Everyday Jaunts

A post about adventures - small ones.

I've been reading this fabulous book - Born to be Mild by @robtemple1001 documenting his recovery from a period of ill health (both physical and mental). It's both funny and bittersweet and brutally honest about his attempts to broaden his horizons by embarking on a series of mini adventures. Some go well, others not so well.

It made me realise quite how small my life has become recently. Granted we are in Covid times so not a lot is possible, but even with those limitations I feel as though I desperately need a bit of variety in my life right now.

So I have decided I need a program of little things I can do - we are talking tiny here - in my regular day.

I'm calling them #EverydayJaunts and I’m sharing them with this hashtag on Instagram - either on my grid or in my stories - and saving the latter to the highlights tab on my bio as a kind of record of activities. You are most welcome to join in and share your own jaunts too - if you need a little motivation or you'd like to share your ideas with others.

It could be as simple as taking your morning cup of coffee outside and listening to the birds, or stopping off, on a morning errand earlier to look at a church that I’ve driven past for years but never actually looked at, properly.

Small things, but hopefully ones that will rewire my brain a little and start to see the wonder and the variety in the everyday stuff.

Focusing on what’s different, rather than what is remaining the same.

Letting go

Letting go.

Autumn to me usually feels like a time for fresh starts and new endeavours. But right now for me, it feels like a time for letting go.

I've already let the Everyday Knitter Facebook group go (and am loving the Mighty Networks alternative). I genuinely didn't realise the negative effect that Facebook had on me until I cut my usage by 90%.

And now I find myself looking around at other aspects of my life and wondering what else can go.

What else do I not need?

Next up, rather obviously is Ravelry. I'm already well underway with my Payhip store and I'm now at the stage where 60% of my sales are now on Payhip - and my Ravelry invoices are the lowest they've been in 3 years.

Something else that I've previously thought to be essential, turns out not to be.

That's the thing about disruptive change I guess. Once you start it really challenges thoughts and ideas that you've always held true.

Do I really need this? Or do I just think I do? Interesting times for sure.

If you were challenged to let one thing go, what would it be?

Socially Distant Socks

Socially Distant socks - on Payhip

I cast on for these wonderfully vivid socks a while ago using some fabulously named Pineapple Pyre yarn from Gamercrafting.

I had in mind a simple pattern, with no counting and no fuss but one that made the most of the brilliant variations in colour tone.

All the way through the knitting of these socks I knew they reminded me of something and my brain kept focusing on train tracks or tram rails. Then just as I was finishing them off it hit me - they reminded me of social distancing. Specifically the 2m distanced queues that we have become so used to seeing and being part of. Everyone together - but yet apart. Together but separate.

Talk about a metaphor for our times.

So here we have the Socially Distant socks - for your knitting pleasure. Toe-up, minimal counting and low stress. I don’t know about you but that’s been all I can manage in the knitting department of late.

If you subscribe to my newsletter please do check it out for a discount code, alternatively there’s the code SD25 which will get you a 25% early bird discount until Sunday 13 Sep.

The pattern is available on Payhip as well as on Ravelry.

Weekends don't count

Much of this year seems to have disappeared into a haze of anxiety and stress, but something about the change in seasons and the change in routine, as kids head back to school has kick started my long-dormant creativity and got me thinking positive thoughts again.

I’m fully aware that this might be a temporary reprieve in the whole Covid situation and that things may well get worse before they get better, but at the minute I am carrying on as best I can fully masked up, limiting social interaction and trying to keep a ‘this too shall pass’ mindset first and foremost.

Spending a lot less time on social media has helped enormously, as has cutting the ties with Facebook for personal use and the toxic soup that is Facebook groups. Spending an intentional half an hour on the Mighty Networks group leaves me feeling recharged and energised and has proved to be the perfect way to both start and end my working day.

Another thing that has helped is getting back into writing again - always something that I love but that I seem to be only able to commit to patchily. I have dabbled with writing Morning Pages before - a three page ‘free writing’ session but have always struggled to stick to it, especially at weekends where my routine is wildly different to my working week and loss of momentum always seems to completely derail my fledgling habit.

This time though I was reminded of something that Sara Tasker taught when I did her 15 minute magic programme a while ago - basically that ‘Weekends Don’t Count’. Weekends are for many things but they are a chance to do things differently from the rest of the week. A chance to rest, regroup and allow your mind to mull over the challenges and happenings of the week. In short, they are a break to allow your creative, subconscious mind a bit of free rein.

So, with that in mind I went through and marked off all the weekend days on my 30 day habit tracker in advance. And oh, my goodness. The difference it made this weekend was incredible. Normally I would approach a weekend with a vague ‘oh, I must do my morning pages’ thought. I would prevaricate and procrastinate, feeling guilt that I hadn’t done it. Then by the time Monday morning rolled around I would have talked myself out of doing it altogether and chalked it up to just another example of how I can’t commit to anything.

This time though? Totally different mindset. Giving myself permission to take the weekend off - albeit from this small and totally self-imposed challenge was incredibly freeing.

And now I can’t wait to see what other areas of my business and creative life I can apply this to.

My Morning Pages habit tracker

Ravelry and me

Wearing the PPS Shawl.

A lot has happened over the last few weeks. The sudden upgrade of Ravelry and the attendant concern and dismay over it’s continued inaccessibility to many have continued apace, and despite some blog posts and half-apologies from Jess and the team there has been very little meaningful progress.

Many people can no longer use the site and this is, put simply not acceptable.

I have talked about this a lot on Twitter and in other social media but I realised that I haven’t stated my position plainly here, in black and white, for posterity.

As things stand at the moment I cannot support Ravelry, nor the decisions taken by the management team. Repeated attempts to engage with them at all levels have failed and it is clear at this point that no amount of ‘people expressing disappointment’ will shake their firm conviction to proceed with their new look.

With this in mind the only option left to me is not to support them financially. I can’t afford to close my pro account - my pattern sales are still significant there and I am a business at the end of the day. As soon as there is a viable alternative I will move but for now I will continue to push sales on my Payhip platform as hard as I can and to continue to pay the (hopefully small) Ravelry sales invoice.

In addition I will not purchase any patterns from the site. If I find a pattern I like and the designer doesn’t appear to have an alternative platform available then I will ask them if they will sell it to me via Paypal.

I haven’t advertised on the site for several years now so this bit isn’t relevant to me but I notice that many designers have withheld their advertising budget - and also the coveted September slots which used to sell out in record time are still currently showing as half-filled. Advertising revenue accounts for 50% of Ravelry’s income so this is the most effective way of attracting their attention.

If you haven’t tried Payhip before, please don’t be put off. It’s a simple Paypal transaction just like you would do with Ravelry. The only difference is that the pattern PDF is emailed to you rather than going into your Ravelry library. But in any case, in order to be sure you can access your purchases it’s always good practice to keep a copy of your PDF - either paper or digitally - after all, if Ravelry were to be unavailable to you then you wouldn’t be able to access the patterns you have paid for. If having the pattern in your library is important to you however, please do let me know after your purchase and I’ll happily gift it to you.

In order to tempt you to try it out I am having a Payhip sale from now until the end of August. Please just use the code PAYHIP50 on any of my patterns for 50% off

Knitting as therapy

Do you feel as though sometimes your brain is completely full? Like a cup of coffee filled to the absolute brim and the slightest movement or the tiniest sliver of additional information will cause it to spill over? I am prone to over thinking at the best of times but recently I have been feeling this more and more.

I am a huge fan of Writing Things Down and my belief in the power of a good long list is unshakeable, but recently I stopped journalling. Everything seemed to overwhelming and and certainly during March and April all the days seemed the same - writing about them seemed rather pointless and if I’m honest, pretty depressing. Journalling seemed to encourage me to dwell on the negatives and I felt rather like a hamster on a wheel.

Recently though I’ve discovered two things - the fabulous team at the Positive Planner who have produced a bullet journal in addition to their daily gratitude journal, and also Ruth Poundwhite’s Journalling for Business course. Both have which have inspired me to get my pen back out and write things down again.

Sitting, knitting something simple (in this case a garter stitch washcloth) and writing down ideas and thoughts as they come to me, with no pressure and no feeling that I’m doing things wrong. It’s been remarkably therapeutic and I really can’t recommend it highly enough. Even if you never look at the pages again after you’ve written them - the thoughts are out of your head - and that’s the main thing. The impact on my mental health has been really striking in recent weeks - although I’m sure that’s also partly due to spending less time on social media (Facebook in particular).

In case you need a simple pattern for a washcloth to try this for yourself I have jotted mine down here. Please feel free to bookmark it for future reference if you too, have a ‘Brain Too Full’ moment.

“WASHCLOTH PATTERN: CO 2 sts,
K1, kfb, k to end. Repeat this row until you have 50sts.
k1, ssk, k to end. repeat this row until you have 2 sts.
Cast off.”

— Louise Tilbrook Designs