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You are what you wear

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When I consider my work and academic duties, there’s hardly anything special about it: the work requires some intellectual effort to collect information, then to put it all together and finally write it down or teach about it. Many other scientists in various institutes, archives and museums work in much the same way. One important part of this job is to promote or present your knowledge in front of a group of people. The students forge their opinions about their teachers basing on various circumstances, scientific and non-scientific. One of the factors, as I can remember from my own student days, is the professor’s outfit. I suppose it dates back to the early childhood, when in the kindergarten the lady wearing a glittering pink sweater is much better recognised than someone wearing bland, boring clothes. Keeping in mind my own opinions based on how the professors appeared, I try to prepare myself not only in the intellectual way, but also in terms of looks. So here comes my newes
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Colourful tradition

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Many Christmas traditions are for some reasons often linked with the Advent. One can thus commence the festive time still in November. However, the common tendency for those who start in late autumn is to finish before the New Year. Personally, I do not celebrate until the Christmas Eve, but – as in most Catholic countries from Central and Eastern part of Europe – the festive season lasts till 2nd February. Among other traditions, there is one that I’m especially proud of and I continue from the time I was a child. It is a Cracovian custom of building nativity scenes. This particular type is restricted to Krakow and they are constructed only here. As one can read in a booklet “The nativity scenes are Kraków and Poland in a miniature, as revealed by the national symbols and historical figures that populate them.” The tradition of building nativity scenes dates back to the 19th century, when they were made by craftsmen from the suburbs and villages nearby Krakow. The wooden construc
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Hat season #2

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November was a rather quiet time. At first I thought I would have a very busy and stressful month because of exams and students as well as two papers to be finished and that there would be no time spent silently at home. In fact I stayed at home for more than two weeks, finished one paper and almost did another one, managed to complete some home works and start a new knitting project. It was not planned, but just happened because of nasty viruses and illnesses of almost everyone in the family. So after all this time spent at home with no prospects of leaving, I was a bit tired. Staying in one place and doing one thing is usually more difficult for me than being involved in many different activities. But not this time. Finally I had a chance to be a more prolific knitter. I wanted to destash a bit one of my yarn baskets, which is always full, and prepare a package of small gifts before winter. Thanks to that a red hat was done and a shawl for my mother-in-law , two other sweate
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Hat season

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In fact this is the place where I could write about anything I like or dislike. And this October I really wanted to write about my current observations concerning wool, but did not have enough strong will. Another reason was that I would rather do it for myself than for the readers or those leaving comments (which makes me think not well about my knitting and about my blog). I’m not so outgoing and talkative, rather more reserved. I've recently knitted quite a number of hats (or more generally headdresses). Some of them (as two berets for my father-in-law) are happilly worn by their owners and I do not have their photos. I made another beret for my son, since he wanted to be as goodlooking as his granddad. I must confess that after so many years of knitting I had a problem with a simple and straight flat crowned hat. I got the proper pattern after four sample hats, which more resembled a potato bag than anything you can possibly wear on top of your head. After that I finished
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Owlish Pattern Testing

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It took me a bit longer than I'd expected to write this post. In fact I wanted to tech edit the patterns before testing. It was my first attempt at finding someone and give him or her (in fact there were only great female knitters) a design which was tech edited before. So I had to try two things for the first time. And I must say I really liked it. I really appreciate the possibility of sharing my knitting methods with others and of having an insight into someone’s plans and dayly knitting routines. One thing I do not like in this kind of cooperation is the way of testing – when you do not have your own Ravelry group – as myself – you should take into account all the terms of free testers' groups. In fact, as a longterm knitter, I do not think it is possible to find a testers' group, buy the stash and finish a larger project in less than four weeks. Sometimes you have to hurry up to do it all in a very short time, otherwise your thread may be closed. Regarding the testi
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new beginning

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It is not so easy to pass from slow holiday life, although in our case it is always a bit absorbing, to normal everyday rules. And for me a very important converter from slowness to high speed action is always knitting. Usually, we spend the last few weeks of holidays in the Gorce mountains in southern Poland, in a village called Ochotnica. This time we lived in a small wooden hut at the far end of a valley, above a pasture with a flock of sheep. close to the border of the national park. And we’ve spent wonderful three weeks there. In case you are wondering, the food was as simple as you might imagine. And all of it we had to carry in our backpacks. Our meals in Gorce are usually simple, preferably prepared using local products, like eggs from happy hens, which wonder freely outside their henhouses, pecking here and there. The sheep from the pasture I’ve mentioned visited us from time to time to graze on our fresh, green grass. And far, far down in the village we managed
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Speckled

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Here I am writing my new post. The very end of June and the first days of July were the travelling time for me and my family, as I wrote in my previous post . We’ve spent a wonderful time in Fribourg, chatting with old friends and walking somewhere in the forests. Fribourg is our destination every couple of years, but we are more than common visitors. After some time spent there we have special and favourite places e.g. the Natural History Museum. We’ve spent some time checking on the everything that has changed since our last visit. There is always something new to explore in The Natural History Museum. This time there was an exhibition about wolves. Being part of the local university, the museum focuses on the Swiss nature and landscape, so I had a chance to learn more about wolves living in this region (you can do this till 20th August: here ). For the first time I’ve also read that wild boars are not so common in Switzerland as where I live. For me every visit there is a major
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