Friday catch-up

The one from outside of my comfort zone

This week I have been outside my comfort zone not once but twice. In fact, unusually for me I have spent a significant time outside of my cosy home-based comfort zone. And for the most part it was lovely.

The lovely part was a brief trip to Bristol - a fabulous city that to my shame I’d never had the chance to explore before. The 22,000 steps on my Fitbit and the 180 flights of stairs recorded are a permanent testament though to the amount of exploring I did. And I took some fabulous photos too - it was hard not to - surrounded by so much inspiration. I uploaded some of my photos to Instagram.

Even better was the freeing sensation of having a whole day to myself, a whole day with no obligations and no one to please but myself. It will come as no surprise to find that much coffee was drunk, cafes were sat in and people were observed, all while I knit on my sock.

The less than lovely part was a trip to IKEA, getting basics for my Uni-bound eldest son. Honestly though, for all of the faff, stress and general overwhelm that ensued I think I’ll be doing the rest of his preparation through a combination of charity shops and B&M stores. Is it just me or has IKEA got significantly more expensive (outside of its super basics range) in recent years?

Either way, all of my cafe knitting paid off and I was thrilled to finish off my West Yorkshire Spinners socks for my youngest son. He has size 11 feet but as they are narrow I do a 64st cast on - and so was able to comfortably get a full pair out of one 100g ball. He allowed me to weave the ends in - very graciously - but snaffled them before I could take a pretty photo on the blockers.

Here in the UK we are heading into our final bank holiday of the year and a long weekend so with that in mind these are a few things that are making me smile:

• I recently discovered the Myrtlewood Mysteries series of books by the fabulously named Iris Beaglehole - I mean, how could you not read a book by someone with that surname? They are written as YA fiction I think and are really charming and engaging. A nice, entertaining read if you are looking for something that you don’t have to concentrate too hard on.

• This article by Brook Mcalary on brilliantly useful motto for those times in our lives when overwhelm hits

A motto for the mess

• Threads - the newish app now has a website version and I’m really enjoying it. There is a fabulous, chatty vibe there - it’s really easy to spark up conversations with people and honestly I have to say that it’s so much better for my mental health than twitter ever was. Do say hi - I’m here - if you decide to check it out.

I’m now off to assuage my need for bank holiday organisation by writing a nice long to-do list. I’ll the proceed to ignore that to-do list and sit in my PJs reading and knitting. Yes, I could technically go on a day trip to the coast, but given that the rest of Essex will probably be doing the same I think I’ll just stay here. I’ve done enough outside of my comfort zone for one week.

Happy (long) weekend.