9-30-2002 - 2:17 p.m.
I can�t say No Confessions of a Knitting Slut. All modesty aside, I�m a talented guy. Last year I knitted this wonderful, lacy shawl for this lady I know and love. Imagine a Stevie Nicks shawl and you�ll have the idea. The darn thing was complicated, it look a very long time and was knitted with over $60 worth of hand-dyed, hand-spun merino wool yarn. We are not talking Wal-Mart acrylic here. My friend (everyone knew her as Nancy) is a beautiful woman and I was delighted to see her wearing the shawl to a gathering we both attended this weekend. Both she and the shawl drew a lot of attention, especially with Nancy spinning around the room like a butterfly to show it off. I got a lot of compliments which I hope I accepted graciously. Then it happened, like I knew it would. First the questions: �How long did it take? How hard was it to make? How much did the supplies cost? And of course �If I bought you the yarn, would you knit one for me, my sister, and my mom? which reminds me of a joke* Knitting relaxes me as I have mentioned, before; the patterns repeat in my head like a manta and I can really get myself into the knitting �zone� sometimes. Giving the results of my mediations away to the people I love just makes it sweeter. I�d take a bullet for Miss Nancy and I like the idea of her literally wrapped in my love. However, the people asking for my time and talent fall into the category of �people I know� not �people I love� But my huge ego gets in the way and my head swells with the compliments and next thing you know I am agreeing to knit up a bunch of these shawls and �sure, I can have them ready for Christmas� Even as the words are leaving my mouth, I am thinking that I don�t really want to do it. It�s one of those �stepping into the same river twice things� �Maybe they will forget� Ray says �Maybe� I think, but today one of them calls, she wants to know where to get the yarn. I tell her where, I don�t tell her �No� What would Dr Phil think of me now? *Graffiti on the Bathroom Wall: �My Mother made me a homosexual� Written underneath �If I buy her the yarn, will she make me one too?�
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