life

Sidetracked

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Hello there! Last Sunday morning we went for a walk in a small out-of-the-way nature reserve. In fact, it’s such an out-of-the-way place that we’ve only ever met two other people there, which is very unusual in this overpopulated little country. It’s an open patch of heathland, with dry and sandy soil, various kinds of heather, grasses and some trees. With thunderstorms forecast for the afternoon and evening, the atmosphere was oppressive.

I was feeling a bit meh. Actually more than just a bit meh – tired and uninspired. I was struggling with the last details on the cardigan for our daughter. The ribbings along the pocket tops, which I would otherwise just have got on with, seemed an insurmountable obstacle.

And there was literally nothing else on my needles. I did have some new knitting projects lined up, but didn’t feel excited about any of them. In short, I’d lost my knitting mojo and also felt like I had nothing left to say. While in the distance sheep were grazing and dozing, and a highland cow was playing hide-and-seek, I was ruminating.

Maybe it was the summer weather, never conducive to knitting. Or maybe it was only to be expected after all the knitting and sewing of the past few months, no matter how much I’ve loved it. One of the things I made that I haven’t shared here yet is this little cardi. I think it’s very sweet, but the pattern could have been a little more detailed.

Walking there, I was thinking, ‘Maybe I should abandon all attempts at making things for a while and take a break from blogging for the rest of July and August.’

And then my husband veered off from the main path to follow a side track, I followed him, and… oh, look!

Thyme!

This is a rare kind of thyme called kleine tijm (small thyme) in Dutch (Thymus serpyllum; Breckland thyme or creeping thyme in English). It’s tiny (about 3 cm/1¼” tall), fragrant and covered in pink flowers at this time of year. So beautiful!

Looking closely, I saw some bees on it with very hairy legs.

The Plant Atlas of the Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland says about this thyme that it grows, ‘…especially in areas disturbed by rabbits or sheep.’ Exactly.

Within seconds the thyme shakes me out of my slump and I begin to notice other small and beautiful things. Like lovely little tufts of lacy lichens.

And small blue butterflies fluttering around the heather. ‘How about making one of those?’ a voice inside of me whispers.

Since our walk, I’ve been hearing more whisperings. It isn’t always clear what they’re telling me, but I feel quite sure I need to listen to them. One of them was very specific, though, and made me cast on a pair of simple socks in a yarn that looks like a water colour painting of a Dutch landscape.

Two takeaways from this walk:

  1. It’s okay to allow yourself to be sidetracked from time to time – it may lead to rabbit or sheep poo, but also to beautiful discoveries.
  2. Small things can bring great happiness.

I can’t say that my knitting mojo has miraculously returned, but I’m feeling more positive. I’d miss chatting with you here on my blog too much, so won’t be taking that break. Only, until my knitting mojo decides to put in an appearance I expect to be writing about side tracks with very little idea of where they’ll be taking us. I hope you don’t mind, hope you’re doing well and hope to see you again next week!

Rest for the Restless

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Together, my daughter and I have taken out a subscription to The Simple Things for a year. She gets the magazine in her letterbox first, and I get it when she’s read it. That means I’m always behind, but I don’t mind. I’m now reading the April issue, which contains an interview with James and Helen Rebanks. They have a farm in the English Lake District, are both authors and have four children aged 7 to 19.

One of the things that come up in the article is how they find balance in their busy lives, and Helen says something that really strikes a chord with me: “Rest is a huge part of regenerative agriculture. Plants need time to grow, time to flower,

time to set seed

and time to recuperate. […] People are the same. We can’t push our bodies and minds to the max all the time. We need periods where things are slower and quieter, particularly as creative people. Sometimes we just need to stare out of the window

or take a walk and let things mull.” (Quote The Simple Things, April 2025, p. 49; photos mine.)

Yes, absolutely, hmm (can you see me nodding in agreement?). But what if you are too restless to rest? Hot summer weather does that to me. I really struggle with that, but have found some ways of dealing with it:

  • Take a walk every day no matter what.
  • Wear sunglasses. On the one hand, I hate having a barrier between myself and others and not being able to see the world in its true colours. On the other hand, aside from protecting my eyes, sunglasses also seem to give my brain some rest.
  • Snatch brief moments of rest and have a list at hand of small things to do during those moments. That may sound like a contradiction (resting – doing), but doing certain things (see below) can be more restful to me than just sitting around doing nothing.
  • Read one article in a magazine. Or, if even too restless for that, just look at the pictures and/or cut some out and stick them in a scrapbook.
  • Listen to one song. Three of my favourites (in random order):
  1. Dùn – Ailie Robertson
  2. Chord Left – Agnes Obel
  3. On the Nature of Daylight – Max Richter
  • KNIT!!! (even if it is just a couple of rows).
  • Spin (even if it is just for five minutes).
  • Play with colour – with pencils, water colours or yarn.

These beautiful little hanks were hand-dyed by Marianne of Lindelicht (who is taking the entire month of June off to rest). It is a blend of blue-faced Leicester wool and silk, and each hank is 3 g/24 m/26 yds.

Some yarns are so beautiful that I don’t use them because I’m afraid of ‘wasting’ them, but what’s the use of that when they are then languishing away in a dark corner? So I’m determined to do something with this yarn this summer, but what? It is sold as embroidery yarn, so that’s an option. Or could I use it for knitting or crochet? Or a combination of several techniques?

Something outside my comfort zone?
Or something inside my comfort zone?

Well, I hope this summer will bring you some time to rest, whether at home or away. We’re not going anywhere this summer, but I may take a short rest from blogging now and then. Or I may not – I just don’t know yet and don’t have a plan at all (eek! – that’s very unusual for me). Anyway, I hope to see you here from time to time. xxx

Sock Knitting Basket

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Hello! Do you know Flemish singer-songwriter Raymond van het Groenewoud? He has a song called In mijn hoofd (Inside My Head). In it, he sings: ‘Inside my head everything is simple; Inside my head everything falls into place.’ And also: ‘Welcome, welcome inside my head (…) It’s great to dwell inside my head.’ It sounds incredibly zen.

Inside my head it is often like the current state of my sock knitting basket – overcrowded and tangled. From time to time, I dump everything out.

The contents of my sock knitting basket onto the dining table. The contents of my head onto paper (I now know that this process is actually called brain dumping). When everything is out in the open, a soothing inner voice says things like: ‘There, there. Have a cup of tea and you’ll see that it’s not as bad as it looks.’ After that it’s time to take a deep breath and sort things out.

Knitting tools go in a dedicated knitting tool basket, crochet things go in a crochet lace box, leftover sock yarn goes in with other sock yarn remnants.

Things I can do something about go in my Moleskine planner, ideas and question marks in various notebooks, and worries about things I can do nothing whatsoever about are sent back into the universe (the latter have a tendency to barge right back in at the moment, though).

My sock knitting basket yielded three hankies with crocheted lace around them and four pairs of socks. After darning in the ends and washing them, these are now ready to be used, given away or sent off. Among them these socks:

The yarn for these is Gründl Hot Socks Semila 4-ply. It’s one of those yarns that guarantee a matching pair of socks. It has a fluorescent green starter thread that tells you where to start for the first and for the second sock. In my experience, these yarns only work for shoe sizes 37-40 (UK 4-7, US 6-9). For smaller sizes the leg gets far too long and the toes are finished before you get to the special toe colours. And for larger sizes there just isn’t enough yarn. Another disadvantage is that with those starter threads a lot of yarn gets thrown away. Having said that, I think the effect can be very nice indeed.

Ah, that feels good. A tidy sock knitting basket with just one sock project and only the bare necessities in it.

And also a clearer head. For now.

If you like, you can watch and listen to Raymond van het Groenewoud singing In mijn hoofd while he is trying out a new guitar here. And find a description of brain dumping more or less the way I do it here. Thank you for visiting with me – it’s always lovely to have your company. xxx

Happy 2025!

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like buds on a tree
twelve new months ahead of us
ready to unfurl

Happy 2025! May it be a year filled with love, joy, inspiration and fulfilment.

Just popping in here briefly today. As of next week, I hope to be back with my usual longer posts (so much to write about!). See you then! xxx

Season’s Greetings

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Hello! How I would have loved to write a really wintry post today, with photographs of a snowy landscape with a bright sky, or of frozen lakes and canals with people ice skating. But alas! It’s grey here. Very grey.

And wet and dark. Ah well, it is often like this in the weeks before Christmas. I’m fine with it really, and go out for a walk every day no matter what the weather. At home it’s cosy, with candles everywhere and the Christmas tree in the living room. On Saturday I found this new (second-hand) addition to it.

Every morning, I start the day by adding a few pieces to a wooden puzzle. Our daughter put them in the Advent calendar mittens I gave her last year (described in this post). I can see this becoming a tradition, with the mittens going back and forth between our homes every year.

It’s an amazing puzzle. At first I thought it was going to be a star, but now I can see that it is becoming an animal head (a fox?). There are all kinds of animals, birds, flowers and leaves hidden in it. One of the pieces in mitten number 17 was a wolf.

This autumn, there hasn’t been anything interesting like the Advent mittens on my needles. I just didn’t have the energy or the spirit. Instead, I’ve been knitting lots of simple things: A garter stitch scarf and 1×1 ribbed hat for a niece who is leaving for Stockholm in January, and a stocking stitch pullover for our son-in-law. The pullover pieces are now drying on blocking mats.

I didn’t use a pattern, but simply improvised. (Yarn: Rowan Softyak DK – shade 240 Pasture.) If I get a move on, I should be able to finish it before their Christmas visit.

I’ve also been knitting some simple 4-ply socks. (Pink-brown pair: Lang SuperSoxx Berry – shade Raspberry; Blue-grey ones: Rellana Flotte Socke Patagonia Männersache – shade 1730.) I simply love knitting simple socks.

Tomorrow it’s the winter solstice, in five days’ time it’s Christmas, and in only eleven days it’s New Year’s Eve. In previous years, it was often on the very last day of the year or a couple of days earlier at most that I suddenly thought, ‘Oh, another year has rushed by and what have I actually done with it? And what about the coming year?’

This year, inspired by Leo Babauka’s Month of Reflection, I’ve been pondering these questions during the entire Advent period. That doesn’t mean that I spent a whole month sitting cross-legged on the floor, but I did take some time here and there to reflect on 2024 and set intentions for 2025. Leo’s four-step approached really helped me structure my thoughts, because they can get seriously tangled.

It has helped me see the path ahead of me more clearly.

(In springtime this particular path is bordered by a carpet of wood anemones – see this blog post).

I’m really looking forward to the festive season and 2025 now, and have already started on a pair of Selbu mittens…

… and found a Norwegian book to read alongside.

Another small felt kit lies waiting to be made into a butterfly…

… and I am brimming with many more ideas for things to make and write about in the coming year.

I’m taking some time off now to knit, read, sew, rest and be with my loved ones. I wish you a lovely and peaceful festive season, with plenty of time to be with the people you love best and to do some of the things you love doing most. Thank you for visiting me here and I hope to see you again early next year!

To close off, here is a picture of the most beautiful Christmas wreath I’ve seen this year, glowing golden amongst all the damp and greyness.

Suddenly

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Hello! Just popping in here with a brief message today. A close family member of ours passed away suddenly last week. Sad and shaken, I feel unable to come up with anything inspiring to write about at the moment.  On the one hand I don’t want to bother you with my personal affairs, but on the other I don’t want to stay away here for weeks on end leaving you wondering. Don’t worry, I’m basically all right and just need some time.

I missed the Dutch Knitting & Crochet Days this year. For a lovely impression do head over to my friend Froukje’s blog. She also writes about the embroidery-on-knitting workshop she took while she was there.

I hope all is well with you and hope to be back here soon with some woolly inspiration. Take care! xxx

Unsettled

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Hello! After many weeks of warm summer days, the weather is unsettled now and I love it! Wind, fresh air, alternately rain and sunshine, and wild skies.

It’s not just the weather that’s unsettled, though, but me, too. I think it has something to do with my birthday last Monday. I celebrated it during the weekend with my nearest and dearest. There were gifts, phone calls, letters, cards and other messages, and a lovely walk on the day itself. The walk partly followed an old, old road hollowed out by people, cattle and carts passing along it during many centuries.

I feel truly grateful and blessed. And yet…

I am 62 now. My mum died at 66. Although there is no reason whatsoever to assume that I will not live longer, there is an inner voice that says, ‘You’d better get a move on!’ Oh, okay, but… with what and how? I think I need to have a chat with this voice someday soon to get clarity.

In one area of my life I do know exactly how to get a move on. At present, I have 6 projects on the go that are almost finished: a child’s pullover, a cardigan, a scarf, a shawl, a big spinning project and a small felt project.

Usually, I’m fine with working on multiple projects simultaneously and taking a long time over them, but now I feel the urge to finish them. More about them (in as far as they are interesting enough) over the coming weeks, I hope.

For now, there is one more thing I’d like to share with you. I was given the sweetest little box as a birthday present. It contains 36 ‘Trust Cards’ with illustrations and affirmations by Dutch artist Esther Bennink.

Technology isn’t advanced enough yet to let you pick one for yourself, so let me pick one for you – this is the picture on the front:

On the back it says:

I choose
to enjoy
the little things

I wish you a week with many little things to enjoy. To start with, here is one from our garden.

August Days

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Hello! It’s good to see you! August is almost at an end and I hope it’s been a good month for you. I wanted it to be a slow, quiet month, but how to slow down in your everyday environment when life just sort of goes on? What I basically did differently from the rest of the year was that I didn’t go anywhere in the evenings (easy when everyone is away), stayed at or close to home most of the time, lowered the bar (quite a bit) and spent as little time as possible online (not so easy). This gave me the breathing space I craved.

There is very little to show you of my uneventful days. One of the simple things I enjoyed was picking a bunch of sweet peas every other day.

There were several days that stood out between all the quiet ones, like the days we looked after our grandson, and the day a friend’s 12-year-old daughter came to learn how to bake sourdough bread and pizza.

And then there was the day we visited our niece who is a student in Nijmegen, a big city on the river Waal.

Well, Nijmegen fits about five times into Amsterdam, but it’s a big city to me. Large parts of the inner city were bombed in 1944, so most of the buildings are relatively new.

But there are some lovely old parts left, too.

We had lunch at a Swedish lunchroom, visited a fabulous bookshop, did some more shopping…

… and almost bumped into this fascinating dress (or is it a separate crocheted top and knit skirt?):

Oh, a yarn shop! I didn’t know there was one here. I took a quick look round and can tell you that it’s worth a visit if you’re ever in Nijmegen. The right kind of tools and notions, plus the most exquisite wool, cotton, hand-dyed, silk, paper, yak and alpaca yarns.

I have been knitting, but not nearly as much as I thought I would. On the whole, August weather is not really knitting weather. I did finish my Land Yndlingskofte, though. That is, I finished the knitting. Now I need to pluck up the courage to cut the steek.

I also knit a pair of men’s socks size huge. The brief was: as simple as possible in a dark colour. Boring? Not at all – to me it’s been meditative and very enjoyable.

For a sweater for our grandson I knit some swatches. When I chose the yarn, I thought I’d simply improvise something, but it’s not all that simple. There are so many decisions to make. Top-down or bottom-up? Knit flat or in the round? What stitch pattern(s)? How to distribute the two colours? Neckline? Set-in sleeves, raglan, yoke? Etc. etc. etc.

Summer is my least favourite season and I’m longing for cooler days with softer light. It’s still warm while I’m writing this, but the first signs of autumn are here.

After this slow month of August, I feel energized and am full of plans for things to do, make, read and write about. This is what I hope to share with you next week:

How has August been for you? Did you go anywhere? Or did you stay at home? Has it been very hot where you live? Or perhaps you live in the southern hemisphere and it’s been wet and chilly? Have you been knitting, sewing or otherwise making things? I’d love to hear from you and hope to see you again next week!

A Would-Like-To-Do List

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Are you a list maker? I certainly am. Lists help me navigate through life, but I need to be careful that they don’t take over. It’s all about finding the right balance between getting things done and being realistic and gentle. For 2023, I wrote this wish list in my knitting notebook:

  1. Norwegian knitting
  2. Making things for our grandson
  3. Knitting challenging socks
  4. Designing

Some categories received more time and attention than others, and that’s fine. It wasn’t a have-to-do list after all, but a wish list. The list helped me bring some focus to my knitting.

For 2024 I’m recycling this list – keeping, adding, removing and modifying a few things. For the year ahead, my would-like-to-do list is:

  1. Norwegian knitting
  2. Make everyday things for my family and myself
  3. Be a little more creative
  4. Be generous with my knitting

The ‘be a little more creative’ item is still a big question mark. For the rest, my knitting baskets are filling up, with some Norwegian knitting…

…everyday knitting…

…and knitting for a community project:

More about the contents of these baskets over the coming weeks.

The poncho I’ve just finished definitely belongs in the ‘everyday knits’ category. It’ll be a nice and warm extra layer indoors in winter and an easy-to-throw-on outdoor item for the rest of the year.

It’s a simple rectangle that makes an asymmetrical poncho and starts with a crochet provisional cast-on. I was going to take pictures and talk about the how and why of that but forgot. I did take a quick picture of the blocking stage, but that doesn’t tell us much except that I blocked it:

I’ll try to do better with recording the process this year.

After seaming part of one side, stitches are picked up for a wonderfully cosy knit-in-the-round ribbed cowl. All in all, a lovely soft, simple, soothing project.

Well, I’m off to do a few things that will never belong on any would-like-to-do list but just need to get done – that’s life. I’ll reward myself with a few rows of knitting afterwards.

Have a lovely weekend!

PS The Easy Folded Poncho can be found here on Ravelry, and the ribbed cowl adaptation here on the designer’s website. The yarn I used is Rowan’s Fine Tweed Haze in shade ‘Deep’, a dark tealy blue with tweed nepps in pink, orange and white (the first photo captures the colour best). If you’re going to use this yarn, do swatch! I’m a fairly average knitter but needed to go down several needle sizes to get the gauge specified by both manufacturer and pattern designer.

New Year’s Wishes

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Just a brief note from me today to wish you and yours a very happy 2024. Along with my general good wishes, I’m sending a Lüsterweibchen for you to personalize them. Make your own wish for the New Year while you rub her belly and it will come true. Shh, don’t tell or it won’t work.

The muscular Lüsterweibchen above, with antlers for wings and a mermaid’s tail, lives in Cochem Castle, Germany. Judging by the peeling red paint on her belly, many people have rubbed it to make a wish. I am quite sure it will work just as well via your screen.

I’m spending the rest of this week weaving in ends and planning new projects, and hope to be back with my regular posts as of next week. See you then!