Hi all, I’m sorry I haven’t been writing here; or at least, I’m sorry that I haven’t been writing here so that you can see them. Over the past few days I’ve been doing a lot of writing about knitting, and I’ve been using TealArt as a repository for this writing, but I’ve kept those categories hidden. I think this is cool, as it allows me to edit and organize a lot of my thoughts and drafts using an existing (and mobile) software system that I can access from any computer with an internet connection. I’ve set up a hidden tree of categories for various writing projects, but you probably don’t care that much.
I’ve written about 40 pages worth of knitting pattern and discussion. The idea behind this project is to record patterns/recipies that I’ve made up over the past year and basic forms that I use frequently. (I think Stephanie calls her basic knitting pattern’s recipes, I like it.) Additionally, I’ve always wanted to write patterns that I enjoy in basic conversational styles that aren’t intimidating and hopefully can be inspiring to knitters, wheather they are interested in knitting the patterns or not. It’s fun. I’ve written 2 patterns, and I want to write two or three more before I put together something to shop around. Mostly because what I have right now are how to knit x object in a very plain way. Which wouldn’t be representative of what this project is.
When I wrote fiction, it could be like pulling teeth at times, and this hasn’t even felt a twinge like that. A very good thing. A lot of fiction writers say “write what you know,” which always rubbed me the wrong way. I wrote/write science fiction, and I sure as hell didn’t know a thing about life on a space ship, I don’t know anything about telepathy, and when I wrote it I didn’t know very much about a lot of the stuff I wrote about. Some of it came off just fine too, because if we only wrote what we know, there would never be anything new. Fiction is about synthesis and creation. So the “write what you know” directive, seemed defeatist.
Having said that, knitting writing, is very much something I know, and writing is fun and comparatively easy. So I’m going to work on this project and see where I get from it. I’d still like to write fiction again. On that note I should go dig up a copy of The Great Gatsby.
I haven’t been actually knitting much outside of my head. I’m working on a sock that is progressing with acceptable speed. I’m still on sort-of-hiatus of a few days from my bigger sweater project as I suspected I would be. I’m going to be driving up to wisconsin on Sunday, so things are starting to get hectic around here and I’m not going to have as much free time over the next 4-5 days, after that I’ll have more free time.
Stay tuned.
Cheers, Sam