Knitting cobwebs with chopsticks.

I think this is the first time that I have ever knitted something and not enjoyed the process. The yarn is exquisite - KSH and Collinette, the soon to be finished product looks so good that even non-knitting people have commented favourably. I love the designers ( the Mason Dixon Knitters via Debbbie New's Unexpected Knitting. ) and I can look at pictures of others of the same breed for hours on end. I am just not having fun with the knitting part. Scribbling might not be for me.

At this juncture, I am conscious that some of my knitting free friends who read this blog ( and leave sweet messages - thank you Sammy Leigh Mac ) might have less than a clue about what scribbling has to do with knitting. In a nutshell, it is a way of knitting thick and thin yarn in the same piece of work on ginormous kneedles so that the thin stuff looks all diaphanous and lovely and the thick stuff looks like very swanky scribbles. It also allows a stingy knitter to showcase v.expensive yarn without needing to shell out millions on enough for a jumper. Scribbles usually end up as scarves, you see. There is a lot of fiddling around and sliding the knitting from side to side and the thin stuff doesn't like being knitted on the big needles and the thick stuff gets tangled up in the growing length of scarf when doing the sliding from side to side on springy circular needles and I just can't get a rhythm going.

So out of this agony, I've learned something - I am a rhythmic knitter. Caroline, stepdaughter and current houseguest/crafty collaborator had a look at what I was doing and announced that she would love to try the technique because it would keep her attention. After resisiting the temptation to hand the whole thing over to her, I had a think and realised that the very thing that bores her about knitting, the repetitiveness and some might say monotony of doing lots of similar rows or combinations of rows in order to make a pattern, is exactly what makes me a happy wielder of pointy sticks. That and a continuing Buffy the Vampire Slayer obsession.

I'm going to finish my scribble scarf, enjoy the result and knit a double bedspread next time. As the photo of Knitting Headquarters shows, I'll not be short of yarn to choose from.