The Knitting Bag
Yes, I love to knit.
It is therapeutic.
When I am knitting I am in one of my happy places.
It's funny though - the other day I was cleaning out and trying to bring sense to my knitting bag -
which over time becomes a big knotted mess of colors and textures and needles, new and old, all stuck into each other and wrapped around each other until you can't pull out one without getting them all.
I have realized in sorting this, that my knitting bag is a perfect microcosm of my life.
Each remnant of yarn in that knotted mess brings back a memory. So many projects that were started but not finished; sometimes because I lost the pattern, sometimes because it was too difficult, or it wasn't turning out the way I had hoped...
Some projects turned out wonderfully and bring such joy when I see my kids still wrapped up in that blanket, or wearing that hat, or that sweater, or those mittens, or socks or slippers........
Each one has a special place in my heart. I embrace all of it.
Including the messy parts at the bottom of the bag - things collected while knitting in different places; like change, or hair clips, or receipts, or food crumbs , prayer cards, candy wrappers, rubber bands - notes scribbled down on crinkled up scraps of paper...
Even the needles themselves speak volumes. Bamboo knitting needles, some double pointed, some not, some worn out and ready for retirement after many hours spent together working, some with teeth marks in them from a child who decided it felt good to chomp down on my needles at one point or another, and brand new ones, still in the package - full of promise of what is to come.
I feel like in sorting my knitting bag, I've sorted out a bit of myself again. Ready to start fresh and enjoy this ride a while longer.
Lord help me to always embrace it all.
The orderly, the tangled, the victorious and the frustrating, the messy and the clean, it's all what makes me who I am, and as imperfect as that may be, it's just fine. I will keep moving forward and try to do my best. Time to patch up the hole in the bottom of this bag and move on.