Reflections on joy

The name of my blog reflects how I feel about knitting, but it's more than that. Joy is what I feel about living in general and knitting is just one expression of that.

First, some knitting content for you, then a bit of philosophy.

Here are my current WIPs. There's a prayer shawl in the works that started life on a loom and is now on needles so I can more easily take it with me wherever I go. The group at my church for this project has been revitalized and is now officially a Prayer Shawl Guild, so it was time for this one to start moving again.

There's also the Lorna's Laces Devon socks in their new Lantern Moon Silk Taffeta bag, which makes them every so portable and stylish, too. And I cast on for the Boobalicious Tank from Big Girl Knits using Dale of Norway Svale. This yarn is. . .okay. It's a bit splitty, so requires attention when I'm working on it, but it does work up very soft and will definitely have a nice drape to it. We'll see. I'm guessing that if I make a second one of these tanks, I'll use a different cotton yarn.

That's about it on the knitting front so far this week. If you choose to stop reading now, I won't take it personally -- really! J

People often say, "Life's too short to . . ." (fill in your favorite vice or guilty pleasure). It's not a bad saying, really. Life is too short. Sometimes it takes a catastrophic event, like the murders at Virginia Tech, to make people stop what they're doing and realize it. Many of us find ourselves running from task to task every day because we feel we have to, not because we want to. Of course it's not practical to only do things that make us happy, but I do believe we could all use a gut check now and then to see if we are doing things that are really necessary or things that we only think are necessary to maintain appearances, status, or whatever.

Anyway, I try to do things every day that bring me a little joy. Sometimes that's not much more than noticing a beautiful sunset or a field of wildflowers instead of just driving down the freeway trying to get somewhere. Sometimes, it's picking up my knitting and "losing time" while making progress on a project or trying out something new (and maybe frogging it afterwards).

So what do you do on a daily basis that brings you joy?