July 18, 2026

I’ve dived straight into my next knitting project—the pattern for which I shared in my last update. This time I’m using only the leftover yarn from my previous jumper, so it has the same wonderfully soft, fine lambswool feel. The finished piece will have a similar overall vibe, but instead of intricate motifs, it features a bold geometric pattern. I’m making surprisingly quick progress and really enjoying it.

I initially thought it would be a nightmare to knit because the pattern looks like it would require changing colours every other stitch. Thankfully, it’s much cleverer than that. You work one colour per row and create the effect by offsetting the colours with slip stitches. It’s far simpler—and much faster—than it appears, which has been a very welcome surprise.

Most of my progress has come from my usual evening knitting sessions in front of the TV. It’s been a lovely project to settle into.

I’ve also been hunting for inspiration on YouTube and Pinterest, particularly for crochet projects like baskets, decorative objects and little animals. Before I dive into those, though, I’ve decided to use up two balls of red and green yarn that were gifted to me. They’ve been sitting in my storage basket for ages, and it feels like the perfect opportunity to clear some space before buying more yarn for crochet animals guilt-free.

It took me a while to decide what to make because the yarn is quite stiff, making it much better suited to practical items than garments. I don’t think the red and green work particularly well together, so I’m making two separate storage baskets instead. I’m not entirely sure what they’ll end up storing yet, but they seem like the best use for the yarn. It’s also a nice, quick side project to balance out the jumper, which will still take several weeks—if not months—to finish.

I’ve also climbed back onto the painting wagon over the past week to create a few more pieces for the office. I finished a small series of coffee-themed paintings, followed by a floral piece.

The floral painting was done on a repurposed canvas, and you can still see some of the previous paint texture showing through. I’m undecided whether I like the effect—it gives the painting a bit of character, but it also looks slightly unfinished. I’ll see whether I leave it as it is or try to rework it.

I’ve just ordered more canvases, so I’m planning to paint several more over the next couple of weeks. At the moment I’m choosing relatively simple designs from Pinterest so I can strike a balance between volume, time and quality.

The field and allotment have been fairly quiet recently. I’ve been down once or twice to check on everything and give the trees a much-needed drink. I’m still fine-tuning the watering system and have finally accepted that the pump only has enough pressure to run two sprinklers effectively—not the six I optimistically planned for.

Each sprinkler covers roughly a 10-metre radius, which means I can water an area around 40m x 10m at a time. I’ve now unwound some of the extra hose I laid when I thought six sprinklers might be possible, and the new plan is simply to rotate the sprinklers while I’m working in the field.

Alongside that, I’m gradually building a chain of water butts down the field. As one fills, it will overflow into the next, creating a small reservoir system. The idea is that I’ll then be able to fill buckets from the butts and water the trees by hand whenever needed. It’s still evolving, but I promise this is trending towards the most efficient solution...

Finally, I tackled a tiny home project that had been bothering me for years. I had made a set of hanging shelves from old wine crates and macramé cord a long time ago, but despite looking nice, they’d never actually been functional. Every time I tried to put something on them, they would wobble and swing because the shelves had nothing to rest on.

I came close to throwing the whole thing away several times, but instead I finally fixed the problem. The solution turned out to be wonderfully simple: a few small nails underneath each shelf to act as supports. It was a tiny change, but it transformed them completely. They’re now solid enough to hold decorations properly, and it feels incredibly satisfying to have finally turned them from purely decorative into genuinely useful shelves.

Sometimes the smallest projects end up being the most rewarding.

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