In praise of blogging

I miss writing. I miss sitting down in a café with my notebook and sketching out a few blog post ideas. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that this year my blogging game has fallen off a metaphorical cliff.

Obviously, there’s the whole ‘living through a pandemic’ to contend with and the sheer emotional overwhelm which has left me visibly struggling at times. But partly it’s the fact that all the little moments of my week – those 10 minutes interludes here and there where I could grab my notebook or my phone and jot down a few random things have just disappeared.

I don’t particularly have ‘free time between things’ at the minute. With being at home so much, if I’m not working at the kitchen table, or relaxing – knitting – there are a whole host of other domestic mundane jobs that are competing for my attention. My poor notebook rarely gets a look in.

Still, I’m determined to do something about that and to reclaim some of the lost time that I seem to have sunk into trying to keep the Instagram algorithm happy. I’m sure that I’ve written about this before, but it is easy to lose yourself in the world of Instagram – indeed that’s the very thing that the app is designed to do. It’s designed with the express intention of drawing you in, and then crucially, keeping you there.

Instagram doesn’t want you wandering off to check out someone’s blog – or following external links to pastures new. It wants you there, on the app. Spending time, seeing adverts and generally keeping their usage data high.

But, as lovely as the Instagram community is and no matter how inspirational and uplifting I find it, I generally don’t read as many of the captions as I should, and I’m sure that people skim over my content as much as I skim over theirs. Nothing beats a good blog post – ideally read over a cup of coffee during some well-earned downtime – for really connecting with someone and for being drawn into their ideas and their experiences.

So, here we are. Up and blogging again.

All I need now is that cafe, a large vat of coffee and a good spell of people watching to get the words flowing again.

Half a sock and a hangover

Not a hangover in the alcoholic sense I hasten to add, but rather the kind of good hangover that you get from a really good, really intense and learning packed day. I spent yesterday at my first (not certainly not my last) Blogtacular and today I find myself in full-on introvert recovery mode. Yesterday was amazing on so many levels. Not only did I get to spend time with a most excellent bunch of knitting friends - and as we all know - knitters always manage to have a brilliant time. But I also met some amazing people in the online crafting community, listened to some inspiring and motivational speakers and made some great connections.

Not only that but we managed to also take part in Worldwide Knit in Public Day (not hard, as we do this every day) and also National Gin Day - total win!

There is so much to take in and to process and over the next few days I will certainly be doing just that - in my own, quiet, introverted way.

But for now I'm happy to knit on my half-finished sock which I started yesterday and which kept me company as I listened, chatted and generally soaked up the fabulous Blogtacular vibes. It's genuinely the first and only conference or networking event that I was sorry to see end - normally I am edging for the door after a few hours.

I just know that my brain is buzzing with ideas and things I want to implement but today isn't the day for that. Today is for cuddling with my boys, knitting on my sock and quietly planning world domination through the medium of knitting.

Happy Sunday

xx