Finding Balance

Yoga Scott is back and I’m so glad! I’d been going into yoga withdrawal. I was out of practice both getting up early and in stretching. But the weird pain I’d had in my side went away after practicing yoga for an hour. YS said something that stuck with me, “Allow your practice to bring balance to your life.” I had been off balance. I’m still slightly off, but I’m getting better.

One of the girls I spin with at Gauge Knits was commenting on the speed of my treadling. I was getting faster and faster. She said I needed to relax, that listening to me treadle was like listening to someone get stressed out. I had no idea I was treadling so fast.

I think I’m a fairly laid back person. For the most part, I try to let things wash over me rather than get upset. But, I do knit too tightly and now I spin too fast? Perhaps it is control issues, perhaps it is OCD tendencies, or perhaps I was just listening to fast music.

Should I change hands and knit everything continental? Most of the time I knit for the challenge of the pattern, I guess could go knit a garder stitch scarf or two. It would probably help me let go of things that are not important. But… I’m not sure that I could make myself do it. I think that I’d be frustrated that it takes me so long to knit something, unhappy with the uneven results, and - rather than being meditative - I’d be bored out of my skull.

So a compromise. I’ll cast on a garter stitch scarf with some random Simply Soft yarn that I have in my stash. I’ll knit it up continental. But it won’t be for anyone in particular, it won’t be my main project, and I’ll only work on it when I feel like meditating. No pressure to get it done, it could take me a year and that would be ok.

As for spinning, for now I’ll spin at whatever speed is comfortable and gets me the yarn I like. But I will consider that slowing down might help fix the over twist issues I’d been having. And I’ll try to be mindful while spinning, focusing on what the yarn wants rather than thinking faster equals better.