January: a month in review.

We're a few days into February now, and I wanted to share some highlights and low moments from the month just gone.

January started slowly. I took inspiration from nature and leaned into complete hibernation for a few days. We had a week of frosty mornings and dark, rainy afternoons. Our pellet stove broke over the holidays and the repair man couldn't come out to us until about a week into January, so we relied on the wood burning stove for any heat in the house. This drastically changed our routine and created a reliable rhythm of curling up under blankets, getting up to add more wood to the fire, and occasionally running outside to the barn to replenish the firewood basket. Our wood stove is in the old part of the house, in the room we call the snug. We've chosen not to have a television in that room, and instead keep it as our library and music room. It's where we go to read in the evenings, curled up on the couch under pockets of warm light from the table lamps. We have a radio in there to listen to music while we read. It's a nice way to wind down in the evenings and unplug from our phones and the television when we want to.

We aren't used to spending our entire day in the snug though. We typically wake up and come into the kitchen and sunroom to make breakfast and coffee, maybe watch something on YouTube while we eat, and then get started on our daily tasks all around the house and in our offices. The pellet stove heats the 'new' extension of the house, but with that broken, we found ourselves rushing around the freezing kitchen, cooking as quickly as possible, and then darting back into the heat of the snug. This room stays dark all day, with only one small window that doesn't let a lot of natural light in. I found that I was completely happy to sit and knit for hours at a time, watching the fire and listening to peaceful music and podcasts. I focused a lot on improving and learning new techniques in knitting, one of my January intentions. All of this gave me time to plan and reflect. Those are the days when this blog came into existence.

The peaceful routine was shaken up when we brought Tom, our found feral kitten, inside. Immediate chaos followed. Over the last three weeks, we've had some really good days with Tom and a lot of snuggles and playing, but we've had a few incredibly difficult days too. Figaro and Tom get along sometimes, sleeping next to each other on the couch and eating next to each other without fighting. Most days though, we are still supervising them closely and keeping them from fighting too much. The house has been messy and divided into Tom's rooms and Figaro's rooms. We came home from a day trip a couple days ago to find that Tom had broken out of the room he was contained to; he and Figaro had been in a fight, Figaro was bleeding, and Tom had used our bed as a litter box. It was a lot to come home to after an already long day. The next morning, Tom cozied up next to me on the couch and purred happily, and I couldn't imagine not having him around. We are all learning to live together. It has been exhausting and rewarding.

Although those quiet first days of the month passed quickly, I still found a lot of time to knit in the following weeks. I finished two projects, the Sophie Scarf and the Mistake Rib scarf. They both have dedicated blog posts, so I hope you take some time to read those if you're interested in what the process of making them was like. I've worn both of those scarves a lot already which has been really lovely; I'm pleased to see how easily they fit into my existing wardrobe. I found that I also loved photographing the finished objects so I could share them with you here on the blog. I had a lot of fun choosing an outfit for each scarf and going out with Daniel for a little photo shoot. We made time to go to beach over a lunch break one day to photograph the Mistake Rib Scarf, something that we probably wouldn't have done otherwise, even though the coast is close by and we both love going there for walks.

I've also made excellent progress on knitting my Step by Step Sweater. As I write this post, the project is sitting next to me on the couch, ready to be picked up and worked on again. I finished knitting the first sleeve last night, and I'm about halfway through the second sleeve now. Once I finish knitting the second sleeve, I'll just need to weave in all of my ends and block it. I can't wait to wear it! I've gained so much confidence and so many skills with knitting this month and I look forward to pushing myself to learn new things with future projects too.

I'll continue to post about knitting projects on this blog, but I've also updated my Ravelry page if you want to be friends on that site. My account name there is kr21620. I have favourited a bunch of patterns, put a few things in my queue that I want to cast on next, and am writing short project updates when I complete projects. I have plans to upload my stash too; seeing all the weights, yardage, and fibre content in the graphs is so satisfying on other people's pages!

I've spent a lot of time outside the house this month too, working in the barn and garden. We got the barn significantly more organized and cleaned than it was at the start of the month. There's more work to do there, but it's been great having access to all of the gardening tools and having a place to put them away at the end of the day. We took a car load of things to the charity shop and another several bags to friends who could use some of the tools and decor. It's not a beautifully aesthetic space, but it is functional and serving us very well as a workshop and storage space now. I'll call that a win for one of my January intentions.

Once the frost thawed, we had a few sunny, dry days. I've started trimming and pruning plants that should be shaped before spring. I'm continuing work that I started last summer with clearing paths through the garden and putting down gravel to keep them tidy and free of weeds. We removed a length of fencing that kept us from easily accessing our field from the garden paths. It's amazing how removing those few feet of wire has made the entire space feel so much more open. We can easily roll the wheelbarrow up the path and into the field now, something that we desperately needed because we have officially started planting our orchard. Bags of mulch and compost are heavy!

I had been hoping to go with friends to the Irish Seed Savers and pick out our apple trees in person, but that, unfortunately, didn't work out this month. Everyone's life got busy, and we couldn't find a day to go together. I ordered my trees online instead and the first three were delivered already. I'm going to write a dedicated post about the start of our orchard soon, but here's a sneak peak at one of our baby apple trees. It's a twig right now, but I have poured so many dreams into this little stick. I hope it grows well.

When I lose the light outside, I've been retreating into the house to read about gardening. I've been reading through some of the gardening books I have on my shelf, and I've found a lot of helpful websites too. Some of these sources have been dense like academic textbooks with the chemical compositions of different soils and incredibly specific instructions on how to achieve the perfect compost. On the other end of the spectrum, one book told me to meditate and ask the garden where it wanted trees to be planted. I've been trying to follow a kind of middle ground with my own gardening, keeping it scientific when I can and letting my intuition guide me other times. I don't want to get so bogged down with researching and trying to do it all completely perfectly that I end up not taking any concrete steps. I'm gardening for fun. Thankfully, I don't rely on my garden for our survival. If the plants fail, I'll try again next year.

I feel like I have a real plan for what I can achieve this year in the garden, and I'm excited to continue working on it in the coming months. For the immediate future, I'm signed up for our local county's annual beekeeping course, and that starts in about a week. Hopefully I'll be able to establish hives on our land this year. I've also purchased some tools and supplies for the garden, including everything I'll need to plant the willow shoots that are scheduled to arrive in a few days. I'm really pleased with the progress I made for my January gardening intention.

Although we stuck really close to home for most of January, Daniel and I did get out for a day trip to the National Museum of Ireland, Museum of Country Life. I've been wanting to go for a while and it did not disappoint. The museum has a temporary exhibit about bees, which felt really relevant and exciting given that I'm about to take a class on beekeeping. They also have a fantastic permanent display of useful woven items from willow, rushes, and straw and how they have been made in Ireland for generations. I took an embarrassing number of pictures of willow baskets. We ate lunch there, bought some inspiring research books in the gift shop, and then explored the grounds for a while. I was especially enamored with the woven willow statue of Saint Brigid that overlooks the museum.

Looking back at the month of January, I'm really pleased with how much I accomplished in what would typically be a dark, difficult month for me. This blog has already helped me to remember happy moments that might otherwise be lost to hazy memories. In trying to remember to snap progress photos so that I can share them with you, I've ended up with a lovely collection of photos where I can see my garden and knitting slowly taking shape day by day. I have been pushed to get up and work on things even when it's gloomy and to seek out opportunities, like the beekeeping course, because I wanted to 'complete' my monthly intentions.
Thanks for being here, thanks for taking the time to read about my life.