The need to knit

I've had little time for knitting the last few days. I'm trying to get a bunch of little things done before I head off to the Stitches Saskatchewan conference. Things like laundry, planting of beans and peas, planting the cucumbers, watering the little trees. Its all the little things that are part of our short springs,and on workdays, mean there just is less time for knitting.

When I don't do something with needles and string somewhere in the day, I get twitchy, unsettled, tense. I'm not sure if I have always been like this or if it is getting worse as I get older, but I know the feeling well. Doing something with my hands is like counterpoint to all the little things I cannot control, cannot order, cannot rely on to happen. Dozens of little irritants, tiny wee parts of everyday life that are not mine to manage. Perhaps that it part of its attraction, that I am in complete charge, that I am able to bend the craft to my will, that it does what I need it to do, is what I need it to be in any given moment.

Whatever the reasons are, after a stretch without a little space for the quiet contemplation that is knitting, I get a little off my feed.

Last night I planned to block out the lovely shawl I just completed. I promised that it would be done so I could show you how really nice it is and so you could see why I talk about it each day even without a decent picture. My energy slowed to a crawl and the urge to knit overwhelmed me. I could have picked up socks, but I needed something different.

I've been carrying around a couple skeins of Noro Kureyon sock yarn since we went camping. I was hoping the yarn, with its forest floor colours, would fess up and tell me what it wanted to be, but till now it was suspiciously quiet. Last evening with the need to knit something simple hanging around me like a veil, I think I may have finally heard what the yarn was trying to say all along. Simple, alternating skeins would be an effective use for this yarn. I knew the right pattern. I just wasn't sure I wanted to knit another so soon after completing the first. Yet, it is the right pattern, and it is the right time.

I've begun a variation on a theme of of CosmicPlutos Simple yet Effective Shawl. I wanted something bigger this time. I wanted just a little more shawl draping over my shoulders to show off the really lovely colours in this colourway. Two skeins, rather the the patterns single skein are going into this version of the shawl. Now that the first few inches are done, and the space in the centre of the skein lets the yarn flow a little more freely, I am on the way.

I did a little knitting, I worked through the part that took my complete attention and I am feeling a lot less twitchy. A little knitting is good for the soul.