A Hat for Woodland Walks

My Woodland Hat in Holland
Something I have been doing more of lately is knitting. When we moved to Amsterdam I only brought my felt cloche winter hat, nothing knitted. I soon realised my mistake: mostly it's not that cold here and knitted hats can be shoved in a pocket or bag or sleeve. Our first few months were too busy to think about hat knitting much, but I did find a pattern on ravelry and filed it away. The other day I finally bought the appropriate needles, grabbed a ball of yarn from my stash (a lovely hand-dyed alpaca fibre) and knitted it shockingly quickly (for me at least). Just two days after I started it, I already have my hat. It's a gorgeous 22°C today, so I actually only wore the hat for the picture.


Woodland Hat in Holland

It's a sort of floppy beret style, which is perfect for being able to fit over my hair when it's up in a bun. The hat did turn out a little looser than I expected, so I'll probably cast on fewer stitches next time I make this pattern. Here's my ravelry project page.

The astute observers might notice a hint of another project on-the-go in the first picture. I expect to move on to the next stage of that project in the spring. That's one reason this blog has been a bit quieter of late. Also, I got tired of uploading pictures from holidays (Italy, Paris, London) so I've decided to just not worry about it for now. I'll get them all up eventually.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Seeing what there is to see

That tower

So, why haven't I finished uploading all my Italy pictures and posted about it? Well, I went to see more things ... in Paris! We took fewer pictures, but I've still added about 250 to my queue to sort and edit. Progress will be apparent over here before I get to updating my blog.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

I went to see the things

The Colosseum in the Evening

So, what have I been doing for the past couple weeks? Seeing things mostly. And taking 675 pictures of them apparently. I've got to sort through them all and then I'll be sure to report on what I did on my summer holidays.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Feathers and seed pods

nature finds

Sometimes life is just too busy happening to have much time left for blogging. Besides, when the sun is out and summer is shining (in this hemisphere at least), we all probably have better things to do than noodle about on the internet. For the moment, here is a picture of some assorted pretty things I've picked up on various walks and expeditions.


Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

A Monster at Breakfast

"breakfast"

He had a monstrous appetite in the morning.


Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Have Faith in a Bold Move

"At night, the fragrance wafted in through the windows."

I haven't been posting much recently, but there have been some significant changes at this blog nonetheless. I decided it was time to revise my website and web presence. Aside from a couple features, my website was outdated (partly because I focus on putting new things here on my blog). It just made sense to combine the relevant bits from my website into my blog layout. You'll notice some new things in the sidebar and some tabs at the top.

Notably, my restaurant review pages are now part of my blog. I included my fun little programs that auto-generate random magic, since I find them highly entertaining. For example, the title of this post is the "Fortune of the Moment" I saw just now when loading up my blog. I also switched the whole thing over to be published at allison.gryski.com, though you should still be able to find it through redirection if you go to the blogspot address. Have fun!


Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Whence came the monsters

Friendly kitchen monsters

Sitting on my desk is a cute monster gocco print and a business-card version of another monster print, both by Carrie Wagner. They inspired me to draw some monsters of my own. Originally I was envisioning a sort of monster totem-pole, but part way through, I recalled this cute painting, which I saw when reading some artsy blogs recently. It suddenly seemed just right that the reason for this tower of creatures was cookies! My family will recognize the cookie jar. My Mom had supersonic hearing when it came to detecting the slightest scrape of that lid. Accordingly, my older sister taught me the way of removing it silently. To this day, I suspect we are the only two people with the knack.


Friendly kitchen monsters before painting

I had a lot of fun dreaming up different monsters, so don't be surprised if more cute and creepy creatures show up soon. The careful observer will also note a reference to my purple-suited aliens.



Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.