Corner View ~ joy

So many things give me joy that it is difficult to not make the longest post ever.
But the most important are the small moments spent in simple doings with friends and family



Enjoying nature





and travelling!



More corner views at Francesca's

foggy days

It's weeks we have fog, all day long.



walking to work is kind of surreal



sometimes even magical



everything is fading



and disappearing



strange silohuettes are all around



all is different



But hey, it is bloody cold, and we have had more than enough of this, we want to see the sun back again.

NOW!!!

Even some rain without fog would do, after all...!

Corner view - where has the time gone?

Ah, that's indeed a great question! Where has it gone? The problem is not about it passing, fast or slow, depending on the different moments of our lives.



The real question I pose myself is "have I lived you at my fullest and best?". Let's be clear, this does not mean doing a lot of things, no worries. It means to me "just" to be present in the moment, wether it is good or bad.



And well, I'm working hard on this!

it seems almost impossible....

not only plenty of posts, but many of them about knitting! And this one is a hat, one of my favourite items.

Truth to be said, our family is going through particularly demanding times, and so moments of tiredness alternate to the will of getting partially back to normal life, at least when it is possible.

And I still have some finished items to show you!



So here I present you a new hat!



It is he Sunflower Tam by Norah Gaughan (link to Ravelry) from her book "knitting Nature" which I adore. It is a nice clever pattern, knit with unknown wool from the marked on big needles (5mm if I remember well....).





I like the detail on the top of the hat. And I'm quite satisfied with it, except for one little detail:





It is too big!

Grandfather and grandson scarves

one yer ago, P. grandson asked me to knit him a green scarf. "I want it very green, sort of dragon-green like". As soon as I received this nice demand, I started hunting for dragon-green wool, and finally found a 500 gr packet at the market. Granfather was happy too, and siggested he would have liked to have a matching scarf too. How was it possible to refuse?



here we are few months later, with two matching scarves for them!

They are indeed super simple scarves, this boucle yarn was a bit messy to knit, so I decided to just make very simple scarves. I cast on 22 and 33 stitches, and simply knitted away until I had used all the wool.



The color in the photos is a bit off (well try to get green on red!) but the result is pleasant. The scarves are soft, P. is liking his, and little F. will receive his scarf soon!



As you can see they have the same length and just differ for width! Hopefully I'll be able to have a proper shot of them toghether each wearing his scarf.

Corner view - home sweet home

The "home" question really resonates with me.
I live in a home I love in a place I cannot come at peace with. This place is not my home, no matter how hard I try, and how long I have tried for, it never feels like home, even though the house itself is lovey and I feel totally at my ease in it. Still there are some aspects of the place where this home is, that make me want to go away at times.



Then there is a home I share with my beloved. This home is full of light and positiveness, but I cannot stay there permanently, it's a sort of part-time home!



Then there is the childhood home, where I have had the luck of living for almost 30 years (as my parents left at a certain point, and it became my home), and that is still "home" in my heart.



Then there are places where I happen to live at times, in temporary shelters, but where I feel totally at home, because it's there that friends and true social life is.



So I'm split between different homes, the physical, the relational and the historical. Maybe I'll find peace and a reunion of all these aspects one day, but for now there is more than one place that I can call "home sweet home"!

interlude

These are days of fog, and worries, and thoughts, and tiredness, and suspension, and deep reflections, and rain. With sparse flecks of joy, friendship, warmth, vicinity that sustain me in many ways!

Back to knitting!

It seems like ages that I don't write a kniting related post, and it actually is. No worries, I have been knitting, and quit a bit, but simply never get to post anything about it. So in the next days you'll have a "full" update!

These are being busy days indeed, busy with great things, such as dear friends visiting from far (and we spent a wonderful day toghether, more about this soon), or work related good surprises and family gatherings, and bad things, such as beloved ones being ill, and long times spent at hospitals and travelling (with some knitting at hand).

First finished thing I want to show you is a hat and scarf set I made and gifted to dad for his birthday. He was very happy with it, and has been using it already.



I used a self-striping yarn by Mafil that I bought at their retail store. It's all knit in k1-p1, the hat in the round...



and with decreases improvised, and the scarf flat



on 35 stitches using 5mm needles. (For the hat I think I cated on 80 stitches).



It was easy and meditative, watching the stripes unfold, thicker or thinner, and the colors change and blend in.
Dad looked quite happy when opening the present!



Ravelled here and here.