Clouds

So I leapt out of bed in 'doing mode' and started getting the day under control and I looked up at the clouds and I actually had the thought 'what do I need to do to bring the sun out'.

I actually...had...that...thought!!!

I have a big job with lots of problems to solve everyday. I have a house full of ten years of landfill that I'm streamlining. I have a tonne of DIY. I have knitting. I'm busy. I tackle each problem with thinking of the end result that I want and then working backwards along the route till I get to the next action that I need to take.

I wanted sunshine and for a moment my mind clearly thought this proactive approach was going to work! Catching myself thinking this thought has really made me think that just maybe I should have a rethink here. So I'm visualising what it might be like to rethink this and I'm thinking - I have lost...the...plot.

So this week's task is to do some DIY on my mind to work out what thoughts are really worth being thunk amongst the landfill of crappy management tools i've been collecting for the past ten years. Thank you clouds.

Geeking out

I'm on the move and I've been enhancing my travel knit-kit this weekend. Usually it is spartan:-scissors and a darning needle in a mint tin. Occasionally there might be a bit of yarn in a different colour to hold stitches or make stitch markers and that's it. I like the minimalism of it.

This week, however I faced the fact that I needed a row counter. My old manual stiff one just wouldn't do and the Vogue knitting application is also tedius to knit by (and doesn't lock!). And that's how I came to fall in love with this magnificent, nay, breathtaking, piece of design.

I love it! Bright soldier red, unapolagetic, straightforward and a perfect fit in the hand. Its instructions written on the back say 'to reset to zero, turn the gears in the direction of the arrows'. Of course. Simple. Classic. Perfectly itself. I am a new, and enthusiastic Clover geek.

In the darkness

I have no beef with British weather. It brings change and cycles that allow us to change our focus from outside to in, to curl up, nest and warm our hearts before we are required to emerge furiously spring cleaning again. Right now I am enjoying the darkness of January - sitting still, late into its hidden evenings one can sift away what one doesn't need and pick up abandoned threads. Sometimes, sitting still can bring you progress. This particular FO was started in 2008. Suddenly today its muse reappeared and it was finished. It only took two and a half years to complete but I'm nothing if not dogged. Progress has its own mysteries.

These gloves came off my needles this week. They are cosy, warm and have a lovely but robust Alpaca haze. Heartwarming indeed.

And currently I'm doing sitting battle with a tank top of feathery light cashmere (I wince just thinking about the price). It is gorgeously pure, simple and straightforward yarn and I'm creating a straightforward pattern. The battle is the ripping I have to do from not having the brain capacity to count and watch films at the same time. Either the numbers go or the plot starts getting surreal - who knew the same bit of brain was needed for both.

Still, this kind of activity is perfectly guilt free in the darkness of January. It's the most reasonable behaviour in the world to shut the door, crack open a podcast, sip hot coffee and enjoy seeing the mysteries of progress uncurl in the way it sees fit.

Just relax and your body will find its soul

I am grateful for this week of relaxation - a week to look down the New Year and find its inspiration. A week to ask my body what it needs after the misery and sadness we've suffered together recently. This year I want to help it to bring me some happy - feed it properly, put it to bed on time and let it find it's soul.

This week's happy number 1 - I have awakened to podcasting - I love 'Cast-on' - I'd never found the time to connect before. So lovely to knit to http://cast-on.com/

Happy number 2 - Saying 'Yes' to friends and 'No' to extra-curricular activities. I've caught up with some truly marvellous people over the Christmas period and unbelievably, they're also my mates and I love them.

Happy number 3 - Sadie bellydancing on Youtube - if only I could do this all my problems would be solved. www.youtube.com/watch?v=YamDoDK71Ds

And here's the nub of it. Happy lies in the body, to listen to podcasts you need to be relaxed, to open to friends you need to be well rested and to let your body find its soul you have to get your butt to the gym.

The Bottom of things.

Christmas was a time to sink slowly into the silence and peace of my aunt's house. Time to forget the way labels are pasted on from the outside. Underneath surfaces, forgetting the names of things. We woke to ice daggers around the house and a light of sheer breathtaking blue.

Foxes left blue footprints traced around the house. Sky and land swapping colours. Leaves into crystals. Green into blue.

In the silence I knit. And after a week of knitting the green and the world we know returned. Twisting meanings back together. Surfacing. Complete. Renamed.

Animals

A finished object from the book 'Knitted Wild Animals' by GMC. Super easy. Didn't like the seams but it's fast and I like fast. I knitted it for a grown man.

He'll be joined by a hippopotamus in due course.

On to other taxonomic groups, I'm looking forward to planning my yearly Christmas craft binge.

Christmas is mental detox time for me when I shut myself up with my folks and settle down to two weeks of craft with a blanket over my knees. The planning is the best bit and today my new favourite thing arrived - Musk ox yarn!!!

It's 8 times warmer than wool and is combed from the bellies of these beautiful, far away, arctic creatures. My ball is combined 50:50 with angora bunny fur. It's going to be an Ishbel for my Mum. I'm being practical and assuming I won't get it done before Christmas, so I'm planning she can watch it grow with me over the christmas hols, measured by afternoon films and idleness.

Crazy with the Mitts

It all started because I bought another single ball of yarn again - chronic magpie-ing. So this time I bought a pattern to go with it to try to get to the end of the tunnel and see what that feels like to complete, instead of living only in the world of yarn possibilities. I didn't think I was up to it. And now I'm addicted. Mitten madness has set in.
The first - buffalo undercoat spun into yarn.

The second some pure alpaca complete with bits of straw here and there which I was grateful to half-wear in this freeze as I approached completion.

And now for some heavenly blue sky.

Guess what you're getting for Christmas.