the comfort of friendship

Yes. It is pretty bright.

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This week I found a new knit book at the library, "Inspired Cable Knits" by Fiona Ellis. It's a nice book with several nice patterns, none of which I feel up to tackling yet. Still it's always nice to run across new knit books at the library and get to bring them home and enjoy them for free.

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Each project/pattern is followed by a Mindfulness Pointer - something to contemplate. I haven't read them all yet, but was taken with one near the beginning of the book, "the comfort of friendship".

The knitter worked on the project in stops and starts and described the feeling of returning to it each time as reuniting with an old friend. Her hands remembered the stitches and they brought the comfort of familiarity along with them. Fiona urges knitters to resolve to spend time with our "friend", even if it's just for a few rows each day and every time to remind ourselves that the comfort of friendship is right there - just waiting for us to pick up the needles.

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That's very much how this project is for me. I'm not in any particular hurry to finish it. The very simple pattern is not difficult to work or remember at all and each time I pick it up, whether I have time to work just a few rows or the luxury of spending an hour or so with it, I do find it very comforting and relaxing. And isn't that why I knit in the first place?

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I have a couple of other projects started and even more in the pipeline, but this is the only one that calls to me and soothes me whenever I need to relax or retreat from the heat of the day.