Sanity Intact

As I sit here unable to sleep (what is up with that?!) I'm thinking back to last week. I had some stress last week which is to say; I barely made it through the week with my sanity. My husband's car (which we have already sunk a small fortune into) had another issue and I was cruising on almost no sleep and a frustrating start to the day. Near a nervous breakdown, my mom offered to come get me so I could spend some time with my niece the following day. I agreed quickly and she came to pick me up. I'm thankful I was down with my family because then my grandma was taken into the hospital (by ambulance) because she was short of breath.
It's related to her heart, she has Congestive Heart Failure at this point so it's really just a matter of keeping the symptoms at bay as long as possible. She's not willing to do a whole lot in that arena to help herself so there's really only so much the rest of us can do.
There was time spent in the car, time spent on the phone, time spent visiting her at the hospital and all that time; my hands were knitting.
It got me thinking about knitting and how it can be a comfort. There are certainly times when you want to tear your hair out thanks to your knitting and it can often cause as much stress as it helps relieve but when crunch time comes, when you just can't handle any more, having your hands full of that knitting and working away, stitch by stitch can help you through.

For me the best thing is something garter stitch (or stockinette in the round) and very simple. If you need to look down at your hands to compose yourself, you have an excuse but otherwise, you can just knit and knit and knit and knit without thinking about it.

Slowly doing something productive in a time that you otherwise wouldn't be.
Sometimes, it helps.
Pattern: Hitchhiker by Martina Behm
Yarn: Handspun CJKopec Creations Polwarth in Autumn Rainbow