sunday around

Deaspite all my dreams of having a december of regular postings, I have totally failed. Too many things happening, connections not working, travelling, keeping up with urgent things... There is no end to the things.

We have arrived safely, and on Sunday we had a day off and spent a proper Melbourne day!



First there was the Knitting at the Botanical Gardens, organised by Toni, and it was as wonderful as always. Cetching up, chatting, knowing new people, it was perfect!



Then on the way home we decided for a "short" detour, and went to St Kilda, to see the sea!



It was a bit grey and windy, but I loved it even more!



The temperature was mild, seagulls were all around



people enjoying the pier



the city in the distance



a bride was around to have photos taken (how could I resist?)



and there was much time to relax and have fun





PS AND I wet my feet in the sea!

Life List - 81.

Sometimes ago, I wrote my Life List, and there is a dedicated page about it on this blog (have a look up there, on the top bar, on the right!).

This post is to document number "81" of the list, which was all about showing a rice field to P, who had once confessed me he had never seen one from nearby (and, I will add, we live in a region FULL of rice fields!).

So at the beginning of october we were heading to visit the Maggiore Lake when I stopped along the road



What are you doing? - was the question. I got off the car and smiled: We are finally going to see a rice filed from within, and get some rice as well!



And so we did, and jiggled all the rest of the trip!

messages

A new category of posts, concealed, and not so, messages found around.



This one says "smile"

gold

december views

Via photomeditations I have discovered that hippyurbangirl is organising "december views".
She has just finished a long writing month, and proposes to have a silent december, wih images.

"The idea is to take away the stress of having just one more thing to do during the holiday season and to sink in and be with what is in front of you, the beauty you see, the lush imagery that seems to explode in the darkness of this time of the year.  That said, there are no rules and though the idea is to blog images everyday ~ that is not the intention, rather the intention is to allow yourself to enjoy the quiet, to allow a month of no stress creativity and to share a bit of your world with others in a completely different way than you usually do. Exciting and relaxing."


I will take this as an occasion to post everytday, at least a picture. And also I will try to post some words as well!





Look, I have learned something new! I made a diptych, using the clear instructions by puglypixel, with one of her photot templates, and, most importantly, her fantastic video explaining how to use them. Thank you, puglypixel, and Susannah for pointing me to her.

guests and ideas

It's december, I cannot believe it.
Usually plans would be for a post a day during this month, a post to reflect on things and prepare for the new year.
Truth to be said, it is quite a busy moment, with a big trip ahead, and SO many things to do in a few days, but il'' try to do as many posts as possible.

In the meantimes, I enjoy the company of a new little friend on my desk at work....

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.

Corner view - exotic

Sometimes you can find exotic views just outside your door...



This post is part of the Corner View series: to know about it, visit Francesca AND all the links in the comments of her Corner View posts!

Corner View ~ last thing I learnt

I have decided to join a wonderful group of ladies, organised by Francesca, I discovered sometimes ago.
Usually I'm too disorganised to do such things timely, but I decided to "break the ice" tonight.



One of the things I've learnt lately is to keep a diary. It is a sort of "artsy" thing, or at least I'm rediscovering the joys of using watercolor, scissors and glue, and also put in it some of my photos. More than a diary I would call it a thought-book. I find that writing something everyday helps me a lot to be rooted in the moment, and to clarify my ideas. And it is useful to jot down all the ideas and todo lists and things I want to remember in one place.
I have been doing it for a month, I hope it has become an habit. Learning to express myself freely is a great thing!

THE GIRL EFFECT - WHY

The girl effect is a campaign to raise awarness about the role of women, but ot only that, it's about giving girls around the world the tools to escape ignorance and prejudice that keep them in poverty and force them living worse lives. It's not about destroying traditions, it's about educating people, having them to be aware of what are the outcomes of the choices they make, and in many cases to let them know they have choices!!




It's not only about women, it's about our societies and our world. I believe that too often women are still following the old thinking pathways even in the so called developed world, where we are supposed to have reached parity, and in reality we haven't yet. But besides this, I belive very strongly the we, the fortunate ones who happen to have been born in rich countries, have the duty to help young people from poorer countries to get all the knowledge means they need to then decide for their lifes indipendently.



And this is impossible when you never go to school, have your first child when you are 12 and struggle all your life to get enough to actually live! We can help in many ways, we can fund projects that give education, that inform children, that let them have a proper childhood.



Much is being done, and you can find informations at the Girl Effect, to start with.

And if you think this is important, then why not making a post about it too?

About lifelists

I'm in the middle (it's actually the last week, sigh) of taking a wonderful course by Karen Walrond of Chookooloonks. I have been following her blog for a while and like her spirit and beautiful photos, and so when I read she was organising his course I decided to subscribe following an impulse. And as it often happens, I have great outcomes following impulses. Have a visit at her blog, and at her many ideas, she is a real volcano of projects!

It has been a very interesting five weeks, and amongst other things I have started and I'm consistenly keeping a work-book in which I write everyday. Calling it a diary is a bit limiting, but that's what essentially it is. And hi is a very BIG gift I got from Karen, having enough motivation to keep up writing every day my "morning pages" (of Julia Cameron memory). Also the people taking this course are very nice, pity there is a facebook group, but I don't subscribe to facebook!

Other things we have been working on are vision boards and also making a life list. This was such a fun and revelative experience, that I now want to share with you all my life list! I did a separate page in the blog (llok at the tabs up there!), and I also want to chronicle my achievements in this blog!

the girl effect

I will write abou this on the 4th of october! It's something I heart and I invite you to join this movement and help girls et an education: it's essential for all of us!

 

I believe it is very important, do you want to join us? The Girl Effect Blogging Campaign is a collaborative effort of hundreds of bloggers coming together to write about The Girl Effect on October 4th, 2011. Go here to know more, and join us.