January 28th already? A month almost come and gone. Plans not started, some still taking shape, others showing little green shoots. It’s a work in progress.

I ruminated on my word for this year for some time. Knowing its flavour, but not the precise ingredients. I was pondering the taste of it, back in December, when I felt the need to recentre myself, reclaim my drive and get back to enjoying me, wholeheartedly.

So it makes perfect sense now that my word for 2026 is intent.

Not INTENT, all shouty, harsh capital letters that scream a challenge at me to focus on the path ahead, but an understated intent. Lowercase i, with its gentle message to make better choices where possible for head, heart and hands. (The prolific maker in me just couldn’t acknowledge the part my hands have to play in my everyday life and sanity.)

With that in mind, it’s time to pull up my socks and get back to my biggest flop of last year. The Appleoak Fibreworks One-Year Professional Dyers Course, which I started in 2025 and never truly got my teeth into. Despite its name, participants actually have two years to complete the course, which is rather helpful given the amount of information included.

I enrolled on the course as a way to build on what I already knew about natural dyeing. Document more, clarify my knowledge, document more, improve my techniques, learn more, document more and not skip past the areas or colours (purple) that hold little interest to me. Did I mention document more? I am the world’s worst at taking notes, legible ones, in a notebook, the same notebook, that I can refer back to later.

I did complete most of the reading and a good bit of the coursework throughout the year, but I’ve decided it might be best to start again, as there were aspects of the dyeing that I messed up. Most notably, my indigo vats, which I had to remake. We were given a new topic each month, with the actual dyeing beginning in March with Tannins. It was an incredible amount of work and it’s the one chapter that I’m fairly confident I did correctly, but my note taking was next to useless, so I’ll have to repeat everything again.

Before I get there, I’m going to have to do an inventory of my dye stuffs and materials to see if any of them need re-stocking. The costs involved with taking the course are not insignificant and I don’t think I had budgeted well for the extra items I needed along the way. At least by working out what extras I’ll need to complete the course now, I should avoid anymore nasty suprises.

There has, of course, been fibrecrafting, although nowhere near as much as usual. Much of my making time has been given over to researching things on the computer or in books and there is only so much spare time in the day. The time that is additional to what is required for ordinary use (as per the dictionary) must also come when one has the energy to put it to good use. In other words, sitting down a little after 9pm most nights isn’t conducive to getting too much knitting done. This is one area where change is ongoing. I love knitting, my brain prefers it when I knit and my hands hate me when I don’t.

None of my current WIPs was doing it for me, though, so I finally decided to cast on a Lento, using yarn from my stash. My plan to make a workhorse jumper that I can throw on with my uniform of long sleeve t-shirt and dungarees, has gone slightly awry when I saw how amazing the two yarns I’m using look together.

Just look at the beautiful blue.

The jumper is feeling just a little too classy for everyday wear currently.

I also need to get this basic asymmetrical shawl cast off. It’s been on my needles since December 2025 and I could really do with it this Winter.

Before I forget.

I was delighted to receive the Long Draw issue of Ply Magazine on Monday. Courtesy of my beautiful daughter, who renewed my lapsed subscription for Christmas (love that woman). Long Draw is a technique I would love to master, in the hopes of eventually spinning a jumper’s quantity of fluff.

I guess I should sign off now and see if I can’t squeeze a couple of rows in on my Lento before bed.

Happy Making