Crafting as therapy, when everything feels like Too Much

Sometimes, we have a week where everything goes wrong. Everything that can happen, does, and we’re left to the mercy of the decidedly unmerciful universe.  From unexpected expenses to family crisis, problems large and small don’t hesitate to mount up in spite of our best efforts.
And sometimes, our threshold for being able to deal with life is lowered due to lack of sleep and and unending stream of the everyday crap that wears us down over a period of weeks or months. We’re left feeling like a husk, a mere shadow of our vibrant, capable selves.

I had a week like that last week. It wasn’t so much that everything went wrong, it’s that some things went wrong and it just felt like a bit too much. So I set my phone to silent, turned off the world for awhile, and spent some quality time with my knitting. It’s very rare for me to disengage, to set status both online and off as “unavailable.” Maybe that’s part of the problem, but after all, running a business (three businesses, really*) takes a lot of TLC if you want it to thrive and flourish in an economy that looks like this one.
It’s been awhile since I sat and knitted for hours without having to look at my phone every 5 minutes to check a notification, respond to a message, or make a note of something that has to get done. I scrunched into the corner of my couch with blankets, a mug of tea, and my Sunset Highway project (photos to come at some point). I spent an incredible HALF A DAY sitting quietly and knitting while I watched Elementary (the best version of Sherlock Holmes EVER), and didn’t stop until lunch. The rhythmic knitting paired with the magic of colourwork was almost hypnotic, and before I knew it I had knitted two whole inches of the yoke (if that doesn’t sound like much, I’m a slow knitter). It was the very definition of crafting as therapy.
Even as a regular moderator of the Craft As Therapy account on Instagram (a truly magical community of beautiful supportive people), I forget the magic of quiet crafting sometimes. When you impose deadlines on yourself like I do, the magic gets lost. If there’s one lesson last week taught me: more “selfish” crafting time is definitely necessary for my mental health.
And so, I went and bought a few yards of truly excellent fabric featuring knitting mermaids on Spoonflower. (Don’t worry, I’ll share pics as soon as I get it!!)