the next knit

I had the great pleasure of attending a talk by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the Yarn Harlot herself, last week. I was supposed to attend with my mom, but she was unable to go, and I waffled on whether I wanted to go by myself or not. This was a knitting guild event, and the organizers are always reminding us that if we want these good teachers to keep coming to Buffalo, we need to show them our support. Plus I've been in this guild for nearly ten years so it's not like I was heading into a room full of strangers! Anyway, I went. Best decision ever. She is SO FUNNY! If you are a knitter or really any crafter, and you get the opportunity to hear her speak, GO. 

In fact, if you go to her site, and read the May 20th post, there is a photo of our guild! I can't find my tiny head though...I sat near the back. 

So yes, she was amazing and funny and insightful, and talked about lots of issues that are important to knitters. I sat up a little straighter when she talked about how for most (if not all) knitters, our favorite knit is...the next one. Everyone laughed but muttered agreement, because isn't it true? The project we are working on is only awesome for about the first 3 inches, and then our fickle brains are on to the next thing we want to make. I know that is true for me. Case in point, in the above photo is the prayer shawl I literally just started, but I keep shooting longing looks at the book underneath, Victorian Lace Today, and daydreaming about which shawl I will cast on.

There is nothing wrong with the pattern I am working on (for the newly-formed prayer shawl ministry at my church), and I don't think there's anything wrong with being excited about future projects. But I know that for me, much of the point of knitting and crafting is the idea of flow. Basically flow is that awesomely focused feeling one gets when fully immersed in some activity (crafting, cooking, playing an instrument, really anything). Frankly, no one needs to knit anymore, and it's not much of a savings (if any) over buying manufactured items, so really the main reason to do it is to achieve this sense of flow. So, I don't know, I just think it's funny that the whole reason most of us knit is for the zen feeling we get, and yet our silly lizard brains are always pushing us toward what's coming next.