Friday catch-up
The one where we all had the lurgy
The overwhelming theme for this week has been coughs and colds. ‘Tis the season after all.
Husband was sick first, generously giving it to me and younger son after a few days. Even our older son, away at Uni simultaneously came down with a bug of his very own. And oh my goodness, nothing plucks at the heartstrings more than an offspring, poorly and very small-sounding, many miles from home.
It was all I could do not to jump in the car and take him hot soup and blankets.
If I wasn’t poorly myself I might have considered it. As it was we all wrapped up warm in our respective homes to tough it out.
Luckily I had just finished a new shawl design - the Shadow Side shawl pictured above. It takes 3 x 100g aran weight yarn and knits up into a long, cosy wrappable rectangle. Perfect for wrapping round your shoulders on colder days or when you just need a woolly hug or two.
Wool, hot soup and good books - should all be available on the NHS if you ask me. They might nor cure all ills, but they certainly have magical properties for making you feel a but more cosseted
Ginger tea in the slow cooker: there’s no real recipe for this but a friend told me about this genius tip when a few of you in the house are feeling under the weather. Add the following to your slow cooker and keep on a medium heat. Everyone can come along and help themselves to a mugful - adding honey to taste:
3L water
2 or 3 cinnamon sticks
2 cloves
1 orange, sliced
1 lemon, sliced
1 large (at least thumb sized - and maybe a bit more) chunk of ginger, sliced reasonably thinly
Added bonus - it makes the house smell amazing (assuming your sense of smell is still working)
As far as knitting goes, I released my new shawl pattern this week - Shadow Side and I’ve been making good progress on my stripy Christmas socks. Luckily, they are very forgiving of a cold-addled brain and knitting round and round watching the festive colour changes is definitely therapeutic.
The amazing dyer of this yarn - The Yarny Octopus - definitely deserves a mention here. This was a special Christmas pre-order but please do check out their UK-based store as they have some beautiful colourways.
My Ankers cardigan has fallen by the wayside a little - I had a sudden idea for a textured new cowl pattern and I shamelessly abandoned the 80% finished cardigan in pursuit of the new and shiny thing. One day I will conquer my butterfly brain - but today is not that day.
On the plus side, I might squeak out the new cowl pattern in time for Christmas - or rather for some chilled out knitting for you between Christmas and New Year. I already have the Twixtmas Cowl for just such an occasion so it might be nice to add another one to the library.
It’s also that time of year where I start to think about planners and journals - and the ever present battle of digital vs paper. The problem is that I love both. Both have their uses and both have their drawbacks.
I’ve recently been dabbling with Notion as a digital planner and I love the way you can easily add and link pages to create your own bespoke dashboard. It’s great for tracking habits and keeping a record of articles/books I want to read and I love the fact that it’s always with you via the app.
Nothing beats pen and paper though, particularly when I’m in the mood to get Organised - with a capital O. Sitting down at the start of the day, making a list and working through it is still incredibly satisfying. I don’t always feel like doing that every day though and so I always feel a little resentful at the wasted space in a dated planner.
Then I came across the fabulous Ohh Deer A5 Planner. It is really practical, with a double spread for each day but it is undated, meaning that you don’t waste pages on those days where you don’t need to plan an awful lot.
It has over 300 pages and a really nice fabric soft cover - and of course it’s in teal (my favourite colour).
The lovely people at www.wildsmilessupplies.co.uk have given me a discount code for you to use if you’d like a planner for yourself. Code Louise10 will give you a 10% discount if you buy via the link below.
That’s about all from me this week - it turned into a surprisingly long chat given that I feel as though I’ve lost half the week to a cold.
Wishing you a peaceful and lurgy-free weekend if at all possible.
I use digital for quickly adding all the things I sign up for (webinars, training, etc.) to my calendar but I also prefer paper. I jot down thoughts throughout the day, notes, quotes, etc. For that, I have used undated quarterly journals for the past year. However, I also didn't like the wasted space if I didn't do anything for a week. This year, I bought an inexpensive dot grid journal, put in a future log, sketched out twelve months (because I like to see my full month) and left the rest blank. When I use it to write down day to day stuff, I can jot down the date at the top of the page and then make my notes and stuff. I find I can't be completely analog but I also can't do a dated planner, since I hate the waste, and I can't do a full on bullet journal because I spend all my time decorating and never use it because of anxiety. This new method seems to be working well though.
Hope you're feeling better. The new design looks lovely. I was fighting the digital vs. analog planning for long. In the end, for me, I am not proud to say this, but digital won. Still holding on to paper for sketching though.