Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Oh, do I have a knitting blog?

I started knitting because I enjoy creating things; I love the feeling of turning raw materials into a very different looking finished product with just my hands and minimal tools.

Since I started culinary school, that need has been pretty well fulfilled. I spend hours chopping and saut̩ing and plating food. When I get home from school I often have just enough time to shower and grab a snack before heading off to trail at a restaurant for eight hours. After twelve hours of chopping and cooking, my hands are puffed like oven mitts and have all the dexterity of lobster claws. Knitting is not an option. I miss it РI miss the fine yarn running quickly over my fingers, the meditative row after row coming together to make something potentially wearable.

I hope I’ll be back soon. I’ve considered knitting with gloves on, so the yarn doesn’t snag on my roughened skin, but my knuckles cry out when I pick up the needles. I’ve resorted to petting my yarn and rearranging my knitting basket instead. I thought the holiday weekend would provide relief, but I took a sailing class – two full days of pulling ropes and trimming sails. At least the instructor was amazed by my aptitude for tying knots!

6 comments:

spajonas said...

we've missed you!!! your poor hands :( after all that manual labor, you did a sailing class? i did one too about 5 years ago and i'll never forget just how tired i was when it was all over.

you should come by the point some friday just to chat and let us know how school is going. you don't even have to knit! :)

Veronique said...

Maybe you could post pictures of your yarn? I'd be perfectly content with that.
I can't believe you go to classes and then spend 8 hours at a restaurant! Also, you need serious moisturizer for your hands. I've seen knitter's moisturizer in some yarn stores, you know, by the cash register? (This is a shameless trick to get you to go to a yarn store!).

--Deb said...

Your poor hands! And yes--the thought of following up this kind of hand-cooking-abuse with a sailing class . . . good heavens, if soft yarn is hurting your hands, what must rope have done! But really, you know we don't care that much if you're actually knitting. We understand if you can't, but that doesn't mean we don't want to hear from you!!

Ashley said...

Mmmm, sailing class. How fun (even if it does cut into knitting time).

Re: the hands, here are the three hand lotions I'm currently toting around in various bags: No-Crack (I got mine at Restoration Hardware, but if you google it there's other places); Aveda's Hand Relief; and Bath & Body Works'Look Ma New Hands (part of the True Blue Spa line). I recommend all of them highly enough that I can't decide which one is the best, although the Aveda one definitely smells the best.

What? I'm chronically dry. (Cooking school would kill me. Just plain old cooking kills me.)

carrie said...

wow, i really admire how hard you're working. that sounds like an insane schedule. but knitting is supposed to be a hobby, so you certainly shouldn't feel pressure to do it. i say blog about school and teachers and customers and madcap cooking hillarity.

Michelle said...

It was great to meet you yesterday! Hope your hands are feeling better soon.