A cosy hobby for rainy days

Hi there,

I hope you're keeping warm (or cool, if you're one of the few people subscribed who don't live near me!) this season. Here we've just passed the winter solstice and the days are mostly cold and rainy. My courtyard plants are loving life though, and I'm spending as much time as possible working out there when the sun comes through and there isn't enough rain to drip through my pergola and land on my head.

After working intensely on watercolour paintings and a sketchbook from photos of a trip to Singapore, this winter weather has me looking for even cosier hobbies. Every few years I decide to take up knitting or crocheting when the weather is like this - there's just something cosy about sitting on the couch under a blanket, yarn flowing through fingers. This time it's knitting I've returned to, and because it's been so long I've had to buy and learn everything from scratch again.

Every time I pick up knitting again, I'm reminded of why I put it down previously - I'm slow, undisciplined, terrible at keeping count or following instructions. It's kind of freeing being really shit at something though - I have zero expectation of being able to create something usable at this point, and everything is an experiment. So far I have painstakingly made and frogged (pulled apart) two scarves, each of which I started and pulled apart multiple times in the process. I suppose you could consider these failed projects, but I chose to treat these as experiments with the purpose of learning rather than a wearable outcome, so I don't feel bad about the hours "wasted".

So far I have learned continental style knitting/purling, knitting in the round, increases, decreases, casting on and off. I can rescue a dropped stitch, join a new ball of wool yarn just by rubbing the ends together, do wet blocking, and sort of read knitting patterns. I still have yet to make anything that is actually wearable, but it's been a fun journey and a nice way to keep my hands busy whilst thinking. The thinking part is making it worth it, even if I never do manage to finish a project.

Other things:

• I'm not using AI for personal writing or art, here's why - I can't believe I need to say this, but everything in this letter and on my website is written/painted with my own human meat hands, not with AI.
• I recently finished playing the Lego Voyagers game with my youngest son, the last leg of a whole family effort (it's a collaborative game requiring two players). I never imagined I'd get so emotionally attached to little 1x1 Lego bricks, each with one eye and able to communicate only through singing nonsense. We had a little cry at the end. Some songs of the melancholic soundtrack have earned a place in my chill beats playlist.
• This well-researched video on the origins of the "lorem ipsum" filler text is entertaining with a satisfying end.
• I'm in desperate need of good podcasts or audio books to listen to whilst knitting, let me know if you have any good ones to recommend! Something not too serious and not about tech.
• Currently* on the easel - art homework I’m scrambling to do at the last minute. I’ve just realised I have the face much too wide and need to redo the eye and hand I’ve spent ages on
  
  * easel can't permanently live on the kitchen counter so needs to be brought out when I want to work on this, which might also be why I kept putting it off

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