yarn along: march 2023, cocoon

In times of stress, I tend to cocoon myself.  There's comfort in surrounding myself with soft layers of time, tidy rooms, cozy books, and soothing projects.  I am learning to say "no" and to give myself lots of time at home, ostensibly to clean it.  What is it about keeping house that offers the illusion of control?  Never before have I so regularly mopped the floors and cleaned the bathrooms!  The rest of our lives may be crazy, but darn it! the toilets are sparkling.  Next week our contractor begins work on the house: painting, repairing, more painting.  I can't wait for him to repaint the dirty yellow walls (see above photo) and ceiling of our kitchen, the kitchen we had plans to gut and redo in a year or two.  (I mean, who paints a ceiling yellow?!) The house will look closer to my vision for it--just in time for us to move.  That stings.

We've entered the season of Lent, so my book stack has been chosen for growth, rather than entertainment, although I delight in every word I read.  My koumbaro told me about the premise of The Ethics of Beauty during a recent visit with his family.  He pressed his copy on me, but I declined his offer since he hadn't finished it yet.  Guess what arrived from him in the mail a few days later?  Written in the format of a series of interviews, the book makes ethics, philosophy, and trauma comprehensible.  I recently finished one Fr. Jacques book and have moved to the next one on my shelves.  A friend recommended The Lively Art of Writing to help my Form 3 child with his composition block.  I'm sloooowly working through it.

All my selfish knitting projects are resting while I feverishly work on a lap blanket for a friend's husband, who was diagnosed with a serious illness in January.  I recently attended the funeral for a dear parishioner; didn't I just finish knitting something comforting for her, too?  Of all the reasons to knit for people, this has to be one of the hardest.  The presvyteres in my metropolis commissioned my current project, specifying the color.  The blanket pattern is a free one, knit with Berroco Vintage Chunky in the color 6146 Azure.  It's the blue of the Panagia, may she intercede for him!

Hoping that March brings the joy of spring to you! xo