10 Things that aren't knitting

1. Cutting out a ton of fabric for Valentine projects is not knitting.

2. Neither is sewing them together.

3. Drafting out an essay on yarn stash management is not knitting.

4. Looking over the stash while preparing the essay and transforming into a deer facing headlights is definitely not knitting.

5. Coughing and blowing your nose and crawling toward the bed with a bright wool blanket in tow are not knitting.

6. Reading Diana Wynne Jones books as if they're about to be taken from you is not knitting, though one could knit while reading them, if one were not quite so immersed and turning pages so quickly.

7. Preparing knitting patterns is not knitting.  I can tell because I don't leap onto my desk-stool crying out 'Oh Joy! I get to format, and check math!' (this is also why I am not a technical editor; I can tell because I do have this level of enthusiasm for editing text that is not directions for knitting.)

8. Reading heartwrenching essays on the power of friendship is not knitting, but it is worthwhile, even if you do - literally - have to wipe your desk dry afterward (this one is courtesy of Wayson, which makes it all the more awesome to me.)

9. Sitting on the sofa looking at a book in spite of being inches from a pair of socks in progress is not knitting, even if the book is by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee*, and especially after a week of not getting any real time to knit.

10. Cleaning the bathroom mirrors is so not knitting.  It's not even a good excuse for not knitting.

One thing that is knitting?  Riding a bus or other vehicle of public transportation.  Thank goodness or I wouldn't have knit anything yet this week.

* If you've read the same book, you'll know that it includes a study of why 'I don't have time to knit' is a misconception by non-knitting strangers who spot you knitting.  My gut reaction to this is, they probably mean 'I don't have time to learn to knit', and they might really not.  Learning takes time.  But after this week I would say that 'I don't have time to knit' is a perfectly valid remark.  Knitting takes time - often the same amount of time it takes to sleep off a cold or sew Valentines or just stare at a wall if you need to do that.  No shame in it.  Just no socks either, dagnabbit.