Just for Me -

The other day I finished a beautiful scarf and mitt set that I started two years ago. As I was finishing this beautiful set, I realized that as women we need to do more things for ourselves. When was the last time you really did things for yourself before doing for others? I want you to know that you are the most important person in your life. If you do not care for yourself then you will run out of steam to care for others.

I’m blocking my mitts. I was trying to get all the picot edges to stick out nicely.

In everyday life we give, and we do things for the people we care about. Heck, we even do stuff for people we don’t care about. When was the last time you knitted something for yourself? I have found I have a stack of knitting that I would like to do for gifts or do for this or that. Because I have turned my passion into a place where I also have work obligations, I also have a pile of knitting I need to do for work. I have models to make, I have multiple classes to prepare for, and I have future class ideas to work on.

The lace pattern shows up really well in the blocking phase.

I try to examine myself to understand why I do for others before myself. I am a ‘people pleaser’. I try to make others happy, which is a very good trait to have, right? When do we go from a healthy place of serving others to sacrificing ourselves at the expense of what is important to us? As I try to determine if my little scarf and mitt project fits this scenario, I discovered a few things about myself. Life is busy. I am the one responsible for making life busy in our household. I say yes to things and actually enjoy being busy. I try to follow through with our obligations; for example, my daughter is a figure skater. We belong to our local figure skating club and a requirement for the club is to volunteer 20 hours each year. So, of course I fill our schedule with obligations to the figure skating club in order for us to complete our 20 volunteer hours.

The mitts turned out great, they even fit my which is always a bonus!

But how does this relate to our knitting? If you are anything like me, knitting brings joy and peace. It is relaxing and even helps us ‘veg out’ after a long, hard day. It gives me so much joy, I really don’t care what I knit as long as I am knitting something. I truly love to give knitted gifts. As I am in the process of knitting for someone, I think about them, pray for them, and feel connected to them. How come we don’t knit something for ourselves and think we are as worthy as others? We tend to hold ourselves to the highest standard when we care for others, but not when caring for ourselves. We forget that as women we are usually the one holding our families together, working and keeping our house. When you knit for yourself, try thinking about yourself the way you think of others, pray for yourself and get connected to yourself, sing praises for yourself too, because some days you may be the only person that does this for you.

The scarf after blocking. Lace pattern still shows really well.

You are a strong woman of quality. Take care of yourself, treat yourself with great respect, love and admiration. When you take care of yourself you will find that giving to others feels good and you will enjoy doing it. You are the light that touches the ones you love and those you meet. Knit something special for yourself because you are worth it.

Knit with Love my Friend,