The overwhelm avoidance issue

Tips on keeping things manageable, both online and in-person

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Substack summer party this week and it was a wonderful, if slightly daunting experience. It was my first time attending such a gathering and I was so grateful to be in the company of a few Substackers who, although we had never met in person, had chatted to online a lot. Thank you to Claire Venus ✨ . Jo Hutton , Kate Harvey , Toni Jones and Amy I Beeson 🐝 for being my ‘party within a party’.

It got me thinking about our hobbies and the way we share them online, and specifically how it can really help introverts like me (and I suspect you too) when it comes to real life, in-person events.

I had never met Claire, Jo, Toni, Kate or Amy before Tuesday. And although we had been on some of the same web calls or chatted via DM we had never met. So when we came together as a little group we were already friends. We already knew a bit about each other and there was none of the awkward “So, what do you do” type conversations.

A few years ago Sara Tasker (of meandorla fame) coined the term ‘webtrovert’ and I think it fits me down to a tee. Social and chatty online but find it much harder in real life unless I already ‘know’ a person.

And for me it’s what makes Substack such a great place to be. Many of us here love to chat but to do so in a way that helps us feel both safe and seen - not an easy thing for a platform to pull off. And yet the Substack algorithm is very good at only showing us things we want to see within our little bubbles. If we want to go wider, it’s all there. But unlike other platforms you have to go looking for it - it won’t fling disturbing content at you over your morning coffee.

And if you always read this in your email inbox - totally fine - but please do consider checking out the Substack platform to find more writers and crafters just like me (and you). It’s really friendly, I promise.

What’s making me smile this week

☀️ My courgette plants (2 of them) have flowered and begun to produce tiny courgettes. This is my first time growing any vegetable from seed and I am inordinately proud of them. I mentioned them on Threads and got a comment left there by Kew Gardens!! Have I arrived as some kind of horticultural genius 🤣 I wish.

☀️ As a pre-Substack party confidence boost I got my nails done in London at a random nail bar. No gels anymore as I find they wreck my nails but just a basic (much needed) manicure and a pretty colour that I realised later matched my Matcha Green Kindle. Incidentally - I remember now why manicures are so good for knitters - no more ragged cuticles snagging on my yarn.

☀️ My new Kawii tarot deck featured a cat knitting - possibly the first time I have seen knitting specifically incorporated into a deck like that and it made me very happy.

☀️ The warm weather meant the first official outing of my Extra Lite Bright Tee - a short sleeved fingering weight sweater from Wool and Pine designs. No photo yet as I forgot but I’ll definitely take one for next week. I’m happy to report it was pleasantly cool to wear and no where near as warm as I feared.

☀️ Getting ready for a summer social media detox. I’ve been pondering this for a while and I am looking forward to a bit of a break if I’m honest. Unusually for me I did a Live on Instagram yesterday (I know!!) about the issue of following and unfollowing people and how sometimes we can turn it into a much bigger deal than it really is. Plus I was sharing some tips about how to make your Instagram feed behave itself and show you content you actually want to see - watch here.