This always happens...

After all that talk about how deeply, deeply smitten I was with my wee strips last week, would you believe I didn't even look at the sewing machine all weekend?

I can hardly be blamed, of course. I was (and still am) in the grips of full-on Lace-obsession-itis, a debilitating ailment that always seems to strike me when I'm holding onto my sanity by the skin of my teeth.

Now, over the past few months I've really noticed that, to put it plainly: my knitting helps me stay sane. It's soothing and repetitive and a process that can't really be rushed in any way. Knitting is orderly, precise, and - perhaps most importantly - entirely under my control. I am the boss of my knitting. Me. No one else.

So when I'm under stress, I (naturally) want to knit. Once the kids are in bed I'll pour myself a glass of wine, sit on the couch with my legs curled up under me, and pick up my knitting. It always amazes me how it only takes a few stitches for the tension to leave my body. It's like I've been holding my breath all day, without even noticing, and suddenly I can exhale. Doesn't matter what I'm working on, as long as I'm knitting SOMETHING, I feel better.

Of course, when things start to get really hectic (like, say, my daughter had a brain-tumour kind of hectic?), I don't just want to knit something. I want to really KNIT. I want something that requires concentration, precision, something I can really sink my needles into. I want to knit lace.

I've known it was coming for some time now, this desire, no, this need to knit lace. I've been trying to put it off, arguing with myself that I've got the Bohus going on, those perfectly lovely socks, not to mention 2 more baby gifts, and did I think those things were just going to up and knit themselves? I gave myself a stern talking to and said "Now is not the time to cast on for another project. You've got responsibilities here. You've made commitments to these other projects. Be a grownup and just suck it up".

And then I snapped out of it. I ran upstairs, rooted through the stash, pulled out some magnificent Tanis Silver Label Mulberry Silk that Kate (that Enabler one) gave me for my birthday last year, and cast on for a lace shawl (this one) faster than you can click your 2.25 mm needles together 3 times.

I remembered that grownup responsibility has no business in MY knitting. Who da' man? That'd be ME, thankyouverymuch. Pass me the laceweight.

Happy Knitting, Everyone!