Relaxation of sorts

Throughout my life (I know, I make it sound like I'm fast approaching my retirement here, but I just liked that beginning, so there) I've had hobbies of many different kinds, few of which I have really stuck by. Reading books is one shining example of the opposite, but I hardly count that as a hobby anymore since it's more or less a necessity for life and sanity. *grins*
My mother has always been a keen knitter/crocheter/needleworker and I have since I was a little girl looked at what she produced in awe. From time to time I tried it a bit myself with the guidance from her. Neither needlework nor crocheting really caught on, but knitting on the other hand did. I never made anything big or fancy when I was younger, mostly because of my impatience, but the fascination for knitting remained unbroken.
Summer 2004 I found an old scarf project that I had abandoned at only 30 or something rows. I remembered that the aim had been to create a striped scarf with bright colours and so with a few potentially cold winter and spring months in Melbourne in mind I happily took up the task of knitting my multicoloured scarf. It turned out a lot longer than I had originally planned as I kept finding more and more nice colours to add but it came in very handy as I could wrap it around me and almost use it as a blanket at times.
Last summer I suddenly felt the urge come over me again - I just had to find something to knit! I went to the craft store in town and bought a pattern, yarn, and needles for making a poncho and over the next couple of months I made ponchos left and right for myself, mother, friend, sister. Next I got my friend in Iceland to start knitting and we inspired each other to find new and fun patterns online. Now came the task of understanding a pattern in English. Before I thought it hard enough to decipher all the abbreviations into something that made sense in Swedish, but joy and surprise, it wasn't as hard as I had imagined doing it in English. Internet is quite a help there I must admit but now I happily search English as well as Swedish sites for new patterns.
To connect all this to my headline I have come to the conclusion that I love knitting! It is really rewarding to see something grow from the mere twiddling of your fingers. *grins* And while it is relaxing to do things with your hands and let your mind rest it tends to grow into an obsession with me and I can sit for whole days knitting and just stopping for food once in a while. This makes both my hands and shoulders sore and forces me to stop and listen to my body. Body vs mind... *ponders* I think I'll take my knitting and go watch tv now.

*grins*

keah