We know that we live in what seems to be a four dimensional world and in which we are subject to certain rules. Nothing can go faster than light in a vacuum. Nothing, even light, can get out of a black hole. For some reason, we can move anyway we want in the first three dimensions but only forward in the fourth. In this world, some things like matter and energy are conserved. Neither can be created or destroyed, although they can be interchanged (but you're probably even less interested in the details of that phenomenon than I am in explaining them).
My theory is that knitting is subject to a similar conservation law. We've all experienced the knitting equivalent of a black hole, where we knit and knit and knit on a sleeve or scarf or something and it just doesn't get any longer. Here's what I think: all that knitting that's not going into your project, despite the motion of your hands and needles and consumption of yarn is actually going to some other knitter by way of some warped aspect of spacetime. Some other knitter is moving her hands and needles and using up yarn at the usual rate but ending up with rapidly growing sleeves or scarves or socks. It's a sort of conservation of yarn and knitting.
I could be wrong, but I have no other way to explain the amount of knitting I've done since I posted last Sunday. Since that post, I have spent approximately 50 hours at work, 9 hours commuting, and 10 hours on school work. I have read Free Range Knitter (start to finish) and about half of Quantum of Solace. I've gone for a bike ride, a swim, and a run (on different days). I've been to church, got my car washed, bought groceries and made a trip to Target. I'm not living in squalor - I've kept the dining room table clear, the kitchen clean and my floor free of dirty clothes. I have slept (not as much as I would have liked - probably about 50 hours for the week). And somehow, even with all of that, I have managed an incredible amount of knitting.
The winter jaywalkers are now a complete sock (I even wove in the ends) and the start of a mate. (By the way, the first attempt at the first of these socks? Too big. It turns out I was right, and size 11 feet aren't quite that big. They're large, just not that large.)
I'd mentioned a scarf. This is the scarf, knit in linen stitch out of Queensland Collection Rustic Wool. I'm really liking it, especially how purple it is. I think the linen stitch is producing a nicely mottled and fantastically dense fabric. I can't wait to get to the end so I can add fringe!
And I think I said something about a sweater, too. I don't have much experience knitting sweaters - I've only knit one before. That was my Olympic sweater and it took me a bit over a year to finish. This time, though, it's going much faster (I've started with sleeves, so that may be part of it), and I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll have it done by Thanksgiving. (Of course in saying that, I've probably jinxed myself, but I like to live on the edge a little, at least when it comes to knitting.)
Really, I think the only way that I could have done this much knitting is if I was benefiting from some other knitter's black hole. To that knitter: I'm sorry I'm stealing your knitting, but thank you for the effort. I hope someday, you get to benefit from one of my black holes.
