A brief knitting update: I am already behind on Baby Blanket Bonanza because someone decided to arrive early (and I’m just running behind in general). But we pretty much knew this one would arrive early all along so I guess I have no one to blame but myself. Since the rest of my knitting is also still secret, we’re talking about cross stitch some more today! 
I think one of the aspects of needlework that I find really appealing, at least right now, is that I’m in a state of high flux with a lot of parts of my life, but needlework and specifically cross stitch forces me to focus on just one small area at a time. And I can decide how large that focus is! My most-used hoop is about 10″ in circumference, but I recently pulled out my smaller hoop (I think it’s 4″—maybe 6″, I can’t remember) to work on a small section and I found that to be even more delightful.
With everything else going so crazy, it’s nice to have those boundaries sometimes. Especially when they’re boundaries I enforce—if I want to work on a particular section of this sampler today, I just put my hoop in that area. Want to work on something else? Move the hoop around. I’m bound by the limits of what parts of the fabric appear in the hoop and sometimes limits can be comforting.
Sometimes they’re shit and we should break through them. The trick is knowing which limits are which.
I’m sorry to hear that there’s all that frenetic energy happening right now. Having a stable, controlled project totally helps to calm me, too.
I love your blog posts.
I find that I often prefer some limitations in my creative pursuits, particular in design, where a few limits make me think more creatively. Write a play to fit in actors who arrive already costumed, or what can be done with just knit/purl. Sometimes the whole world of options can be overwhelming, so it’s nice to whittle it down a bit.