I Have Discovered Knitting Bliss!

Friday evening, my knitterly type friend Petra and her husband dropped in for a glass of wine and some general chatting time. Petra had a birthday this past week and she brought her birthday gift along to show me. She was super excited about it and I was expected some new cool yarn, or a couple of pairs of Signature Needles. But instead what she presented to my Husband and I was a Roomba. You know, one of those little robot automatic vacuum cleaner, floor sweeper things. It's round and flat and has bumpers on it. You push the button and the little guy, (whom she instantly named MOE after the cleaning robot from Wall-E,) starts roaming around and cleaning your floors. When it is finished, it will apparently find it's way home to it's docking bay where it recharges for the next use. I have to admit, the first ten minutes of our visit  was spent holding a glass of wine while giggling about little MOE cleaning my floors. It really is a toy for adults and by the end you sort of feel like you should be patting it on the head and telling it what a good job it did.

And at some point it struck me, this should be on the top of every knitters “must have” list. Now any non-knitters will probably be a little confused and thinking, “what the hell does an automatic vacuum have to do with knitting.” And they'd be a little right. It's not yarn, or needles, or patterns, or one of the other millions of knitting gadgets that we all have. I suppose that you could make it a cozy.  However I think that might interfere with it's little sensor and lets be honest, it doesn’t need to be kept warm. (Though, apparently if you have cats it doubles as a kitty ride and babysitter.) My knitter friends would already have this one figured out though. It's the gift of time and a slightly cleaner home.

Most of us knitters would rather spend way more time knitting then we already do. Unfortunately the real world does get in the way and there are things you just can't do while knitting. Cleaning the floor is one of those accursed things. So then the knitter is faced with a choice. Will I allow cleaning time to cut into my knitting time, or will my knitting time cut into my cleaning time. I know that for me, (and most every other knitter I know – this really is a common problem,) the choice is clear. Knit. That's it, just knit. That being said, we don't live in a pig trough. Our dishes get done, we do laundry weekly because I hate the thought of having laundry mountains taking over our bedroom, the sheets are changed once a week, and things generally get put back where they belong since I hate clutter. But, dusting, sweeping, cleaning the bathtub, and fridge, those things that would take me from fairly organized to super tidy and verging on “Martha” standards, those things don't always get done as often as they should. (My husband has to make the same choice as all those things can't be occurring while he engages is his hobby of playing Starcraft with the boys. He is amazing at a great many things, but I can't imagine him balancing a laptop in hand hand while trying to sweep with the other.)

Enter the little Roomba. Really think about this. You could get up on any random day, pour yourself your favourite cup of morning libation, turn on the Roomba, curl up on the sofa with your drink and your knitting and be cleaning your floors at the same time. Seriously, this is an awesome concept. Multitasking at it's best. I have never been able to justify the thought of a hiring a cleaner for a 720 sq foot apartment, but this, a little rechargeable robot that will happily clean my floors while I knit, this I can justify.

My own birthday is coming up and I have made it clear that this is what I want. I want a MOE of my very own. I promise that I will make sure his docking station is always plugged in so he will always be feed and I will take him out for a exercise three times a week. He will be well taken care of and never get bored. I will cherish him and the knitting time that he will give back to me. Now just to figure out how to get my knitting bags off the floor...................