WoK?

Hello. My name is TSMK and I’m an addict.  I think.  Or maybe I'm not.  I just don't know.


It started out casual, you know. I passed the stuff one day and thought “I’d like to try that.” So I tried it. It was good. Not great. I tried it a few times, actually, but didn’t really get hooked.

But then... Well, it got worse.

I know I shouldn't make excuses for myself, but really – it wasn’t my fault. You see, I had family visiting. My brother. He’s a big user. Turns out his wife is too. I haven’t even met her in person, but soon enough the three of us were using together. Sometimes late into the evening.

It began interfering with family life. I wanted to do it for hours at a time. Sometimes, my kids would watch. That’s wrong. I know – you don’t have to tell me.

Eventually, it even began to interfere with my knitting. Sure, I’d still knit a bit on the ferry. But instead of knitting after the kids go to bed I’d find myself doing it again - while my knitting bag sat alone, silent and filled with possibilities.

Mrs. TSMK noticed. She even commented. She said she thought my interest in knitting was waning. But it wasn’t. I just needed one more time. Just one more. Always.

And so here I sit. With an entrelac baby blanket still yet to be finished, and behind in my goal of 10 significant lace pieces during 2010.

What have I achieved instead? Not much. Sure I managed to kill a few trogs – even got my leatherworking skill up to almost 200 – but that’s nothing to crow about.

But now I understand that I’m not alone. There are many of us. There’s even a whole group or two on Ravelry devoted to people like me. Some of them know they have a problem – some don’t. Maybe some can use responsibly, you know, without it interfering with their knitting.

Anyway – knowing I’m not alone helps. Now, I just need to decide what I’m going to do about it. Do I press on – trying to get just that last talent, next spell or next level? Do I try to taper off? Do I go cold turkey? And if I go cold turkey, what will happen to Zorklebottom and Nadsmasher? Even if they are just bits and bytes of data – it seems unfair to orphan them. Do they really need to suffer?

~TSMK