Advanced Basic Knitting

So I am sitting here, cat in lap, laptop balanced semi-on top of cat (there isn't really room for both of them in one lap), rather precariously knitting and reading Crazy Aunt Perl, with my new found "it's almost sort of possible to read web pages and knit at the same time, if you're willing to stop knitting and scroll every few stitches" method of entertaining myself.

This is a site that I stumbled upon one day during one of those periods of internet serendipity, which I promptly sent to Eddie saying "this is awesome" and which he now has an RSS feed for and reads obsessively every day while I have been back, maybe, twice. But Aunt Perl is awesome! And my lack of blog reading does not reflect on her quality or interestingness as a blogger.

And I think I have spent too long on her site this morning, because I am starting to sound like her.

Anyway, I ran across this post, about being an Advanced Basic Knitter which I have definitely seen before, but it is just striking me again how much this applies to me. I tell everyone - I pretty much only knit rectangles. I love knitting, I love the texture and feel of it, I love digging through my stash, I love the colors, I love making something useful out of something pretty. But this is not a hobby about "how can I stretch and challenge myself more" because let's face it, between the freaky stressful job, and the grad school, and everything else I am SO FREAKING CHALLENGED ALREADY. I want something nice and calm and non-stressful to do in the times that belong to me, so I can say, "when I do have downtime I do this fabulous relaxing and yet worthwhile thing with it. "

And you know what? That's okay. It's okay that I have an endless supply of scarves. They make me happy. They give me a productive reason to sit on the couch with my cats and play with fiber. And scarves are AWESOME. And my downtime is awesome. And that is a very good thing.