2011..the year I lost my knitting mojo.

Yup.  The knitting mojo - it is caput.  Gone.  Left the building.  Moved on to greener pastures.  Poof!  You may recall back here, a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, I was all fired up over Hawthorne. 

All 314 cast on stitches of her.  Perfect yarn, perfect pattern...what could go wrong?  That question is still without answer, but somewhere around row 15 I realized that it was a big old mess.  Big. Old. Mess.....and I ripped.  I casted on again, this time with special stitch markers and still a fail.  WTF?  I am better than this.  I have faced off lace with multiple charts and departed victorious.  I ripped again.  This time I decided I just needed a little chart break and casted on Lady Eleanor.  I've knitted the Lady before and enjoyed it SO much and guess what?  I screwed it up.  The bell tolleth for me.  I have lost the mojo. Knitting Sisters, you know this is bad. 

So, I decided I needed to clean the cache and go back to knitting 101.  I got out a pair of straights (I can't remember the last time I knitted with straight needles.), some yukky cotton and proceeded to knit myself some dish cloths, and I'm not talking about the really cute patterned ones.  No, oh no, it was garter stitch all the way and by the grace of the knitting goddess I did not screw them up.  So, I moved on to these little washie things...

....the swirly thing shown in the pic, which was fun and also executed without tears. 

I have now moved up to Popblock from the new Knitty.

A few months ago I thought this much garter stitch would send me to the funny farm, but you know what?  It's rather peaceful.  Sure, there isn't much skill or thought involved, but this is not a competition.  It is a hobby, a love, a lifestyle.  I am a knitter.  What I knit does not constitute a knitter, the act of knitting does. Right? 

Has my mojo returned?  I'm not sure.  I'm guessing that my problem has much to do with the fact that my mind was/is constantly going in a hundred different directions.  (Managing a retail store during the holidays is not for the faint of heart.) My lack of concentration kicked the mojo in the behind.  Such is life.  And, the knitting mojo was not the only one to take a hit.  Yoga, meditation, eating right, reading....all of it has fallen to the back burner and it is way past time to change that.

So 2012, all shiny and new, I am not generally one to make resolutions on your first day, or for that matter, any day, but this year I'm gonna get the mojo back. 

So say we all!  (Any Battlestar Galactica fans out there?)

Comments

[Melissa]

Okay, I've just gotta say...Our brains go through changes and stresses all the time. It's not only you, honey...it happens to all of us and it's not the knitting "mojo" it's more like the knitting "neurons".

Happy knitting in 2012!

[Vicki]

Not Battlestar Galactica, but how about some Star Trek: Next Generation and "Make it so!"

I love 2012, "all shiny and new." Happy New Year, Holly!!