10,000 Hours of Knitting

On April 21, 2010 a post on Ravelry caught my attention. IdaW posted that she'd decided to participate in a project based on the idea that it takes 10k hours of practice to become an expert at anything. Her blog is 10k Hours of Socks. (To learn more about the 10k Hours theory, visit the website of Junebug on a String.)

Like IdaW, I decided to choose sock knitting as the activity in which I'd like to develop expertise. I thought it would be interesting to see how my skills develop in the next 10,000 hours.

In the past month or so I've been doing a LOT of charity knitting and getting most of my Christmas gift knitting finished up. Yesterday I posted my Time Tracker on my 10,000 Hours of Knitting Socks blog and found that even though I knit a bit every day, I had done only two-and-a-half hours of sock knitting in the previous four weeks.

I have to be honest, I found this a little disheartening! Since I enjoy knitting other things than socks (though sock-knitting is actually my favorite thing), I decided to track ALL of my knitting time. After all, any knitting is developing my skills, right? :-)

So today I'm moving the pertinent items from my "10k" blog to this blog. One less blog to answer, one less egg to fry. (Anyone else remember the Fifth Dimension? *LOL*)

Weekend Outlook

I work a flex schedule in the summer, so today is my last day in the office this week. I just checked Weather.com to see what the forecast is for the next three days. Is it weird that I'm glad there's a chance of showers and thundershowers each day?

Here's why I'm glad:

1. I don't need to do any shopping this week, so I can devote Friday to cleaning, laundry, and cooking next week's meals for freezing. (I just love to come home in the evening on a work day, pull a home-cooked meal out of the freezer and pop in in the microwave.)
2. That will leave most of the next two days open for....KNITTING! *happy dance*

I just love to get in the recliner on a gray, rainy day with a big 'ol glass of iced tea (I need to make a fresh batch tonight), a good audiobook on my Zune (which is ready and waiting), and my knitting (which is ALWAYS ready and waiting).

I currently have a big stack of UFOs because I'm trying to finish up my summer sock knitting. I've finished three pairs (see my sock knitting blog for details) so far and have nearly reached the heel on a fourth pair. After I finish the current pair, I want to knit at least one more pair of summer socks before I get back to my other projects.

I've been tracking my sock knitting time for the 10kH project and am now beginning to wonder if I should change it to 10,000 hours of just KNITTING instead of 10,000 hours of sock knitting. Hmmm. Decisions, decisions. Even though getting back to my other projects will cut into my sock knitting time (and my 10,000 hour goal), it's a long-term goal anyway, so it won't really matter. Okay, decision made: leave it as 10,000 hours of knitting socks. Moving on.

I bought Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Workshop for myself and have cast on the famed Baby Surprise Jacket as my first Zimmerman project. My first reaction on reading that pattern was "Okay. Now where can I find help with this?" *LOL* Luckily, my beloved Ravelry has an excellent BSJ Group, complete with its own Wiki. I've already joined the group and anticipate using it a LOT while knitting my first jacket.

I hope to spend some time this weekend just reading through the Knitting Workshop and absorbing the differences between EZ's style and other knitting books I've read. She's a legend, and I'm looking forward to learning more about her and her techniques.

All in all, it's shaping up to be a good weekend. Hope yours is great, too!

10k Hours of Knitting Socks

I'm starting a new project today....10,000 hours of knitting socks! To document this project, I've added a new section to my blog that you can reach here. I've also put a link over in the navigation on the right under "My Other Knitting Blogs".

This will, of course, be a very long-term project, but I think it'll be fun to see how my skills progress over 10,000 hours of practice!

I'm still working on my "Summer Lovin'" socks, and still enjoying them. I'm nearly finished decreasing the gusset, so progress is being made. :-)