Sunday 4 March 2007

"Memory Lane" March


This month's photo was taken in the early nineties, on the island of Skyros, in Greece. I spent a very relaxing two weeks holiday there one summer, after a very stressful year. You could do different activities on this holiday, and there was a wide range, from physical to artistic to meditative activities to choose from. The first week, I remember that I chose to go swimming first thing in the morning,before breakfast. Now, getting up early is not really my thing, but the surroundings were so beautiful that I managed to stagger out of bed and get my swimming costume on each day in time to be at the water's edge by 6.00 am. We could dive or jump straight into the beautiful, clear water, and after half an hour's swimming I was refreshed and relaxed and ready to face the day. And ready to eat a hearty breakfast!

The second week I got up again at 6.00 am every day but this time it was to do an art workshop. The workshop leader explained that by starting so early, while we were still half asleep, we would be more in touch with our creative side. You can judge for yourselves if it was true! I made the magnificent mask you can see me holding, which I actually managed to get home safely in my suitcase. It lived on my living room wall for several years after that.

It was one of the nicest, most relaxing holidays I have ever had, and in one of the loveliest settings, too.

Speaking of holidays and lovely scenery, Mr Knitbert and I are currently packing, so the living room floor is covered with plastic bags and little piles of books, clothes and cosmetics, which I am trying to believe will presently form into fully packed and organised luggage. Here are the sock yarns I have decided to take with me. I haven't actually packed any clothes yet, or got all the knitting patterns ready, you understand.


In order to get these yarns, I have had to open the stash cupboard and take a lot of stuff out of it, which always seems to cover the entire landing, even though there is really only a tiny amount of yarn in a few bags. I tried to trap Mr Knitbert in the computer room, but unfortunately he insisted on coming to the door to see what was going on. "How much yarn have you got?!" he gasped.
To distract him, I got some colours of DK out to choose for making crochet squares. "Which colours look nice together?" I asked him.
"To make what?" he replied.

Now I ask you, dear reader, what does that matter? The colours either look nice together or they don't. Anyway, while Mr Knitbert was distracted choosing colours I was able to pack everything back into the cupboard so that when he looked again the landing was clear. Then I selected the colours I had already chosen, plus a couple of his that were not too ghastly and we were done.

I'm getting very excited about our trip now, so to finish here is a photo of Auckland taken on our last visit to New Zealand, by way of a taster. This was taken from St Helier, looking back across Auckland harbour to the city centre. The very tall building with the spike on it that you can see is the Sky Tower. There is an amusing story about Mr Knitbert's and my visit to the Sky Tower, but I will save that for another post.

8 comments:

Kai said...

The mask is tremendous!
I would love to go on a holiday like that!

I love your distraction methods.. noted for future use.. :)
Although Ollie is fully aware how much of a stash I have..

Lovely sock yarn BTW.. :) and good luck with the packing!

Seahorse said...

Oh, what a lovely holiday that sounds! The mask is superb.

I heartily approve of your packing priorities. I bet Mr Knitbert secretly likes being organised by you ;)

Joy said...

Love the mask! It sounds like a wonderful holiday; your memories sound so fresh it's almost as though it was a recent holiday you have just returned from.

Good luck with the packing. I always take FAR too much with me.

Linda said...

Have a fab trip, I am very jealous!! Your Hedera socks are gorgeous and I love the yarn distraction tips!!

florencemary said...

I have to distract my man from a variety of my obsessions, but luckily he's really not interested in how much yarn I accumulate. Yay!

I do like to read your blog, Knitbert... I enjoy your dry wit! Do hope you have a great time in NZ - and hope you'll still be blogging?!

WildPurl said...

Thank you everyone for your moral support for the packing. I'm nearly all packed now but the case doesn't shut, and Mr Knitbert's case is at the centre of an ever widening circle of stuff.
I am certainly intending to keep blogging while travelling, so see you soon!

belaybunny said...

what a great mask!! Lucky you, your trip will be fantastic no doubt. I like the sock yarn, where did you get that green twister stuff???

Fiona Reynolds said...

Have a wonderful trip. I look forward to reading about it.

I'm so glad you packed the sock yarn first. The BF looks at me like I'm mad when I do that.