Recalibrating

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Way back at the start of the year, I booked myself a knitting retreat for September. I was very much looking forward to communing with other knitters in the beautiful Melmerby Hall. I packed up my bags and took the train up there. Two days later, I was back on the train heading home, feeling myself getting sicker by the moment.

Now I am not an unobservant person, and it has not escaped my notice that I have been on five trips this year, and I have been sick on every one of them. I went to Helsinki to teach and got sick. I went to Johannesburg to teach and got sick; in fact, I very nearly ended up in hospital there. I went back to Finland to teach and was sick again. I went on a lovely holiday to Anglesey, where I did not get sick, but was in fact recovering from being sick. And then, to top it all off, I went on a knitting retreat and had to come home after two days because I was sick. I can connect the dots here, folks. Something is off. My immune system is telling me something.

I think it’s time for me to recalibrate and take a serious look at my resources (including my health) and figure out what is currently sustainable and what isn’t. Luckily, I’ve written a book about how to do just that! All I need to do now is follow my own advice!

When Tatiana Rowson and I began to think about the longevity economy and develop our model of sustainable personal leadership, the concept of recalibration was a central feature. Things change, and when they do, we need to do a sense check. Have my priorities changed? Have my resources changed? A holistic examination of health and well-being is part of this.

“The role of health and well-being goes beyond having a longer working life….This is about having a good quality of life in general, and feeling fit to make choices that bring us meaning and fulfillment. Because when our health resources are depleted (e.g. due to chronic stress, burnout, physical health) it is very difficult to keep up with other resource areas – and be able to do the things we want.” Tatiana Rowson and Kelly Sloan, Personal Leadership in the Age of No Retirement, p.113.

A good look at the last few years, from a well-being perspective, leads me to two observations. First, the BSR (Big Stressful Role) that I have held for the past five years is depleting my health. It doesn’t help that this role is a major student support role, which puts me on the front line of students facing serious issues of mental health, financial crisis, caring responsibilities, and the impacts of Covid and AI. I have loved every minute of this role (okay, a little honesty here: there are some moments I haven’t exactly loved, but there are none where I haven’t felt impactful). The second observation is that all of the business travel I have done since joining the business faculty is wearing me down.

The first observation has actually been easy to fix. My 5-year term in the BSR finished on September 1st, and someone else is in charge of it now. I am proud of the work I did there, but am (mostly) relieved to step back. The second one is a little trickier, but I have made it known that I want to cut back substantially on the business travel. With the exception of the Covid lockdowns, I have been travelling to teach MBA workshops for 13 years now – including short treks to Munich, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Helsinki, and long treks to Malaysia and Johannesburg. I recently calculated that I have spent approximately 52 weeks total in the same hotel in Johannesburg since taking up my post at Henley. As a first step in the right direction, I was supposed to fly to Johannesburg next week, but one of my colleagues is taking that trip for me. (In turn, I have taken over some of her local teaching.) I won’t be able to stop all business travel, but I am putting my health first this year.

The next step in this process is to make some decisions about what I want to do next. The BSR took up a significant amount of my workload, and now I have to be strategic about what I choose to do with that time. Luckily, our book lays out a process for that too. I have some ideas in mind for experimenting with both my professional and personal identities, but that is another Chapter. Stay tuned.

If you’d like to read our book, I’d love to hear what you think. We are quite proud of it. The book was co-written with my fabulous colleague, Tatiana S. Rowson, and published by DeGruyter. It is available in paperback or ebook. You can find it on Amazon, or ask for it from your local library or bookstore! ISBN: 9783111314440.

A few weeks ago, Tatiana and I gave the opening keynote address at the World of Work conference, where we spoke about the longevity economy and how to make smart personal leadership decisions. Here is a link to a short piece about our talk, which you may find interesting: https://www.henley.ac.uk/news/2026/is-it-time-to-let-go-of-the-ladder In a fun aside, Doug gave the opening keynote address for the first World of Work conference ten years ago! We are World of Work bookends!

And, finally, for those of you who only come here for the knitting content, rest assured that I cast-on two new projects for the ill-fated knitting retreat. The retreat was a bust (for me), but the projects are looking good. Come back again and I’ll tell you all about them!

The planets briefly align

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In early August, we were in need of a break. We had neglected to make holiday plans in advance (those who know me will not be surprised) and I decided on the three necessary components: cooler weather, beautiful views, and relaxation. The first ruled out many of our usual haunts – no France, no Spain, no Italy, no heatwaves. I decided I wanted to go to northern Wales, and fixated on Anglesey. A preliminary investigation showed that it is almost impossible to spontaneously book a holiday on Anglesey in August. But I have tricks up my sleeve. I texted my friend June, who may have lived in Vancouver for decades now, but went to University in Bangor and has a tight network of friends in Wales. June was attending a folk festival at the time, but sent out a text alert to her friends. Proving that it’s not what you know but who you know, we managed to book a holiday cottage for a week, loaded up the car and drove up there. And…. the planets aligned! The cottage was perfect, with absolutely stunning gardens and lovely views. June’s friends were welcoming and proved to be excellent company – thank you Pauline and Paul, Sarah and Oleg, Anne and Paul. It couldn’t have been a more relaxing and lovely break.

I also have a finished project to show you today. I have been quite lazy about finishing this top; not in a negative way, but in a “I am busy doing other things and putting knitting on the back burner” kind of way.

I took it with me to Wales and when I pulled it out, it took me only 22 minutes to finish. I had literally put down this project for over a month with just two rows of the sleeve ribbing to complete and 8 threads to be woven in! I then took my time photographing it, and even did so without blocking it first. Quelle horreur!

The pattern is Silfurberg by Joji Locatelli. I must admit to having completely ignored this pattern when it was first released, probably because the pattern photos show it in a variegated yarn, which I think hides the beauty of the lace. It is amazing how crisp it looks when knitted in a solid colour. This is Knitting for Olive Cotton Merino in Clover Green. I find the bright green so cheering, especially in this season of drought. Most of England is brown right now, witness the ex-grass in our back garden.

However, proving that some things are etched in stone, this weekend is the Reading Festival (a local music festival which draws 100,000 people and over 100 bands over the Bank Holiday weekend), so of course, the drought has broken and it is now pouring with rain. What is a music festival without mud? Our plants are enjoying the downpour. As are we!

Have a good weekend all!

Downtime

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I have taken some downtime from knitting. I knitted about 4 rows in the last month. This is pretty dumb as I have about 4 rows left to knit to finish my current project; nevertheless, I am just not into it at the moment. This is partly about the heat and partly the normal ebb and flow of creative pursuits.

That’s not to say we haven’t been busy here at Chez Knitigating Circumstances. Let’s see, what have we been up to? We watched a LOT of Wimbledon and World Cup Football. Leah was lucky enough to spend the World Cup in Vancouver which was super fun.

She also took what I consider one of the best fan photos from the games:

copyright Leah Saddy for Knitigating Circumstances

Emma single-handedly built an entire wall of wardrobes. (In addition to a bed, a sofa, and dresser. We made IKEA happy.) I had to come to grips with the fact that my eldest actually likes IKEA instruction sheets; in fact, she thinks they are a piece of consummate design genius. And here I’ve always thought she was the normal one. All I did was help to move things out of the way and occasionally hand her a tool.

Doug has spent a month doing the most intensive brainstorming and paper writing in many years. First, he went to France for 10 days to write a paper with two collaborators. They ended up writing two. They were out in the country, during a heat wave, but also away from email interruptions and able to do some big picture thinking. Doug did take off a bit of time to admire Matisse, but it seems to have been part of the big picture thinking.

Then Doug and one of the collaborators, Juan, our very dear friend over many decades, came back here to continue working. The two of them plan to write a book together and they took almost 3 weeks to hash out the basics and produce a draft. They talked theory all day, every day, and wrote in the evenings. Despite the heat, they had a good spot in the garden to work:

Juan made us an authentic Galician paella:

We drank a lot of lovely wine and laughed alot:

I cleaned out my study, sorted through endless piles of paper, and bough a fabulous poster for my wall. How could a knitter resist?

On the very hottest day of the year (so far), while Doug was still in France, I decided to go through all of my yarn and organise it. At the same time, I wanted to get rid of yarn that I knew I would not be using. Having a big stash of yarn seems to just make me stressed, and I wanted a more manageable (and organised) stash. The second photo is me, very frazzled and sweaty in the heat, holding up the yarn that I am getting rid of. (Not to worry; it’s going to a good home.)

We have also been loving our garden.

And through all of this, I have been busy working, finishing out the academic year. Next week, we go on holiday. It’s quite likely a bit of knitting will find its way into my bags.

This and that

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HOT. It is hot. Not as hot as France, but pretty hot. However, the sun is shining, the days are long, the fruit is ripe, and the flowers are blooming. I am not yet at the point of complaining about sun. We will see if I change my tune by Thursday.

GREEN. I refer not to the garden, but to my newest project. I think I may have given the wrong impression in my last post, in which I was shown ripping out the top (the lovely Silfurberg by Joji Locatelli). I had to rip back 3 inches or so, but was not giving up. The top is progressing, but I must admit to not doing much knitting these days (see point number 1 above).

NEAT. Emma is home and she is on a mission to de-clutter. (I do not question; I only give thanks.) Doug has been complaining that we can never find a pair of scissors when we need one. Yesterday, Emma cleaned out the junk drawer in the kitchen – you know the one – and when I walked in I saw this on the counter:

It’s the little things, you know.

I hope that you are finding some joy in the little things this week. Keep cool, everyone!

Sunshine all around

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All of the sudden, summer has arrived. It is absolutely beautiful, with warm skies and soft breezes. And it is a Bank Holiday weekend. After many years in England I had become convinced that it was against the laws of nature (or perhaps just king and country) to have a sunny Bank Holiday weekend. Yet here it is. Three days of relaxing outside with nothing to do but knit, read, knit, barbeque, knit…you get the point. If only one had a summery project on the go to accompany the weather.

Good thing, then, that I have just the thing on my needles. I bought four balls of Knitting for Olive cotton merino in Clover Green while in Helsinki a few weeks ago. The green is so cheerful; just looking at it makes me happy. The pattern is the Silfurberg tee by Joji Locatelli, shown below.

© Joji Locatelli

I spent some time trying to find just the perfect pattern for this yarn. I wanted something chic and summery, and also wanted something that had just a bit of a challenge to it. A touch of lace fit the bill. Even then, I overlooked this pattern at first. I think it is because the pattern photo uses a variegated yarn, which is not to my taste. The pattern really pops with this yarn, however, and it is fun to knit.

The yarn is 70% cotton and 30% wool and is a light fingering weight. It has a beautiful hand. I always hold my breath with cotton because you can never really tell how it will behave until you have washed it and worn it a time or two. Cotton has a tendency to lose its shape, and I am hoping that the wool in this will give it a bit of memory. So far, so good.

This long weekend we also have something to celebrate – Emma is here, and it is her birthday! So sunshine all around.

A good red

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It started with a good red. I received a newsletter from Loop Knit that they had a new shipment of An Uncommon Thread yarn in both the Uncommon Everyday and the Cloud Fingering. Both yarns were available in the colour called “Debauchery”. How could I resist? I had wanted to make a red vest for a while, and this was a really good red.

Sometimes you have the right pattern and the right yarn, but they aren’t right for each other. I love The Uncommon Thread, and I adore this red to bits; but I made the mistake of thinking the Cloud Fingering could substitute for laceweight, when in fact it knits up as a sportweight. Thus, the light spring vest (Vest No. 2 – Spring Edition by My Favorite Things) became a much denser, warmer vest. Still beautiful, still wearable, but not what I was aiming for. It is, however, done (and I will probably appreciate its warmth on a cold winter day).

I knitted it with the two strands of yarn held together, which gave me a worsted weight gauge. I tried to account for this by knitting a smaller size, but it was clear it was still going to be too large, so I made some adjustments on the fly, and then also added in bust darts. Both of these mods were discussed in my last post.

Given the gauge, this project knitted up super fast. It should have taken two weeks to knit, three at most, but life got in the way. Since I last posted, a month ago, here is what’s been going on (this is the condensed version). I flew to Johannesburg and spent a week teaching a really good group of MBA students. My last day, Saturday, I relaxed by the pool knitting my vest:

Later that evening, just hours after I took the above photo, I became suddenly, violently ill. I will not elaborate but it was VERY not nice. I did not make the plane that day, or the next, or the next. When I finally made it home, I had only days to recover before I had to fly to Helsinki to teach a couple of workshops there. Then I came home and slept for 3 days straight. Only after all that, did the vest finally come off my needles.

I think it is pretty nice, but I really wish I had paid more attention to the yarn weight. It’s not quite the vest I was hoping for. Nevertheless, it’s a damn good red.

In-vesting

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I recently bought yarn for two projects, both of them vests. Emma said I was “in-vesting”. I had wanted to make a plain v-neck vest for myself for some time, and had settled on this pattern:

© My Favourite Things

This is the Vest No. 2 – Spring Edition by My Favourite Things. Some weeks ago, I received a newsletter from Loop London, saying they had just received a shipment of yarn from The Uncommon Thread. I love TUT yarn. Years ago, I knitted the fabulous Livvy Pullover in TUT’s Lush Worsted. I clicked on the Loop link and discovered that they had both the Uncommon Everyday base and the Cloud Fingering base in one of my favourite colours of theirs: a deep saturated red called Debauchery. How could I resist?

Later that same day, I discovered that John Arbon Textiles was having a sale, and I purchased a kit to knit Shruff’s End, a vest pattern by Thea Colman:

© Thea Colman

I have been thinking of knitting this pattern for Doug. When I received the newsletter from John Arbon, my finger mysteriously pushed the buy button. And the kit is very pretty:

I started with the red vest (because one should never keep red yarn waiting). However, I soon realised that the Cloud Fingering yarn is definitely not fingering weight, more like sport weight or even DK, and combined with the Uncommon Everyday, I end up with a worsted weight gauge. I determined to go ahead anyway, and to knit the 4th size instead of the 5th to make up for gauge mismatch. Knitting on US8/5mm needles, I flew through the upper part of the vest (its knitted top-down). I joined to knit in the round and knitted down a few inches before trying it on, only to discover that it was HUGE. I have only supremely unattractive photos with which to demonstrate its hugeness, so you will just have to believe me.

I was highly annoyed, and threw the vest in a corner for a week while I pouted. After the success of my previous sweater, in which I also had to modify for my gauge, it is probably good to fail with this one; it will keep me humble. I had a big debate with myself about whether to rip it all out and start over, or whether to rip it out to just before the fronts and back are joined, and then take out an additional 4 rows, which would remove 12 stitches from the whole. I chose the latter.

When I had knitted it back down to where I was before ripping, I tried it on and discovered that the width was much better, but that I really should have put in breast darts. I ripped again, and added 4 sets of short rows at 5, 10, 15, and 20 stitches in from the side seams. I think that will work and the fit seems good. I am now doing the armhole ribbing, and will follow with the neck ribbing before knitting the rest of the body. This is partly to make sure I can judge when the yarn will run out, and partly because I am flying to Johannesburg again tomorrow and I want to finish the finicky bits before then.

It will apparently be pouring down rain the whole week I am in Johannesburg, so I may be able to finish it while I am down there.

Collar de Pilar

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Without further ado, here is my finished Collar de Pilar hand-knitted tee:

I am crazy about this top. It is fun to knit. It is fun to wear. In fact, I’ve been wearing it everywhere since I finished it.

The tee was designed by Kate Davies. I loved this design as soon as I saw it, and purchased a kit from Kate Davies’ shop in 2022. This was just before I caught Covid, and I put the kit away; my covid-induced brain fog led me to choose very simple patterns for some time afterwards. Recently, I needed a project for a long plane trip, found this kit in a box, and realised the time was ripe to cast on.

I knitted it in the original colour scheme using Kate’s own Milarrochy Tweed yarn. It is the first time I’ve used it for a garment, and I was a little worried that it would be itchy next to the skin. I finished it as the pattern suggests, with a dab of hair conditioner in the rinse water, and it bloomed and softened beautifully.

My gauge was off for this. The pattern calls for a stockinette gauge of 28×36. My washed and blocked swatch gave me 24×40 with a US3/3.25mm needle. I know that I could have re-swatched with a smaller needle size and probably have gotten gauge, but I liked the way the fabric looked and felt with the size 3, so I decided to keep it.

To account for the different stitch gauge I knitted a size 4, instead of a size 6. Because my row gauge was also off, I added about 10 plain stockinette rows before starting the patterned yoke. It was a bit of a gamble, but I tried it on multiple times while knitting, and I think the fit is perfect.

I was surprised that it looks good with many different outfits, and have worn it both for work and play.

I highly recommend this pattern. Kate also gives instructions for long sleeves. The university has closed for 5 days for Easter. Yay! A mini-break. I have a new project on the needles, a new book to read, and the flowers are blooming. What more could I ask for?

Working weekend

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Doug has been working hard on a research grant proposal and this weekend is crunch time. He has been completely glued to his computer screen the whole weekend, occasionally lifting his head to mumble something about “multi-scale hierarchical dependencies” or “brain-state dynamics and connectivity plasticity.”

I had hoped to be showing you my new sweater today, because I finished knitting it a week ago. I managed to put off grafting together the underarm stitches for a full week, because I am terrible at grafting and I had to psych myself to do it. (The knitting itself is the fun part.) Yesterday in the bright early morning sun, I sat at the table and grafted the underarms. Of course, it took only half an hour, which is vastly disproportionate to the time I spent procrastinating about it. At that point, the sweater looked like this (from the reverse side, of course):

As it was a beautiful, sunny day, I took it out into the garden to weave in all the ends:

Then, I gave it a bath:

Finally I blotted out all of the water with a few iterations of towels, and laid it out to dry:

I didn’t even bother pinning it because I think it fits just right. It is dry now, and beautiful, but I have to wait until Doug is finished with “cellular and circuit mechanisms in a causal developmental model” before showing it to you.