I've done lots of hand crafts in my life, everything from hand weaving to finish carpentry. I get inspired to knit every time I go to Iceland to teach field geology and I see all the fabulous wool. So I buy wool, and I knit hats as we're driving from place to place. And most of the students (even the guys!) buy wool and learn how to knit to pass the time while we're driving on crummy, rainy days. But I'm good for only a few hats or a sweater every couple years. I get _really bored_ when I'm knitting because it's the same thing over and over and over until you get done , even if what you're knitting has a pattern. I find the same thing with embroidery and needlepoint.

My mom has asked me many times whether I'm tired of making kilts yet (she's a hand weaver). What I tell her is the thing I like about kiltmaking is that each part of the process is different. Just about the time I've had enough of stitching pleats, the pleats are done, and it's time to do the next step, etc. etc. And each tartan is different, so it's not as repetitious as making, say, velveteen vests for Highland dancers. So I actually don't get bored making kilts. There are parts I like better than others (for some reason, I hate putting on the buckles - probably because, in the first kilt I made, I must have sewn each buckle on three times before I got it right). And it's not a trivial thing that I really enjoy the people I make kilts for - many of them I've never met in person, but we've emailed or talked over the phone, and that's a really important thing to me.