Skip to main content

To Soothe

Working on this new crochet blanket has been utterly stress free. As nightly hand physical therapy it's helped a lot with two of my most troublesome fingers, which have not responded well to the winter cold.

It's also been a surprisingly meditative project. One I memorized the free pattern (with a four row repeat and two of those rows identical, very easy) I just kept a running tally of the rows I've completed. I didn't have to think much at all about what I was doing, which for me is soothing, and makes any creative endeavor a pleasure.

I should mention it's still January as I write this. I'm working on my third mini-quilt for my calendar project, which is really not soothing because it has me a bit annoyed. I handwashed the foundation cutter quilt piece but it still looks dirty. Ah, well. I'm trying to learn to embrace imperfection, but it's always going to be a struggle.

I dropped this box of specialty embroidery thread the other night, and spent a good hour sorting, rolling and securing the threads as I repacked it. That kind of thing is also a mindless task that I find soothing.

At this moment my brother-in-law is in hospice on the other side of the state, and we're going to visit him again today and keep his children company. He's not long for this world. I don't like death watches, frankly, but I'm going to support my guy, who is very stressed out by this situation. I'm soothing for him, you see.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.
Post a Comment
Read more

Goodwill Gamble #2 Arrives

My second Goodwill gamble arrived; this is one I paid ten bucks for last month. Just inside the lid was a big roll of plastic mesh that I think is for latchhook work. In the auction listing it looked like fabric to me, so that was unexpected. Someone at the seller's end was nice enough to put a note on this pinned fabric. I'll put on my gloves before I take it out to inspect it. The embroidered green fabric turned out to be 1-1/2 yards of sequinned and three-dimensional designer fabric. I'll guess this cost somewhere between $20.00 to $30.00 a yard, and it's in pristine condition. But here's a shot of everything in the lot, which is mostly crafty odds and ends with a small amount of cotton fabrics, a large amount of synethetic fabrics, and some other surprises. The original owner of these was probably a Catholic school teacher; these beads, crosses and medallions are the kind of rosary kits for kids to make at Sunday school or Bible camp (and s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Love Means This

Invested in a couple of hand-dyed bundles from one of my favorite fabric artists. This one said "Make me into something for Valentine's Day." So I went for a quilted and embellished tote. I kept thinking about what love means to me as I worked on it. Here's the finished tote. Although I was tempted to embellish with beads and pins, I got sick and only felt well enough to do a little stitching every night. As I worked I thought about how often love seems disappointing to us, especially when it fails to live up to our expectations. But now that I've experienced love in many forms, I can say that it's made me a better person than I might have been without it. Love is a precious thing, and should be appreciated in all its forms. I am very grateful for the love of my guy, my child and my friends who have stuck with me all these years. That's you two, in case you're wondering. :) Also finally found something to do with a ve...
Post a Comment
Read more