I’m still here

Hello, my dear friends!

Yes, I am, I’m still here! I have been neglected the blog for a while and that because I’m on a big delay with my Christmas gifts cratfing… Oh, well, I will be able to make everything on my “to do” list but I’m not sure if I will have the scarf I want to knit for me before Christmas…. I hope a miracle will happen but I’m affraid it will have to wait until next year…

Oh, never mind, here are my latest FO…

An off the scedule hat for my BM…

The pattern is the same I used for my hat, the Cabled Hat by Debbie Bliss.

My Mother in law Stone Tulip Shawl

I have to admit that I like it a lot!

The Lace Scarf for my Mum

I followed this pattern and even if it is in Finnish it is easy to understand.

All the gifts for the ladies are done and now it is gentlemen’s turn…

Socks, socks, socks!!!

I have started with my Father in law…

…. and I’m going on with my brother’s pair…

Oh, I feel I’m working so slowly….

Some more Christmas tree ornaments are ready too….

Making all those things by hands… Insanity! That’s the most suitable term to describe how I’m feeling in these days!

So…. since the last few months were so discouraging because a lot of bad things had happened (Brexit, Trump president of the USA, Italy stroken by two terrible earthquakes…. I stop here!) I’d like to share with you some random photos of this still beautiful autumn…

Places we have been….

Garda

Garda

Garda

Lazise

Verona

Verona

My dears, enjoy and relax! Of course, if you have time for 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

Bye!!

Ponti sul Mincio (… yes, I love to make selfies 🙂 )

Love

xxx

Tajana

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Holiday fever! Already????!!!!

Hello, my dear friends!

Those of you who knows me best know very well my obsession with handmade Christmas gifts….  There’s no need to talk about that much… but did I tell you that I want to have a nice Christmas tree this year… ? Since I’m so insane, I’m not only crafting gifts, I’m making tree ornaments too….

I have a precise idea about how my tree should look like and I’m playing a lot with the hook and different kind of yarn. I’d like to have sparkling garlands, nice white snowflakes, macarons and some felted embroidered hearts…. Let’s see if I’ll be able to finish off all the ornaments in time…

In the meantime I have finished off, blocked and stored the stole I was making for one of my sisters in law…

This is Luule pattern by Susanne Visch and I love it a lot! The yarn I used wasn’t the best one I have ever knitted with but it was worth the effort. The colors of this stole are too bright, in my opinion, but are perfect for the lady it is meant to. And I’m happy I was able to store it at last!!

As you can imagine, a new project is on my needles which should be finished off in three or four days… The Stone Tulip Shawl for my Mother in law ….

What can I say… I can’t wait to have it finished off and blocked!!!!!

My Mother in law is going to have a small pressie before Christmas, though… three pot holders…

I’m not satisfied with the finishing of those, however. Sewing is still my weak spot which has to be improved a lot… Sometimes it happens that my projects turn out nice but sometimes they do not…. I have to work a lot on appliqués….

At last, I knitted myself a hat! It was a while that I wanted to make this for me, a pattern I saw for the first time on Sewchet’s blog…

This hat is perfect! I love this pattern very much and I love to wear it during our waks… By the way, we spent a few hours outdoors this weekend and here are some photos of the Lake seen from above!

I hope that you will enjoy this views!

I have to go now and have lunch ready!!

(Breathe, Tajana, breathe….)

Love

xxx

Tajana

Popping out again

Hello, my dear friends!

It has been a while since my last post here on the blog. What had happened….? Well… It is hard to say but let it put that way… I have a compulsive need to create and hold in my hands the result of this compulsive activity. Around Christmas last year I found so hard to spend time both online and crafting and I discovered Instagram, a quick and easy way to share photos, exactly what I needed in that very moment. So you can easily imagine what had occured. I was able to show you my WIPs and FO projects and follow and be followed by all my blog friends. Well, to be frank it is much easier to find me on my personal Facebook profile and on Instagram than here or on Pinterest…. So I totally neglected my blog and all that beautiful people who are my ultimate inspiration. As I always say that there wouldn’t be any crafted goodie at mine if there weren’t you, my friends, who inspired me.

I have to thank Roma for bringing me down from the moon. With few lovely words she made me think about the goal I gave to this blog and I understood that writing always  calmed down that crafty urge I have and always made me collect my thoughts. For a new beginning. Maybe I’ll not be present so often as I used to be but i promise I’ll start sharing again my projects here in blogland. All the photos you’ll find on Instagram first…. Sorry for that!! But my musing will be written here.

I’d like to start with sharing one of the Christmas gifts I finished off lately. I knitted a stole for one of my SILs ….

It has taken me a while to knit this stole but it is totally worth the effort. The pattern is a simple one, I just replicated a lace chart from Elisabeth Lovic’s book. 🙂

I have knitted two shawls too… the Stone Tulip Shawl! What a beautiful pattern!

The first one is for a friend of mine while the second one is meant for another SIL (there are three of them… the gift for the third one is in progress… ).

A friend of mine asked me to crochet her a Mermaid tail blanket.

 

If you like to make one of these you can find a pattern here.

My Big man and I were away for a holiday in the mountains this summer and having a break under a glacier eating a sandwich with home made bread and wearing hand made socks was great!

Alost the same feeling as in the moment i found this book in my mailbox!

I had fun with little sewing projects…

…. and I crocheted a Sleepy Bear following a pattern by Jennifer Olivarez.

This was a very busy summer because I discovered the joy of fruit…

….and made a lot of jam!

I hope that I was able to illustrate a bit of what had happened here down in Italy during my absence. Now I have to say bye and hurry to knead my flat bread with the yeast starter (…who is yelling for some attention down in the kitchen… ).

Stay tuned and have a nice day, lovely people out there!

Love

xxx

Tajana

Salva

FO :: Sheila’s Crescent Shawl

Finished off and ready to be shipped 🙂 Sheila,I hope you like it ❤ ❤ ❤

Love

xxx

Tajana

FO :: my Crescent Shawl

TA DAH!!!!

Blocked and shaped! My shawl is ready to be worn…

Happy weekend!!!

Love

xxx

Tajana

What a heat!!!

Hello, my friends!!

These are dog days indeed!!!We reached 35°C and I am hardly able to do anything with this heat! Oh,add to this temperature a relative humidity of 73%… ohhhhh…. The only way I can face this weather is by knitting …. (what an excuse, isn’t it…? 😉 ) …. the border of my Crescent shawl is slowly growing….

I do hope that it will be finished off for the weekend…. Can’t wait to wear it!!

My Big man and me were at a local antiquity street market last weekend and we made a lovely purchase …. well,it was more like this…

Me: Oh, look!!! I love that! We absolutely must have that at ours!!! (read: I absolutely must have that at mine!!! ….. it is only me, or sometimest it happens to you too to think you live by yourself…. in particular when it is a matter of home decor….)

My Big man:

(ONLY BECAUSE HE CAN’T UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF THE OBJECT I FELL IN LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT….)

Let me introduce you….

MY VERY FIRST CUPCAKE STAND

The photo does not do justice to the stand but I’ll try to take some better ones in the future. I simply love it! And, of course, I tried to bake some muffins just to see how the stand looks when there are sweets on it…

Better,don’t you think? Now I have to learn to make cupcakes and try to decorate them just because!! Well,even if my Big man doesn’t understand my enthusiasm for those useless things, he will love to pick up a muffin from the stand for breakfast from now on 🙂

Off to try to refresh me somehow!

Have a nice evening!

Love

xxx

Tajana

Fixing…

Hello, my friends!

I’m a bit absent-minded lately… or at least I feel like that…. A lot of things are happening in these days mostly related to small every day issues which are fixed as you go but which do not allow me to be online as often as I used to be. Well,on one hand,that’s not so bad because I’m often out but, on the other, I follow less the news in blogland… I have to say that here is not like live in Parma. It takes me half an hour or forty minutes by bike to reach the nearest grocery shop so if I want anything it takes me something like two hours for fetch it… go out, time spent in the shop, a chat, and go back home… But if you have seen my photos on Instagram you can easy understand why I don’t mind spending so much time out….

Since it is fifteen years that I do not practice any sport (except working or similar obligatory ‘to do’ stuff… ) my muscular ache was quite bad lately and that made me feel quite dizzy… Now I feel much better but the time I need to ride around is the same… and there is less of it to dedicate to blogland…

I’m always crafting… I always find time for create and even if now I have my Big man both at lunch and dinner (YIPPEE!!!!) I didn’t neglect my craft.

I’m both working on my curtains….

…. and on my Crescent shawl…

Talking about this last project of mine…. I made a mistake in this central part of the shawl… I realized, after two rows knitted already, that I had lost a stitch…. and this was the result….

Can you spot the three holes…? They don’t exactly look like a honeycomb, do they….? By the way, this lace looks much alike a honeycomb… well, I was thinking about leaving this as it is but the awareness of those three holes’ existance annoyed me to the point that I had to find a solution…

Spotted the fixed part, the one indicated by the hook?Oh, I didn’t do anything special except bring a string of yarn up to the last worked row… it still does not look like a honeycomb but it is much better than having three ugly holes which can be easily noticed by anyone… Yes, I know, I’m exhausting… indeed…

It is time to make dinner here so I’m off to prepare something for the two of us…

Have a nice evening ❤ ❤ ❤

Love

xxx

Tajana

Crescent shawl :: more photos

FO :: Elisabeth Lovick’s Crescent Shawl and a really magnificent gift

Hello, my dear friends!

These last two weeks were quite busy and intensely lived, in particular in its affective and emotional aspect. My Big man is working an awfully lot and the days he was at home I was focused on him and our life together and didn’t have the right concentration to blog. Well, to be honest, we are facing some issues that require a lot of energy and self confidence so I prefered being present in the real life rather than in the virual one. On the other hand, I didn’t stop to craft mostly because this is the best way to muse about everyday life and its problems as well as because my hands were itching to craft something from Elisabeth Lovick’s book.

But before writing about my last FO I’d like to show you what bmaryglaser sent me from the States…

The American Cook Book…

AMAZING!!!!

I have secretly desired it for ages…. and it is exactly as I imagined it….

…..just woooooooooooooooooooooow…..

That kind lady called Brittany Mary put in the parcel another amazing item…..

….which, as I saw it, made me recall Janis Joplin’s song Me and Bobby McGee….

Bmary glued all the pieces of this beautiful car all by herself…. how, for God’s sake, can’t I be moved to tears… ?

And last but not least, she crocheted a beautiful headband and wrote me a gorgeous card…

Bmary, I forgot to tell you that I’m on my way to make my hair grow under my Big man’s strict demand…. I think that this summer I will be the coolest girl in town…. 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

What can I say…. when I saw the contents of the parcel I was astonished!!! It is far beyond my expectations and I really don’t know how to thank you properly, Bmary!!! I enjoy every single goodie you sent me. Thank you ❤ ❤ ❤

Now, the Crescent shawl…. the photos just do not do it justice. I’ll try to make a better photo session of the shawl next week (I’m traveling to Croatia on Thursday) but up till then….

I have finished off the shawl an hour ago and have blocked it on the bed. I do not usually soak my knitted projects monstly because I do not have an appropriate surface to put them to dry …. I usually wet them with an odor eliminator, block them and make dry on the bed. Well, it works almost as well as soaking…. 🙂

I’m in love with Shetland lace…. I was so affrait not to be able to knit the shawl but it had turned out better that I could have eventually expected…. It was such a pleasure knitting this goodie as well as seeing it shaping while blocking…. and the colour…. it is not an usual red… oh no.. it is a nice cherry red that I love really much….

Dear Jennifer, your first goodie is ready 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll focus on a second one now… 🙂 🙂 🙂

Love

xxx

Tajana

The bind off is a dirty job….