Making things

So it seems we are in a period of a good day followed by a bad day for R. Yesterday was a good day. Today? Not so much. J. took the first part of the afternoon and I took the second. I decided that I wouldn't be able to concentrate enough to read so decided to knit. Other than co-regulating with R., I finished one sock and got the second cast on.

One of the things I like about making things is that they stay made, unlike say, cleaning the kitchen which stays clean for approximately 20 seconds. It is also soothing. There is enough to keep the brain busy so the hamster can't get on its wheel, you're using both your hands so there is all that brain activity going on, and you end up with a final product. 

"Research shows that even when we are relaxing or daydreaming, the brain is anything but idle. Downtime replenishes the brain's stores of attention and motivation, and encourages productivity and creativity. Research also indicates that any number of activities where the brain and the hand connect in absorbing and deliberate, repetitive, focused movements (such as knitting, weaving, sewing, even chopping vegetables) can be useful for diffusing stress and distracting the mind from unhelpful rumination and negative thinking loops." (pp. 48 from Craftfulness: mend yourself by making things by Rosemary Davidson and Arzu Tahsin)

So knitting seems like a very good idea to remain calm while having a disregulated child at your side. 

This all isn't a new idea. A book I currently have out of the library is, Anonymous was a Woman: A Celebration in Words and Images of Traditional American Crafts -- and the Women Who Make it by Mirra Bank. Not only does it have photographs of some pretty amazing crafts  art, it is filled with quotes from women's journals, mostly from the late 1800's and very early 1900's. This one particularly struck me.

"I've been a hard worker all my life, but 'most all my work has been the kind that 'perishes with the usin',' as the Bible says. That's the discouragin' thing about a woman's work ... if a woman was to see all the dishes that she had to wash before she died, piled up before her in one pile, she'd lie down and die right then and there. I've always had the name o' bein' a good housekeeper, but when I'm dead and gone there ain't nobody goin' to think o' the floors I've swept, and the tables I've scrubbed, and the old clothes I've patched, and the stockin's I've darned ... But when one of my grandchildren or great-grandchildren sees one o' these quilts, they'll think about Aunt Jane, and, wherever I am then, I'll know I ain't forgotten."  -- Aunt Jane of Kentucky, ca. 1900

This also reminds me that one of the things I have not found here in our new home (how long do I get to call it our new home?) is a group of friends who also make things. I have friends back in Evanston who make things and we would so crafty-type things together. Do any of my local friends knit or spin or sew or quilt or.. whatever... and I don't know it? Do you want to learn? I'll teach you!