Knitting, Graffiti and Life Stuff


After not very much knitting at all, there has been knitting! Hoorah! I have been (past tense) making great progress with a new project which combines Scheepjes Stone Washed XL with their new River Washed XL (the same content as Stone Washed, but with a coloured central fibre and coloured outer layer). It's smooshy, made up of relaxing knits and purls and is in my favourite colours - project perfection. I'm planning to publish it as a beginner-friendly pattern pretty soon. By which I mean 'whenever it's finished'. 

The sample-knitting might have been finished already had The Book of Dust not arrived on my Kindle first thing this morning (while I stalk Amazon for delivery of the hardcover edition). Until that's finished, all bets are off. I'm currently wavering between devouring it really quickly to know the story, or savouring each chapter slowly. Perhaps both, in that order - delayed gratification isn't something I'm good at.

There was another knitting delay last week, though. I had a mini-holiday in Brighton with the 'besties' I've known since I was 11. It's been FIVE years since we had a break together and there was a lot to catch up on - our regular Sunday night FaceTimes are great, but aren't the same. I didn't even take so much as a 'handbag sock' or a sketchbook with me, so they could have my full attention - they deserve it after 32 years. We realised quite how much we've been through in that time. Births, deaths, marriages - everything, really. These are friends for life. 

Brighton is teeming with colour and life, even when overcast
Despite being the same age, we are at different stages of parenthood - my son is the eldest so I'm dealing with the transition from child to teen (he changes daily - seriously - it's very disconcerting) and taking those first tentative steps beyond the familiar (new school, new friends, going out with those friends unsupervised - eek!) meanwhile the youngest of my friends' children is just two - that's a whole different level of parenting that we left behind some time ago. It's good to chat about it all, to help process the changes and challenges and to celebrate what's going well. And a lot is. 

I've made no secret of the fact that I've felt, for some time, that changes are coming. Part of that has been my less frequent posting here (and a lot less knitting) so that I could devote more time to other pursuits, like painting, and my other blog and Instagram account - one of my crafty friends jokingly dubbed me 'Mystic Artistic', and I couldn't really object.

Personally, the last few weeks have brought a great deal more clarity and although I don't have a destination in mind, I've made a few decisions regarding my next steps. One of those was finding a Reiki Teacher, with whom I'll commence training next month. As recently as a few years ago I would have poo-pooed any notion of "healing" using Reiki, which probably tells you a lot about the changes in me. The shift that has been happening slowly, but has come to the fore over the last year or so. 
No one has ever had the complete, perfect plan. There is no end destination. There is no right or wrong way to do it and you do NOT need permission from anyone else. Don't put so much pressure on yourself. Forget about the outcome, the plan, and just start now by following one thing that fills you up, that gets you out of bed and you're enthusiastic about. And then reach for another. It doesn't have to make sense - the best things never do.... As Steve Jobs said, 'It's only in looking back that the dots begin to connect,' but first, you gotta get busy creating some dots. - Rebecca Campbell, Light is the New Black p111. 
The story of the 'dots' that got me to this point is probably one for another day but in the meantime, I wish you a wonderful weekend! I'll be back soon with a reader giveaway and some great new products you might like to consider for gifting season - I'm not sure whether I'll run an official gift guide this year, but I do have some lovely things to show you.

STOP THE PRESS: I almost forgot to mention that I have been nominated in the dotcomgiftshop Blog Awards - thank you so much to everyone who has already voted and to those who might like to. Placing your vote here also enters you into a prize draw! 

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