One Thing at a Time

This is the time of the year where I don’t have time for the one thing at a time concept. I have to get things done. They have to be knit and crocheted and designed and written and uploaded and all the things. But during this particular time, it comes after an unexpected three day hospital stay, a friend losing their husband and another friend who just learned they will have to live apart from their spouse because of work obligations.

Such is the cycle we all spin within. Of course we can only do one thing at a time – we just have a bunch of one things and time gets spent whether or not we are part of the transaction and that is the part we cannot control. But we can control how we move through time and how we handle all the things we need to handle and that will often create the outcome.

I am always going to be a little concerned about how much is getting done. Well, I will be more concerned about how much is not getting done. But that anxiety cannot be allowed to outmatch the blessing I know that is all the work I have and am capable of doing because of the blessings that came that made the work possible. The blessings are far and wide and there are more than I never picked up than the ones I have embraced.

So I’m gonna knit and crochet and design and post and all the things and gather the blessings. I must remember to always gather the blessings because that is what makes everything else possible. And be grateful for all the things all the time.

 

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like

It’s beginning to look a lot like….nope, can’t finish that sentence because it will speak it into existence and that’s a reality I have to live as it is.

I have a stocking cap on the needles. I have already finished three of them and I want to have a nice supply before the busy season hits. Part of me thinks I am cursing my sales by preparing for them but I’ve had that thought every year and I’ve made the same hat over and over and never seem to make enough. So now I am getting the mundane part over with to hopefully be replaced with, the happier I can just ship this out vibe. Pray for me.

There are times when knitting something familiar can be comforting and easy because you know what to expect. It’s autopilot and dependable. It’s a different comfort level when someone has paid money for and needs it in a certain amount of time and you already made it over and over and the comfort has been replaced by pressure. Making the hats now brings comfort and now and maintains the blessing that knitting is for me. The business should never overtake the blessing and sometimes you have to work to make sure that priority stays straight.

I’ve also been working on a new mug design and this one really had me thinking and rethinking. Similar to a new knit or crochet design, you start and stop and start again.

Why I always think something will take a moment or two is a testimony to positivity. This took several days before I got to that moment every designer desires: this is it.

This year we have general elections in November and I signed up to be an election judge again. I’ve been an election judge since 2020 and now I am a Polling Place Technician as well. I also signed up for the early voting session, two weeks before election day. Haven’t been assigned yet but I am interested to see how that two weeks may effect my knitting gig. Another reason to get some of the hats out of the way.

And then there’s church. We have a new music director. We prayed for the right person to come, and somehow what arrived feels like more than what we knew to ask for. I’ve been thinking about that.

Sometimes we pray very specifically. We know exactly what we think we need, so we bring God our carefully prepared list.And sometimes the answer seems to say, You were thinking too small.

Music has always been part of our church, but lately I’ve been thinking more about what it could mean for us—not simply something that happens during worship, but something we have to give. Something that might reach beyond Sunday morning and beyond the people already sitting in the pews.

So there is a stocking cap on my needles. There are new designs on my computer. There are election days on my calendar. There is new music coming from the church. None of these things seemed connected when I started thinking about what I might write today. Maybe they aren’t. 

But it’s beginning to look a lot like:

Making something instead of only thinking about making it. And making the future easier when it hits me in the face.

Showing up instead of only caring from a distance. Elections are important – especially when politicians have disappointed you and voting is the last bastion to change.

Using what is already in my hands and being willing to see what might happen next.

There are seasons when life gets very quiet. Sometimes that’s exactly what we need.

And then there are seasons when everything is upon you and you have to learn to deal with it and yourself. It’s beginning to look a lot like blessings. 

I have a hat to finish and an ornament to design.

 

The Circle of Life

We didn’t put up the Christmas tree last year. It usually goes up the weekend of birthday which is always around Thanksgiving. But last year, most of the family was in Portland for Thanksgiving and it was also the first Thanksgiving without my eldest brother. When we got back home, it just wasn’t there for me to put it up.

This morning was the first time I thought about putting up the tree. Most of the family met in Phoenix to celebrate my brother’s life on the first anniversary of his passing. One of his daughters is quite the entrepreneur and we were discussing business and me branching into POD and she suggested I do ornaments. I have a shop on Etsy for POD that I haven’t done much with and I decided to bring it back and ornaments fit the new direction and so here we are. I designed an ornament around the brand and even when designing it I didn’t think of the tree. It was this morning when one thought leads to another and I realized it is August but I’m getting ready for October – December and November is smack in the middle of that and then Thanksgiving and then family and then the tree. 

The circle of life. 

I am sure I will put the tree this year. I will decide on a theme for the decorations. (Angels, Santa, crystal, free for all.) I usually have a few friends over to help decorate but I think it might be expanded a little. We have a small apartment and can only hold about 10 people before it gets hard to breathe but I can think of something.

I realize I am still grieving. I realize I have some regrets about my relationship with my brother. There are things I can do to move through them both. I can feel the feels and I have another brother and two sisters to relate to in a regret free way. I can get there because it’s the circle of life. There’s always a way back.

The new shop is StitchPrayRepeat.

The View From the Bridge

The view from the bridge, or rather my work table. It is a bit of a cluster because that’s where my head is at: in a cluster.

Yarn here and yarn there and some sheet music in for good measure. It’s organized chaos. I hope.  It’s early August and I am eight weeks away from the first of my two craft fairs and about six weeks away from the start of the busy season. I want to get ahead of it by making a few of the most popular item that’s been selling the past season. I’ve already sold a couple of them and I think the smart move is having some on hand to mail or for the shows.

Preparing knit and crochet stuff and also creating for designbcb and Stitch, Pray and Repeat can be exciting and tedious all at the same time. I am hoping this time I will be able to make a go of SPR. I have some goals in mind for getting rid of debt and generating wealth and that can’t happen, at least not as quickly, without that shop taking off.

The clutter won’t last long. There’s only so much I can take before I clear it all away. Just to start it all over again. But that is the magic of creativity. We have messes in our minds and messes on our tables and then we somehow turn it around and make the most beautiful things. I bet Da Vinci was a slob.