Manifold Interests & Other ADHD Perks

A silhouette of a head, with the letters ADHD on it, pointing out from the head are squiggly felt wiry things, and flowers.
Photo by Tara Winstead on Pexels.com

I have a distinct memory, of all the thing I was ever interested in (when I was much younger than I am now), being made into daily practices. Somehow, I would find a way to return to them again and again, day after day. Nowadays though, it seems like I can’t find the focus or the memory, or perhaps the executive functioning to keep up that kind of regularity apropos of no external structures.

Perhaps I tied my interests to activities I would undertake regularly. Like with writing, I regularly woke up in the middle of the nigh during my GCSE years. Looking back I think it was likely that the stress was impacting my sleep. My sleep is often quite sensitive to being influenced by stressors in my life. That said, if I woke up in the middle of the night, I would bake some cookies, them load either Julia Nunes or Taylor Swift up on YouTube, and get to writing. I woke up in the middle of the night often enough in my teens, that I had quite a regular writing practice. Or with rollerblading, it would always be on a weekend, and always along the thames pathway from Battersea to Chelsea.

I suppose there’s also something about the relatively fewer amount of responsibilities I had as a teenager than I do now. As a single mother/full time student/ trainee counsellor, there’s so many more things “to-do” that it seems like the energy for pursing things I enjoy with the regularity (probably) needed to improve, happens very sporadically- (when the kids are away, I find myself returning to journaling, and meditation, and maybe with e ought time to practice scales and chords, yet when they’re back, there’s barely enough executive functioning to go around, what with keeping track of all the things that need keeping track of when you have young children in the house.)

I have this little voice in the back of my head, that’s quite persistent in reminding me not to forget *whatever hobby/ fun interest of mine catches my attention presently. And the high I get from engaging in things I find fun, means that once I’m sat down, I tend to zone in completely, losing sense of time and place, and then I’ve spent four hours knitting something, and quite possibly have to run out of the door to pick the kids up, suddenly aware of the need to pee, and thirst wracking my throat.

My ideal would be to be able to dedicate myself a bit at a time to all of my interests every day. there would be time for painting, time for writing poetry. I would spend time writing any of the novels that I’ve left mid stories, characters on the cusp of their respective character development journeys. I’d find time to bake, and find new nutritional recipes to try out. I’d finally get round to re-learning how to sew using a sewing machine, and I’d spend time speaking to guests on my podcasts. There would also be time to play around editing videos, and polish off my website, playing with and further developing my web building skills. I’d also create time to keep going with teaching myself to code.

It is a blessing, being filled with so many things that spark my interests, being so deeply interested in many things, yet the challenges of time-blindness, and difficulties with focus, alongside the organisational requirements of ‘running a household’ as well, as the time and focus I put into parenting, talkies of learning and CPDs- I find myself mourning how quickly time passes by.

So here I am, returning to one of my early interests, blogging. I’m curious to see how long I can keep up some level of consistency with it, and I’m happy, I’ve found a few moments to return to it.

I suppose that’s why so many of my previous blog posts, are typo filled, peppered with run-on sentences, and side thoughts cosseted in parentheses. I’d aways try to get my fingers to catch up with my thoughts (always an impossible task- better informed about this now, having learned about the hyperactivity of the minds that can come alongside ADHD), and then rush to hit publish, before I forgot. Sometimes I’d schedule it to be published on a certain day, sure I’d come back and make the necessary edits in the time between when I’d written the first draft and the date I’d scheduled it to go live, and inevitably I’d forget about the post’s existence, until I got a notification from WordPress.

Something I’ve been embracing the years since I last wrote here is the idea of perfect imperfection, allowing rooms for mistakes, and the mantra “done is better than perfect” and “good enough, move on”.

Holding myself to extremely high standards, is one thing, not allowing myself to progress due to minor imperfections is quite another.

So that’s it.

I’ll end here.

If you enjoyed this, thanks you for your time, I’d love to know what stood out for you, and your thoughts and insights in the comments.

With warmth,

Fine Words Weave

Knitting reminds me to enjoy the process

So it’s been a while since I’ve written about knitting. It teels like I talk about it so much in my day to day life, but slowing down and taking the time to write about it? It’s been a moment.

The other night I picked up a project that I started at some point during lockdown. I’d put it down for a while, left it untouched in its organza bag, figuratively, but not literally, gathering dust. There was something inside me calling me to that project.

As I sat slowly adding stitches to my project, I thought about how my knitting has evolved. When I first started knitting I had that Finished Object bug. I looked forward to that trill of satisfaction, knowing I had a FO in my hands. Eventually, as I learnt more and more about knitting, about its mindful and healing capacities, I made a conscious decision to enjoy the process. Where before, I was antsy and impatient, preferring smaller projects that I could finish quickly (hello the year of baby booties!), now I would slow down, feel the weight of the yarn in my hand, the texture, as I used my fingers to wrap yarn around my needles. I’d enjoy they rhythmic click, and the smooth slide of bamboo needles worn smooth by friction. It soon came automatically, whenever I picked up my knitting needles, I’d be reminded of the importance of enjoying the process.

One of the things I wrote in my UCAS statement and interview/ application form was about my desire to further research about the healing properties of knitting. I really believe there’s a way that knitting can be a facilitator of releasing trauma, and stored emotion in the body. I’ve had a couple ideas around what I should focus on for my final year research project, “the father wound, “the impact of racism and undressed bias in the counselling room”, it’s almost like i forgot that I had my dissertation topic all along. I’m definitely still curious about how to also unpick racism, something that the knitting community as a microcosm of wide society is not free from, and over the past years I’ve witnessed many attempts to delve into/ unpick and unpack that.

All that said, I feel like I’m consistently being reminded to slow down, breathe deeply, really be connected to the life I’m living in this instance, in all it’s facets. I’m curious, if you engage in any craft, what has it taught you? I feel like when we slow down and pay attentions, there are a lot of things we learn that may have cross applications to different areas of our lives.

Take care my family,

Fine words weave.



Mission Statement

Salaam alaykum, warahmatullahi, wabarakatuhu, (the Peace, and Allah’s mercy, and Allah’s Blessings be upon you).

This year I signed up to blogging101. A course i’m hoping will help me hone my blogging skills :).

I wanted to let you know a bit more about why I’m here blogging for all the world to see, as opposed to writing in a journal (which I still do on occasion).

I’ve always been a bit of a chatterbox, I have my quiet more reflective moments, but I really do believe that communication is such an important thing. It’s one of the things that helps us build communities. Blogging gives me a way of trying to reach out to a wider audience of people. To me this is an opportunity to share my thoughts and experiences with others. I hope that people will be able to relate to me, or perhaps i might, in sharing my own outlook, give somebody a new perspective with which to consider things. Ultimately I hope that this can be a source of goodness, and a place where conversation about life can take place.

Long time coming

Assalaamu alaykum, (Peace be upon you)

I am finally getting round to this blog post. I’ve been feeling very excited to write it and post it ever since I received what I’m going to review in the mail. However I’ve also been very busy lately, and tired too, so it was put on the back burner. Happily, I am up early this morning, and thought I’d at the very least set about typing up the draft.

What is this post about? Yarn! The softest, loveliest yarn, and the wonderful and affordable online retailer you can purchase it from! Hooray!
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Last month, thanks to two lovely ladies, who’s names I will not mention, I came across aliexpress.com. A site much like amazon, or eBay with a wide variety of products and wares available for sale.

I’ve been in need of some new knitting needles for a while now. The prices and reviews for said needles I was coming across on amazon were less than thrilling, and I decided to have a look on aliexpress. I found a likely looking set, browsed through the feedback, and went ahead with my purchase. They arrived and I liked them.

It occurred to me, surely if I could find a nice set of bamboo needles at an affordable price on here, I’d be able to find some wool/ yarn too!

My search began, I scrolled through the search results and came across a listing for a lot of yarn listed by the seller 5 Star For YouIMG_0276

I clicked on the result and scanned the product description. I was excited! You see I love knitting. I love it love it love! and I love wool too. I noted down the corresponding numbers for the colours I wanted and added it to my cart. I made the purchase adding a note to the seller detailing the numbers (for the colours) and then I waited.

I made my order on the 8th of August, and on the morning of the 25th just two and a half weeks later my purchase arrived!

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I was a bit side tracked as it was also the day my new planner arrived, regardless you can just about see the wool in the top left hand corner of this picture. 🙂

I updated my account to notify the seller that I had received my purchase, and I also sent a message to the seller to let her know I had received the wool, and that I was very pleased with how soft it was, and (because I had forgotten that the wool’s specifics were in the item description) I asked about the size of the wool, and the recommended needles size, as well as care instructions.

wool

She was very kind and personable, with a friendly and diligent attitude, and answered my questions, helpfully recommending 3.25mm needles; Even going as far as to let me know that she was happy to answer all and any questions I had.

pile of wool

The wool is a blend of 95% cotton and 5% milk fibre, and is super soft to the touch, and easy to work with. It is lovely and comes in a wide range of colours, and just a joy to work.

I will definitely be returning to the seller again, and I think they may just become my go to wool suppliers. ^_^ They’re already on my favourite shop list, and their excellent customer service is a recommendation of its own.

I made these adorable baby booties with some of the yarn and I’m very pleased with them. knitted baby booties with green buttons

You can find the seller at this address. I hope you enjoy your purchases as much as I do.

Take care,

Azeezat

My first project

Salam/ peace y’all

How are you all doing, today I’m working on a project I started around the time I first learnt how to knit. Today just might be the day that I finally finish it, about 5 years later.

But you know what they say, better late than never. 😊 I’ll try and remember to post an update when I finish it.

For now here are some pictures

Deciding on the pattern/ intervals at which I’ll place each colour

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sewing together the first two patches

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tools of the trade

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Hope y’all are having beautiful Thursdays.

Take care

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