knitting to revive my sanity

Today was a long, strange day at the restaurant.  I blame it on that mesmerizingly beautiful Full Harvest Moon.  Of course it couldn't have had anything to do with the fact that I forgot to set an alarm and my son didn't wake me up at the usual time, making me a half-hour late for work.  Or that I'm preggo and have "mommy brain" (that is the technical term, just so you know) and really struggle some days to keep my you-know-what straight.

I have the rare opportunity to forget about today's stress and unwind a bit right after getting home since my son is down for his nap.  I tell you what, I am going to pick up some knitting and turn on the television.  The television is for background noise, the knitting is what really helps me relax.  Knitting for me is like a good, hard workout for my mind - repetitious activity without the stress, a way to cast off the mental detritus of the last 8 hours and expend that reserve of nervous energy left over after a crazy day.  Lots of people prefer not to engage in a pastime that requires attention to detail after a demanding shift but I find it actually helps calm my nerves quite a bit.  It's either that or some form of intoxicant and being in the family way the latter isn't really an option!

I am hoping to work on a sweater I started about a month ago so I can move on to some other projects.  I have finished the back and now am starting the front.  The whole front/back thing with sweaters (and left/right with socks) always trips me up - I need to make peace with circulars and find some projects that don't involve such a convenient spot at which to abandon a project that doesn't have quite so strong a grasp on my interest anymore.  I really hate blocking and sewing pieces together, too.  In fact, most of the time I don't bother blocking at all.  It just seems so tedious, kind of like gauge swatches, but I have made peace with those after a few complex projects gone horrifically awry.  I am kind of ADD sometimes about my knitting and would rather be able to do a project start to finish than have to hack away at it 5 rows at a time and sew a bunch of stuff together afterward, worryin about if the seams are too obvious or crude looking and whether or not all the pieces are going to fit together properly.

I just felt the baby kick.  He's probably saying, "Hey ma, get back to work on my sweater already!"  I guess I'd better before I've frittered away his older brother's nap writing a blog post...!