When life REALLY gets in the way...

For years I've been encouraging my students and fellow knitters to knit a little bit every day, no matter what is going on in life. I have lived by this motto through tough times, through busy times, through boring days and days with a little too much excitement. I will continue to live by this for years to come, and I will continue to encourage other knitters to do the same. Here's why:

On Saturday night, October 3, we had a bit of trouble at our house. Despite being a mile from the beautiful Ashley River, our house flooded with water that came from the opposite direction. It came fast and hard and by the time it had stopped rising, we had 3-4" inches of brown water in every room of our one-story house. Now, weeks later, the shock is just wearing off. It's difficult to look at the photos of the night our lives were changed by the "1000 year flood." The pic above is of our driveway and the tree next to it, and no, we don't usually have waterfront property.

As we await having our house rebuilt (when you go through a flood, they rip out your floors and at least 4 feet of wall in every room. It's not pretty.), we are beyond grateful to have so many friends who have come forward to help with a place to stay, with food, with gift cards, cash, encouragement, a shoulder to cry on, help packing....the list is endless.

For several days after the flood I couldn't bring myself to knit; I was just so overwhelmed with all that was going on. When I finally managed to pick up the needles again to knit for a few minutes, it was nice to be doing something that felt somewhat normal, because normal had been in short supply for a long time. I even bought yarn to make "displacement socks"--KnitPicks Stroll Tonal in Canopy. I love sock knitting.

I was also able to follow through with the Felted Bag Workshop I had been planning. We needed a new venue and I changed the menu a bit (home cooking needs, well, a home!) but it was so nice to spend time with some friends, to knit and to feel normal. It has also spurred a knit-a-long (a race, actually) between some of us working on the project, which is fun. The act of doing something, something meditative, constructive, and enjoyable, has been so healing for me.

Eventually life will again have the rhythm and routines that gave us meaning and structure and purpose. I am told it will be a lovely thing to have a "new" house, but I'm having a hard time coming to grips with that, since honestly, I liked the "old" one. We are diverting ourselves as best we can, staying busy with looking for contractors and deciding on paint colors and trying to remember which of our friends ended up with the box of books that had been on the bedside table...

And I am knitting. Sometimes with friends, sometimes with Hulu (currently working through "Whitechapel"), and sometimes in the car while riding back and forth to our house to check on the progress of ours lives being put back together---but knitting is happening and knitting is helping. Everyday.