And one more makes six

And here’s the last one (for those of you who didn’t read the other posts: I decided rather last minute that it would be nice to give our three girls, the two son-in-laws and our soon to be born grandson hats for Christmas).

I made it semi-matching with the father-son hats, since this is for the mom-to-be. I ran out of the dark blue yarn, but I thought these eyelet holes are similar to, but also a nice change from the stripes. I actually really like this one.

Father and son hats

I couldn’t help myself… I just thought it would be too cute, even it was just for a picture to satisfy this crazy knitting granny. I made a hat for the father to be and a much smaller one for the baby to match. There’s not much else to tell about them, just simple stripes and a bit slouchy, because I know J. likes that.

Hat #3

By now I’m pretty sure that I’m going to try and make six hats for Christmas. That should be doable, especially since the sixth one is going to be tiny (three daughters, two sons-in-law and a grandson who will probably be born by then). This is the third, so I think I’ll have them all finished in time.

Although… I may decide to replace this one. I tried color work, in a very simple way. The only other time I did this, my tension was very tight, so I made sure I kept it loose this time. But now I am kind of disappointed with the irregularity of my tension. Then again, seeing these pictures, I think it actually adds to the charm. Maybe. Well, let’s stick to that story for now.

Another hat

Yes, it is happening again. I can’t stop knitting hats (remember my 52 hat challenge in 2018?). I just love how simple it is to “design” something on the go, how fast it goes and how every hat is just slightly different. So here’s another one.

The ribbing is K3 p2, the top of the hat is a simple stitch pattern I found in my grandmother’s knitting book (actually T. picked it, because I was overwhelmed with the amount of choice). It’s just repeating a K1, P1 round and then a full K round, but I love how it turned out.

Unfinished business, no more

 Joining in with Chris’ Tuesday To Do today!

Not that I really had a crafty to do list. Truth to be told, my knitting has been very scarce this past few months. Or maybe even this past year, I don’t know. But I felt like knitting again and I had two unfinished projects. So maybe that was my list this week. Finish those.

First up: potholders. I know, not very exciting. But when I started them (I don’t even remember how long ago) I thought some easy knitting would help me to get back into it. It didn’t at the time and I had a bit of a hard time getting through four basic squares, but I did it. And well, there is something really satisfying about knitting stuff I actually use on a daily basis.

The second project I didn’t even remember. I did have a vague memory of a hat that I abandoned when I needed to change to dpn’s for top shaping, but I thought it was grey. Ha! Should have known better.

Anyway, I did the top and actually had fun. And now I have (another) green hat that I don’t wear. But I do love it.

And that concludes my unfinished business. I love a clean slate.

Next weeks list:

Julia directed me to this cardigan and I think I’d like to make it. Perfect for the colder evenings (I know you’re laughing, but goodness, I’ve been so cold this “winter”. Only 75 Fahrenheit/24 Celsius most nights)

– I also have an idea for a simpler project that I can just wing without too much thinking (because a. I knit mostly at night, when I can’t read a pattern and b. I’m just so tired most of the time). Going to try that and I’ll show you next week (or not if it fails)

– stop myself from getting overly enthusiastic. Startitis has not helped my knitting mojo these past two years. Too overwhelming, I guess. One big project and one easy project should be enough for now. But that doesn’t mean I can’t make plans… 😉

What’s on your list?

DITL :: 4.1.2020

On my Dutch blog, I started posting “day in the life” blogs last week. Don’t know why, but I felt a pull towards documenting the normal parts of my days as well as the things that are so different right now.
I decided that I might as well copy those posts and translate them for this blog. I’m not really sure if that’s what I want here in the long run, but let’s see how it goes for a while.

This was Tuesday afternoon. Reading a bit in my book. Trying not to pick up my phone to read the news.

Time to start diner! I took a picture of my ingredients (boneless chicken thigh, a leek, red onion, yellow onion, half a jar of corn, half a can of white beans, half a jar of tomato sauce and a packet of tomatoes that were going bad). I forgot to take a picture of the end result. It was really good though!
(I made a tomato sauce loaded with veggies and stewed the thighs in it).

Sunset! Each day is different.

I finished my hat that night. Took pictures the next day, but I’ll post them here. I know I said it would get its own blog post, but really, it’s just a very simple hat, there’s not much I can say about it anyway. The ribbing is 8 rows  K5 P3, then 3 rows P5 K3 and then 8 rows K5 P3 again.

We were both wide awake at 5 o’clock on Wednesday morning. That’s an hour early, but we decided it was no use to stay in bed, so we got up.

Did some knitting until it was light and then I read a bit. I was able to stay away from the news until 6.30. Since I have been making a habit of checking the news immediately after getting up, this is a bit of an improvement.

We had breakfast, I cleaned up and then I went out for grocery shopping. Just one person per household allowed, so I went alone.

This was outside, waiting to get into the supermarket. Two meters distance between the lines. It didn’t take long though, I only had to wait for five minutes or so. Inside keeping my distance was a lot harder. Not everyone was into it. I messed up too, didn’t notice the arrows indicating that the paths were now one-way only. I usually skip the second path, since it’s all sugar drinks and things like that, so my normal route was completely opposite of what was allowed. I have to get used to that. I do think it’s a good idea to do this though. Less people bumping into each other.

On my way back I got stuck in traffic.
Huh? Yes, we’re in lockdown. But there were actually a lot of people on the road and the police was trying to check why. I had a lot of trouble understanding the guy through his facemask (and because of my ear infection).
“Where are you going, ma’am?”
“Home.”
“Where’s that?”
“Westpunt.”
“Okay, have a nice day.”
I had papers to prove I really live there, but he didn’t even want to see them. I guess this was meant to intimidate and demotivate. (This was before they issued the license plate rule.)

I needed some medicines, so I got into another line at the botika. It took a while before I could get in, but they had everything I needed (T. takes aspirin as a blood thinner for his heart problems and I needed some painkillers), so all was well.

When I got home, I quickly unloaded the stuff that needed to go into the freezer and the fridge and then I listened to the press conference. That’s when we heard we are now only allowed to be on the street (and only for essentials) two days a week.

We had lunch and the rest of the day escaped me. I was tired. Tired of shopping, tired of the impact everything has right now, tired of everything. T. felt the same. I read a few chapters in my book and browsed a bit on the internet.

At five o’clock we had our daily snack: cucumber (with a bit of salt and vinegar). I always look forward to that!

I took another picture of a sparrow.

And of the sunset of course.

Time to cook diner! These were my ingredients: two eggplants, a can of corn and a can of black beans (I didn’t use the mushrooms), a lot of garlic and some steak.

The end result doesn’t look great, but it tasted so good!

After cleaning up the kitchen I did a bit of knitting. That’s my favorite time of the day. Just sitting, knitting and thinking, and talking with T. Too dark to read, trying not to pick up my phone (was mildly successful at that today).  It’s the best way to end the day.

Right now

Right now I am…

:: tired. I have felt really tired for two weeks now But I slept quite well last night, so maybe I will feel better soon.

:: excited to mention that I finished the yearly taxes as far as I could yesterday. It’s not that much work, but it always weighs me down and it takes up a lot of space in my head. And this time it was worse because we moved abroad. The Netherlands doesn’t have clear rules about taking your business with you and wants us to do our private taxes on paper and through snail mail (because, you know, that’s so much easier than online if you’re living abroad). That last part isn’t finished since the paper forms are with our daughter in The Netherlands. I have to find a way to get them here safely (we were supposed to go there in time to do the taxes, but I don’t think we will be able to).

:: looking forward to cleaning, reorganizing, gardening and things like that

:: trying not to give in to the temptation and use that headspace to start writing a new novel right away, since that would mean lots of screentime again. On the other hand… writing is even better than reading if you want to escape the real world for a while. And well, with that view (second picture) screen time isn’t too bad…

:: knitting along on the shawl. Picked up the hat I started a while back too.

:: wondering if that cat (he’s kneading my stomach right now) will ever lay down. He’s so happy, but he still hasn’t learned to fully retract his nails when doing that. Ouch!

:: looking forward to the weekend. No, we won’t be going anywhere, but it’s still weekend, you know?

:: considering to make this an offline weekend. I used to have those a lot, but lately… well, you know. Maybe I need a little reset.

:: wondering why I’m so obsessed with keeping up with the news. It doesn’t make any difference if I know right away if there are new cases on the island (we’re up to 7 now). Well, okay, if we plan to get off our own property, we should probably check for any new rules (they’re considering closing beaches and installing a curfew), but if we don’t… just carry on. Also, knowing exactly what is going on in The Netherlands as soon as it’s posted, doesn’t do anything to prevent my family from getting the virus. (talking to myself here – sometimes that’s how blogging works)
Need to stop this. Now.

:: planning to take some pictures of plants and trees this weekend, to have something else to talk about next week

:: wishing you all a good weekend. Make it special, even if you’ve been at home the rest of the week too 😉

Knitting and reading

After that case of startitis my knitting came to a full stop. Not immediately, but that shawl I was trying to make… didn’t work out. Also, I started to doubt if I really wanted to make a bikini coverup. Wouldn’t it be better to make a cardigan with that yarn?
And then I started a baby hat for a baby shower that will be held this Saturday. How simple is that? Well, I blame the yarn, but it can also be my sluggish knitting, but I was almost done when I noticed it just wasn’t something I’d want to give as a present. So I started again with a different yarn. I’m not really motivated to finish it though. Those double pointed needles are not really my favorite way to knit (but my circulars are too long). Maybe I should just let it go. I need to buy a present anyway because I just don’t have time to make more than just that little hat. It’s a really cute pattern though.

My lack of motivation for knitting may also have something to do with my reading. I’ve been reading so much lately! I have a small collection of books about Curacao (history most) or set in Curacao and once I started reading one of them, I couldn’t stop myself and had to read them all. It took some time, but I love knowing more about the island (I will probably pop into a thrift store to find more books like this today).
And then I found the book on the right. It’s in Dutch, but the title translates as “Secret Medicine of the Gypsies”. It’s written by Pierre Delon. My goodness. His writing is… well, different, but it’s so interesting. Reading this book stirred up my latent, but always strong interest in herbal medicine, so next thing I knew, I was downloading books about that on my e-reader. Starting with the classic: Culpeper’s Herbal. I can’t believe I never read that one before. And then 20 more modern books. I’m enjoying working my way through The Natural First Aid Handbook (thinking about buying a paper version for reference). And then there are so many more interesting books. I think I also have brought one home with me from that book market I visited a few times (as I said, latent, but strong), so I’ll have to dig that up.And I’m waiting for this book to arrive, but that will take some time (Amazon takes about a month to get thing here, and then it needs to go through customs. I ordered it two weeks ago, it will probably arrive mid-April.)

Oh well, I won’t be bored soon, that’s for sure.

linking up with Ginny’s Yarn Along

Startitis

Well, that was fun! I usually have only one, maybe two projects on my needles, but sometimes I just have to give in to the urge to start more. And so I did.
I have no less than four projects going right now and I’m actually thinking about casting on for just one more…

The first one I cast on for was Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Baby Surprise Jacket. No, there are no (grand)baby’s in my immediate future, but I’ve always wanted to make one. And I figured I’d better start practicing before I’ve got baby’s to knit for.  Or something like that. I just wanted to try this.
I have to admit though, that I almost gave up on it. I had to start over a few times because I didn’t read the pattern right. But now I’m well on my way and enjoying seeing it grow.

My second project will hopefully turn out to be a swimsuit (or bikini) cover-up. I’m winging it, so I hope I get this right. It is a lovely soft cotton yarn though and I love knitting with it.

Next project in line is a simple shawl, knit in a lovely shiny (but slippery) cotton on needles that are a size or two too big, to create a light and see-through fabric.

And then, of course, there’s a hat. This was actually the first project I started after finishing the cowl, but then I got distracted with all my other ideas. I was going to do something creative with that ribbing and I hope I remember what it was when I get to it.

So, two out of four projects that I can actually use myself and around here. Not too bad, isn’t it? The baby jacket is knit in cotton too, so I may find myself a baby on the island to gift it to.
I am running out of project bags, by the way (must make more), but luckily my knitting bag is big enough to handle them all and even more (yes, I always keep a book I’m reading in my knitting bag too, don’t you?).

A hat!

I’ve been browsing the blog to make sure, but this seems to be my first finished knitting/crafty project this year. Oy! No wonder I feel off…
Anyway. This simple hat actually took me a while to knit, but it turned out just as I wanted it to be, a simple k2 p2 ribbing, followed by garter stitch. I love it! If we had the right temperatures for it, I would be wearing it a lot.
Now I’m secretly hoping the beginning of May (when we’re in Holland again) will be chilly enough to wear it (nah, not really! – I’ll safe it for December).

What I did:

CO 80 st.
K2 P2 to end of round
repeat until desired height

switch to garter stitch (alternating K rounds and P rounds)
repeat until desired height

start decreases:
SSK to end of round (40 st left)
P
SSK to end of round (20 st left)
P
SSK to end of round (10 st left)
pull thread through remaining stitches, weave in ends