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

Advertisement

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

A Kind of Gardening and New Yarn

Hello,my friends!

I’m glad that I can tell you that the weather is better now here in Italy. Well, it is still quite hot but the humidity level is a bit lower and I can be active as my usual at last 🙂 As the temperature lowered down I took the chance to clean our home and to cut the grass in the kind of ridiculous garden we have… it is a 4×4 m square of open space which I’m totally unable to cultivate not because I have no time but because I kill all the plants I try to grow by my simple gaze! It is a kind of super power which unfortunately does not work on weed…. so to clean up our garden I used a sickle and sweated for two hours… but I did a quite acceptable work for my Big man and my standard…

I told to my Big man that I have no problems with works which require physical force but I need him to help me with plant growing…. I know that I’m a plant killer but he still didn’t try to grow anything… maybe he will be more successful than me….

But,please please please,let’s change the topic and talk instead about something else like our last purchases… first of all, a ladder!! It was high time indeed and I’m happy that I was able to hang the curtain I sewed in the kitchen at last!! 😀 😀 😀

Two more curtains to go!! Well, I do hope that I’ll be able to decorate this house before we leave it for another one LOL Despite my sarcasm, I like the look of my kitchen and the efforts made to embellish it a bit more. Now it is time to add something colourful and I left my mind to muse about wildly…

The second purchase was yarn and I had for the first time ever my Big man coming in the yarn store with me… 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well, there was a specific reason for it! One among the most famous yarn stores in Parma was having a sale lately and I wanted to take advantage of that for the Christmas to do list. So I obliged my BM to come with me and help me chose the yarn for the family boys. They will all receive scarfs 🙂 and I’m quite happy about the money I saved thanks to the sales :), something like 50 €, without losing in quality 🙂 Almost all is merino, except one which is a mix of cotton and merino 🙂

I was already looking for some patterns on Ravelry and can’t wait to start these projects!! I love to work with merino,in my opinion it is the best yarn!! All the girls will have a bag and all the little ones will have a quilted blanket… I foresee some busy months…. I have only one problem… My Big man realized that yarn actually has a quite high cost and asked me to not spend so much money on him…. that’s not good because I was thinking about making him a sweater with merino and the cost of the yarn is almost 80 €, the same I spent for the above yarn which is to be divided among five persons… what can I do instead of the sweater? Do you have any suggestion? I really don’t know what to do since I already knitted him a scarf, a beanie and two sweaters… I have even asked him if he would like to have a Dr Who’s scarf but he was honest and said that he would never wear it… so no colour, no yarn, then what??? I’m really in trouble!!!! Any advice is higly appreciated ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ Thank you so much!!!

Love

xxx

Tajana

A day at home…

…. means….

(i) …. a bargain…

….the curtains for our new home which original cost was around 70 € per meter and which I paid 9 € per meter. Since I learnt to sew straight seams (see my totes….) I thought that I could be able to sew courtains too. I was sweating cold because I knew that curtain fabric costs a lot but did’t even dream it could be so awfully lot…. the average price is around 70 – 80 € per meter… So when the owner of my Mum’s favourite fabric store showed me this job lot I bought it immediately. Well, not exactly immediately because I wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing so I called my Mum in law…. and when she told me that I will never ever find a better price for curtains of good quality as the above one, I purchased them in the very moment I stopped talking with her. I had to call her instead of asking my Mum because I need an ally with my Big man who has no idea about home decor prices and to whom 120 € for courtains could sound so very expensive…. Yeah, you understood it right, the whole house curtains for 120 €…. I’m very satisfied and will buy more in a second time if I’ll find a similar bargain. It’s always a good thing to have some spare curtains at home, don’t you think?Can’t wait to sew them and put them on!!!

What do you think, my friends? Do you like my purchase and do you think I did the right thing!! I have never ever bought curtains before so I feel I did well and can’t deny that I feel quite proud of myself 🙂

(This blog is becoming a self celebrating place…hmmmm…. it’s high time to calm down a bit…. )

(ii) …. a secret crochet project….

…. nothing to tell about that except that a single ball of yarn can give a big satisfaction…. and yeah, the light blue has a reason…. but more when the gift will be at its recipient’s…. 🙂

Off to packing my stuff!! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Love

xxx

Tajana

Look, it’s growing… slowly…

Hello, my friends and happy Sunday!!

I’m spending the weekend alone which means that I have needles in my hands all the time….

….. and the tee is growing …. slowly…. veeeeeeeeeeeery slowly….

… I’m almost there…. two more cotton balls and it will be FO….

…. something like two days of knitting…. can’t wait….. !!!!

In the meantime I have done some shopping….

…. no I’m not a high heels kind of girl…. I’m more a boot like…. yeah, mine are all of the same type….

…. and I’ve tried a new recipe for a super quick apple pie, an easy one given by my friend Katia who said me that her Grandmother used to bake it….

…. it’s delicious, so perfec to cheer up my lonely days… 🙂 Would you like a piece? Come along and take one! I’ll make some tea too, or you prefer coffee? 🙂 🙂 🙂 There’s both at mine 🙂 🙂 🙂 …

Have a nice evening!

Love

xxx

Tajana

Topdown :: the sleeves

Hi, my friends!

Yeah,you understood it right, I have knitted the sleeves of my tee….

I decided to knit them to break down the monotony of the body knitting and now I see that I took a good decision…. I like the look of the tee upper side… I like it indeed… I don’t know how it looks like when worn because the cord of my circular needles is short and I can’t enter the loop but I stiil like what I see despite that… 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well, maybe the tee is a bit large and that could be a problem… but I hope that it will gently wrap my figure…. oh, fingers crossed…

Off to knitt 🙂 🙂 🙂 the ecxitement now is quite high indeed…

Love

xxx

Tajana

What to say….

I’m so disappointed…. my dress turned out so badly…. 😦 😦 😦 I still can’t understand why… there was no specific pattern, only a V neckline and a rib edging on the arm holes…. I tried it on and… oh,my Grandma has a more lively look than me…. the dress is so old fashioned…. what a frustration…. It is a bit large too,a fact that certainly do not help to make it wearable…. so I’ve undone the neck and the arm hole edging….

….. and now I’m knitting a large turtleneck ….. once finished, I’ll see if it would be worth the effort or if undoing would be a better solution…..

DID SOMETING SIMILAR HAPPEND TO YOU TOO? WHAT DO YOU DO IN THESE SITUATIONS?

Love

xxx

Tajana

In the middle….

….. of a project…. there could be another one, right….. ?

A few days ago I’ve bought the above dish towels for little money indeed. I love their colours quite a lot and decided to embellish them for me 🙂 Oh,at last…… so today I washed them up and I started with the first one 🙂 Here below follows my crochet break…. Enjoy 🙂 🙂 🙂 (…… because I really did….)

Before saying you goodbye till next time I’d like to invite you to have a look on a nice blog about which I’ve already written before…

http://katia-filomania.blogspot.it/2015/01/cappelli-e-guanti.html

It’s a blog run by a very talented friend of mine, Katia. We talked about sharing her talent outside Italian boundaries and I offered my help in translation. She’s a real crafty tornado and I’m so happy that I can show you her creations! So, please, just have a look and enjoy yourself!!  ❤ ❤ ❤

Snow, at last….

….. a suitable weather for a WIP….

Love

xxx

Tajana

PS: I’m knitting the front side of my tunic/dress/mini dress, as you like it…..

Duplicate stitch

Hello, my friends!

Are you spending some good time this weekend? What are you crafting right now? I saw that there is a lot of snow around Europe (except here in Parma, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…… ) so I suppose that you’re cozy wrapped in your favourite blanket and easily snuggled on the sofa with a hot good cup of tea to warm you more….. oh, what a beautiful image….

Me…. well,I’m happy spending my time at home waiting for my Big man coming home from a work lunch and in the meanwhile I’m struggling with some yarn that I dislike indeed…. well,it happens sometimes that you have an unexpected project…. I have to face one of them right now but can’t tell you anything about because it’s a birthday pressie…. The yarn…. oh,it was not my choice because it’s a pressie made with others….. I’m a bit irritated since my opinion wasn’t taken into consideration at all when it was purchased and now I have to work it and trasform something so very old fashioned into something trendy…. Yes,I’m quite nervous and snarly because of that…. so, just to please my curiosity and the will to learn something new, I knitted a coaster and tried the duplicate stitch….

This is a small insignificant project but I think that,in the future, I will develop this technique quite a lot…. I have already an idea in my mind….. but now…. BACK TO WORK!!!

Love

xxx

Tajana