Time

Well, after all that pissing and moaning, it looks like I will get my in-depth study finished after all. I am one sample away from having the spinning done and three socks away from getting the knitting done! How has this miracle come about, you ask? Because I decided that I was no longer going to buy into the greatest lie of the 21st century. You know the one--I have used it a dozen time on this blog....I don't have the time.

This all came about as the result of an encounter with a 4-year-old at Starbuck's. That's how the universe works.

I was sitting and visiting with my friend Bill, knitting merrily away on one of my sample socks in between sips of my half-sweet, non-fat, extra hot caramel machiatto, when I noticed a wee poppet staring at me. I smiled at her and said hi but, ever cautious of parental paranoia, left it at that and continued knitting. Her mommy collected her $5 coffee and came over to see what her offspring was up to when the little girl asked "What is she doing, Mommy?"

It had never occurred to me that there may be people who didn't know what knitting was, so I was a little floored by that innocent little question. Mommy told her that I was knitting, and I invited Mommy and little one over to watch. I explained that I was making a sock out of wool from a sheep, and that this is the way people used to make all their socks. I showed her the old knitting rhyme "Through the fence, gather the sheep, back again, off they leap" to make a stitch. Little missy was very impressed with this trick and I had to repeat it several times. Then Mommy said the thing that really stopped me in my tracks..."I used to do that, but I just don't have the time anymore."

What?!?! You don't have time to knit?!?! What about while you're watching TV, or waiting at the pre-school to pick up your precious little girl? Or while you're standing in Starbuck's, waiting 10 minutes for a cup of coffee?

So off go mom and tot, and Bill and I resumed our conversation and the matter was dropped. But my mind being the rather circular thing it is, the thought kept popping up--who doesn't have time to knit? I kept coming up with opportunities to get a few rows, or even a few stitches, in. While supper is cooking. In the drive-thru line at your local fast-food joint. Grocery store lines, doctors' offices, while reading bedtime stories, travelling to and from the city, on the bus in town, instead of endlessly blogging....

Then I decided that I too wasted precious moments, or found excuses to be distracted when something became challenging. And that that was enough of that. So I started telling people that dinner would be ready when it was ready and that they could walk instead of getting yet another ride today. And I put my money where my mouth is...I knit while I sit and wait. I knit or spin in front of the TV--which isn't that great of a change, frankly! I do not stop spinning because my kids or my dog come into the room. And I set the challenge of getting current things done before I start any new projects, fibery or otherwise.

And now I am one spinning sample and three socks away from being done. There is still the wear-testing to do, but I even have that organized and ready to go.

So, the moral of this story is : You have the time if you want to do it.

Just do it.