3KCBWDAY7 - Crafting Balance

Are you a knitter or a crocheter, or are you a bit of both? If you are monogamous in your yarn-based crafting, is it because you do not enjoy the other craft or have you simply never given yourself the push to learn it? Is it because the items that you best enjoy crafting are more suited to the needles or the hook? Do you plan on ever trying to take up and fully learn the other craft? If you are equally comfortable knitting as you are crocheting, how do you balance both crafts? Do you always have projects of each on the go, or do you go through periods of favouring one over the other? How did you come to learn and love your craft(s)?

My crafting time is split pretty much between knitting and spinning. I can crochet however, and would like to make a crocheted blanket at some point. I get my crochet inspiration from Lucy over at Attic24, and envy her bold use of colour.

I knit more than I spin, partly because my spinning wheel is in my craft room upstairs and I feel rather antisocial spending too much time shut away there. I guess I should move the wheel down to the living room. The only trouble is, Florence seems to think that it's a giant cat toy, there for her entertainment alone! Also, once I've spun a yarn, there's the temptation to start knitting with it. I spun this up last month, and want to cast on a Citron shawl. It feels incredibly soft, so will make a perfect extra layer.

I always have several knitting projects on the go, but with spinning, find that once I start to spin some fibre, I keep at it over several days until it's all spun. While I'm spinning, I'm thinking about the different fibres in my stash, and pondering on which one will be the next to be spun. I'd like to spin a sweater's worth of yarn at some point, it'd be amazing to knit one with my own handspun yarn. With knitting projects, I can leave some on the back burner for weeks (months, years!!!), without feeling guilty! Perhaps my spinning is more visible, plus there's something very enticing about spinning up some beautiful fibre - I always want to see how it's going to look in the finished yarn. I'd like to improve my sewing skills too - but that's a whole new ball game. Just give me a few more hours in my day! Roll on retirement!!