I had a lovely dream last night which, for reasons beyond our ken, made me realise on waking that I need to get back to writing, and that includes writing some blog posts. I have no idea whether these will continue to be sporadic, as they have become through the past couple of months, or whether I will get back into a better routine. I hope for the latter whilst quietly expecting the former.
For today, I will just touch briefly on a couple of things. I hope you all had a good Christmas, or alternative winter celebration. I found it incredibly difficult to dig the Christmas spirit out of my soul this year, it felt for a while like just another source of stress to cope with. Yet the season worked its magic in the end, raising my spirits with simple pleasures like my Christmas tree, and the way the afternoon sun hit the tinsel on my bookshelf, throwing sparkling reflections on the wall.
Speaking of sparkles, what about this sock yarn? I don’t think I will ever want more than one pair of sparkly socks, but this yarn (West Yorkshire Spinners’ Signature Sparkle 4-ply in their Silent Night colour) called to me for my Christmas break knitting. I like that the underlying dye-work is relatively subtle compared to some of the wham-bam effects when sparkle is combined with a bright and busy colour combination. I might not finish the socks before I start back at work mid-week, but I aim for them to be done by New Year. Since I like to enjoy a “Silent Night” on New Year’s Eve, I think these will be very good to wear that day.
The eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted my second-most recent finished object in that photo: the socks from the Katia yarn. I must say that I much prefer them washed and on the foot to how they looked whilst I was knitting them. That large block of café au lait colour looks more acceptable viewed against the socks in their entirety. I really do like the colours and they are a fantastic complement to my pretty flowered skirt. I’m glad to have these in my sock collection.
I had a very lovely Christmas and was spoiled rotten by the family and friends. You know how some years you don’t receive a single book amongst your gifts? Well, this year I pre-empted that by treating myself to the latest set of short stories by Haruki Murakami to add to my collection of his excellent works. I then received a total of ten books in my Christmas gifts. As well as buying new books, in my family we are keen buyers, gifters, and receivers of second-hand books; it is, quite simply, the very best form of recycling. So, now I have eleven books to read this year, ranging from a volume of Michael Palin’s Diaries to Alison Uttley’s children’s story “A Traveller in Time” via classic science fiction, an account of the Tour de France ridden in the aftermath of the First World War, and a murder or two. This bounty immediately had me deciding that 2022 will be a year of reading. I’m going to pre-fill the pages of my sadly-neglected reading journal with photos and details of each book then write a brief review after I’ve finished each one in the hope that it will keep me accountable.
So, there we go. Three intentions: write, knit, read. How hard can that be?
Pam Alison Knits 
Sounds like the perfect plan for 2022!!
I definitely need to do something to haul myself back onto the tracks this coming year. I know which of the things I do contribute the most to my sanity, yet I often fail to do them.
I have yet to knit with sparkly yarn, but I am really liking that blue.
It is a lovely colourway. It would look very polished with the perfect dark blue denim jeans.
Write, knit, read is simple, but it’s definitely not easy. Which is why I’m stopping by to encourage you in your lovely goals. I myself want to write, cook, draw, and read. Here’s to getting better in 2022!
I will encourage you right back with your goals. Cooking and drawing as well as writing and reading are great goals and, importantly, should be acheivable no matter what 2022 throws at us.
I definitely need to be more purposeful with my time so that I make wise choices between working on the things I want to get done, and taking time out to daydream and relax. Somewhere along the way I lost the feeling that knitting and reading are things I do for relaxation and I’m not entirely sure why that is. I hope as I pick them up again, they might return to being a default rather than having to be a purposeful task I set myself.