Greetings!

Hello, world!

Welcome to the very first post on my brand new blog. I've been writing in an online journal (LiveJournal) for years, but I felt it was about time to gather my knitterly thoughts and record them all in a more accessible place. This way the Muggles don't have to listen to me go on and on and on about yarn while the Knitters don't have to weed through me whining about my thesis or gushing about how cute my cat is (ok, she'll probably show up from time to time) to get to the stuff they're more interested in. Plus, it helps me rationalize spending even more time thinking and talking about knitting. Win-win-win!

Since I'm in a let's-make-a-list kind of mood, here are the things that I'm hoping to accomplish with this blog:

• discuss my current unhealthy obsession relationship with yarn
• explore some of my projects in detail and what I learned from them
• rave about my favorite books, designers, yarn dyers, bloggers
• catalog some of my favorite techniques
• make friends! bloggy knitting friends!
• document what I hope will become a successful attempt at designing knitwear patterns myself
• hopefully get feedback on designs, techniques, tips and tricks, great yarns to try, books to buy, etc. from the lovely and generous hive mind of knitters out there

 So-- goals, check! Means to accomplish goals, check! Now just to make it happen. And what better time to start all this than when in the thick of writing my master's thesis, right? Gotta do what it takes to stay sane, I say. I'm pretty excited.

A little knitting background: a very good friend of mine (Rachie!) taught me to knit in '06 and I knit some simple things while I was laid up after knee surgery. Then I stopped for a year or so and picked it up again in earnest in 2009 when I began graduate school. I am now at the tail end of my master's program and over these last few years knitting has gone from something I could sort of do to something I must do all the time!!! I went from spending my fun money on clothes and books and DVDs to just buying yarn, yarn, and more yarn. I'm not a very fast knitter nor have I yet tackled something as practical and impressive as a sweater, but I am a great lover of knitted socks and shawls and I have many blogs and books to thank for their introductions to these joys, so I'm hoping I can pay it forward and convert brainwash inspire a neo-knitter or two, myself. Thanks for reading, and I hope you join me for the ride!