--Elizabeth Zimmermann
Sometimes when life gets too hairy (not too mohairy, that could never happen) it's a true comfort to knit. I remember the days before knitting and how hard of a time it was to cope with stressful situations without having the yarn and the needles in my hands. I confess to making a crapton of horrid things out of plastic canvas and acrylic yarn. Not just coasters, that would be understandable and almost accepted. When I learned my infant son had Cystic Fibrosis, a chronic and terminal genetic lung and digestive disease, I crafted my living ass off. I spent hours and hours (a few weeks actually) stitching up coaster sets for all my family for Christmas. I bought a book at a craft store and created BUG HOUSES with embroidered little pictures of bugs for all the little kids I could find. I morphed those into beanie babies houses which had "I <3 Beanie Babies" (<3 means "heart"). I made CRAFT KITS of the plastic canvas pieces and yarn in the hopes of selling these to other similarly possessed crafters. I am embarrassed to say some of those are still in my craft room today.
I crafted my ass off with this yarn and needles and plastic. The repetition of stitches helped ease my worries a bit, but it didn't satisfy the manic urge. When I found knitting, my soul was happy. It's what my fingers and heart had been searching for. There's something about sitting and knitting that calms me. Knitting stitch after stitch. Garter stitch is the true balm for my soul. Knit, Knit, Knit, Knit, Knit.
My kiddo is back in the hospital for intestinal issues from the disease that he's fighting. He's amazing. No kid should have to go through the crap that this kid does. I know kids everywhere are fighting all kinds of horrid things. I don't know how those moms handle it. It's hard. This current issues is a minor one compared to what many kids are dealing with and even with what he's done in the past. But for some reason it was harder for me to be strong throughout the day.
Elizabeth Zimmermann really did have it right. Knit on. It helps. If you find yourself in a situation where you just can't even knit, just hold the yarn. Hold a project. Or just know that you could knit. Just knowing you have this thing you can do, this thing that unites women and men all over the world and throughout history gives a strength, a sense of calm that somehow makes things manageable.
We're lucky that my son's only in-house for a short stay. He doesn't even have to have a picc line (as of this typing). BUT there's plenty of people that do. We brought along a few for Joe should he need it, and also delivered a big batch to the hospital knit by friends local and world-wide through the internet. If you find you have some spare time and some superwash wool, please think of knitting up a few. Send me an email to christine(DOT)Long(DOT)TG(AT)gmail(DOT)com and I'll get you shipping info of where to send them. Or send them to your local hospitals.
Giving someone a hand knitted picc line cover knit with love means so much to someone that's feeling low.
Links to free pattern: Ravelry Picc Line Cover Pattern
Non-Ravelry free pattern link
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