Like much of the UK, we’ve been having a cold snap in Edinburgh recently. Andrew took the above photo (of the Ross fountain in Princes Street Gardens, with the castle in the background, in the heart of Edinburgh’s city centre) a couple of weeks ago. Those icicles are something, aren’t they? The women at the top of the fountain represent Science, Arts, Poetry, and Industry, I learned recently via Wikipedia. I posted about it on Notes at the time (Substack’s answer to Twitter/Instagram) but if I’m honest I’ve stopped using Notes. It felt like I was replacing one social media (Instagram was my doom-scroll of choice) with another, which was the antithesis of why I moved to Substack in the first place. I’ve not really missed Instagram at all, after the first few weeks of feeling lost and reflex-reaching for my phone. There are a couple of people on there that I have checked out since, via the desktop app, but I’ve gone from checking it daily, multiple times a day, for many minutes at a time to…twice a month, if that? It feels liberating, so I wasn’t going to relinquish this newfound freedom by inserting another social media replacement.
However, I love me some Notes from the Week, even if they’re not strictly published weekly. It’s a nice way to round up those works-in-progress, projects that may not be ready to be formed into words for a few weeks, or even months. It’s also a way to recognise those small, sometimes insignificant-feeling moments in the day, that overall add up to change. Whether it’s plants coming through the ground in the allotment or a couple of extra rows of knitting, it makes me realise how far I’ve come. I can be the kind of person who is focused on goals, end results, achievements, accomplishments. I struggle in the ‘messy middle’ to recognise my progress, so writing about it is a way to acknowledge that things move forward, whether you see it or not. I don’t need formal Substack-approved ‘Notes’ to be able to write this post, I realised.
My allotment partner Moira and I did a walk round this week, making plans for this year’s growing season. She’s very kindly gifted me one of the raised beds, which I have already filled with garlic and onions. I need to decide what to do with the other half; last year I had success with supermarket basil and coriander, and I have some squash seeds that could be fun. I’m planning and reading, waiting for the weather to warm up enough to plant broad beans straight into the ground.
I’ve been slowly working away at the Petite Knitter Woodfolk Sweater. I’ve done the colourwork section, and am now on the mindless stockinette body and sleeves. It’s a great project for watching TV, since it’s just knitting row-on-row at this point in the pattern. We recently watched Griselda, which is mostly in Spanish with subtitles. You can’t concentrate on colourwork charts whilst reading subtitles!
I’ve also been working on my Autumn/Winter sewing plans and recently finished my Modern Sewing Company Overshirt. I made it in this beautiful light wool, which I’ve had in my stash for years. I’m so glad to have finally made it and be able to wear it! I’ll be taking some photos for a proper write up soon, we’re off to visit the in laws shortly and their garden is always a great option for taking outfit photos. I’m very pleased with my pattern matching across the front pockets though, it took me two attempts but I got there.
It’s so good to hear someone else condemn? disapprove? of Sub Notes. I can’t keep up and don’t want to keep up. I do, however, love posts such as this from thoughtful, creative, lovely people such as yourself. Thank you for sharing! Particularly, I found inspiration from your overcoat. I am planning to make something like it myself, one of these days, with wool. It would be lovely to have a light wool in the color scheme like yours for my project. Looking forward to the photos!
Your jumper is beautiful! I’m playing around with the idea of doing some colorwork on browns and creams, so this feels extra inspirational!