Paper Tiger

I’m picking up where I left off after an unintended pause in my blogging plans. In my last post I promised to share more about the name of the Wandrian cowl, in the first, and then later this week I’ll have some reading recommendations to share related to the theme.

Wandrian is an Old English word meaning to wander or travel. I turned to Old English in naming this pattern for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it’s a nod to Marina Skua, whose yarn I used. Marina has given several of her own patterns Old English names, and her love of language and playing with words is one I share. And the choice of word is a nod to my love of walking. This is not the first time I have named a pattern for my walking habit (see my Weekend Walking Mitts) and it may not be the last, either, as walking continues to be an important part of my life.

In the final months of writing my dissertation, I often found my capacity for the work waning around two o’clock in the afternoon. When you’ve gone over a deadline and you’re desperate to finish something as soon as possible, it is easy to prioritize work over other considerations, or to push yourself to work through breaks, especially when the time you have to work is limited. So I found it frustrating to be hitting road blocks, struggling to actually make progress at a point in the day when I still had several hours of time I could be working.

The problem, of course, was that I was spending too much time shut up inside at my desk, without giving my brain and my body a proper break. When I finally realized this, I started taking short walks in the afternoons when I felt my brain slowing down. Even just ten or fifteen minutes allowed me to get a little bit of fresh air and to get my blood pumping again. And ‘lo, when I returned to my desk, I found I could easily keep working for another couple of hours after all.

Getting outside for a walk doesn’t just allow you to get some fresh air and some exercise, but it provides an excellent opportunity for thinking as well. I love walking in all seasons and I have always liked the chance to reflect that it provides. Luckily for me, Trondheim is an excellent place for all kinds of walks: city walks, nature walks, mountain hikes or fjord-side trails. Watching the slow change of the seasons throughout my local landscape is one of my favorite things about living here.

And when I do travel, exploring a new place on foot is one of my favorite ways to get to know it. When I studied abroad in Lyon at university, I spent hours walking around the city, and I frequently went out for walks when I felt homesick. I feel lucky to have traversed the streets of Paris, Kyoto, Rome, and so many other places.

I hope that gives you some insight into what’s behind the name Wandrian. And if you’re interested in making the cowl for yourself, Marina has put together some yarn kits in her shop which you can find here. We of course included the original colorway, but I had fun picking out a few alternative options with very different vibes, so there are several to choose from.

I’m hoping to post here more often again, especially in the wake of some of the social media upheaval we’ve seen in recent weeks. I see people joining new platforms, choosing to leave Meta platforms like Instagram, and our growing discontent with the billionaires who pull the strings of those apps has made a lot of us second guess our presence in those spaces. While there have been quiet periods on this blog, I don’t consider myself as someone who ever really gave up on blogs (I still use an RSS reader to follow my favorites) and I would be happy to see others move back toward the blog as a format for sharing. I’ll be back here later this week to share some books that center around the theme of walking. Until then!