I am still madly knitting on a regular basis, just in case you all were wondering. But I decided that my obsession had reached the point where I was probably boring anyone but fellow knitters, so I moved all my babble about needles and yarns and what-not over to a new spot. So if you're so inclined to keep up on my latest adventures in yarn, you can follow along at Knit One, Purr Two.

This makes three separate journals I'm keeping if you count the photolog. And to think I once scoffed that anyone would ever need more than one. I also once thought that I would never come up with enough random chatter to keep more than one journal at a time. Clearly I was wrong.

But anyway, I was talking about knitting. I'm fully aware of the fact that I have become just the teeniest bit addicted to it. But really, that makes complete sense, since this *is* me we are talking about here – the one who used to dream in database code. I like numbers. I did very well in math. Algebra and calculus made sense to me. And since knitting is, pure and simple, all about the numbers, it was only natural that I'd take to it like a cat to sunbeams. Every pattern is just a mathematical equation written in yarn instead of on a chalkboard, but they both come out the same. Get the numbers wrong and your equation doesn't ring true. Get all the numbers right and you make something pretty. And above all else, always remember that any equation can always be fixed with enough tweaking. Sometimes it just takes one heck of a lot of tweaking and it might have made far more sense to just erase it all and start over with a fresh piece of chalk, but nevertheless, numbers always work out in the end. That's the beauty of math, and thus the beauty of knitting.

I have been amazing myself with each project I do, just how quickly I am picking this all up. Everything I make involves new techniques to learn, and nothing I've done so far has been the slightest bit difficult because (do I really need to say it again?), it all boils down to numbers. My knitting-enabling friend laughed at me at our last craft night and commented that I'm going to know more than she does if I keep at it at this rate, and she's been knitting for most of her life. All I know is that it makes me happy. When I'm sitting there with my needles and my yarn, and a cat or two snoozing on my lap and pretending very hard that they really have no intention of trying to eat either yarn or needles if I happen to be stupid enough to leave them unattended (ha!), I enter a zone of contentment. I can knit while watching TV. I can knit when I'm on the plane flying to and fro. I can knit for hours on end. When I do not have a project I can work on I feel a distinct loss, as if something is missing, and I immediately track down something to work on Right Now.

I fully recognize that a year or three down the road I may give it up and move on to something else, but in the meantime I'm going to take full advantage of the obsession. There is a small but impressive stash of yarn in our spare room. There are finished and partially finished Christmas presents that I'm quite proud of, waiting in drawers with cedar blocks to keep them from getting musty. And best of all, there are beautiful handmade things just for me.

Now…what shall I cast on for next?

This has been an entry for Alphabytes.