Stitch by stitch

This has been a long week filled with firsts:

• I drove for the first time since my surgery.
• I spent a half-day at work for the first time in almost eight months.
• Colter got straight A's and made "principal's list" for the first time in his academic career.

These were some challenging days that reminded me why closets have doors and people have skin. Life is messy. And fragile.

Our old bodies, older dreams, and oldest emotions gather dust; our good intentions no longer fit, yet still pile up in the closets of our minds and our bedrooms. We need ways to let go -- of who we were, what we wanted, what was.

We need to knit.

I spent some time this week with a woman who taught me to knit differently than I remember my grandmother doing decades ago.

As my new teacher showed me how to handle the needles and yarn, I felt so stupid and so wise, doing nothing and everything at the same time. With each movement, I learned when to tighten my hold and when to release it; I learned to trust the pattern to emerge, row by row; I learned that bold threads, soothing textures, and warm women can create a community of faith and patience.

With my wooden needles, I felt myself knitting together a new life, stitch by stitch.

Comments

[Robin]

Nice post. Pearl has started a Montessori preschool this year. One of the things I've heard about the school is that at some point--I'm not sure when--they learn to knit. For some reason, I can't wait! I learned when I was a kid, but I can't remember a single thing.

[cassie-b]

Knitting warms the soul.

Cas
It can be a great stress buster too.

[Liz]

Funny, you've just made my mind up about whether or not I should take up knitting - glad to read that you're on the road to recovery - congratulations on all the firsts!

[Melanie Lynne Hauser]

As this is the 2nd blog I've read this morning about the benefits of knitting, I think someone is trying to tell me something!

[Kristi]

This touched me in a deep and proufound way that I'm not sure I know how to identify. I hope you won't mind if I share if with my mother.

[Chel]

I don't knit, but I string jewelry, and there's something comforting in the repetition of doing something like that. There's also such love in the creativity of such arts.

If you read fiction, you should read Debbie Macomber's "The Shop on Blossom Street" and its sequel, "A Good Yarn." They're sweet books about unlikely friends joined together by the love of knitting.

[Nancy]

Yes, that is what knitting does for me and more. It's active meditation since I'm not the type to sit still but it does weave me into a fabric that stretches back in time as well as into the present and the future.

Congrats Colter!

[angel]

hey julie! it sounds like you've taken a step in a positive direction, i hope it continues...!
congratulations on colter making all a's!