Homemade Luxuries

I was sixty before I discovered the immense pleasure of using a hand-knitted washcloth to wash my face. Now I don't want to use any other! I am spoiled.

Knitting washcloths is easy, rhythmic and mindless knitting--until the middle row when one has to remember to "reverse engineer" the thing and start making decrease rows. After that it goes back to being automatic. I can see why women made washcloths in bygone days--they weren't swamped with mail order catalogs advertising sales, couldn't drive to the outlet mall and needed something to do with their hands that would soothe their minds.

Washcloths are the epitome of "mindless knitting" and would occupy time while waiting. Women have always waited, for children, for husbands, for sailors to come home from the sea, for wars to end, and just for pots to boil.

Now I knit to wait for the news to get to the weather so I can turn it off and go to bed. I knit because it's there to pick up and soothe. I knit to experiment with different yarns and eventually I plan to design and knit a sweater to keep me warm.

Hand-knitted items are homemade luxuries. So much nicer than store-bought. So much more personal than mass-produced. I wear hats all winter and I hope to venture into socks eventually--but I think I really do need a teacher for that.

Chocolate fudge is another home-made luxury. That is another post! I am grateful to make something mundane into something extraordinary and to make it for myself.