I finished two projects this week: a pair of slippers and a cotton lace shawl.  There is always a sense of deep satisfaction and (admittedly) relief in the completion of a project.  It is done! And often I have been so “done” myself that I just hucked the remnants (the remaining yarn, needles, pattern pages, books, notes, cable needles, stitch markers…whatever was left in the knitting bag) into a box “To Be Put Away Later”!  Let me tell you, that box would get full!  And eventually, I would get tired of hunting out needles from among the tangled yarn, fluttering papers, rattling random implements….and I would sort everything out and put it all way.  But then, the box would start filling again, of course!

Last year, I was finally able to set up a proper studio where things could be stored in easily accessible drawers and baskets and bins on shelves — rather than bin on top of bin on top of bin!  Dismantling a tower of bins to put away one scrawny ball of yarn? Nope. Now, however, putting these things where they belong is blissfully simple!  So, I have come to enjoy the ritual of “The Putting Away” at the end of a project.  Books are shelved; patterns are filed; the more ephemeral notes are recycled.  Needles are stored according to size and style — ready to knit another day! — and the various other tools are tucked away with their brothers.  Finally, the remaining yarn is petted one last time and nestled into its proper “color drawer.”  Then, I shake out the knitting bag and whisk the detritus into the trash.  It is all very satisfying.

As I was enjoying “The Putting Away” this week, I began thinking about all the other putting away and packing away I do I regularly.  Seasonal dishes and decor and clothing — as well as the daily laundry, dishes, kids’ toys, and whatever I get out so that I can do I whatever it is I do during the day!  There is A LOT of putting away!  But most if it is stuff I put away or pack away — only to get out again and then eventually put away again…over and over.  You know, those same kitchen towels you fold and put in the same kitchen drawer every week.

”The Putting Away” is different.  It is actually Letting Go.  As the shawl ceases to be a project and begins its life as a garment, the needles and patterns and notes and all — that have been SO essential  to the process, so precious and so critical — become merely tools and papers.  Even the yarn ceases to be Project Yarn (carefully measured and treasured) and becomes Stash Yarn (free to join into some other project somewhere down the line!).  

The Knitting Process brings me joy.  The Finished Shawl brings me joy.  The Putting Away brings me joy, too.  Hmmmmm.