Blogtober 2021 : Day 9

Saturday today – hooray!  I love Saturdays, they are my official “day off” and I love the deliciousness of waking up and knowing that there’s nothing that I need to do that isn’t exactly what I want to All Day.  Ooh, it makes me want to wiggle my toes in delight just thinking about it!

And is there anything nicer than wiggling your toes in new socks?  I don’t think so!  I finished these a while ago but forgot to tell you about them – they’re Basic 4ply Socks in Wildflower (West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4ply) and I LOVE them!  No, I don’t feel awkward at all about knitting socks in my own yarn for myself, I absolutely love all the colourways and one day I will have a pair of each of them in my sock drawer! 🙂

I’m really not very good at not doing very much but that’s something that I know I need to work on – I know that it’s important that I take time to rest and replenish my own well-being tanks because the weeks are busy and I want to be on top form instead of being tired and grumpy and not feeling as if I’ve had any weekend time at all.  I usually think that even on rest days I should be up and about and doing something productive but that’s not always the case – and actually the opposite of what the word “rest” means!  I know that doing things that you enjoy are much more restful, but it’s also OK to not charge about as well!

Quite often, Saturdays are my day for being in the garden but today, I just fancied sitting and knitting.  I’ve had the cat keeping me company and I’ve been making good progress on my Changing Staircases shawl.  I have to say, I am giving the knitting belt a definite Thumbs Up.  I don’t know that it will be anything that I’ll use for my socks, but I feel that it’s opened up the possibility of me knitting more shawls or cowls (I do enjoy knitting them even though I don’t always wear them 🙂 ) and even a bigger project like a jumper (sweater).  I’ve still got that purple jumper on my needles which I started at the end of last year and fell out of love with because I was getting huge blocks of colour that looked like a character costume from a children’s TV series.  I still haven’t decided whether to go back to that jumper or not, but I do feel that using the knitting belt might make it feel a bit more do-able.

The light wasn’t great when I took my first photo this morning, but it’s coming along!

Not quite as fast as it might have been as I have unravelled more than I wanted to but hey, it’s all part of the process, isn’t it?  There’s no rush to have this shawl finished, I’m learning a new technique and if I have to take it back a few times then that’s how it is.

Here’s another one from a bit later in the day …

It does grow very quickly when you get going and there aren’t many stitches on the needle, but having more stitches as the rows get longer is better for me practicing my technique with the needle wedged into the knitting belt so I’m actually looking forward to the longest of the rows which is a first for me!

Thank you very much for all your advice over the shortbread and also roast potatoes!  I can see that there may well be Shortbread and Roast Potato Trials coming up, although we may not eat the shortbread with our roast dinner 😉  We tend to have a curry on a Saturday night so, undaunted by the shortbread disaster, I headed back to the Doves Farm website this afternoon as they have a recipe for Naan bread that I wanted to try.  No in-progress photos as the recipe said the dough would be “slightly sticky” and it was indeed.  (“Slightly sticky” – ha!  That was an understatement!)  It’s going to be later than I want to post before they’re ready so I promise that I’ll show what they look like tomorrow – however they turn out!

Enjoy your Saturday evening, whatever you’re up to, I’ll see you tomorrow! xx