Enjoy this excerpt: (and go buy the issue!)
“Tara Jon Manning, author of Mindful Knitting and Compassionate Knitting, hosts weekend retreats to Vermont for “curious knitters.” Exploring the parallels between knitting and meditation is done through yoga, daily hikes, craft instruction, and other optional outdoor activities. “Yoga can offer a method for somatic integration of the Mindful Knitting experience, as well as ways to correct posture, integrate stretches, and bring energy and blood flow back to the body after a long period of sitting still. The focus on work on your needles, and the focus of your body holding an asana are of course very different, but each allows the practitioner to leave thoughts and distractions behind and focus on a specific object or action.” says Jon Manning. Whether you spend the weekend with Tara or relaxing in your own backyard, knitting can help still your mind and provide you with a unique memento of your own creation.”
Take a look: A Good Yarn By Victoria E
See the article in the September 2007 Issue or at Victoria’s Website. They only got my name wrong a little tiny bit.
Also, remember to check out the upcoming Mindful Knitting Retreat in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom March 08 (at The Highland Lodge).
I saw that in this issue, too and got so excited!! yay! for knitting AND Yoga.
That’s very cool! I’m in Ireland, so too far to get to a retreat, sadly, but I was loving your book before I lent it to a friend of my daughter’s. I figured the good of getting it to someone who was really excited about learning to knit as part of her meditation practice would more than compensate for having to wait a bit longer to get to it myself. My daughter laughed at me for suggesting her friend might like it but had the grace to tell me the friend had jumped at the idea.
I noticed when I read the article that they’d thought you had a hyphenated last name without any hyphen {wry grin}.
Last weekend I was at the YJ conference in Estes Park for the weekend and Cyndi Lee coordinated a knitting circle in the library. Wish you’d been there. It was relaxed, a good group, TOTAL beginners to proficient, and every skill level in between.
The last time I was at the YJ conference (’04) I took most of my classes with Cyndi, so I signed up with a different set of instructors this time. It was great to see her anyway on both Thursday and Saturday evenings while knitting. I’m still working with several of the yoga nuggets I got in her sessions three years ago!
As a fellow knitter and yogini I have often thought that yoga, knitting, and meditation go perfectly together. People either “get it” or they don’t!
I have organized a local afternoon “Yoga and Knitting” Workshop at Burlington Yoga on December 8th. I will try to organize a few people to get together to go to the Mindful Knitting Retreat in Greensboro…hope to see you there!
Julie C. Nelson
http://www.coolmoonyoga.com
Tara: If you need a yoga instructor for your weekend – let me know – I am not too far..in Westford, VT. Email me at julie@coolmoonyoga.com.
Excellent! I love YJ, and now I love them even more.
Good stuff!