I love Christmas Eve. I love my family. I love Pennsylvania. I do not love the whirlwind tour that happens every time we go home for the holidays. In the words of some dear friends, I celebrate the holidays with St. Xanax and Zoloft, the Advent Angel.
When I was in counseling a few years ago to deal with some depression issues and panic attacks, my therapist suggested I create some coping techniques. Since the panic attacks occur at points when I'm relaxed (panic attack = unprocessed excess adrenaline), I needed to create a structure to work through it. Knitting has been that Godsend (Thank you, God!) I can be perfectly at rest in a group of people, needles clicking away, focused on the task at hand but still part of the group...whooosh...can you hear that adrenaline being processed?
So, here we are. A little over 2 weeks away from the Christmas "vacation". I could either look at it as 9 days of anxiety or 9 full days of knitting! Which would you pick? I've decided the CatMan Aran is best suited to being a car project (I'm thinking with a 16 hour round trip to PA and back, I should be able to accomplish completion!) I need to sit down and look through the stash for other potential projects. Nothing too complicated (since there will no doubt be lots of picking up and putting down), or bulky (do I want to heft a sweater all over the place?). The Java Socks will definitely be one project. Maybe this scarf in the Dorchester Farms yarn I picked up at the Vermont Wool and Sheep Fest in October. I'm open for suggestions! Got any?