My overriding theme for this week has been Trying New Things.
After a chat with my youngest son, trying to persuade him to step out of his comfort zone a little more and try a few new things I found myself uttering the immortal words ‘what’s the worst that can happen?’
I remember when my mum used to say that to me and it annoyed me then too.
Reflecting later as I was writing my journal I realised that I was in sore need of taking my own advice. Isn’t it funny how we often find that the words we are so keen to dish up to others are the ones we could do with partaking in ourselves.
So with that in mind I set about trying a few new things this week, and keeping in mind that none of it was brain surgery.
Mistakes happen but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they matter.
My new things this week:
🍵 Trying an iced Cappuccino instead of my normal black Americano - and what do you know - I really rather liked it.
🍵 Mastering the foundationless crochet cast on for a large striped blanket - a total revelation. No more struggling with that horrible, twisty first row of trying to crochet into a long, skinny, wiggly chain. I forsee many more crochet blankets in my future as a result.
🍵 Meeting up with a new online pal for a real-life coffee (not iced, this time). It was great fun and I was glad that I didn’t chicken out and cancel, as I was sorely tempted to do.
🍵 Volunteering for a small, local community project aimed at improving recycling in our area.
🍵 Putting some Everyday Knitter ‘merch’ up for sale. This has been a dream of mine for ages and this week I finally launched the start of what I hope will be a small line of Everyday Knitter themed physical items.
Starting with a mini tote bag (not a mini toe bag which is what my first - thankfully draft - email autocorrected it to). You can find all the details here should you wish a mini project bag of your very own. It’s big enough to fit in a sock project or a one-skein shawl with ample room for a little notebook and snacks.
Knitting doesn’t need courage…but it does take balls
Have a lovely weekend and I hope that you too, get a chance to try a new thing or two.
We've always told our children to just say yes to trying new things. Our daughter is at camp right now, and we told her to just say yes. Rock climbing, yes. Kayaking, yes. This is her 3rd year at this camp, so she knows the routine, and always says yes. But, then again she usually says yes on her own anyway. We as adults need to heed our own advice, and just say yes.
I am in very serious need of something to put all my accumulated crafty stuff in - my little room has some storage, but that's already all taken and my balls of yarn are piled on the shelf!! I have done something utterly terrifying for my next Substack letter - we will see if I actually send it including the terrifying thing.... I keep telling myself - what's the worst that can happen...
Foundationless crochet sounds intriguing - although I already have so many things already on the go that I should probably put a pin in that for another time!!