In the Quiet Times

I am coming to the tail-end of a two-week knitting moratorium. After having knit two sample garments for Quince and two samples garments for myself in the space of a month and a half, my wrists were in dire need of a break. At first, I was unsure of what to do with myself while watching Netflix at night (by the way, Downton Abbey? Oh my goodness). But my mom reminded me of the hurried and breathless question I got to ask Neil Gaiman in the signing line in Wellington this time last year--if one is working for one's self, what does one do when the phone isn't ringing? What do you do in the down times? He said that that was the best time for exploration, for trying new things, for making messes and not having a deadline to clean them up by. So, in the last two weeks, I have:

• made progress on my quilt
• finished writing two patterns
• listened to good music
• hung out with friends
• got my hands thoroughly covered in dye with the best knitting group in the world, as wonderfully documented by Leah and Aimee
• read some old favorites
• spun some frog-hair silk for my knitolution
• cooked yummy food
• I even made time to detangle skeins of yarn, one of my favorite guilty pleasures
• and naps! How could I forget the naps?
  

So, all in all, it was a good, if knitting-less, couple of weeks! However, duty calls, and there are a few more samples calling my name. How would you spend two weeks without knitting?