The Knit-Geek Questionnaire

I've recently started reading Kate's blog, A Strikke, and she mentions a questionnaire that she put together. It's an interesting one!

The Knit-Geek Questionnaire (unrelated to any swaps or secret pal exchanges)

1. What's your worst habit relating to your knitting?
Well, I don't really hold the yarn properly, even for a thrower. The process by which I make stitches is almost certainly highly inefficient.

2. In what specific ways does your knitting make you a better person?
It provides me with a creative outlet, which I really need. It gives me something to do besides worry.

3. How might you or your life be different if you were suddenly unable to knit?
Shudder! Well, I'd experience the feeling of boredom, which I hardly ever do now. I think I'd be pretty grouchy. Also, very depressed.

4. If money were no object, what one yarn, and what one tool or gadget would you run out and buy first?
I would buy Axelle de Sauveterre's cashmere for sweaters. As for a tool or gadget, not really sure. Maybe a blocking board and wires?

5. What knitting technique or project type are you most afraid of (if any)? What, specifically, do you fear will happen when you try it?
Steeking, and I fear the obvious. The knitting will fall apart.

6. Who is/are your knitting hero(es), and why?

I would love to own a shop like Suzan Mischer's. I admire not just Nancy Bush's patterns, but also her knowledge of and respect for knitting culture and history. I find Eunny's attention to detail, amazing execution, understanding of knit fabric and how it can work to flatter a woman's figure, and frankly stellar writing to be really inspiring.

7. Do you consider knitting, for you personally, a mostly social activity, or a mostly solitary activity?
Mostly solitary, although I am rarely alone when I do it. The boys are always around. But they're not knitting. Yet.

8. Is there a particular regional tradition in knitting that you feel strongly drawn toward (e.g., Fair Isle, Scandinavian, Celtic, Orenburg lace)? Any theories as to why it calls to you?
Shetland lace and Aran cables. I have this fantasy about living on an island in the North Atlantic. Of course, that particular fantasy home is on Fair Isle, but colorwork doesn't thrill me that much.

9. If you were a yarn, which yarn would you be?
Well, I'd want to be Blue Sky Alpaca and Silk. A little bit down to earth and a little bit glamorous.

10. Some statistics:
(a) How many years have passed since you FIRST learned to knit?
Nineteen.
(b) How many total years have you been actively, regularly knitting (i.e., they don't have to have been in a row)?
Five.
(c) how many people have you taught to knit?
Three.
(d) Roughly what percentage of your FOs do you give away (to anyone besides yourself, i.e., including your immediate family)
Right now, almost none. But it used to be very close to 100%.

11. How often do you KIP (knit in public)? i.e., once a week, once a month, etc. Where do you do it?
Nearly every day. At the children's section of the bookstore while my younger son plays with the train set. In the waiting room of my older son's speech and occupational therapists' office. In my car at a light that is ridiculously long. In coffee shops when I get the opportunity to hang out there. At the SnB meeting I have started attending.

12. If a genie granted you one hour to stitch-n-bitch with any one knitter, living or dead, who would you choose and why?
I think this question is aiming at "celebrity knitters." Maybe Melanie Falick, because I think she has an amazingly beautiful aesthetic vision in her work. I just love all the books she's edited. And I think that the mark she left on Interweave Knits is still visible. I would say Olga, but one hour would be too infuriatingly short a time.

13. What aspect or task in knitting makes you most impatient?
Casting on or binding off lots of stitches. Binding off is probably worse, because I'm dying to see the end result.

14. What is it about knitting that never lets you get bored with it?
There's always a new technique to learn, a new yarn or tool to try. And I find many knit designers to be very inspiring. Just looking at their work gets me excited about knitting.

15. Describe how and where you most often do your knitting - where do you sit, what is going on around you, what tools do you use and how are they (dis)organized?
I often knit at a desk that I have in my kitchen. My desk is near our kitchen table, and I often work on my projects while my boys are eating or drawing at the table. (My three-and-a-half-year-old is quite the artist. He can draw all day.) I keep my knitting and most of the tools I might need in a little basket that tends to get carried around the house as I follow the boys. I also have a little corner of our den where I keep all my tools, needles, some of my stash, and my knitting books and magazines. I sit on the couch near all my knitting stuff and work while watching television.

16. Which one person is the recipient of more of your knitting than any other?
Lately, myself. But, in general, my sons. My sister has scored some items, too.

17. What's the oddest thing about your knitting, or yourself as a knitter?
Right now, I'm finding it odd that I am a shoulder strap and a half from finishing that leaf tank and I cannot make myself finish it. That's actually not like me. I have UFOs lying about, but most of them are projects that haven't worked out for some reason or another and I just haven't gotten around to frogging them. I usually want to finish things, or decide pretty early in a project not to continue it.

18. What do you see yourself knitting - if anything - twenty years from now?
Hopefully more and better sweaters.

19. If you were stranded on a deserted island and could have only ONE SKEIN of yarn, which yarn would it be and what would you do with it?
Maybe a nice big skein of merino fingering weight. You could do some interesting things with that. But whatever I made, I'd rip out so I could use the yarn again. So it would have to be a yarn that could hold up to frogging. I've actually thought about this while watching Lost. Many times I've asked myself, What on that island could I knit? Vines? Could I trade mangoes for sweaters I could take apart?

20. If you were allowed to own only one knitting-related book, which would it be? (you'd be free to browse others, but you couldn't keep them)
Easy. Montse Stanley's Knitting Handbook. Awesome.

21. Is knitting the new yoga? Why or why not?
Minty should answer this. I don't really think so. I think people say this because both activities are supposed to calm and center you. But for me, some of the excitement of knitting comes from problem solving and just the act of creating something. I don't think you get the same things out of yoga, but then again, I don't practice yoga.

EDIT: This last question added by Caroline:
22. What important thing are you trying to put off doing whenever you knit?
Housework. Always.