Three years later...

You know that item on your to-do list that keeps getting buried, deeper and deeper? And even though you've tried to cover it in an avalanche of other 'to-dos', it still weighs on your brain like a mountain?

Yeah. For me, it was that sock. I just couldn't figure out how to knit the heel and I couldn't seem to motivate myself into the knitting shop to ask for help. So I buried the sock and I just stopped knitting. Every fall, I got 'knitting guilt' because cool weather always triggers my knitting itch, but I didn't do anything about it.

To be fair, life was busy. I was absorbed in getting out of my weirdly serene dysfunctional relationship. It ended quietly with the Easiest Breakup Ever: About once a month, E would suggest we break up so I just waited for it. When the suggestion came, my response was "That's a great idea. Let's do *that*." And we did. I was so relieved.

After that came a few intense, highly focused yoga years. I'm a career yoga teacher and I really needed this time to develop my practice. I experimented with different teachers, different studios, even travelling to Montreal for a time to study with a master teacher.

I learned a lot, and one of the greatest lessons that came out of those long months of practice was an important one of 'balance'. In my singleminded focus on yoga practice, I had lost the other parts of my life: writing, reading, playing my guitar and yes, knitting.

This summer, I started to reclaim those things, one by one. It started, ironically, with an Epic Clear-out of my apartment, some redecorating and in the process, the rediscovery of the lonely, orphan sock. So, last month I looked for classes and when I found a sock-knitting class that didn't clash with my busy teaching schedule, I signed up.

Last Saturday, I happily settled into an easy chair and learned to knit a tiny 'training sock'. In the process, Kate cleaned up my knitting technique. My mother taught me to knit continental style but in picking it back up again, it had morphed into something Kate identified as 'combination knitting'. I likely learned *that* from a sweet elderly Ukrainian friend who ran a B&B in Kensington Market until her death a few years ago.
Now that I've sorted it out, I have two new projects on the go: Another hat, just for practice and to use up my very small stash. And a worsted weight sock. This time, I'll finish it!

And this is my tiny training sock, which I now keep beside my chair to remind myself that I can indeed knit socks!

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