Every now and then in my life (OK, maybe more often than that implies), I get obsessed–transfixed–immersed in something. It can be a new subject that I’m learning about (the lifecycles of stars and galaxies is one that I remember distinctly from about 4th or 5th grade) or a new activity, or picking up an old subject that I’ve learned before, or an activity that I’ve done before, and proceeding forward with it. Much more rarely, the subject of my peculiarly intense regard has been another person, but since those never work out very well on either end, I’ve all but stopped spending that kind of mental or emotional energy on a crush or a relationship.
The obsession of present? Knitting. It went, sometime a couple weeks ago, from a good-natured activity to a full-blown obsessive-compulsive I-can’t-believe-I’m-wasting-my-time-on-eating thing. I calculated my entire week on how long activities would take me away from knitting. My activities? Visiting craft stores for yarn and knitting needles. I went out to a movie with a friend on Friday night, and knitted through the movie… I’ve been staying up too late, resenting the fact that I have to sleep, since it will take me away from knitting. I’m planning out new projects when I’m driving. I’m resenting work because I’m not able to knit (though I have a three-hour duty tomorrow that might allow some–which makes me very happy!).
Lest you think that I’m a complete freak (and you might be right, at that…), this isn’t uncommon. When I’m “in the grip” of a new or renewed interest like this, I’ll usually spend a couple weeks obsessed, and then the interest will peter out gradually. I’ll tuck away the unused yarn and forget about it; I’ll probably find some other craft or topic to read about that absorbs all my interest and energy and replaces the act of knitting in entirety. But for the moment, I’m in a knitting vortex.
Interestingly, this seems to not be an uncommon phenomenon among other–ahem–scientific types…
Posted by Kjirstin 
