This week has been distinctly muted in terms of activity and output, thanks to a knee injury which left me spending the week on the sofa with an ice pack (read: bag of frozen petit pois).
The plus side was that I had plenty of knitting time, the downside was that I didn’t have the brain power to do anything very creative.
I did manage to power through a pair of socks for my husband (one was finished already) and so he actually got a pair on birthday socks on his birthday - something of a minor miracle. He is very appreciative of all things handknit, so of course he immediately put them on and wore them to work.
When someone asked him if he got anything nice for his birthday he prompted whipped up his trouser leg to show them his ‘birthday socks’ forgetting that not everyone is as attuned to the way of the handknit. Let’s just say their response fell into the category of polite, but baffled.
So, birthday socks aside - what’s been making me smile this week.
Soup! I recently bought a soup maker, overcoming my initial ‘we don’t need another kitchen gadget’ scepticism and I have become a full-on soup convert. 20 mins is all it takes to turn chopped veggies, cold water and a stock cube into delicious, blended, hot soup. It’s really helping with our 2024 aim of reducing food waste and it makes just enough for two hungry adults at lunchtime - so I don’t have to contend with a huge vat of the stuff that then needs freezing. I haven’t bought it yet but I’m giving serious thought to buying this soup maker book in order to extend my repertoire further.
Reading - Incredibly I’m still keeping up with the year-long War and Peace readalong, hosted by
. A chapter per day is proving to be extremely managable and Simon does a great job of hosting a daily chat here as well as handy summary threads - useful if you tend to get your characters in a muddle.The 72 Seasons Project - if you don’t already know about this it’s a really wonderful project, based in the UK which is based on the Japanese concept of a year being made up of 72 micro-seasons, each 5 days long. It’s been re-interpreted for the UK and the aim is to encourage people to appreciate the small changes in nature that are happening all around them. I follow them on Facebook - their other channels are listed too - and I love seeing their updates on my feed.
Substack-wise I’ve been really enjoying Clare Alban’s posts, especially this one on finding Joy in January. Let’s face it, it can feel like a very long month so it’s a good time to be kind to yourself, and find the joy in simple pleasures.
Handwritten letters. I’ve had a really lovely, enthusiastic response to my Penpal Project and I’ll be pairing people up on 31 January. There’s still time to be involved and send/receive your very own handwritten letter - all the details are here if you are interested.
May you and your knee be all better soon. Don't rush it. Doc Sandy says No vacuuming for at least a month! So gratifying that your husband loves his hand knit socks! No accounting for people who would not appreciate them! We live among those who are clueless in more ways than one. 🙂
Love the birthday socks!!