As you know from my previous post, I’m learning Swedish (and you might also know I’m refreshing my French too), but that’s not the only thing I’m doing at the moment.

As part of that levelling up my life thing I’m doing, I want to learn new languages, exercise more, and focus on the things that matter to me, at least outside of work. There’s no reason why I can’t find time to do everything (or many things) I like doing. I just need to be smarter.

Funnily enough, the question I get asked the most when I tell people I’m learning Swedish is why. With about 10 million native speakers, people find it weird that I’ve decided to learn this language. It sounds weird, it’s not very common and you know, it’s not the usual language people would want to learn. I explained some of my reasons in my previous post, but the main reason would be because it appeals to me. Is there a better reason to do anything than because you like it? I think not!

Over the years I’ve realised that I like doing stuff in groups, and I like teaching others. I don’t mean in a classroom, but I like explaining what I do and how, and try to win people over and show them how to do things. The best example is when I started my photography series of posts (weirdly enough, one of those posts has been viewed recently, which surprised me). Since I started doing crafts, I walk around shops, looking at price tags and thinking I can do that myself, even if I know the end quality won’t be the same, as I’m no expert. At least, I would love to try!

Recently, I’ve got back into knitting. It’s one of those things I pick up from time to time, do a couple of projects (or half finish ones) and then leave it again. I mentioned it to a colleague at work and she said she would like to knit more and then it hit me, I would create a knitting club at work.

I’m already part of the book club (we meet once a month), but I thought there might be more people who want to learn how to knit, but don’t know where to start.

Once I get excited about something, I find it difficult to focus on anything else, and I might go a bit overboard…

This past weekend I had an idea for an email/poster/slide to promote the club at work, I already mentioned it to some colleagues (our first knitting club member is actually a guy, so I’m quite proud of my selling skills!) and I decided to knit a bunch of samples so people can see and feel the difference between different knitting stitches. I also want to prepare some quick handouts to give participants so they can practise casting on and basic stitches while they’re at home.

I am very excited about this club, which I hope will work out. I think I would be happy if four people signed up. Of course, I’d be happier if more people wanted to take part in it, but I know how these things go.

The idea is to meet once a week after work, which I know is a bit of a commitment, but I don’t expect everyone to stick to the schedule all the time. I will probably be at the meeting place every week, working on my projects and in case someone wants to drop in.

Hopefully, this will help me work towards my goals (more on that soon!) and help me get better at teaching and organising events. Ah, yes, I am going to actually teach people how to knit. How about that? Again, I’m no expert, but I can do basic stitches, cables, ribbing; I’ve knitted a hat, a jumper, a scarf… My biggest worry is if people drop their stitches and need help with that. I can get there in the end, but I will need some help from the internet (as whenever I drop a stitch at home, I can never remember the exact way of fixing it). Good thing is that I’ve tried (and failed!) quite a few times, I’ve followed written and video tutorials and patterns, and the terms are not strange to me, so at least I can be a bridge between new knitters and the resources available if needed.

I’ll be updating you on more goals and projects in the coming weeks, and I’ll share my broader plan with all of you very soon, I’m just finalising the details.

In the meantime, what are you up to these days?