At times my Knitting is a gauge of how I am doing inside and gives me a "pay attention!" swatch. Suddenly I become aware (and what is it that brings about that sudden awareness – this to me is a true mystery of life) that the needle is not sliding effortlessly and cheerfully into each loop – no! – I am poking the needle into the stitch with a certain degree of near-to-ferociousness. I don’t feel particularly aggressive, do I?, I wonder. This is the time to take some time, put the knitting down, focus to see if anything surfaces when the pool is calm and the intent is clear. Sometimes it does and the mere fact of awareness may be enough to change the mood and soonest be knitting peacefully again. Sometimes it does and what has popped into consciousness is able to be dealt with by picking up the needles and working through the issue with the therapeutic rhythm. Sometimes nothing comes up and I put the knitting aside if the needles continue to seem more weapons than playmates, shrug and accept there is a battle going on but my role is simply to let time pass, let it work itself out.