This is a long one but I feel the need.

I love to knit. Let me repeat that. I LOVE to knit. Not in the vague sense that most Americans use the word, but in the deep, obsessive way that it should be. I can't get enough of it. Let's start with the yarn. I love all of it(with few exceptions). I consider myself an equal oppurtunity fiber employer. I love the idea of it, the butterflies in my stomach when I pull into the lys parking lot, the feel of the hanks as I run my hands over them, the smell, everything. I think about the warm needles in my hands and the soft yarn running over them when I should be working or listening to an instructor, or developing my pictures for my portfolio, or taking a test ( I will be doing that shortly, I swear). Somehow, the whole experience just got in my system and I can't get it out. I'm on some sort of meth-like yarn high. I dream about it,talk about it incessantly to the amusement and later annoyance of those around me. I embarass my husband by knitting at resturaunts (I've never minded a 20-30 min wait since). I fascinate my pastors wife with whatever I'm working on before the service starts ( she really dug my first pair of socks..little does she know she has a pair just for her soon to be on the needles). I have identified my husband, brother, and all other male friends and family as card carrying members of T.A.K.E (see Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's book Yarn Harlot for information on this organization and methods of spotting their clever operatives) I think I've spent every free moment since my addiction first began combing through magazines, yarn, and patterns books just to feed the beast. I have to have at least one magazine near me or one pattern near me at all times or withdrawal tremors begin. I want to go all the way. I want to do sweaters with complicated Intarsia and Fair Isle patterns, I want to do lace shawls and I want to spin my own yarns and then hand dye them. If I didn't love medicine so much I'd abandon my career in surgery to raise sheep in New Zealand ( don't laugh, you know you want to) I thought in the beginning this was just a phase and it would get weaker and fade but it only grows stronger the more I get into it. I can't explain to non-knitting folk just how magical it is to pick out a yarn,and a pattern (in whichever order) and sit down with a lovely set of needles to begin to create.God understands, he's a knitter you know (...you created my innermost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.....) how can I argue with it when the Father himself is sitting there needles in hand knitting every little one coming to this world? That settles it.I will give in to the magic of the yarn. I will enhance the stash while still keeping the bills paid( I do have two kids to think of) and I will not back down from the next challenge. Today it's toe-up socks, then a bag with aran cables, then a skirt, then a sweater....then the world! I just wish I had some yarny friends to share my love with. As it stands, my three friends that I talk to (did I mention that surgeon's aren't very well understood?) just don't get it. I need yarn companionship,even if it's only to sit and knit together or email and exchange love of yarn. I wish I could find them.