I’ve put in some proper knitting time over the Christmas break and finished that pair of socks which I promised I’d get done before the end of the year. I’m pleased. The two yarns I’ve used co-ordinate well and, though there’s an obvious demarkation between leg and foot, it doesn’t look massively out of place. I think I could have striped the two yarns quite successfully, but I was too lazy for that. I can’t decide whether I need to dump one pair of shrunken socks for each pair I finish, or wait until I get to the point where I have enough that I never need to resort to the ill-fitting ones. I’ll probably dump as I go – it’s more me, somehow.

I was very lucky to be gifted two new balls of sock yarn at Christmas. My lovely daughter had gone to the trouble to research suitable wools for socks and gave me West Yorkshire Spinners’ Signature 4-ply in the festive colours of Robin and Hollyberry. So that’s my first two pairs of socks for 2023 sorted and I’m already turning my mind to the search for a shade which will co-ordinate with both in order to make the third and fourth pairs. Of course, my first port of call will be my own stash. I doubt if I will wait until the New Year to make a start on these.

My lovely new “lynchpin” dress has made several appearances over the festive period. Worn with my pink cardi, it took me to a carol service at Norwich Cathedral, and to my office Christmas meal at The Belgian Monk (a lovely place to eat and consume beer if you visit Norwich). I also wore it to my daughter’s Christmas Eve buffet lunch, but this time paired it with the more muted wine-coloured jumper. The pink cardi was paired with grey trousers for a pre-Christmas fish and chip lunch at my sister’s house during the icy weather and looked splendid with my fur-lined boots. So far, I must say the unexpected early winter reassessment of my wardrobe has worked very well indeed.

It hasn’t all been knitting, though. I finished reading the Jarvis Cocker book “Good Pop, Bad Pop” on Christmas Eve. This was a book that was both deeply interesting and laugh out loud amusing. Now I’m ready to move on to one of my Christmas gifts – Haruki Murakami’s “Novelist As A Vocation”. I find both men inspiring which encourages me to make the foray into non-fiction for them. I prefer reading novels on the whole, though an occasional biography or reminiscence is acceptable.

Then there have been the morning and evening sessions with my planner and intentional journaling pages. I am falling into a routine with these, but the evening review sessions are harder than the morning preparation sessions. I miss my more free-form journaling, but I know that what I’m attempting is what I need right now. One of my Christmas gifts was a lovely little Paperblanks notebook which I am setting up to house quotes now that I don’t have a place for these within my weekly planning setup. I also received a bumper set of washi tapes which I shall be pressing into service to decorate the pages which should satisfy some of the creative needs that assail me in my journaling.

Following the splendid autumn growth in my pen and ink collection, this is an area of my life that I’m going to ease back on for a while. First you expand, then you consolidate, and I feel a consolidation period approaching. I’ve got a good variety of pens to grow attached to and I want to reduce the amount of ink a bit, so that means plenty of handwriting which is never a bad thing. One final idea with ink is to see if I can use it with a 55p rubber stamp I picked up at a charity shop before Christmas. I’m not convinced this would work, but I’m interested to experiment a little.

So, with Christmas behind us, we sail on towards 2023. Bon voyage to us all.