Knitted Meditation

I think I’ve mentioned before that I tend to find myself attached to my hobbies in cycles.  One week, or month, I may find myself all about cross stitch.  And then I’ll start obsessively knitting a sock.  In the good old days before Baby Man came along, I would also obsess about Tarot or other “magical” studies.  Now I just don’t have the mental energy or ability to concentrate on those sorts of things.  I’ve got a lingering case of baby brain brought on by not quite enough sleep and trying to keep up with the boundless energy of a toddler.

Now, I really miss working with my Tarot cards, doing meditation, and all of that.  I have a couple of new decks, the Mystic Dreamer Tarot and The Anubis Oracle, that I would really love to work with.  So, I’ve been thinking about what I can do to get myself mentally back in shape.  Coincidentally, I got the book Mindful Knitting from the library on Monday.  The gist of the book is that knitting is a meditative act.  Your mind is able to rest gently on the knitting process, much like it can rest on your breathing or on a mantra.  A lot of us, I think, when knitting or cross stitching watch TV, read blogs, or whatever.  But I’ve been wondering what would happen if I just decided to knit.  Would it be as refreshing as a meditation session?

So, I think I’ve given myself a new experiment.  Maybe I can keep up my obsessive knitting and still get myself back into my old mental shape.  I’d really like to return to some of my old pursuits, and I came across a quote in Mason-Dixon Knitting that just might provide me with the drive:

No project is too ambitious if you crave the results enough.

I think that cross stitch takes too much mental energy, though.  Especially since I seem to keep picking charts with errors (I’m looking at you Once Upon a Tree!) or complicated speciality stitches.  And that’s okay.  Sometimes I think I want to just be able to mindlessly (or mindfully) knit away on a sock, but other times I want to be challenged by a great cross stitch design.  Both acts, I think, will help me mental, if I choose to use them that way.

1 Comment

One Response

  1. Tracy J says:

    Good things to ponder about; thanks for sharing.