W.I.P.

As I have mentioned before, I am totally addicted to knitting these days.  Maybe it is stress, maybe it is the season, I'm not sure but things sure do feel pretty hectic around here.  There is not any one reason for the stress or my feeling overwhelmed.  Maybe just too many good things going on... school, work, clc, marriage, friendships, family... the list can go on.

I did read in a magazine last week (not a knitting one, mind you) that knitting helps lower stress hormones and increase endorphins.  I now have proof that knitting makes you happy.  I'm not sure that Grant would buy that as a valid source, but that would not be anything new.  You should ask him about that... it's a pretty funny story.  That might explain why I have been knitting a ton lately and that my hives are a little less obnoxious.  (I have had pretty severe hives every day for almost 6 months now.)

Anyway... onto my thought behind this post.  One of the knitting websites I have discovered recently is Ravelry.  If you are looking for yarn-related inspiration, go no further.  It is fun to take pictures of the things I am working on and what I've completed.  I'm not sure anyone ever sees what I post, but it makes me feel productive and useful.  Just today I made the connection between the label on Ravelry "WIP" or "Work In Progress" and the title of our little blog.

I was in String Theory Yarn Co. in Glen Ellyn this afternoon and there was a woman working on what looked like a sweater.  She had put a lot of work into what she was making only to find out that she had made a mistake right at the beginning and unfortunately she had to pull it all out and start over again.

I named this blog "Work in Progress" because I feel like that represents me (and us) well.  It is amazing to look back and see areas of my life where I have grown and changed and areas where there are mistakes... to go with the knitting theme.  Those areas that are "mistakes" mean that I might have to pull out a lot of work that has been done and re-do it, even when everything beyond that mistake looks fine.  Pulling work out is frustrating and can be hard to do (when a lot of time has gone into it), but it does make me more familiar with the pattern and it does make me a better knitter.  I've even learned how to fix some mistakes without pulling a whole sweater apart now that I've been knitting for a while.  At the same time, other mistakes and glitches (and there will always be mistakes and glitches) are part of what adds character to hand-made work.  I hope that my life turns out like that - something unique and hand-made - one that reflects that handywork of my creator and my willingness to let him shape me.