haberkula

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

June was rather difficult as it usually is in a family, where everyone needs to finish their duties by the end of the month. For myself, as I had to finish the academic year, it was an awful duty to give every student a mark. Although I had very little time to knit, I nevertheless kept knitting and purling in the meantime. I finished a couple of knitting pieces, but unfortunately there was no time left to take pictures. To say nothing about publishing. Immediately after all the schools, courses and lessons were finished, we jumped into our first holiday journey. And after a long way we reached Fribourg in Switzerland. After two years spent there, I must admit but I love the nature and the environment in this country. This is the place where every single plant is seen in all blooming beauty. And I could finally find a moment to dress my boys in their green cardigans. After they sat down their dad was able to take a few pictures. When they started to play and wonder around ...

I finished the second yoke sweater for the Fruity You and Me KAL about two weeks ago. I’ve also taken some photos but I couldn’t manage to write a post about this cardigan. This time I used my own pattern – the same as in the Flower red yoke for J from my previous post – but I’ve knitted it from bottom up and this is definitely the best way for me. I must confess that decreasing stitches gives me more hope of finishing the project than increasin. The most difficult portion of the yoke is the flower pattern itself and once this part is finished you just have to dive in the the ocean of plain stockinette. Another thing I have changed is the method: I steeked all the front piece instead of cutting only the yoke pattern piece. I was really happy to have finished both sweaters. I enjoyed knitting yoke from up to bottom for the first time, but – as I’ve written – this way is not mine, so after designing the flower pattern I’ve decided to make another yoke cardigan for my...

I must confess I am definitively not a podcast lover. In my present state of mind – a bit nervous and melancholic – watching what others are knitting right now, are going to knit or what they are dreaming to knit in the future is not overly fascinating. Perhaps the podcasts I came across were not too interesting, but on the other hand I didn’t have free time to spend it otherwise than knitting. However, some time ago I was so exhausted that I sat down and watched a couple of different podcast episodes. It made me feel better and I found that „The Fruitty Knitting” podcast is definitely worth watching more or less regularly. When I watch a new episode, my hubby looks over my shoulder and says in disbelief something like „this man is knitting again”. In every other way he is of great help, being something of my PR specialist, although he consistently refuses to learn to knit. I accept that, as he is not the first one of that kind in my family. My grandpa Antoni was not too talented as...