Therapeutic Crafting

My family's fight against respiratory illness has not kept me from crafting, but it has kept me from focusing. I've started four projects in the last week. You see only three of them here - that is because one has already been torn out. It may or may not be restarted in the future.

This is a teaser. It's that time of year, isn't it? I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of hints, a lot of beginnings of projects, as Christmas approaches. But we cannot show or tell more than that. You never know when gift recipients may be lurking.

This is the project without a home. I bought this yarn more than three years ago when Andy and I first starting hoping for a child. I intended to make a baby blanket from it, but the only crochet stitch I knew was single crochet. Making an entire blanket from single crochet is not only tedious, but it also takes a very, very long time. I got about thirty rows into it, which made it the size of a scarf. When autumn arrived this year, I wanted to crochet again, so out came the baby yarn. I am now armed with a few more stitches than sc. It will still be a baby blanket, but there is no intended recipient at this point.

Another teaser. This particular sample will be torn out, but it will be reworked and turned into something. Really.

Crafting is usually a way for me to relax. That has never been more true than it has been this week. To have a project that I can just pick up and work on during those rare moments when my daughter is engrossed in Curious George or - even more rare - asleep, and then to be able to put it down at a moment's notice - this has been a luxury. I don't aspire to be an award-winning quilter or to publish a crafting book or to have my name associated with all things handmade. I just want to be able to pick up whatever it is I'm stitching and give my brain a chance to work through the problems of the day, or to take a break from the problems of the day. This is my therapy.