It’s been a rough couple of weeks at work. I’ve been working on a project that has become my baby – the ownership of this project belongs to three people: myself, my boss and another director in the company. While this is awesome – and an awesome opportunity for me – it comes with some unique headaches. I know that it hasn’t made me easy to live with lately, but my fabulous friends seem to understand.
The personal life hasn’t been any better, really. I moved out of my apartment back in July – you know the one that inspired the second half of this post? Yeah, I’m not sad to see the back of them, however, I thought that it would be much easier to find a place than it has been. So, since July 17 I’ve been without a place to call my own. Or even half my own. I won’t use the term “homeless” because I’m really not homeless. I’m lucky enough to have grown up in the area, to have parents who still live in the house I grew up in – and asked me to come home while I look for a place. It’s definitely an adjustment. One thing I’ve had to get used to is that my parents will never see me as the 36 year old I am, but as the 16 year old I was. Happy, happy, joy, joy. Things with K haven’t been… well, much of anything. After he disappeared (no calls, emails, whatever) in November/December, I declared myself single and started dating. Wow. The dating pool has been interesting. The only one who has stuck around for longer than a date or two has been a much younger guy – very sweet, but definitely not the one. You know? (Damn you Hollywood and Disney for setting such unreasonable expectations on relationships and keeping little girls looking for a Prince Charming. We should start a class action lawsuit about that… but that’s a story for another post.) Well, at the beginning of the new year, K resurfaced. After he told me why, I understand why he disappeared, but let him know that it’s not going to be tolerated again. He, so far, has taken that to heart, which has resulted in some great conversations. He knows where I stand and that’s a start. He’s started telling me some of the things that I’ve wanted to hear for ages. So, we’ll see. However, I haven’t stopped dating the Young One. (Why? Well, it’s kind of nice to be adored by someone.)
With all the chaos that’s been my life since July, I’ve felt the need to find some order. Something that I can control. I’ve rediscovered my knitting mojo. It started with finishing off a couple of small projects that I brought over with me after packing the rest of my yarn and half-finished projects in storage. The problem was after those projects, I had nothing to work on. So, off to the yarn shops (both brick and mortar and online) I went. Soon there were shawls and socks coming off the needles. But with all that’s going on the past couple of weeks, I needed something simpler. Something that didn’t take a lot of brain power to work on… and the discovery of a love of garter stitch was born.
I know I don’t really talk about my knitting or other crafting on here. For years I had another blog, just for knitting, but when that started gathering dust, I deleted it. With the advent of sites like Ravelry and with blogging for the shop, I just didn’t see the need to have my own anymore. Maybe I’ll start a new one, but until then, you’re stuck with it here. 🙂
Who knew this would be therapeutic for me?
When a person learns to knit, they generally learn to cast-on their stitches – but the first stitch they learn is the knit stitch. Many times, a person’s first big project is a simple, garter stitch scarf – it’s the easiest thing to learn to do because it’s just one stitch, over and over into oblivion. There are some people who LOVE this, knitting miles and miles of the same thing. I am not one of those people. When I taught myself to knit, I knit exactly one garter stitch scarf before I got bored and moved on to another pattern. So, when I found a small shawlette/scarf knit in garter stitch, but on the bias with a lacy edging, I was intrigued. It proved to be exactly what I needed to calm myself. The simple act of sticking my needle in the loop on the other needle, wrapping the yarn around the first needle and pulling it back through the loop, over and over again, brought me an indescribable peace. Crazy, right? When that shawlette was finished, I needed to continue this. I hadn’t experienced that calmness in a long time and, like a junkie, I needed my fix. I needed more of this calm. So I pick another project that is a lot of garter stitch – a baby blanket. Let me say that I have never knit a baby blanket because of the time commitment and I hate knitting scarves – blankets are like big scarves to me. So I pick one with interest and color changes, which I hope will keep me interested. So far, so good. Perhaps I’ll actually get this done in time for the baby’s arrival? Heh. I’m not counting on it, but a girl can hope, right?