(Stephanie, returning me to the land of knitters. A place I like very much.)
It was a quiet knitting summer for me. Weeks went by without picking up my needles and I thought to myself 'this is strange...' It wasn't just the season - you know that in most summers, beach sand and yarn complement each other so well in my book. Though certainly it was a busy summer, I cannot blame that for the lack of knitting. I think it was just a series of bumps and hiccups in all of my projects that threw me into a bit of a lull. Returning to Squam this fall, I found my knitting basket containing the very same half-heartedly in-progress projects that I carried with me there in June, and no motivation to do anything with them at all except to hold them in my hands and make a stitch here or there (this grown-up woman's security blanket? Yes, yes.). Included in that basket were a few things I'd quite given up on. I know I'm not the only knitter with a tendency to do that...to give the knitting a little bit of a time out after a particularly frustrating spell with it. Sometimes that break lasts just a few hours, or sometimes a few years (at which point it's usually ready to fit a whole other child than the one it was originally intended for), and sometimes, I never return to it. It's just the way it goes, and for whatever reason, this summer was all about that. Nearly completed projects abandoned indefinitely, and thereby, seriously harshing on the good knitting vibe with which I generally otherwise move about the world.
Thankfully, the spell is always broken eventually. Sometimes by a beautiful shiny new project. Sometimes by a shift in the season. Sometimes, by a friend who steps in to save you from yourself. Or more specifically, Stephanie, who stepped in to save me from my sad basket of knitting duds. I'm not sure how exactly it came to be - I'm thinking there were many days that she watched me fiddle with my needles, not really doing much at all with the projects I had with me. Knowing her, I'm thinking she watched patiently for a while before finally, firmly and graciously stepping in with something to the effect of "we're going to fix this. we're going to fix this now." And we (she) did just that - sorting out exactly where I was on each project, helping me rip out stitches and start over, teaching me a new way to do this or that. Bringing back to life - so to speak - all of the projects in my knitting basket. Reminding me that I am a knitter.
(Ice Cream Sundae, just finished. Stay tuned for details.)
(Moving forward, at long last, on my Nanook.)
(Up next: goodness from Hope Spinnery, and a whole lotta fleece to spin.)
And so it was that I was returned to the land of the knitting. Is that not a most beautiful gift from a friend? I am so grateful. Because, you know, the evening fires are happening with more and more frequency these days, we're entering a gift-making time of year, I've got a whole lot of sheep to turn into sweaters, and well, I really do like this whole thing we do with some sticks and yarn.
