- Having a nasty cold* this week, I used my time very strategically for resting and knitting. Which was harder than you might think, because I wasn’t quite ready to dive into knitting on any of my planned designs. But even with my head full of snotty tissues (well, you know that’s how it feels), I managed to figure out how I could get started on a couple of them. Go me.
- Then I quickly realised that the big jacket I was planning was… not right. Certainly the yarn wasn’t right. So I hit pause on that, and spent a few days thinking about what to do. And I came up with a pretty good plan. But… I think I’m going to shelve it entirely for now. It’s a good design, I really want to make and wear it, and with the right yarn it will look awesome. But I think maybe I should be working on other stuff.
- I’m not a huge fan of dropping this, or half of the other sweater designs I’m planning. But I think it’s sensible. It makes far more business sense to do accessories at this point, and I can use stash (oh man do I desperately want to knit up that stash), and I’ll get more patterns out faster, and I’ll knit myself some sweaters from other people’s patterns, why not. Let myself knit just for fun. I’ve been putting a lot of energy into designing – because I love it – but there are other things I should be working on that are slightly more likely to generate a half-decent income, so. Let it gooooo.
- I also did the very grown-up thing of phoning up some parents I don’t know to arrange a playdate for Max. I had to do this with Claudia all the time, but have been able to be lazy with Max because he has two best friends already. They were busy on Friday though, so I Took Steps. I’m so glad I did, because not only are the parents very nice, turns out their daughter goes riding with Claudia, so we can share lifts. (She usually cycles without me, which is why I hadn’t seen them or their son there, but it’s winter now and she’d love a lift.) Anyway, I realise this doesn’t sound like a big thing, but what with the phone and the German and everything, it totally is, and Armin was terribly impressed.
- And then I even sent an email I’d been putting off for ages and which I might turn out to regret, but still, I said the difficult thing. Maybe I shouldn’t have. Who the hell knows. But I did it, yay me.
* Least favourite cold/flu symptom: very specific, fairly severe pain in my lower back, bum and hips. Makes it hurty when I sit or lie, but I’m too tired to stand, so. The hips are particularly eina. In labour with Max I felt the contractions in my hips, and it was agonising – much worse than the back labour I’d had with Claudia, which everyone says is the worst. My vote goes to hip labour, if that’s even a thing. Anyway so ever since then, when I’m exceptionally tired, I get this vicious ache in my hips, like a pain memory. It’s not fun. But at least way less frequent these days, since I’m less exhausted as the kids grow. Still, experiencing this again – and the astonishing relief when I finally remembered that ibuprofen exists – had me thinking about chronic pain sufferers (omg you poor poor people), and about painkiller addiction. I mean of course you’d be addicted. Not being in pain is brilliant.
Nos 47, 48 & 49 of #52recipes: cheesy spinach breakfast muffins, in a noble Monday morning attempt to sort out my breakfasts for the week. Not bad, not great. Spaghetti with roasted fennel and pangrattato – total winner… for one day when I don’t have children. It was basically a fight as to whether the fennel or the pangrattato was worse. I mean: pangrattato. Crispy buttery salty breadcrumbs. What’s not to love?! But no. It’s poison. As is sauteed cabbage and chicken, but okay, that was never likely to charm kids, was it?
Woolly thoughts (and fuzzy logic) 