I skipped my fiber group meeting last night. I had intended to go, placed my project bag in the car, and up until I got to the exit for my neighborhood, was still planning to attend.

And then, I simply wanted to go home, take off my work clothes, put on my fuzzy socks and slippers, and crochet my latest throw.

I justified turning onto my street by trying to convince myself that I might change my mind once I get in the door and think about.

Nope.

It was a crisp 19-degrees (Fahrenheit) when I pulled into the driveway, and once in my door, I had zero interest in going back out.

I wanted to go hang out with my fiber arts crew; I just DIDN’T want to go back out into the arctic tundra.

I began to justify my decision further. Not only was the weather ridiculous, my cat needed my company and I had been at work all day.

Then, I sealed the evening’s fate: I turned on the TV and tuned into the Columbo channel on Roku.

I grew up watching this and Hawaii 5-0 as well as a few other cop/crime shows, and have come to the conclusion that part of my recent interest is grounded in a desire to return to a time when life in general made more sense.

Certainly, some of my generalized angst is related to things happening in the news – which I try not to listen to/watch (another likely reason for my immersion in TV shows from the 1970’s).

As a kid, I grew up in a comfortable middle class family that was for the most part functional (as opposed to blatantly dysfunctional) where grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and even great-grandparents were a regular part of our lives. We attended and were participating members in a mainline Protestant church, and my family members were pillars in their respective corners of the community.

We certainly lived through many unsettling occurrences, including assassinations, war, civil unrest, and economic hardship. Still, it seemed to my sister and I at the time, that the adults in our lives had the answers, knew what was right, understood how to stay the course and keep us safe.

Now, my sister and I are the matriarchs of the family for all intents and purposes, and I’m more uncertain about the future than I ever imagined I would be at this point in my life.

As I sat and crocheted – working on my Peephole Chevron blanket – I thought of my grandmother; the one who taught me to crochet so long ago. She was born just after the first World War. She had uncles that came home with stories from the Somme and Flanders. Not long into her childhood, the Great Depression swept across the United States, and while her family survived (farmers), she was impacted by that period for the rest of her life. As a young woman, she gave birth to a son in the same year that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, pushing the United States into another World War. This time it was a brother that went off to war, and thankfully – returned.

There was of course a lot more history to follow, but the point is that people have lived through many dark times over the years. I suspect that my grandmother did what I ended up doing last night: crocheting to keep her mind off of the many worries that were all around.

Her crocheting didn’t solve the issues that started the war, but I suspect that the rhythmic stitches helped her the way they are helping me today. We look at the predictions around Artificial Intelligence (AI) that are worrisome, but after WWII the world entered the nuclear age, and embarked on a race into outer space (fueled by the development of rockets, satellites, etc.). Then the Information Age emerged, first with transistors, and followed by microchips, computers, and the internet. The maturing of air travel and the emergence of the Jet Age – especially in commercial aviation, as well as breakthroughs in medicine that include the discovery of penicillin, and the use of blood plasma brought the world into a brand new status.

Today we hear about conflict, skirmishes and outright wars. We worry about the tenuous situation of the financial system in the United States, and how it may impact our families. Then there’s the p(Doom) (probability of doom) being predicted around the entrenchment of AI into our society and what it will mean for work, careers, salaries and more. It can get overwhelming very quickly, if we let it.

I will continue to engage with my fiber arts groups and remain connected with fiber friends. These are the connections that become so vital in times of national stress. But I will also allow myself to be comforted with the impulse to hibernate, focused on fabric and yarn; like my grandma before me. And like her, I’ll stay strong and resilient to walk through whatever it is that comes our way.

Hang in there, fiber friends, and keep on stitchin’ !

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(C) 2026 Fiber Harmony / Stitch ‘n Dish