The weather has turned beautiful, the first prolonged hot summery spell since we arrived in the UK six years ago. In between enjoying the warmth and the sunshine, though, I have been crazy busy, both at home and at work.  That, combined with the flu which I am slowly recovering from, means that I have not been knitting.  In fact, I had a stretch of ten days in which I did not knit at all, not one stitch.  On the eleventh day, I was walking across campus from a meeting, heading back to my office.  I was feeling stressed out.  I was feeling really, truly, majorly stressed out.  As I said, I had been crazy busy and in fact had been at work until quite late three days in a row.  But, truth be told, the stuff I was busy with was not particularly stressful.  I decided to stop and have a coffee and soak up some sun.

As I sat there sipping my coffee, I could feel my knitting calling to me.  I always have a project with me, and I swear, I could almost hear it saying “Knit me!  You need me!  Come on now, just fifteen minutes!  DO it!”  I pulled it out, and as I sat there in the sun sipping my coffee and knitting, I could feel peace settling around my shoulders.  I could sense all of the stress just releasing and flowing away as my breathing slowed and my body relaxed.  I started to smile and really tune into my environment and enjoy the sunshine.  When, after fifteen minutes, I put my knitting away, all of the things I had been feeling stressed about just minutes earlier seemed to have shifted into an alternate reality.  They were all still there, but it was as if I had undergone a shift in perspective and nothing seemed overwhelming anymore.  Perhaps, I thought, I was feeling so stressed out BECAUSE I hadn’t been knitting.

I realized that I actually do need my knitting.  You see, some people do yoga.  Some people meditate  Some do gardening.  Some, who haven’t yet figured out their coping mechanism, self-medicate; they need a couple of gin and tonics when they get home to relax.  For me, knitting IS my yoga.  It makes me feel good.  It relaxes me.  It allows me to focus. That said, knitting outside on a warm summer evening WITH a gin and tonic can be pretty nice too…