Whoa there, December…

The month that nearly got away – just one hour left for a blog post.

If there can be such a thing as a ‘whirl of indecision’, then that characterised December round here. And no doubt all over the country too – travel plans made and scrubbed, food ordered and frozen, turkeys NOT bought till the very last minute, then mysteriously out of stock….overloaded at work, then suddenly ordered home by the phone app. on the very day my daughter and her little people came out of isolation….

But of course I understand why – and I do appreciate how thoughtfully protected I have been at work (teaching in a secondary school) and how lucky we are to have escaped the virus so far.

There were some peaceful moments too – and even a rather productive space in the unique time frame now apparently known as ‘Twixtmas’.

The pictures above were taken on Christmas Eve.

Happy New Year from SpinningStreak.

Relentless Positivity

This appears to be the message emanating from my workplace. And, although it can be wearing at times, I think the optimists are right. It is all too easy to get dragged down at the moment – so many obstacles in the way of high standards, so hard not to keep looking back to how things used to be… We need to accept that, given the restrictions, we are doing a GOOD JOB. Certainly better than the alternative of sending all the young people home to fend for themselves online. (My particular heroes are the creative arts department, who have to be extremely…creative! Fancy teaching music with no singing? Drama, with 30 Year 7s stuck down in their seats?)

So, looking on the bright side it is!

Walking the South Downs is always therapeutic. (In the distance you can just see the other side of the famous ‘V’ mentioned here: https://spinningstreak.blog/2020/06/30/up-down-days-1/. And you can tell West Sussex is very keen on its poppies – I wonder how long they will remain there?) Good for the step count too. Since I scored around 28000 steps that first week I have upped my target to 35000 – which I know is still pathetic compared to many of you but a substantial improvement for me!

My other positive plan is to get to the Artemisia Gentileschi exhibition at the National Gallery. I would be gutted to miss this, but ducking around Covid closures before it ends in January is not going to be straightforward. Anyone managed it?

The only way to avoid this:

Is, I think, this:

Second sock syndrome….

I’ve discovered six hand knitted socks squirrelled away, and only two match… It’s just so much more fun to see how a different colour knits up….! So now I must be disciplined and do two at the same time – slow, but apparently more practical.

This is a quick and slightly scruffy post – definitely not Instagram standard. The daylight for photos is all but gone by the time I get home (yes, I am still at work…) and the single socks are clearly not yet blocked (that does make a surprising difference, by the way.) But I am afraid there’s no faffing at the moment. Even the missing socks will have to wait till I have shrunk my Etsy list a little. I sold six pairs of leg warmers today – all but one pair to the same person. Are we about to face a cataclysmic Winter, on top of everything else? Have I missed something?

Today’s swag

Look what arrived…rainbow tops! Allegedly for felting – but I’m not going to. I have Plans. And I couldn’t resist making a sneaky start, though I’m not quite ready to get going yet. The fibres need minimal carding – just a gentle stroke really – for cloud-soft, fluffy rolags. Yum. As you can see, I am splitting the colours into roughly equal parts, to keep my options open when it comes to plying. I will spin some samples at the weekend. Can’t wait to get stuck into those reds!