Van De Car - SereKNITy: peaceful projects to soothe and inspire

I never go anywhere without my yarn. I take it with me to the movies, to the doctors office, to my daughters karate class. I knit while Im waiting for the pasta water to boil, and I crochet while sitting in the sunshine with my cat. And for those twenty or ten or even five minutes that I am able to squeeze out of my day, I find peace.

The marvelous thing about crafting with yarn is that its so portablemost of these projects are small enough to fit comfortably in your purse, ready to pull out at a moments notice. Standing in line? Trying to center yourself while riding the train home from work? You have everything you need at your fingertips.

William Morris once said, A good way to rid ones self of a sense of discomfort is to do something. That uneasy, dissatisfied feeling is actual force vibrating out of order; it may be turned to practical account by giving proper expression to its creative character. Its true. If Im upset or frustrated or even just not quite sure how Im feeling, all I need is a few moments to sit and feel the soft, beautiful yarn moving through my fingers, to observe the tactile pleasures of a craft that engages the sensestouch, of course, but also sight as I watch my work grow before my eyes. Sometimes I deliberately choose yarn that smells sheepy, and I think about the Shetland or Leicester sheep, roaming the Hebrides, whose wool I am holding now. And I hear the click-click-click of the needles, rhythmic and steady as breathing.

The book is divided into three sectionsColor, Texture, and Structureand each of these sections shines a light on that specific aspect of knitting or crochet. Of course, in reality, a knitter or crocheter is always dancing and trading back and forth among all three, all the time. You cant have a knitted or crocheted anything that doesnt play with color, texture, and structure all at once. But the patterns in these sections tend to focus on one thing or anotherstripes and saturation in Color, yarn and stitch choice in Texture, gauge and construction in Structure. What will you choose to focus on today?

Yarn work is a craft that asks us to be fully present, to engage and lose ourselves in creating something that is both beautiful and functional. The act of knitting and crocheting is deeply satisfying in its own rightbut to wind up with something lovely and handmade at the end of it is what crafting is all about.