Knitting Geekiness

Hi. My name is Heather, and I knit too much. I currently have three "dream" projects bookmarked on a knitter's web site, and I almost blew $100 on yarn.. . . ALMOST. But I stopped myself.

I have more yarn than I have storage, so now I have to finish some of the stuff that has been languishing and lying about unfinished in my house. I HAVE TO. I have many store-bought sweaters, which are perfectly all right. Except. . . I didn't make them.

I started knitting nearly twelve years ago, to relieve the stress of loneliness, a job where my boss hated me, and a then-failing relationship. I lived a half-hour from anyone I knew, including my parents, but half the time my car wouldn't get me that far. Hell, it barely got to work, and that was maybe a seven minute drive. I was smoking too much, drinking too much, and not eating, and I have never been a winter-weather gal.

Active and hyper since birth, I have always been what my mother calls "wiggly." My dad always had me and my brother outside, fishing or hiking or playing ball or just generally goofing around. I do not "sit" well. Knitting makes me not only sit well, but sit still.

When I first started, it was suggested that I knit a scarf. I did one better and got super-ambitious. I knit a sweater. It wasn't a very well-knit sweater, and the pattern called for a plain garter-stitch, and the shoulders unraveled after the third wearing, but I knit it. I finished it. I wore it three times.

Since then, I have made innumerable sweaters. I soon graduated to socks (not as difficult as one might think, but that first cast-on is a bitch), hats, and I knit a pair of mittens five years ago. I'm currently working on three sweaters, a pair of fingerless mitts, and have ahd my eye on my stash. Knitting, for me, is like music, dance, and working out with weights (my other big obsession). It keeps me sane. So. . . . how do you get your geek on?