Tuesday, April 25, 2006

On knitting while walking

I own this little piece of plastic that will magically allow me access to "the gym." The Gym is a mystical place full of rather frightening looking machinery that's supposed to turn me into a super model...er...super pirate...uhm, yeah. So far though it hasn't worked. The problem seems to be that you can't just own the card, you actually have to go and use the magical, mystical, frightening equipment.

Instead of using my special piece of plastic I "walk." I walk anywhere that's less than three miles away, and in this town that's most places. Walking provides me with transportation, an excuse for not going to The Gym, and also fills up that void that some people fill up with television and other people fill up with meditation...the staring off into nothing void. Basically walking is a good thing.

Actually the only problem with walking is that it takes time, sometimes lots of time, valuable time that could be taken up with knitting...you see the problem? So I decided to start knitting while I walk. Yup. I'm the freak that you see walking around with a ball of yarn in the pocket of her hoody squinting at whatever's on the needles, bumping into things and basically causing traffic problems where ever she goes.

These are the things that I've noticed about walking and knitting. First of all, I walk a lot slower when I'm knitting. A former 40 minute walk now takes about an hour. Second of all, traffic is a good thing. Waiting at a stop light for the traffic to clear gives you a chance to look back and see if you've dropped some stitches or miscrossed your cables etc. And Thirdly...parking lots are really scary places full of people who are almost as oblivious as I am.

If you are going to attempt walking and knitting do it someplace that you've walked many times before, someplace where you know all the bumps in the sidewalks and which driveways contain crazy teenagers who are likely to zoom out without looking at what's behind them. And don't try to fool yourself into thinking that knit-walking is exercise because you walk so slowly that your metabolism probably slows down...if you want to be a super pirate you still have to go to The Gym...or I could try running and knitting? Knitting marathons? Miles per inch?

Ragnar...see I didn't talk about unemployment at all, even though I'm at the library printing out my resume.

5 comments:

Will Pillage For Yarn said...

Your walking inspires me. Though I think I could not knit and walk because it's so hard just to get off my ass and walk, period. Something that makes that more complex would be the deathknell on any hope of cardio.

Anonymous said...

I would trip on a small rock and go flying and land on the knitting needles and stab myself.

I do that even when not knitting and when i am watching where I am going.....

Mushroom hunting is healthy, although very slow going too, hard to speed mushroom hunt - but I do do the mushroom dance when I find one, that is something in the cardio workout range and entertaining to boot.

Anonymous said...

Walking and knitting in the wild scares me. I have a hard enoguh time with just the walking thing.

But...if you can screw up your courage and go to that scary Gym place, I bet you could walk and knit in relative comfort on a treadmill. Or maybe even bike and knit on a stationary bike!

Yeah, I wouldn't have the courage either...but it's a nice thought.

Anonymous said...

Most people who read yer blog knit, eh? I feel like a voyuer.... Will you publish a resume for us? I would read it. Please don't trip on yer knitting needles, I feel atatced to you, and my estranged strange ones who I love would be devastated. And, it takes so long to walk to places in the city here, sometimes I forget about it, then I am pleasantly surprised when I take ds (an annoying internet "dear son", that I see all of the time and secretly have always wanted to use) for long walks and end up somewhere far away and different. We miss you and yours.....
~lav

Anonymous said...

Walking & Knitting - I love it! My 10-year-old is really embarassed when I do it, though. Once we get near any urban areas she begs me to put it away. I keep my 8-yr. old close by having her hold the yarn....