Keeping from Knitting.

I am trying to listen to my body, and let it rest, and let it heal, and remember that “not as sore for the last hour or so” is not the same as “healed and ready to do things again”.

It’s the weekend, and I would really really like to spend a chunk of today relaxing and enjoying some knitting. But I KNOW I shouldn’t. My wrists really aren’t better, I’m still icing them every night just from the amount of hand writing (notes) and typing (notes) and mouse-use (charts and internet and research) I’m doing at work. Even with lots of breaks.

I don’t know quite what all of this extended arm trouble means for my future, but I cannot think about a future with no knitting.

For now, I’m trying to stick to my guns and not pick up my sticks! ;)

Instead, I’ve been reading a lot. In the last two weeks, I’ve read This Is How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff, Wintergirls and The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson, If I Stay by Gayle Foreman, and The Railway Man by Eric Lomax. I know, a lot of YA Fiction.

Let me know if you have books to recommend, so I can keep sticking to my healing-up resolutions!

Walking… Still not knitting

There were some completely lovely comments on my last (quite whiny, really) post about wrist pain and time away from knitting – thank you lovely commenters!

I’m still on my knitting break, so I don’t have anything yarny to show you. I did go on a lovely rainy walk, though, and I thought I’d share some of the best bits.

I started out near the inner harbour, which I kind of love on gray days.

This time of year, Victoria also has lots of cherry blossoms – super pretty!

AN ADORABLE SNAIL!!!

There was some fiber-ey content – I passed three or four of Victoria’s giant spindle whorl sculptures (more on them here – they’re called “Signs of Lekwungen”, and honour the Coast Salish). I love, love, love having such amazing and public connections to fiber arts in my city!

It’s 100% spring here, so flowers are happening!

There’s also a series of sculptures around the harbour of hands doing a variety of things. I both love them AND think they’re super super creepy :)

I love my city, and walking is definitely a good thing; I’m still looking forward to getting back to knitting, though!

Knitting to stay okay.

Sometimes, when people see me knitting in public, or when they hear that I’m a knitter, they’ll respond with some version of “Wow, I wish I had the time/patience/attention span/ability to knit!” I totally understand that reaction – that’s more or less what I say to my friend who gardens prolifically, or the one who goes the gym all the time because she genuinely enjoys it. Sometimes I just nod and smile, and sometimes I tell people that actually, I knit because I need to.

Truthfully, I knit for a LOT of reasons.

I love the creativity it involves (even when I’m knitting from patterns, which I usually am). I love the colours and textures. I love that it produces warm, comfortable, occasionally-stylish and occasionally-frumpy garments and accessories and things – it takes my time and converts it into a tangible object I can hold and wear and sometimes give away to a person I like. I love that it connects me with a less technological time (even though technology is pretty critical to my knitting life… *COUGH RAVELRY COUGH.* I love that there are constantly new challenges, new skills to learn, new techniques to master, new ways to expand my knitting repertoire.

But one of the major reasons I knit is that it makes me feel more… okay.

I’m a fairly, ahem, “highly strung” person, to put it delicately. I get nervous easily, I worry apocalyptically all the time (even about things that don’t really deserve to be worried about), and I fidget constantly. Knitting lets me channel some of that anxious energy into an activity that is both productive and placating. Most of the time, I can actually feel my body relaxing and my breathing becoming more regular when I pick up my needles. (The other knitters reading this are yelling EXCEPT WHEN YOU DROP A STITCH RIGHT?! – yes, that has the opposite effect! ;) )

Knitting helps keep my mind busy, and it makes me a happier, calmer, more functional person. The last few months have included a bunch of personal challenges, from health stuff to job and academic stresses to being apart from my best friend, which is extremely, constantly, wrenching. As a result, I’ve found myself reaching for my knitting even more than normal. I’m really, really glad that knitting is part of my life, because I don’t think I would be okay without it.