Friday 3rd July - this is getting ridiculous...

'Synchronicity ' is a lovely wor. I like the sound of it, and the meaning as well; 

Synchronicity (German: Synchronizität) is a concept introduced by Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology, to describe events that coincide in time and appear meaningfully related, yet lack a discoverable causal connection.

(Wikipedia)

This keeps happening with Ang and me. I could have called this post 'Many a slip' like Ang's...

She's posted today about the Double Knitting Collaboration square on it's way to me - the link is above - and here's the one I've sent to her;

also a slip-stitch pattern, also knitted in two colourways. Mine's a two colour stripe; the left hand is blue as main colour,  cream as second, the right hand reversed with a paper blue as the second colour. 

This pattern comes out looking completely different to Ang's because the rows knitted in the second colour are interrupted by two main colour stitches being slipped - carried up without knitting - creating the continuous vertical stripe. These slip stitches also pull these rows more tightly together, making a very dense, firm texture. Good for a winter sweater!

Here's the back - the horizontal lines of yarn show where it has been passed behind the slip stitches rather than knitted in. It's much easier to knit this pattern than explain it.

Apart from Ang knitting the cable square last time, we seem to have been remarkably in sync with our choices so far; something I noticed that kept happening during our previous collaborations. I promise we don't ever confer before we decide what we're making!

Which colour did I send? I could make up my mind. So I closed my eyes, shuffled them and picked one. You'll find out tomorrow; my parcel arrived with her yesterday. 

Which square has she sent me? I don't know; we both posted them on Wednesday afternoon but hers hasn't arrived yet... hopefully I'll find out when the postman gets here around lunchtime. Things seem to travel quicker going from west to east than east to west. Riddle me that one if you can!

Wednesday 1st July - cock-a-doodle-doo!

Here are my step totals for this half of the year;

What a massive difference for May and June!

I'm very grateful to RusticPumpkin for inspiring me to stop being such a blob.

Wednesday 1st July - Bad Ideas, better ideas

 Good idea;

Bad Idea;

I tracked down the name of the wonder app; it is called mellowflow and the reviews are SCATHING;

Following up on the Reddit forum, I've come to the sad conclusion that my gut feeling of 'if it looks too good to be true, then it really is too good to be true'. My advice; stay away, and just stick at lesson no 1; 'tidy three things in your line of sight'.

Sadly, for tidying up and keeping it tidy, there's no way around actually... tidying! There doesn't seem to be a magic method, especially for butterfly brains like me. 

I do try to;

• Set small, quickly achievable goals, like 5-10 mins, or one surface, or one task at a time.
• Take time to gloat and congratulate myself on the little successes.
• Never, ever, berate myself if I don't manage to do 'it', whatever 'it' is.
• Never push myself too far beyond what I am already able to do.
• Switch between types of tasks fairly frequently. 

These have all come from the way I've learned to teach piano over the past 40 years, the main idea being to try and always

• Build upon successes; start with a low bar and raise it slowly.
• Associate the activity (even scales and sight reading!) with positive emotions.
• Avoid all negativity, crossness, tension, distress in learning.
• Gamify Just about everything.
• Constantly cheer oneself on.

Now, what three things can Iput away next? Oh dear, I'll have to find somewhere to put them first...

Now, here's a little 'spot the difference' game;

Before;

After three things were tidied;

I seem to be on a roll; three minutes later;

Happy happy happy! 🌞 💐 🏆 

.......

I've shared this before but here we go again!

Chopin Minute Waltz, Luca Sestak Trio

Tuesday 30th June - genius idea

I took a mug of ginger tea for a little walk around the garden. My cardoons are flowering;

So spectacular. 

They were covered with blackfly at the beginning of June, and I persuaded BB to rub his fingers gently up and down the stalks while he still had his thick heavy duty leather gardening gloves on. That totally dealt with the problem, which is why the top part of the stalk looks black.

The jasmine is flowering now, with clematis twining through the shoots, and below the saliva 'hot lips' is adding a splash of colour.

I'm trying to make the most of them; sadly they are all likely to be demolished one the little diggers get going. We might be able to dig out the salvia, and take cuttings from the jasmine,  but the cardoons will have to take their chance. The roots will be on their way to Australia by now!

....

The genius idea? There's a tidy-up/declutter app around that gives you a simple task every day. I think it is a Swedish system, and keeps popping up as an advertisement in my newsfeed. I refuse to be beguiled into paying for something, but there are examples of the tasks. I've only paid attention to the first task;

'Tidy up three things in your line of sight'

So I did; I put away three things on my little swivel-top table beside me on the settee. I even threw away a fourth!

It made a ridiculously big improvement for a minute's effort, all without getting up from the settee. I think that's enough for me to be getting on with; just put three things away at random times of the day.

...

I've already hit my step count for today, so I know I've d one at least 100,000 in June. I'll total all the steps tomorrow. 

Happy Happy Happy!

....

I've made a start on finishing the little sewing square for for my on-going QAYGO (quilt as you go) project. 

A 'start on finishing' is a bit optimistic! I want to use couching to outline the leaves, and then I'll embroider the centre veins, also in green. After that - I'll see .

So my 'Finishing up Days' have been effective in finishing two things; a collaboration square and the back of the cardigan, and doing some more to the QAYGO piece.

Monday 29th June - National Finishing Up Days

 I made that up.

I've got a number of nearly finished projects and I have decided that today and tomorrow are the days for sorting them out.

Starting with this;

The experimental patchwork cardigan. This is the back - I had less than 8 inches left of the last panel left to sew, and I finally, after much procrastinating completed it at morning coffee time. About half an hour was all it took, including sewing in all the ends, and probably about ten pound's weight off my mind. I've already made a start on the front 

I've a few rows to add the the current double knitting square, and about an hour's stitching to add to a patch that has been stalled for about a month while the Double Knitting Collaboration with Ang absorbed my interest. 

Yesterday I sorted some books to sell back to wob or donate to charity if wob won't take them.  This morning I updated my piano teaching records and put away a couple of sets of knitting needles that were cluttering up my life.

Maybe 'Manic Monday' would have been a better title for today's post - I seem to begin every week full of enthusiasm and then crash out the next day... I'll write that idea down for next Monday's post!

I'm learning to accept that I'm a great starter of things, but not so good at finishing them off!

    

  'Snurretoppen' means 'Spinning Top'.

Meanwhile, my step target took a bit of a dive last week, unsurprisingly, although as the cooler weather returned I did manage a marathon effort on Sunday so I reckon I might well meet my target of 100,000 in June. Which makes me very happy!

Dr Alan Howard, University of Iowa, playing 'Promenade' by Prokofiev, Op 65 no 2   

Sunday 28th June - Beati quorum via

 meaning 'Blessed are those who walk in the law of the Lord', here set by C V Stanford and sung by Voces8.

Which ties in with the reading for today Matthew chapter 10 from verse 40;

“Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 

Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward.

And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

There's a certain amount of synchronicity going on with Ang's blog here; I wonder if she had the same reading in her church?