Thursday, October 13, 2011

Five Years ago

Yesterday in my post I mentioned the 3mm bamboo needles I knitted with when I was pregnant with Clara. I still have the baby outfit:



This was also the time I fell for pink (and have not recovered yet). I didn't consider myself a knitter then, the pregnancy just seemed like a very good time to pick up some needles and wool and see what was left of my teenage knitting skills.

It was before Ravelry and I didn't even consider the Internet as an option, I just went the good old way - to the local yarn store. We lived in Cologne at that time and I had discovered the shop Maschenkunst, where a very helpful and enthusiastic Czech woman worked (Daniela Johannsenova, also a knitwear designer like I know by now). She helped me find a little brochure with baby patterns (Regia Journal 4001, Ravelry link here), pick some yarn and those bamboo needles. I was between jobs then, had started a yoga teacher training earlier that year, left my well-paid TV job and already began teaching prenatal yoga. The pregnancy came like a surprise, my original plan was leaving everything behind and go to India to an ashram, stay there and meditate until I know exactly what to do with my life. That was the plan. Instead I got married. A sure sign that I was a fickle knitter - I wouldn't take my knitting to our wedding/honeymoon in Venice... but I remember missing it a bit (but just a tiny bit, everything around me was exciting enough), e.g. when waiting in restaurants (I put on five kilograms in my wedding month, ok, I was also five months pregnant...).

And looking at my knitting now, I am really surprised how skilled I must have been and how much love, hope and tenderness I put in the stitches, how carefully every seam, every picot and every other detail was done. The truth is, I don't remember much of this, must have had pregnancy forgetfulness...

I think, Clara only wore this outfit once.



To a friends' wedding when she was nine months old.


Do young mothers always look so tired?



It's been really quite a while since I saw my dear husband in a suit and with sleek hair like that... The last wedding we have been to was our own - the renewal of vows in Las Vegas this summer (blogged here).
Second baby, same benefits. But more hand-knits.

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