{Thank you so much for the fabulous audio suggestions in Thursday's post! They were wonderful, and will surely keep us going much longer than this little injury sticks around these parts. Do read the comments in that post if you're at all interested in audiobooks!}
I tried sewing late one night last week. A mere twenty minutes in, and I stitched the sweater I was wearing to the bag I was making. So I laughed at myself, called it a day, and determined that right now is not a time for sewing. It's not a time for writing either, despite many similar late nights staring at a blank screen in an attempt to do so (and a fast-moving calendar that reminds me I'm approaching a manuscript deadline).
No, right now is not the time for any of that. This is the time for knitting.
When I emptied my camera's memory card
last night after a full week of not doing so (I usually do it each
day), it became clear. Through the photographs of our recent days was a
common theme - a little bit of yarn threaded throughout.
Our home right now is quite literally 'littered' with yarn (and also laundry, but we needn't focus on that). There is knitting in my lap when I'm at a tea party with Adelaide. There is knitting in my hands when the boys are giving me their Halloween costume idea of the day (at some point, we'll need to narrow that down!). There is knitting in my hands as I pause in the day, looking for just a little extra patience. And late at night, when everyone else is sleeping but I, there is knitting in my hands as I've been sipping tea and listening to Thoreau's Walden, catching my breath from the day.
It's not just in my hands - but in the hands of my little ones, too - weaving (that's Ezra above with his weaving loom), stitching, and lacing. They're doing it too. It seems we're often with yarn on these fall days, on these days of 'waiting' for Papa to get back on his feet. One row here, one row there. I'm grateful for the presence of handwork in our lives right now.
So many times of late, I've been reminded of this Oliver Wendell Holmes quote. It was first sent to me by dear Alicia, and then it wove it's way into the pages of Handmade Home. It is...
and work at your pattern —
it will come out a rose by and by.
Life is like that . . . one stitch
at a time, taken patiently."
That's what we're doing right now - taking it all one stitch, one step, one day at a time.
