Slow Living being in the Moment and a little knitting

For me is trying to enjoy each and every day for itself.  Whether that be me doing some cooking, pottering about in the garden, making wine, trying to finish UFOs, each day has something wonderful waiting for us.  We just need to focus and prioritise what is important in each new day.

A new day is not necessarily guaranteed and each moment in time is very different.  That which is in the past cannot be repeated for that moment, but it leads to the present and the future is something we hope for but it is not guaranteed.  It does not stop me planning though.  Planning for that rainy day.

I went to sleep last night watching the full Moon for a little while until it disappeared out of my vision.  Not always easy to see the Moon from this house.

I woke early this morning 4am and the birds were singing and light was slowly filtering into the sky.  I nodded  off to sleep again and at 4:30am Mischief has decided that she is going to try and get out of the bedroom window.  We had left the window open to let fresh air in last night and taken the net down in front of it.  At 4:30am there was a massive crash as she landed on the frame of the window and nearly toppled down.  We are on the second storey and if she had of fallen would have hurt herself.  Fortunately when I called to her, she came straight away.  Albert (or Bert OH's Chilli Plant) was nearly a casualty but on inspection this morning he is okay!  

Wow, it is a fabulous day weather wise, a day to be out and about really but priorities dictate that house work is really needed.

Today my focus is on housekeeping, cleaning the kitchen and getting everything tidied and making the kitchen a workable place once again.  My kitchen is only tiny hardly room to swing anything and soon gets cluttered.  No real home for anything but the items I do have in there are the ones I use the most.  You have to work with what you have though and make the best of what is.

When I get to sit down later on my focus will be on knitting my mittens again.  Last night I pulled the pattern down about six times in all and therefore progress was really slow, but in any event I did get quite a bit done including those take downs.  My mittens are a UFO that has been lurking for sometime, but also something practical for the future, something that will keep my hands warm (indirectly planning for the future).  I am also learning as I knit about new stitches, new techniques.  I am also teaching myself patience and trying not to rush things to be in the moment, which is always a constant battle for me and that pulling work down is an integral part of learning a new pattern and knitting something new to you. I am aiming to have an eminently presentable pair of mittens at the end of the day and am doing whatever I can to achieve that. 

Whenever I do anything I always put heart and soul into the particular project I am working on. Sometimes things do not work out too well.  I have learned to pull things down when this happens.  Its okay to make mistakes as long as you learn from them.  Crafting gives me room to breathe and space to think things through.  Walking is my preferred method for thinking things through.  Sometimes that is easier than others, and today is not such a good day for my back, which I thought was going to give way the other day.  Must keep it going though, must keep mobile.

This is where I started the mittens from today.  The casting on is better on these than usual and reasonably neat.  I am enjoying working these so far despite the pull downs.  Now I have to work out the next part of the pattern and get my head around the pattern.  Think this particular pattern is going to go well with the scarf I have already knitted. The body of the mittens is worked in an eight row pattern that gives shaping for the thumb but also gives a subtle pattern in the knitting. Some of the rows there is quite a bit to do especially when these are the increase rows, and I do find it "messy" flipping backward and forward to the instructions for this section as things can easily be missed or added in. In the end I wrote down the row I was on, and which numbered row of the pattern was worked and how many rows on a pad so that I could read these a lot more easily.  The script is minute on this particular old pattern.  Price was 6d when the pattern was new!

This is the pattern I am using:

This is where I have got to and where I am starting from this evening:

The thumb gusset section is in the middle of the knitting which is where some shaping has taken place.  Hopefully will get a little more done this evening.

I have also potted up some of my seeds and sown some more seeds today.  Seed sowing for me is always a mindful project as you are totally in the moment when working with jobs like these.  Very calming!

Hope everyone has had a lovely day in this gorgeous weather.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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