Unfolding cycles and spit splicing my own woollen crazy ball

Looking closely at my blooming White Hippeastrum

After the pomp and buzz and loudness of Christmas and New Year, Winter now feels quiet. The long nights sometimes seem desolate and unforgiving. But I can hear nature whispering secrets of resilience and renewal. I don't need to go far. In my living room, my white Hippeastrum is silently chatty, speaking with its petals, with softness and grace about new beginnings.

Yes, there is darkness, but also so much light. Can you also see how these simple flowers, tucked away in warm homes, in the depths of winter, offer a profound lesson? They remind us that life is made of contrasts and ever unfolding cycles of light and darkness, joy and sorrow, endings and beginnings.

What I am making

Finished my cardigan

I finished my Badana cardigan by Rosa Pomar, and just in time for the spell of cold weather we’re having these last few weeks. It's huge. It's warm. I love it.

I marled together two colours of Holst Supersoft from my stash, Embers and Cranberry, and I held together 4 threads of the light fingering yarn. This gives it a coat-like feel, but it's not as heavy as I thought it would be. It is huge on me.

I also started the Attune shawl by Andrea Mowry. I have zero knowledge and experience with brioche, so I am excited to learn. I love the slow and meditative rhythm.

When I looked on Ravelry at folks’ projects, I fell into a rabbit whole of colour-changing yarn, both commercially produced and spun by knowledgeable hands. I am making an effort to knit from my stash, so I figured I could use various grey leftovers for the main colour, and I made my very own wool crazy ball with all my colourful yarn by spit splicing. Let's see where this takes me.

Book of the week

The Wisdom of No Escape: How to Love Yourself and Your World by Pema Chödrön

“The Wisdom of No Escape: How to Love Yourself and Your World” by Pema Chödrön is an invitation to a journey of self-discovery and growth. Chödrön invites us to not only accept, but also embrace life's challenges, rather than evading them. With kindness and vulnerability, she guides us to self-compassion, suggesting that our truest selves emerge when we bravely confront life's trials.

Pema Chödrön is a Tibetan Buddhist nun and teacher.

I love Chödrön's writing, and how she challenges “classical wisdom” or at least my own preconceived beliefs and thought patterns. I leave you with this quote about the benefits of simply looking inside us and accepting who we are (easier said than done:).

Meditation is a process of lightening up, of trusting the basic goodness of what we have and who we are, and of realizing that any wisdom that exists, exists in what we already have. Our wisdom is all mixed up with what we call our neurosis. Our bril-liance, our juiciness, our spiciness, is all mixed up with our craziness and our confusion, and therefore it doesn't do any good to try to get rid of our so-called negative aspects, because in that process we also get rid of our basic wonderfulness.

May your days be filled with mindful moments. Until next time, be present.

Sky