Peer Pressure

Isn't it funny how seeing what other people are doing can be the nudge you need to get back into something you once loved and drifted away from? I'm sure knitting is that way for many people. A baby is coming, they see someone on the bus or in a coffeeshop and wonder to themselves "why haven't I been knitting lately".

Recently, I've been seeing a ton of tweets about baking bread. Bread baking is something near and dear to my heart. When I was very young, my father had back surgery. As part of his rehab, he started baking bread every Saturday morning.

I think it was a way for him add a little physical activity back into his life without too much stress on his back. So, one of my earliest memories is waking to the aroma of freshly baked bread. I'm sure I am romantisizing things quite a bit after all these years, but I consider that smell one of my fundamental memories.

When I was in my twenties, I used to bake all the time. I'm not altogether sure why I drifted away from it. Maybe it was the pressures of work or the demands of someone I was dating. Who know? But it seems like as good a time as any to roll up my sleeves and start kneading again.

On of the great things about bread is that it requires that I set aside a block of time for it. But it's a flexible block of time. Once you spend a few minutes with the mixing and kneading, you have to let the yeast has to do its job. That gives me plenty of time to do something else, like knit. What I can't do is run to the grocery store, dry cleaners and library. The bread determines the rhythm of the day for a few hours. I like that.

On the knitting front, my OpArt blanket is coming along nicely. I have two more sections until I'll be finished and can take pictures that look like something besides a puddle of garter stitch. I'm hoping for next week.