Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Mind Calming Activities

The past few months have been insane - fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, a terrorist attack (even if the news won't call it that)...and I was making myself crazy thinking about it. What can I do? Why don't I have any useful skills? How can so much happen all at once? What kind of crap person leaves their pet out in a hurricane? What can I do? What can I do? I had to do something for myself to settle down and not have a breakdown or something. One of the things that I love about knitting and crochet is the relaxing rhythm and knew that I needed something simple to work on. Khloe had bought a scarf on her birthday shopping trip (she's seventeen. Seven. Teen. I can't even believe it.) that I picked up - a bunch of thin knit strips tacked together in a lattice pattern and then fringed. It reminded me a bit of a pattern I'd printed out earlier in the summer, so I dug it out, grabbed a ball of yarn, and got to crocheting. The pattern was just what I needed - chain some, double crochet, chain one, double crochet, repeat to the end, chain four, turn, over and over until it was as long as I am tall, slip stitch the short ends together, and add fringe. Calming rhythm, pretty yarn, and I have a new infinity scarf!
I showed it to Khloe and she asked for a black one. I got out some yarn for it and, well, I was kind of worried about this second one. The yarn is acrylic and was kind of stiff to work with. After I'd finished, I tossed it in the washer and dryer with a load of laundry and it came out super soft and lovely. Yay!
Khloe is wearing it to school today since it's gotten cold all of a sudden (it was 80 degrees last week and almost freezing this morning) and asked if I could make one in burnt orange. By the time I had finished both of them my mind had really calmed down. I've donated to some charities, especially for the animals, and am trying to add a donation amount to my monthly budget for future chaotic events. The other thing that's been helping has a bit of a backstory. When I was about 13, Duran Duran released Rio. I loved that record so much and played the heck out of it. I knew every song by heart and sang them constantly (to myself only because people gave me a lot of crap when I sang...a-holes). I actually had quite a great record collection but it's gone because I had trusted someone who turned out to be quite untrustworthy. Anyway, I have driven a Kia Rio for sixteen years now and often sing Rio to her while we're driving. Last week I found a cheap cd of Rio and had to have it - and I still remember almost all of the words to all of the songs! Singing along loudly on my way to and from work has been very therapeutic and keeps me in a decent mood. I walk in smiling and get home with none of the stress or drama that had been bothering me. Eventually I will rebuild that amazing record collection...probably not the colored vinyl import EPs that cost a lot back then, but the rest of it. The 80s are back - did you see Bananarama on Graham Norton? I sang along to that, too! I'm off today and plan to spend some time in my sewing room finishing a project that's been slowly going for a few weeks. I should be back soon!

3 comments:

Vix said...

That's a great scarf. You are clever.
Duran Duran were from Birmingham, just 9 miles up the road from us. When one of my classmates revealed that John Taylor was her cousin we drove her mad for his autograph. I'm sure I've still got it somewhere. xxx

Goody said...

A happy soundtrack for your commute does wonders, doesn't it? Those are lovely scarves. I had an eye exam yesterday and am looking forward to new specs and being able to see enough to sew/crochet. Winter arrived here too-50 mph winds and 28 degrees.

Kezzie said...

Oooh, they are super!!! You are so clever!!! I am glad Khloe loved them so much!
I too have been feeling worried about the state of our world at the moment- my brother in law was saying that basically we are killing our world with allthe Plasticization and everything going on and I have been feeling awful about it since. But, we can do what we can and I will hope and pray that things can change.xx
P.S. Nice to see you posting- I kept popping over and not seeing any posts so nicethat you are bck!