January

Rest and rest and rest as the earth does

I had planned for January to be a gentle month. One of rest and being gentle. I find my body echoes the earth if I listen to it and it is a time for rest.

We are at odds with New Year new resolutions and go go go start new things, go to the gym, go on a diet, start new things! Now! The wrong time to be doing such things. If we listen to the earth, we will know what we should be doing. A time to be cosy and dream and rest. To plan inwardly and prepare for what is to come, but it is not a time for action.

This year I am trying to live a little more intentionally. To take time to note the seasons more than in passing. My work reflects the seasons and my collections follow the turn of the year but sometimes I don’t stop and properly sit with them. So this year I want to make sure I properly honour the turning of the year not just through work.

To welcome Imbolc when I feel it, not when someone says on a calendar. I know it is around the beginning of February. The calendar picks the 1st Feb and the old lunar cycles has it as the 17th Feb this year. I find I am sensing its arrival just as a hint just now. the birds are singing, the light is returning, snowdrops are here and the daffodils are starting to peep out. Spring is stirring. Not here yet, but there is a stirring. The Lightbringers are finishing their task to return the light and warmth to us and for that I am thankful.

I have enjoyed seeing so many people on Substack and social media calling for rest and wintering has become a phrase people are talking about. I love that we are leaning into the seasons and a call to be mindful, to slow, to rest instead of the ‘life in the fast lane’ 80s I grew up in!

I have to balance earning a living with seasonal rest. I wanted to have a slow January so I planned a small Imbolc Collection and to rest a little more, but of course we don’t work in isolation no matter how much I try and hide in my shed, and a lot of other people’s timescales have butted in to mine and meant I had a lot to do all of a sudden just when I wanted to rest.

The applications for Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair were due this month and I had to spend time choosing photos. I had to find new photos and I didn’t have much work around as I sold it all (good problem to have haha) The decision to narrow down to six photos to represent you is super hard and I confess to messaging Ann-Marie at the Design trust business club and saying argh I have it down to 11 help please!

And then deciding on stall size. I also ended up messaging Lucy who was next to me last year with a bigger stand and making her help me choose! So the application is in thanks to others telling me it will be ok, and I have all paws crossed that I get in this year!

The new book is being published 24th March and suddenly there was lots to sort with the final proof going to the printers, working out announcement days and book launches and then all the setting up listings on the website and such. Phew such a lot of work to do all of a sudden but I am so excited to share it with you. It will be announced with a cover reveal on the 2nd February and preorders will be open then. I am super proud of this book, it has been a lot of work and a lot of editing and having to cut out pages but now it being printed and I can’t wait to nervously show you all it. Last in the Tales of the Turning Year series but as with the others, it is also a stand alone story so you don’t have to have read the others before, though if you have you have read all my books, there will be a few smiles of recognition as you read.

We are trying to sell our house and move too so there is a lot of behind the scenes chaos or sorting bulging cupboards, painting the outside of the house and trying to make it as inviting as possible to a new buyer. I mean you’d think getting the shed of glory would be enough eh!?

What I want to do this month

I am now back to just making my own accessories again and I’ve had real fun playing with my new little weaving loom I got for Christmas. Originally I wanted to make small rugs but there are scarves and shawls and I have some idea of patterns now I have discovered tablet card weaving and the magic of it! I tend to get obsessed with new things so I have to be careful to not disappear into weaving for hours on end and not making animals!

The Imbolc Collection is all listed and ready to launch on the 31st January just before the book is announced. It is a small collection but enough for January and gentle times. I am ahead of myself having it all listed and ready to go which means I have had time this week to meet up with one of my fave people ever and other dear friends and spend time with my little grandkid and son and not feel guilty or rushing to catch up. This is my hope for this year. To be more gentle and mindful in my work, to honour the earth and seasons a little more, to take time for family and friends and to just rest and be, to walk the woods and hills with Lupin and to remember why I stepped off that wheel and into this one. To live life rather than rushing head first into one day… one day I’ll have time to… one day I’ll….

Of course moving house and having family in another country and grandchildren and books being published and a business and selling animals is a LOT so I am being doubly mindful to say that’s enough. that will do, that can wait, and as my Swedish mum often says to me ‘det ordnar sig’ It will all be ok, it will work out.

I am grateful to have you lot cheering me on, it means a lot having subscribers, free or paid, I value you all. What an honour to have people wanting to read your words, so thank you for being here. For those that pay, you helped me sit in the garden with a cuppa like the shrew, and I am so very grateful for that moment, thank you.

I invite you to join me in noticing Imbolc, the midpoint towards Spring. Spend a moment in the next week or two just noticing the change in the light, or the bird song, or whether primroses are appearing. Small changes like it being light when you wake up, they help us notice where we are in the year. I always light a candle in the earth on Imbolc which is also known as Candlemas.

(Oh it is also known as groundhog day in some places. I like the Cailleach story myself. Some tell that at Imbolc the Cailleach goes out to collect firewood. If she wishes winter to stay longer, she makes the day sunny and bright so she can gather plenty more firewood, but if she oversleeps and is ready for Brigid and spring to return then the day is cloudy and grey. I made a Cailleach badger for the collection with her Brigid cross and snowdrop and basket of firewood.

Maybe light an earth candle to warm the earth and welcome in the Spring. Or make a Brigids cross (there are plenty of tutorials online) Perhaps you might like to join me. If you have any other traditions you do, or things you have noticed that Spring it coming, please comment them and we can build a beautiful welcoming in to Spring.

Next month will be book announcing and sorting orders and launches and making for a Spring Collection that will be themed around the book. I can’t wait to make it!

And look out for book announcements next week. What better day to announce the coming of the new book on the spring equinox than at Imbolc!

Thank you for reading, if you got this far, Bernard the ever faithful St Bernard will be round with his barrel and drinks trolley with refreshing drinks and snacks to get you back to the top again. He’s a bit retro in his taste so there are boxes of Maltesers, ovaltine and Kendal mint cake and a baby sham for those that fancy a tipple.

With love from the Shed

Karin x