I’m making great progress on knitting these socks. You can do that when you sit down and knit for several hours a day. I’m enjoying learning a new technique, and once I got the rhythm down using a single 32” circular needle, I realized my friend Gail was right. I probably won’t go back to knitting socks any other way. Turning the heel was an entirely different proposition altogether and, again, I am SO glad The Crazy Sock Lady filmed an entire tutorial of knitting the sock from start to finish. I am a visual learner, so watching it being done on a video that I could pause while I caught up was extremely helpful.
I’ve been sharing pictures of my progress on the socks every day and many of you have remarked how you love the pattern. I just wanted to show you what the yarn looks like when it’s in the skein versus what it looks like when you knit it up. The skein looked like a hodgepodge of colors…no rhyme or reason to it. Then, as you knit, you can see that the yarn was dyed via a computer program so that the colors change automatically as you knit and the pattern emerges like magic! So cool!
As I sat in my recliner knitting yesterday, the house still and peaceful, I let my mind wander to the pattern emerging in my work and realized…life is a lot like this ball of yarn. What we see as utter chaos, God sees as His plan for our lives. We go through the work…the day to day living…and in the background, God already had a preprogrammed pattern in mind. We just can’t see it until we start getting further along in our “knitting”. If we stay the course, the pattern emerges into something beautiful. But if we steer off in the wrong direction and “drop stitches”…the end product will not be nearly as beautiful as what God intended.
My brother called yesterday as I was knitting. He sounded so good…upbeat and healthy. I was a little worried about him when he moved to his new place. People with cognitive impairment struggle with change. It’s confusing and can cause a regression in their mentation. Sometimes that regression becomes permanent, but I was really happy to hear him doing so much better now that he’s had time to adjust. He said he was really looking forward to spring when he can get out and walk again. He doesn’t walk well enough to go out in the snow.
I’m so proud of the job he’s done. Eighteen years ago this month, our mom passed away. He had always lived at home with mom and she did everything for him, which wasn’t beneficial for him, but gave her a sense of being needed. I often told her she wasn’t doing him any favors and there would be a time when he would have a rude awakening. He would not only lose and have to grieve for our mom…he would also have to learn how to do the things mom had always done for him. It wasn’t easy for him. It wasn’t easy for me, either. I had to force myself not to “rescue” him. But I am so incredibly proud of the job he has done…from learning how to do his own laundry to shopping and cooking and keeping his room and himself clean and tidy.
Mr. FixIt finished installing the new medicine chest in his friend’s bathroom yesterday. Today, he’ll get the snowblower and the generator out and get them ready in case we need them in the coming snowstorms. We are heading into our two-three snow months here in West Virginia. We watched the news last night and saw all those poor people stuck out on I-95 in Virginia for up to 36 hours. Fortunately, we have all the food we could possibly need for a whole month or more here at the house. And when we have our emergency electric supply ready in the form of a functional and fully fueled generator…we’ll be all set. I’m glad we don’t have anyplace to go for a while and can be safe, happy, and healthy at home.
We are truly blessed and oh, so grateful!
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“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11 NLT