Spinning Gold

The Art of Refinement

In the same way that gold and silver are refined by fire, the Lord purifies your heart by the tests and trials of life. Proverbs 17:3

I feel like the Miller’s Daughter in Grimm’s Fairy Tale, Rumpelstiltskin. The beautiful alpaca silk skein is looped over the pegs on my wooden swift, and I am using my ball winder to fashion the yarn into a cake. The swift makes a little clunking sound as it rotates. I watch the colors spin through my fingers: gold, yellow, green, peach.

It has been a challenging week, with lost time spent in a hospital emergency room and too little sleep. The summer, usually a time of peace and rest, has slipped through my fingers in a haze of grief, anxiety, and confusion. I find myself yearning for the cooler and hopefully saner season of Fall, with its riot of muted colors.

Sunlight gold, leafy green, twilight teal, olivey taupe, golden rose, honey wheat with touches of peach and slate. Calm colors. Creation colors.

I spin and I listen to the clunking of the swift, letting the yarn run through my fingers. What will I make? What will soothe my soul? How will knitting, once again, be my panacea in a stormy season?

The website, Self, contends that knitting allows us to have some control in a world where we often have NO control, and that it can help us enter a more mindful, meditative state. Knitting isn’t about being perfect, but it is about creation and engaging our minds in a low-impact manner. Finally, there is a ready-made community of knitters and fiber arts enthusiasts, so there’s plenty of company and advice.

The ball winder continues to magically spin the skein into a cake and I think of my grandmother who shared this homely craft with me, teaching me to pick up the

threads of an unraveled life and mend them back together.

All will be well. Too many years spent in hospital rooms with my late husband have assured me that God, and my knitting, are constant soothers of my soul. There may be time for action in the coming weeks; there may be other days lost in emergency rooms. I do not yet know what the outcome might be.

But I can knit. I can pray. I can do my small part in creation.

And I will find the gold.

Is there a craft that soothes your soul? Who taught it to you?