Knitting ADD, Crackberries, and Being a Stranger in a Strange Land

I started another new project on Sunday, a baby sweater for my friend's granddaughter, who was born on March 20th. Beautiful little Katie will be getting a blanket and a sweater from me hopefully before she finishes college. At the rate I'm going the sweater is not going to fit her until then anyway. What started as a baby sweater has quickly turned into a toddler sweater. Mostly because of my loathing of knitting a gauge swatch. (OK not mostly, completely.) I feel like it's such a waste of time to do the swatch. It's knitting without anything to show for it. "But it's not a waste of time," you say. "It's a necessary step to creating a perfect completed object." Yeah, yeah, yeah...I know this logically. But the ADD Knitter in me (you know the one that makes me start project after project without completing any of them) takes over my brain and throws logic out the window. At any rate, I vow to finish these two projects in the next 2 weeks. I think this is a reasonable goal as I am 75% finished with both things. But I really want to start a coin lace stole!....Aaack! Somebody stop me! ADD Knitter is back in my brain! Do I have an evil alter ego? Are aliens taking over my brain? Stay tuned. You will learn the answers to these and many more questions in a later episode.

My blackberry. How did I ever live without it? I think I was probably a much happier person not being obsessed by checking it all the time. But I love it. It's so small and cute and pink. It lets me check Facebook, Ravelry and Twitter at any time or any place I want. I do try really hard not to be rude about it when I'm with other people but it's not easy. I resisted text messaging for so long. "What's wrong with actually talking to people," I said condescendingly. Now it's my primary method of communication. I laughed when people called them Crackberries but now I see why. It really is like a drug. It calls me, yearningly, to pick it up..."Just check your email," it says. "Or how about Facebook?" It silently whispers. "Just once. No one will know." Alter ego? Aliens? Or just me with absolutely no will power what-so-ever? I think we can all guess the answer to that question.

I am a stranger in a strange land. I am a small town girl from Pennsylvania transplanted to this frenetic, insane place. I have lived in other places; Pittsburgh, Washington DC, Virginia Beach but nothing compares to South Florida. I thought it would be very southern here, that the pace would be slower. I was wrong. There really is an energy here that's exciting and scary all at the same time. The traffic is like nothing I've experienced. Everyone drives like they're on their way to a fire and then they pull their cars over wherever they want. I am constantly seeing people pull over and stop on medians and in turning lanes and just sitting there. But out of their cars, people are very friendly and seem quite reasonable for the most part. I am meeting alot of really nice people in my new knitting groups-The Hollywood Divas and The Sweet Stitchin' Betties. You can always count on knitters to make you feel less like a stranger (not less strange-we are a weird and eclectic group!) and more like you belong.

So to sum up, I am going to complete my 2 baby projects if I remain in my right mind, my Crackberry is an addiction, and knitters rock! Tune in next time. Same bat time. Same bat channel.(OK not the same bat time probably.)