This has been a weird week for me… I’ve kind of been out of sorts. But in the midst of it all, I’ve been knitting and spinning every day…and it’s led to lots of thoughts and ideas.

One thought that struck me, and not for the first time, was about patience. I am not patient and yet I’m drawn to hobbies that require patience to be done well. Knitting and spinning are two very good examples.

When I’m knitting, I need to pay attention to number stitches, when to do a yarn over, not forgetting to do the yarn over and simply the stitch pattern itself. I have a friend who seems to be amazed that I’ve stuck with knitting for over a year and frankly, I am too. But one of the things I like about knitting is that it’s always new and rarely boring (esp. when you have more than one project on the needles). It requires you to think and for me, it also encourages me to think outside the box. For some reason, reading a pattern frustrates me and usually, there’s something I wish were different. So, I start thinking ‘what if’. What if it was done ‘this way’ or ‘that way’ and I start picturing, in my mind more possibilities… more ways to get away from the frustration of the pattern. These are things I love about knitting.

Spinning, on the other hand, is different in that it keeps my hand busy, but my mind is free to wander. I was spinning earlier today, watching the spindle twirl, feeling the twist between my fingers but my mind began to wander. I started thinking about fibers I wanted to try… an idea for a future post of my blog… I even thought of the idea for this post I’m writing now … but after that, I started thinking about my stash and the plans I had for various yarns. Then my mind went further… and came up with an idea how to use some yarn that I previously had no idea what to do with. Even if I never follow through with that idea, I enjoyed letting it play out in my mind. Frankly, I’m still amazed that I’m spinning at all.

Now I think I’ll have a nice cup of tea then go back to my spinning and wonder what I’ll think of next.

Enjoy the rest your weekend!