Square 37: Chaos

I am getting ready to move and living in the midst of chaos. Most of the essentials have been looked after: setting up a hydro account for the new place, transferring the internet hookup, change of address, and replacing my land line with a cellphone (Van moves forward to the 21st Century). But my apartment looks like the asteroid belt.

Certain corners have not been tidied for months or even years. One of my first priorities has been to tackle these, find out what is in them, and clear away the clutter to make room to pile boxes packed out of bureaus, shelves and closets. So I will set about facing one of these corners, but I am easily distracted. Ten minutes later I find myself in another room, packing books, because books are easy.

What happened to that corner? Nothing. Now I have a box of books and nowhere to put it but in the middle of the living room.

And what about yarn? A while ago I sorted all the bits and pieces of stash I was using for this blanket into three boxes: cool colours, warm and neutral. Easier to find what I wanted.

Last week as I began packing, I eyed those three boxes enviously. They were just the right size—not too large—for books. And I have lots of books.

Finally, schloop! I dumped all that yarn into one large box, because a big heap of yarn is not too heavy to carry. I will have to make do with diving into that pile for the rest of the month. Immediately it gave me the idea of knitting a chaos square.

So Tuesday afternoon I blindfolded myself, plunged my hand randomly into the box of yarn and pulled out five balls, using only the sense of touch and smell to help in the selection process. An extra remnant—that appealing strand of purple Noro—must have clung to one of the others because it was there on the floor when I looked at what I had chosen. It obviously wanted to be used, but I allowed myself to discard one of the others, and this is what I made of the remaining colours.

Out of chaos comes creation.