NaNoKnitMo?

So, every time we get to this time of year, I start to get little pangs of guilt. See, it's time to sign up for National Novel Writing Month and I would love to do it someday. And I know that the whole point of Nanowrimo is to stop saying "someday" and start writing now, but I'm conflicted.

Last year, I had what I thought was a great idea, and I signed up. Then I broke my hand around October 20, so I was unable to type or write at anything resembling the speed necessary for nano, so I was forced to quit. Especially since after I got out of the splint, I was seriously behind deadline for knitting holiday gifts. And yeah, I still think my idea was a pretty good, albeit wacky one (the plot concerned a hypochondriac young woman who was convinced she lost psychic powers when she had a tumor/vestigial twin removed from her head in junior high. Sort of the chicklit version of Stephen King's The Dark Half.) But I've not felt compelled to write it.

Which brings me to the guilt. All through college, where I was a creative writing major, and even before that, when I had teachers in high school gushing over my writing, I've heard repeated over and over some version of the phrase, "If you are truly a writer, you will be compelled to write -- you will be unable to stop yourself." And I always felt like such a fraud when I heard that, because I never felt that way. Ok, so once in a while I'd get a good idea and just run with it, but I never built up the momentum to keep that compulsion to write going for a long time.

And then it hit me last week: there is something I'm like that about. Knitting. I can't stop myself. When I'm not doing it, I'm thinking about it. I'm sketching things out in my planner at lunch time, and I hardly ever go anywhere without needles and yarn. So maybe this is the thing I'm "destined" for creatively.

So then I got to thinking: what if there were a nanowrimo for knitters. Because really, ultimately, the goal of nanowrimo is to get you working creatively. To just give you a jump start and a structure to let you go with it. So why couldn't it work? A NaProKnitMo*? A NaKniPaWriMo**? Or maybe just NaUFOKnitMo***? Would it be just about knitting? Or design work? How would we gauge "winners"? Number of projects/patterns complete? Number of stitches? Yards of yarn knitted through?

Would anyone be interested in this? I could probably get a website set up for signups and tracking in a pretty short time if I had enough interest. I'm thinking January or February might be a good time -- I've never been a fan of Nanowrimo's November time frame--too close to holidays and such.

Let me know your ideas!


*National Project Knitting Month
**National Knitting Pattern Writing Month
***National Unfinished Object Knitting Month