Sharing the secret

In today's edition, some knitting in the media, blog news, and *drum roll* revealing my knitting secret to a friend...

Astute viewers of The Office know that Phyllis is a knitter. She knitted an oven mitt for Michael in last season's Christmas episode, and a few episodes ago we caught a glimpse of her knitting at work. Someone with the show must love knitting because this past Thursday's episode found Pam telling a new co-worker that her mother knitted her sweater. Karen responded, "That's so cool. I've always wanted to learn how to knit."

There's knitting precedent on The Office. As far as I know, the same isn't true on the Homestar Runner site. Recent short "No Hands On Deck!" briefly shows The Cheat knitting. If you're not familiar with the site, I'm afraid that this short is a terrible entry point. It's easily one of the worst toons I've seen on this otherwise excellent site. Newcomers won't make heads or tails of it either. But hey, knitting!

I'm now part of the Knit Ohio ring, which you can tell by the fancy-schmancy button in the sidebar. I've also added The Secret Knitter primer to the sidebar. If you're new here (or if you aren't), it lists links to some key posts. I haven't listed the entries for all of my FOs because that seems unbecoming. I reserve the right to change my mind, though.

Most notably, there's an explanation for why I'm knitting in secret. So you know, I'm a lot less self-conscious about it now. I seriously considered knitting in public on Saturday if it would be a way of avoiding noise from my neighbors during the football game. I didn't need to leave, but even thinking about knitting in public on my own is a big step for me.

If it weren't for this blog, keeping my knitting secret might make me crazy. I love it, and I've spilled a lot of words on it. Typically I'm quieter than the impression you might get from this blog, which probably makes me seem like a motormouth. Usually it takes some time for me to warm up to people, but once I have, I don't think that I'm as talkative as I am here. (I have my moments, though.) I hope I'm a better listener than my endless words might convey.

OK, there's several paragraphs before getting to what I wanted to talk about: I have revealed my knitting secret to a friend. Aside from those of you reading this blog, the only people who have known are Kristin, who's been teaching me; her husband Paul; some of her knitting friends; her mother, I presume; and the girls she teaches on Monday afternoons. Oh, and the half of the city that has seen Kristin repairing my knitting in parking lots and garages around Columbus. It's been fine if those people know. They're not going to rat me out to friends and family, although Kristin's yarn store students sound like a rambunctious lot capable of such a nefarious plot.

For some time my friend Royce has been looking to move to Seattle. I just found out he's going there permanently in a week and a half. He's on my secondary Christmas scarf recipient list, the one I'll be working on when I finish my inital goal of seven for family members. Rather than go through the whole "what's your favorite color, and I'm not going to tell you why I'm asking" routine, I went ahead and told him that I know how to knit and wanted to make him a gift before he goes. He laughed and then said that he knows how to knit as well.

Apparently he was one of very few boys at the elementary school he attended in Hong Kong. Knitting was one of the things they were taught. It doesn't sound like he's done it since then, but he didn't see anything weird about me learning now. I didn't expect him to give me any grief over it, but hearing that he knew how to knit was kind of cool.

Next...a sneak peek at my brother's tan scarf.