I can’t quite believe that I finished the front of The 1986 two weeks ago. Progress on the back has been slow and it doesn’t warrant a photo as it’s basically just a rectangle of stocking stitch. I have some time off work coming up, a couple of days will be prime knitting time as I have to wait in at home for deliveries to come or repair work to be done. The aim is to finish The 1986 in the first week of the month and make a decision about my next project, so watch this space.
It may just be a case of the “Januaries”, but I’m not convinced that 2025 is shaping up to be a particularly auspicious year. I held off buying a horoscope book at the end of 2024, but by mid-January I realised I needed something to amuse me, not to mention something to blame for my bad moods. So I got the monthly horoscope book I’ve used for the past few years. This year it is compiled by a different astrologer and the format is similar, but there is a new “word of the month” which is quite fun. One of the suggestions was to think of three guiding words for the year and I came up with “Write”, “Knit”, “Dream”. Immediately after, I decided this would be my “WKD” year!
I have many plans for the “Write” part of the equation. First, I’m taking part in another series of reading and writing workshops run at Norwich Castle Museum. This time they centre around a current exhibition of works by, and works associated with, W H Turner. Along with looking at the paintings in the exhibition, the workshop leader chooses some pieces of writing for each session. The first week it was three poems by Robert Frost, a poet I am quite fond of. All in all, these sessions make for a very enjoyable morning at the museum.
I’ve also decided to resurrect a practice which has helped me a few times in the past: to do a handwritten mini-fiction piece each day using prompts from an old writing textbook. This only occurred to me a couple of days ago but now I’ve identified the need, I’ll make space for the materials to be close to hand.
The longer-term intention for the year is to get into a routine of spending half a day each weekend concentrating on creative writing. I intended all along to start working on that in my February break. Now that time is almost upon me, I need to wrap my head around what shape this is all going to take. I will make it a priority to revisit the course materials from the short story-writing course I did last year, as well as researching ways to improve my editing skills as I often get stuck and don’t move beyond the rough and ready first draft.
“Knit” is, by and far, the easiest of the three to work on. I’m pretty sure I understand the direction my knitting is going to take this year, and all I have to do is make sure that I have the time and the energy to work on my current project each evening. I haven’t done too well at that this past couple of weeks, though I wouldn’t say it’s been a complete failure – I have pushed myself to do a couple of rows on evenings where I haven’t really had the heart for it. Another plan for my days off work is to rearrange my yarn supplies so that everything is grouped in my new knitting corner. I’m rather excited about that.
“Dream”, by comparison, is the hardest part of my triumvirate. I do consider myself to be a dilly-daydreamer by nature, but it’s easy for the daily grind to get in the way of that. I find my head gets locked firmly on reality leaving no room for fantasy. Indeed, daydreaming goes hand-in-hand with creative writing. I find it easier to write if I’m able to dream, and harder to switch into creative writing mode when my head is given over to facts and statistics.
My past experience suggests that the path back to creativity and dreaming is always there and I can get back on it with a bit of thought. Recognising that I’ve strayed too far off-track is the starting point, and then it’s a matter of re-introducing practices that I know have worked in the past. Things like the daily writing exercise, listening to music when I might otherwise be watching YouTube, building a bit of silence into my day. Sometimes just making small changes to the routines to shake things up a bit can be enough to get me back to where I want to be.
Thinking about it, January may not have been a great start to 2025, but it may well have been exactly the push I need to make the rest of the year more successful. This time next week we’ll be in February and it will be a whole new world.
Pam Alison Knits 
2 responses to “Wicked?”
I like the idea of a half day a week dedicated to creative writing.For a while, some years ago now, I tried to have an hour, early each Thursday morning to write up memories. That worked well for me and I filled a few notebooks, changing pens with each entry. Thinking about this makes me want to do it again.
It could be just the right time to add a bit of writing back into your daily routine. I like your idea of changing pens for each entry.