Closers, cobwebs, and crochet

Going for a walk to clear up the confusion of my own muddled thoughts has not really been an option these last few weeks. What with the broken toe joint in my left foot and the onset of colder winter like weather. Maybe that is an understatement… if winter comes with negative wind chill factors then it is officially here.

When all the world was planning their Halloween celebrations, I decided to just leave the cobwebs up until after the date on the calendar. Since i hurt myself cleaning, the idea seemed fitting for the time being. This done, the days for continued clean ups has arrived. The first few projects on the clean up list were more loose yarn pieces. Something that I could do while sitting.

The above shawl pattern was born during the cobweb days. It is called the spider stitch. Rather fun for the brain to have something that really required little thinking. While my daughter may call it “lazy” crocheting… I call it prayer time. Lazy means that there is not a huge amount of counting and pattern checking. I can learn two or three rounds or pattern sequences and then go a mile of yarn an hour. Which means that prayer time is coming to fruition. Hours of low concentration thinking fiddling with the fingers, leaves the brain free to think of all those miles of “God Bless You’s” and such.

Leaving the cobwebs behind would be easier if my hours of free time were more fruitfully filled. But since one of my mottos should be “Redeeming the Time:” well, then, how dare I sit and rest my broken toe without doing something. I think crochet was invented for those who cannot sit still. Idle hands bring poverty, or idle hands are the devil’s gold!

Two more weeks passed of leaving the cobwebs; crafts came off the hooks end… a rug, a shawl, other beginnings, a kitten and now a spider stitch, the toe still hurts if I stand on it too long. We had a screening for life insurance, a doctor visit or two and someone suffered through that dreaded colonoscopy test. No names mentioned. There have been patients with cancer treatments, distant family members who lost loved ones, birthdays, and some with new jobs to pray for. Sometimes my lists get all muddled up and I actually have to write a list for the days prayer requests. Being a prayer warrior is still one of my top priorities and I will continue to take that job more seriously than the cleaning of cobwebs from corners.

This might be a really sticky messy writing, but that seems to fit my current state of mind. Don’t worry about whether all the thoughts are clearly connected, I tell myself… Just keep cleaning out the corners of the brain, come up with a few positive thoughts, and about all else keep mentioning those dear names through all those stitches. Sometimes praying takes my full attention, sometimes crocheting does. If the counts get off and the mistakes have to be pulled out and started over, oh well. Just start making a new cobweb.

Today it is just one week to Thanksgiving. We will surely be making a list of all the blessings our Lord has heaped a upon us. For now we heap cleaning duties and other tasks upon ourselves as we prepare for the weeks to come. The cobweb broom is out and so is the the wooley duster. Here goes-no injuries this time, please!