Monday, April 16, 2007

Sewing's Last Hurrah

After dragging out all my sewing stuff last week to sort through and get rid of, I realized I had a little sewing wanted to get out of the way before I put the sewing machine into cold storage. Thank goodness I did this because it cemented in my mind the reasons I am giving up on sewing for now. Here they are, in no particular order:
  1. sewing takes up a lot of space--you have to have room to lay out the fabric and cut it. I don't have room.
  2. sewing is dangerous--while I was doing this project, I suffered no less than 3 pin sticks and a burn from my iron. In fact, of all the times I've burned myself with the iron, it was while I was working on a sewing project. Also, when I first started sewing, about 15 years ago, I actually sewed through my finger with the sewing machine. It was quite painful.
  3. sewing requires a certain amout of precision--and that requires concentration. I just can't concentrate the way I need to.
  4. sewing makes me mean--man, was I shouting at my kids! I am such a bad mommy when I sew.
  5. sewing takes up too much time--since I don't have a dedicated room for sewing, I have to drag out all the stuff for the project and do my best to finish the project so I can put all the stuff away. This last time, I started at 9 am and by 5 pm, I was still in my pajamas, I hadn't fed my children, the sink was full of dirty dishes, the laundry was in a huge unfolded and wrinkly pile on the bed, and I was still NOT FINISHED with my project. What about dinner? Yeah, right.
I guess what it boils down to is that I just don't enjoy sewing. I never did, really. I got into it so that I could make garb for the SCA, but I'm not doing that anymore, either. It's just time to let go and make room in my life for other things, namely knitting.

Knitting is a much better hobby lifestyle for me. With the exception of stashing, it takes up very little space, it's not nearly as dangerous as sewing, it's much more forgiving and fudgeable than sewing, and I feel much less compelled to finish a project in one sitting. Also, I am the opposite of mean when I'm knitting. Knitting makes me happy and relaxed. Isn't that what it's all about?