I thought I had committed to a tour today, but probably forgot to hit Send. That’s how this year has gone for me. 🙂

One thing I don’t forget to do is ponder. Don’t worry, this isn’t a charged ponder… that one is saved in drafts for a day when I’m feeling especially brave. This one is about knitting, and how it helps my writing.

When you knit a hat—even if it doesn’t look exactly like the pattern you used—it is a hat. It doesn’t matter if it’s a pretty hat, or better than someone else’s hat. Nothing can take away its innate hatness. Sometimes it’s hard to keep from comparing my stories to everyone else’s, to appreciate them for what they are. When that happens, I try to remember the hat.

Opening a new word doc with the intent to replace the blankness with a story—whether a novel or novella or a 12K short for an anthology call—it’s daunting. What if I can’t finish it? What if the characters just bug-out after the first third? What if… (I have about a fuckton of these, I shit you not, but you get the drift.)

I try to think of the hat.

The hat begins as a ball or a hank of yarn. It takes shape one row, one stitch, at a time. All I can do is one stitch at a time—except when I KFB or K2Tog, but that’s neither here nor there. What’s important is, if I keep working on it, it will eventually become a hat.

Or a story.

When I need a break from bleeding onto the page, that’s what I do. I knit. (I really should exercise, but nobody’s perfect.) Sometimes when I knit it’s for charity, and sometimes it’s for me. But sometimes it’s for you!

Not every-last-one of you—I’d like that, but it’s just not realistic—but at least one of you. More details will follow soon. For now, I’ll just say I’m not yanking your chain. The holidays are coming up, you know. As is my deadline, so that’s all for now.

Have a lovely Tuesday—stay safe and warm out there! 🙂