All over the blogosphere–specifically the crafting blogosphere–are posts about how knitters turn on the TV as background noise while they knit or to make row after row of fingering weight stockinette more bearable. My mother would always turn on Victor/Victoria while working on a long sewing project. Or they knit while their spouse watches football or their offspring watches Elmo and Big Bird. These crafters aren’t really interested in what’s on the screen. To them, the show is for someone else or just so there isn’t dead silence. On the flipside are the knitters who actually watch the TV and knit to keep their hands busy. I suppose that this latter group is where I should be classified although I don’t pick up my projects because of itchy fingers–I knit during TV out of guilt.
I will start knitting so that I have an excuse to turn on the TV. I will masquerade as a non-watcher while actually being engrossed in the program. See, I come from a long line of doers and makers. My mother sews and quilts and my father has his fly-tying and assorted fix-it-ups. My sister loves wood-working. Although TV watching was never forbidden in our house, it was never encouraged as a primary activity. We were supposed to be productive. This sounds admirable but it’s become a bit of a neurosis with me.
This Tuesday, I realized that I might have a bit of a problem. The Lost season premiere was on and I really wanted to see it. Matt and I sat down, turned the set on, and the guilt set in. I was about to watch 2 hours of TV for its own sake and I didn’t want to do anything else during the show. Now, I’m a grown woman and, my mother can’t ground me for being lazy–but I still felt awful. Watching isn’t producing. Intellectually, I know that there isn’t anything wrong with watching a bit of TV now and again–and Lost certainly takes more brain power than most shows. My hands didn’t want to be busy, but I felt like they had to be. I’ve got to break myself of this, or at least change my outlook.
The good thing about guilt-powered knitting is that I’ve finished up to projects this week.
Boy Blue is finished and fabulous. And I also finished up some socks to clear the way for my Olympics project.
They are a bit small on me but that’s good since the recipient has smaller feet than me. Hopefully she doesn’t mind a little bit of Freya kisses either. On a bit of a side note, it is impossible to take an attractive picture of your own feet.
