In my little corner of the world

I haven't been blogging as much as I use to, partly because of a coctail of diseases haunting us lately - like stomache flu yuack! - but mostly because of the sudden death of a loved one. RIP grandpa...
It's in tough times like this that you really get to think about what really matters and what you're doing (and not doing) with your life. Since he passed away, which was nearly two months ago now, I sometimes feel like I'm standing at the top of an abyss, staring death in the eye. And I also have a lot of flashbacks from my childhood. Or as Bono puts it I'm at a place called Vertigo...

I wish I could have silent place to go to when things get crazy. Imagine a place free from work, problems, kids, spouses, pets. Where I could just BE. Breath. And craft. I am so jealous of people that have their own craft rooms! We live in a two roomed flat now so I guess I could just forget about it. But some day...

Nice craft space with bright colours and easy access to a green garden.

Slow down, please!

The last weeks have been so hectic it feels like I need a vacation from just about everything. I would need to go to one of those convents in France when you're not a aloud to speak and everything is still and quiet. It's not just the usual stress around Christmas but there has been a lot of other stuff to deal with, the moving, birthday parties, stomache flus, colds, busy days at work. And as if that wasn't enough it seems like Isola has hit the terrible twos, making simple everyday tasks a real challenge. And when she doesn't make it her life mission to disagree about absolutely everything she is extremely clingy and wants to be carried all the time. At the end of the day I wonder where on earth I can find enough energy to wake up the next day and do it all over again. I'm even to tired to knit. Yes, you heard me. That doesn't mean that I haven't knit anything at all, I have been working on my cable dress and just have the finishing left now. But after just a few minutes I feel my shoulders beginning to ache and I have to stop. I'm just too stressed out.

I just want the new year to start and have everything go back to normal. Start again with an empty page. And feel everything slow down. Please.

The best store for storage

I have never been a fan of Muji until now. I used to wonder what on earth the deal with Muji was. When they first opened their store in my town I thought that everything they sold were made of recycled material, why did it otherwise look so dull? But that was then. NOW I have changed completely. I used to live like a victorian, ie the more stuff the better. But now I tend to wish for a more Zen-like feeling of my home.

So when I went to Muji a couple of days ago I did it just because I knew that they sell a lot of different boxes. And I did find some clear plastic shoe boxes that will work great for a lot of different stuff - yes, YARN too! In fact, there were loads of stuff that I suddenly felt a need for. Everything looks so darn clean and smart and it will make your home look clean and smart too. I will definately be shopping more from Muji. I think Muji may even have the solution for my yarn stash. Check out their storage range here.

Yarn crafts for kids

Today is Isola's second birthday. Happy birthday sweetheart! This is the first birthday when she is old enough to find it exciting to receive gifts and get all the attention, although it makes her feel very shy at times. It 's wonderful to see the expression on her face when she opens her presents. You can actually not tell if a certain gift will be a hit or not before she opens it. And you never really know how she will use it. One of her favorite toys are a box of pearls. But she doesn't use it for making necklaces, she pours the pearls in cups and have tea parties.

I really look forward to her getting a couple of years older so that we can craft together! I could spend hours crafting when I was a kid (I still do if I only get the chance!) For example, I used to glue different materials together to make dolls. I remember when I was about five and kept nagging my Mom that she'd teach me how to knit. This is what she did: She cast on and knitted a couple of rows. Then she gave me needle and told me to poke and pierce the piece with the other needle for about five minutes. Then I would give the knitting back to her "for inspection" at which she'd quickly knit another couple of rows to trick me ínto believing that I had actually knit something. I don't know why she didn't even try to teach me the real way. Maybe she knew enough about my patience to see that it wouldn't work. Needles to say, I found knitting to be very boring...

I think that I will try to teach Isola to do whatever she wants when she is ready to learn. There are so many different crafts that you can do with your kids! Here are some of them - all yarn-related of course.



Yarn apple, tutorial here.



Yarn heart, tutorial here.



Yarn balloons by Jessica Levitt. Tutorial here.

 



Old stuff, new ideas

We have just downsized our home by 50%. It means that we have looked at basically every item we own and asked ourselves if we really need it. And of course our opinions differ sometimes. If we can't decide or agree then there is always the attic. And thanks to J's unwillingness to get rid of stuff the poor attic was packed to the max way too soon.

We talked about his comic books the other day and I really couldn't see any reasons to keep them in the apartment if at all. Not that I have anything against them per se, it's just that during the 13 years we've lived together I've seen him read the books about five times in total. So why keep them? And they are so many! We really only have room for things that are useful. So one of his arguments to keep the comic books was that they also could serve as furniture if you stack them. Yeah, right. I almost laughed him right in his face. But then I found this online... Touché. So now I need to find some way to quickly turn skeins of yarn into let's say, a coffee table. Ideas, anyone?

Strict non-knitting diet for at least two weeks

Yes, you read it. I'm on a strict non-knitting diet for several weeks. Now who on earth would come up with such a stupid rule? Well, it has been decided, by myself and others, that we are to move in TWO weeks! Yikes. It's something that we have been trying to do for some time but when we finally did find a new home everything just needs to happen so quickly. So there won't be a single teeny tiny moment left to knit. It's not just about throwing all of our stuff into boxes but we also need to manage the art of squeezing our home into a place that is almost only half the size we have now! Ok, I don't mind getting rid of some of the junk that inevitably always seem to sneak into our home. But there is really some challenges in this. For instance my yarn stash. Have. Too. Much. Yarn. Sometimes I think that maybe I'm fooling myself. Maybe I'm not a knitter at all. Maybe I'm just a yarn collector. Better not go there.

Anyhow, I really need to dive into that compact living lifestyle. I really hope that I will post pictures of my stash all neatly organized sometime in a not too distant future.

This also means that some of my current knitting projects will be put on hold for a little while, but I will be online too quench my knitting thirst and of course to attend to this blog, which by the way had over 1000 visitors yesterday, yay! It makes me SO happy that so many knitters have found my little corner of the web! It will definitely be a comfort when I'll be off the needles for a couple of weeks.   

Winterwarm wrists

Colorful mittens from RainbowMittens

The time that passes from winter to winter may indeed seem like a lifetime for kids. Seasons change and they change as well! Isola absolutely loved her mittens last winter. She was only one year old and could barely walk but needed to have those mittens hanging around her neck wherever she went, indoors too. She could even put them on herself which I thought was quite impressive for a baby. But spring came and I stashed them away in a drawer. Today when I gave her new mittens for this fall, she just stared suspiciously at them. I said "Come on, let's try them on!". She sat down on the floor and started to take off her socks. She had forgotten what mittens are. "No, no, it's not socks. It's mittens. You put them on your hands!" She reluctantly let me put the mittens on both of her hands. She was very suspicious. Then she touched her face with one of them and almost shuddered at the sensation of wool to her cheek. "Hair" she shrieked like she use to when a strand of cat hair gets in her face and tore them off. "No, they're not hairy. They're made of the softest alpaca wool there is. And you're going to wear them!" That's what I wanted to say but what point is there? If a two-year-old complains that the mittens are hairy then she's problably right. I just said "Ok honey, maybe you'll like them better when it's colder outside....." and put them away. And then I started on another pair =)