Routines and rain

As much as I would love to say that I am a free spirit, totally unbothered by life and merrily doing my own things regardless of external events - we all know that would be a huge whopper of a lie.

I am a creature of routine. I love my small daily rituals and the tiny moments that help keep me grounded every day. Moments so tiny that they often go unnoticed - until they suddenly aren’t there. And then I’m lost.

This week has been like that. Watching our car being towed away to the garage for some TLC left me floundering in a way that I didn’t expect and I struggled to get back on top of all the things I had planned for the week. Spoiler alert - most of it got put back until next week.

A problem for ‘future me’ as my eldest son would say.

Anyway, the car is back now from it’s unscheduled spa day, thank goodness and I can think about knitting again.

I have a new sock pattern off the needles and raring to go, which is always exciting. And my cunning plan to knit 26 pairs of socks this year in the time I can normally waste scrolling is continuing apace with a new pair of West Yorkshire Spinners Butterfly socks on the needles (photo above).

What’s making me smile this week

🧡 Snowdrops - everywhere. The ground may be sodden but these gorgeous little harbingers of spring are popping up everywhere.

🧡 Amazingly I don’t have any patterns related to rain (trust me - I’m as surprised as you are) but I think I need to design something for the pluviophiles among us. I did find this lovely sweater pattern in my queue though - After the Rain by Heidi Kirrmeir which deserves some attention. Ravelry link to pattern.

🧡 The weather has been a source of much conversation here - even more so for us Brits - as parts of the UK have now officially exceeded the biblical 40 days of rainfall. But a family local to us has decided to renovate their canoes - as you do - and the sight of a couple of colourful crafts up on blocks outside their house has prompted many a joke about Arks and collecting up the animals. You have to take your pleasures small when the weather has been so truly diabolical.

🧡This post on Instagram by CozyLifeDiary really made me stop and think, and yes I did whip the journal out as well to ponder on it a little more. Essentially they are making the point that while social media purports to bring us all together it is actually pushing us further apart. Algorithms determine everything that we see so that even if we think we are viewing posts about the same topic, we actually aren’t. We are seeing a subsection of that topic, algorithmically determined to appeal to us. Subtly we each see things through a slightly different lens and the context that I see something in, will be different to that seen by someone else. Slightly scary when you stop to think about it.

The solution - meet people, talk to people in real life - where the algorithms aren’t. Easier said than done, I know but it definitely made me think.

🧡 Speaking of Instagram, I had a lovely face to face chat with Amanda N. Bray the other day in advance of her publishing a post about the platform we all love to hate. She has a really insightful and interesting poll up about how we engage with Instagram and the kind of work we do there - please do go and check it out if that’s your kind of thing.

Is Instagram Making It Harder to Do Deep Creative Work?

🧡 I mentioned earlier that I have a new sock pattern ready to go. After giving myself RSI last year, my planned ‘Year of New Moon’ socks petered out somewhere in the summer. So the Buck Moon socks will be out shortly - I figured I may as well release the new patterns as I make them rather than waiting for the seasonally appropriate time to do so. The Buck Moon is normally associated with July - so you can get a bit of head start 😂

Paid members - keep an eye on your emails as the pattern will be sent to you free as part of your membership benefits.

Sneak peek of the Buck Moon Socks