Felted Penguin Saves the Day

Sometimes I am reminded just how important knitting is to me and how it keeps me somewhat levelheaded. I have those reminders every time I fly, when knitting away seems to prevent me from whimpering like a little dog and breathing into a paper bag. Such is the case also when I am trying to avoid snacking too much or biting my nails. But last week I experienced a stellar example of knitting as rescuer. I won't go into details, but I'll just say that the stress of being in transition for over a month and a half now, of bouncing from house to house, of moving into our new house but not really settling in because of the work that has to be done--they all caught up with me. How do such things catch up with me? In the form of weeping, or what Oprah call ugly crying. Normally (and by "normally" I mean once in a great while--honestly) this sort of meltdown happens late at night when I'm really tired. But this time it happened in the late morning, in our unsettled new house, with Andrew away on errands without a phone...and in front of our electrician. When this magnitude of meltdown occurs, the main problem is that I can't stop crying, and if anyone tries to reassure me (which the poor electrician did), the crying gets worse. Enter knitting. In my crazy state, I turned to the closest knitting project, which was the Fiber Trends felted penguin (I'm teaching it as a class this fall at A Grand Yarn). I knitted so furiously on that little penguin, and lo and behold, my crying actually subsided. So, thank you, felted penguin. He has now been felted and is drying, and he is just a crack-up. I'll have to post photos later when our computer is finally set up.

I am now in Spokane at A Grand Yarn working away on the fall newsletter, which will be going out next week. I have to say that this fall schedule may be the best one yet. I am so excited about it, not least of all because with our new Washington location I'll be able to come over once a month to teach and visit.

That's all for today. Hopefully I will be able to get back into more of a regular posting routine. Back to the newsletter!