What do you call the condition many knitters suffer from--the one where we can't wait to finish one project before starting another? I've heard it referred to as "casting on all the things", non-monogamous knitting, and this one--"cast-on-itis."
Now, it may be the former magazine editor in me that is overthinking this, but I can never quite wrap my brain around the prevailing positive meaning of knitter's cast-on-itis. To me, an "itis" is something unpleasant, something that afflicts you without your consent, like, say high-school student "senior-itis", which can negatively affect your college prospects, or sinusitis, which can fell you with searing head pain. And so, cast-on-itis seems like something no knitter would seek out or brag about; I always think it would cause you to avoid starting new projects.
Like now, I am experiencing writing-itis, having gotten out of this chair multiple times to tend to laundry, take out the dog, get the mail, and then settling back down in front of the computer but promptly opening a new browser to check in on Pinterest and Ravelry.
I just can't shake the idea that cast-on-"itis" incorrectly labels the condition that causes us to cast-on more WIPs than we can possibly ever knit to completion as a bad thing. But, no matter what each of us calls it when we start a new project, I think most knitters would agree that the little thrill of seeing those first few rows shaping up on the needles is worth the pile of UFOs that they might end up in.
And so, after listening to other knitters on podcasts, at yarn festival meet-ups and on Ravelry boards reporting their bouts with cast-on-itis, I realize I need to set my twisted linguistics aside and focus on the bottom-line implication of the phrase, which is Mo' Knitting!
Gotta go--I just spotted a pair of empty needles over in the corner.
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