Over the holiday weekend, in between cooking up a Thanksgiving feast, copy editing a fellow writer’s book that’ll be coming out very soon, and working on Jonas’ story Indomitable, I started a new knitting project.
I know, I know! I can’t help myself. The yarn is calling to me right now and the promise of a warm sweater to wrap up in is too wonderful for me to resist.
I’m so excited about this, you guys. It’s been a while since I’ve knit myself a sweater (years upon years) and when I came across this pattern I fell in love.
So in those few moments when I get to sit and be still (when I’m not writing) I’m knitting. On the rare evenings when we watch a movie, I’m knitting. When my boys are all sitting around with their needles and yarn, and my girl is saying “Mama, I wanna knit, too,” I’m knitting.
That makes it sound as if I’m doing lots of knitting, and I wish that were true. But it’s just a row here, a couple of rows there—not much accumulating on any given day. Taking it bit by bit because most of my time is spent writing or child-ing. But each row adds up, right? And at some point I’ll have a whole sweater to slip into. Hopefully sometime this winter. :-)
But it’s just lovely, I have to tell you, to be making something stitch by stitch, row by row. To watch it grow and become something right before my eyes. It’s a meditation for my mind, for my hands. It reminds me so much of writing, as I sit by the wood stove, wrapping yarn around my needles, slipping loops off as I wait for the fire to get hot enough for me to close it down for the night and go to bed. A story grows word by word, sentence by sentence, chapter by chapter in such a similar way. And it takes time. It takes sitting still and working on it until it’s just the right length/size, just the right shape, just the way you want it.
And as we head into the month ahead that often feels like too much to me–too much to do, too busy, too stressful–this knitting is my haven. A row or two to calm my mind and my heart. To bring me back to center. To remind me to slow down, that not everything must be a rush, that it will all get done in time.
Thankfully.
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A quick reminder that today is the LAST DAY to sign up for the Shiver and Sweep Giveaway. Tomorrow I’ll be picking one lucky winner (I sure hope it’s you!).
Have a great day, everyone!