I hold it like a knitting needle and do my yarn overs like a knitter. I'm a knitter by birthright. I'm the fifth known generation of knitters. I don't know about you, but I think that's pretty cool. I might be the sixth or seventh but we don't know much further back than the four previous generations. I've never been addicted to any drug, besides caffeine so I'm just going off of pop culture examples of drug addicts but knitting to me is like a drug. I itch if I go too long without knitting. It's what I think about at work, it's what I dream about, it's what I crave to do. It might sound crazy to non-knitters or even to knitters but it's the truth. 

So now I'm going to talk about crocheting.

I started this project after seeing another blanket done similarly on the great website Ravelry. The woman who made that blanket though did each square individually and then sewed them all together. She also used full skeins of yarn. I'm using scraps leftover from other projects and I'm joining as I go. I started this blanket at a poker game. I used to play poker weekly and I would often knit generally craft while playing during the hands I was out or while we waited for cards to be dealt or for people to show up. I decided it was going to be 40 squares across. 40 squares by 60 squares. Each square is about an inch across. 40 x 60 = 2400 squares. I also decided to just use scraps. Little bits left over from all of the other projects I was working on or had laying around. I started this project just over three years ago. I have roughly 17.5% done.

I knew this project was going to take me a long time. I just hadn't realized it when I started it. I still forget sometimes when I work on it. It's not something I am constantly working on. Sporadically I pick it up and will do 10 or 20 squares while watching some TV show. Because I limit myself to smaller scraps, I must finish other projects first. It's a constant cycle. 

I am excited about finishing it however many years down the road that will be but...

(I don't think it's time to introduce you to my crazy. Let's save that for another day.)

I picked up this project again this weekend. I didn't get much done. Just another 10 squares. Slowly but surely the tortoise will win the race.

Right?