Waiting

I put many patterns on my Ravelry favorites list and had been taking a wait-and-see approach to them. I wanted to see if I could find just the right yarn, just the right color, just the right inspiration. I held off on getting too many patterns because I was trying to fight my pack-rat urges, but in a fit of paranoia, I decided that I shouldn't be waiting too long on the free patterns, because they might not be there anymore. It's not just the Magknits patterns (which have largely been made available again elsewhere), but also the Interweave patterns that had disappeared when IK renegotiated with its designers. It's the patterns on someone's blog that would go away if they chose to stop working on it. And so on. I had gotten so used to thinking about the internet as infinitely accessible and "archive-able", that it caught me off guard. So I went through my favorites list and made a personal copy of the patterns I wanted. I was glad to still able to find working links to the Corset Pullover and Simply Marilyn, since those are the patterns I would have regretted not having the most. Have any of you been doing that too?

Now of course, sometimes you have no choice but to wait. And I'm not usually very good at it. I used to be that kid who would keep tapping her pencil in class. I am the person who sits a couple of seats down from you in the movie theater and jiggles her legs around so much that it makes your own seat shake a bit. I have a lot of what is called nervous energy--even when I don't feel at all nervous. I'm a fidgeter. I suppose the one good thing about all that fidgetiness is that it probably helps keeps me thin, along with a huge and lucky dose of genetics. But the fidgeting can be so annoying and can get really bad when I have to wait.

That's when knitting comes to the rescue. Waiting time can now be converted to productive knitting time! I was recently at a Bruce Springsteen concert and thought "no, of course I'm not going to bring my knitting!" I really regretted that decision, though, because he started a whole hour late. An hour! I could have done 8 rounds on my Drop Stitch Lace Tank! Hmmph.

At least I have been able to get some of my waiting time to pay off:

Driving through the pick-up window at Starbucks: 1/2 round

Waiting in the carpool pick-up line at daughter's school: 1 round

Standing in line at the post office on April 15th: 3 rounds

Riding in the passenger's seat as my husband drives us downtown: 6 rounds

Not getting nervous when I saw this while riding on the highway:


...PRICELESS!