priorities?

I ask you, how long should it take to write 250 words? Half and hour? An hour? 250 words is not much. It's one paragraph, half a page, maybe. It has taken me days, and still I have nothing to show for it. Hours of staring at my computer, thinking while driving, while showering, while sleeping... stewing on it while hanging out with friends, while knitting (or not knitting), while cooking... and still, I have nothing to show for it except pages of scrappy notes and a rapidly approaching deadline. It is surprisingly challenging to write an abstract for a paper that deals with research you are still in the process of doing. I feel like I can't get enough distance to analyze it. I'm frustrated. T minus four hours and counting...

All of that said, I'm wasting time now re-considering my knitting priorities. First, a show of progress:

Jaywalkers for Jennie, in STR "Fire on the Mountain"


Orangina, rumbled, but oh so pretty.


I am definitely still on a yarn diet, partially out of need (no money and not a lot of space) and partially for the challenge (it's interesting to think of what I can make with what I have, rather than running around buying yarn for new projects). That said, Theresa points out that 64 skeins is a pretty modest stash. It is - and it's fun to have yarn to look at, to touch, to be inspired by. So, I have reconsidered my priorities. What needs to happen is a little finishing. I need to get all of these projects (like Jaywalkers #3 and 4) off the needles so that some of the stuff I have stewing in my mind can be knit. I still am not allowed to buy yarn until May, but I have enough in progress to make that feasible. And in the meantime, I can use some of my stash yarn to work on technique, which is sorely needed.

I've also set a goal to spend some time thinking and, more specifically, writing about knitting. I used to love to write, and sometimes I think graduate school beat that love right out of me. Writing became something utilitarian, something that needed to be done to meet a deadline and definitely not something that I connected to beauty and creativity. It is important to me to write a dissertation that is beautiful as well as informative, and though my dissertation has virtually nothing to do with knitting, I think if I can remember my love of writing though outlets not related to my dissertation, it will inspire me to write more creatively in my dissertation. Hopefully, this will have the bonus result of some posts that are better written than my usual off-the-top-of-the-head ranting.