Move your highlighter tape

I've been really stressed lately.  All the stuff.  New product launches, classes, retreats, events, social media, and more.  It's all good, and I'm super excited about it, but life has felt a little overwhelming.  And then there's the not so good stuff, like my beautiful fur baby nearing her end.  I haven't been exercising, or eating right, or doing those mindful things I always say we should do.  .

My knitting has been a little off too.  I'm working this lovely lace pattern by Mari Tobita, and last week I had to put it in timeout.  Somehow I was off.  What?  I'm using my stitch markers.  I'm even using highlighter tape to mark my row.  What the heck?  This is not a super-complicated pattern.  Why am I struggling?  After a its timeout, my sweater and I worked things out, and we decided to give it another go this morning. Which is when I had my aha moment. 

It was the highlighter tape.  Not the tape itself, but where I had put it.  I had the tape under the row I was working on rather than above it.  All the rows ahead, with their SSKs, YOs, and K2togs were distracting me from the row I was actually working. 

When I moved the tape and covered those upcoming rows, I could focus on the task at hand.  I could see my current row in the context of the rows that I had worked before.  I could focus on how this row built on the work of previous rows, rather than fretting about the work that was to come.  It was an important moment for my knitting, and a reminder about how to move through the overall stresses in my life. 

I so often focus on the future and all the things I'm hoping, planning, or dreading that I lose sight of right now.  Are you that way too?  Let's all move our highlighter tape up, above today.  Let's focus on the progress we've made, the task at hand, and never lose sight of the joy and importance of right now.  Like my lovely lace chart, there is a plan for the way ahead, but you can only work one row at a time.

I look forward to seeing you in the shop and around the table.  You are always welcome here.  ~Ellen

Back to 14 August 2018 Newsletter