Surprise

I love to surprise people. Their faces. Love seeing their smiles.  All the various emotions you can see making its way over their faces. It is amazing.

The odd thing is that I don’t much like being surprised myself. I don’t know what it is – perhaps just my insane need to always be in control, on top of things, prepared for any event, any occasion… preferably in advance.

Latest surprised handed out was last Friday. Long day – first at work, then coffee and great topics with a yoga girlfriend ending in amazing yoga with Louise. This wonderful, beautiful, inspirational being – who keeps inspiring me to be better, to grow, to be and show and share love and warmth. 2+ hours of ‘Sweeping the dust’ cleansing the body readying it for spring.

Back to the surprise. It’s been a big year for Louise. She and her boyfriend got married (beautifully by the harbour front in Copenhagen performed by the Lord Mayor), they had their first child (a cute little boy) and they bought their first house (and took a big step moving from the city out into nature an hours drive south of the city). It’s been so wonderful to hear her joy when sharing her journey. But it is also so much more – every time she stands in front of a yoga class she shares her dreams, her beliefs – in short she shares herself – her hole being.

And it goes straight to my heart. Motivating me to give back. And what better way than by combining my other passion – craft and re-purpose. And my ever present lack of ability to sit still with nothing in my hands. Last year i gave my other yoga inspiration Tanja some socks before she went to Berlin to continue her yoga journey – and since I love knitting socks (don’t get me started) I thought I would knit some for Louise as well. I ended up doing one pair for her and a pair for her son.

Starting out

And once again I faced that I am horrible at sizing for kids – hers fit perfectly – his was too small. So here we go – again. Good thing I love socking it.

When Life Sucks – Just Sock It

One day you wake up and everything gets turned upside down – and you find yourself alone. Maybe not completely – but that is what it feels like.

Things change – sometimes for the better – or rather hopefully for the better. But at times it can be hard to see the forest for all the trees – and for some time I’ve been in the thickest of woods – the kind you today only find in fairytales set in the deep, darkness of Eastern Europe.

Time to come out of…

To top it all of as if this wasn’t enough I had to stop running for a while – as I got an infection (annoying – there goes that marathon dream for April this year). And at the same time my knee started hurting – had the ‘runners knee’-scare big time – turns out having a job where you sit still alot, and school where you sit a lot, and several hobbies where I…guess…sit a LOT…(I really need my running) is a bad combination for me. It is actually unhealthy for me to sit still. HA, maybe that’ll shut those people up who says I do too much, work out too much. HA! I win.

Well, this state of darkness and brokenness have also been reflected in my crafts these past few months I’ve been away from my blog. I found no expressive creativeness though I kept to my path of getting in control of my addiction and huge amount of craft articles. But there have been  a slight shift – from fabric management to yarn play.

Ready or not…

These homy, woollen, soft, fluffy little balls of comfort seemed like just the thing for me at this time. I’ve always considered knitting and crocheting as the crafters version of comfort food. Nothing like a soft and managable knitting project to give a lovely safe feeling – a little kick – a bit like chocolate…just without the sugar high.

And since part of my path is also the plan to handle my yarn collection. My state of mind combined with that fact that I do have a lot of yarn but not a whole lot of the same kind or colour – it panned out in a lot of socks.

Starting out with massive amounts of baby socks as my sister gave birth to her second child August last. An amacing little girl – Camilla. And true to tradition I just had to make her a baby basket as well. But I’ll come back to that in another post.

My beautiful little niece Camilla

Here in the new year I’m still socking it. Big time. I think I’ve made 15 or 20 pairs the past 4 months. For my self, for my sister, for my nephew and niece, and lastly also for my wonderful, beautiful and loving yoga teacher – and my inspiration – in so much more that yoga – Tanja. Such a giving person – so seldom you have a person like her crossing your path. I am so thankful that for the time being our lives are running along side one anothers, that I get to share her light.

And I wanted so to give just a little back for all of what she gives me.

Norwegian ragsocks with a rose pattern

I found this free pattern for Norwegian rag socks – but a bit less plain than the usual/traditional rag socks. I just though they were too sweet not to try out. I chose to combine my sockproduction with another passion of mine – re-purpose. These socks were made with re-purposed Icelandic eco wool in light grey and a pale orangy red (dyed with madder). Both wools are single strand spun and quite thick – and actually too thick compared to what’s used in the pattern. So I had to ajust needle size and number of stitches but it didn’t give me that much trouble.

Also the orange yarn was slightly thicker than the grey, I could have chosen another colour making the thickness more even but I decided I liked that the rose popped.

Also Tanja has several times been wearing these cute little socklets which her grandmother made for her. That made for the next idea.

Not the best pic…

This pattern is from a Vogue book of sock patterns – both cuff-down and toe-up. The latter being new to me – not knowing that they exist – just never saw they point to them when I was fine making the cuff-down. But they are great if you are making scrap socks. Then you let the yarn determine the lenght of the leg and you don’t have to decide beforehand.

The pattern was pretty easy to follow but I still had to rip up several times as I felt the sock looked too boxy for my taste. It didn’t fit and hug as evenly and smooth as when I knit cuff-down. I finally came to a place where I felt I could be sort of satisfied with my work. In the picture they look very boxy this evens out a lot when you put them on.

But I do like them – they are cute. But also I will be making them again correcting the issues I still feel there are with the pattern as is. I definitely will be making more of them.

Light at the end of the tunnel

Opening up, coming back out again, feeling ready to meet the world on a more even playing field – and strong enough for…

Another aspect of my path to growing and opening up, to learn how to trust myself and to trust people around me and becoming a better version of myself – giving back by showing the people who affect my life that I appreciate their contributions and that I love having them in my life. Hopefully, some day in a near future I will be able to also tell them directly – with words.

And maybe someday I can believe this

So so so much

 

Timeless and endless

 

Wasn’t really on purpose but I guess it happens to even the best of us – time. It sometimes slips through our fingers like the fine grain sand in an hourglass.

It is not that time just slipped – most of it have been filled up with events, happenings and news like travel, yoga, new paths and revelations.

Some of the political street art you can find on the walls of Berlin. They have this great thing of picturing what a place looked like before the wall or just after the wall on buildings surrounding the place. Really incredible to view. 

We went to Berlin – and we had a great trip. More or less none of the plans we made from home came through – but so many other things happened in stead. We arrived on the warmest day Berlin had seen so far this year 33 degrees celcius. And as we hadn’t seen that in Denmark so far this year either – it was hot and we weren’t prepared. So some  hasty shopping had to happen – preferably 10 minutes before we arrived then when we acctually got around to it.

Tv Tower – fooling noone of course it was built for spying purposes…no mater what they say. You don’t bulit that high, that close to the Wall with only innocent intentions during the Cold War

We had rented an apartment from www.airbnb.com – and oh my, so so wonderful. It was this amazing little 1-bedroom apartment with a huge bathroom, a good kitchen (which turned out to be a great thing – as there was farmers market on the little plaze in front of our building – yeah – I loved that) in Mitte. I was clean (all enviranmentally conscious cleaning products – another love). The owner had arrangeded everything very hotel like with fluffed and set up pillows and a complimentary wine and shampoo :-). And the cost of this was no more and in many ways way cheaper than hostels – and here you actually have the comfort of nice and quite privacy. Love love love. I cannot recommend this enough…

Fun. Our bikes were a bit more on the usable side though

We arrived early (and the owner let us in several hour ahead of time – and let us keep our baggage extra time on our leave day – another 2 plusses) and we rented two bikes from her for 5 full days for under the price of 2 bikes for just one day in a rental shop. And I have to say – it is so much bette to se and take in Berlin from a bike. Don’t waist time under ground and traipsing from one train to another. So tedious. Bikes are better – though it takes guts – Berlin is not a bike friendly city – but they are working at improving this.

Plänterwald Fun Fair in Berlin

We ended up up with a trip with no were to be a no particular time – a luxury you seldom get – because even during holidays we tend to plan, plan, plan. Not this time – which ment we actually got home relaxed and refreshed. And though I really wanted to take that ‘yoga pose to every city I visit‘ – it just didn’t happen…this time. But as Berlin is more or less a yearly event for us…I’ll get the chance again.

One of the over grown rides at the Spreepark

We spent a day biking to Plänterwald one of the Berlin city regions – very green and lovely ‘longside the river. Also hidden in the Plänterwalf forest there is this old carnival from 1969 which has been closed since 2002 – just they havn’t taken any of the rides or sights down. We wanted to go in and have a look-see but unfortunately there were people in there working – and we couldn’t work out if they were offical worker or not. And it is sort of not really completely legal to go in…but…mostly due to danger if you attempt a ride…and we wouldn’t…but I would have loved to see that old ferris wheel up close. In stead I settled for hearing i creak and turn in the breeze. Wonderful.

How amazing is this. You can see if from far far away – and from various places around the city…

One other very notable event of the trip – my visit to the Berlin Jivamukti Yoga Centre. Such an amazing place. From the first step inside you feel the calm, the peace, the (and sorry for the kliche) love…This is one place that is now on my fixed todo list for Berlin. The feeling of complete calm and warmth I felt inside out walking out of there was no less than amazing.

Jivamukti Berlin

Fortunately, I had the chance to experience that feeling again yesterday at Copenhagen Yoga Festival where my yoga teachers Tanja and Louise had a Jivamukti event. They are the first Jivamukti licenced teachers in Denmark and made this a memorable day for over 150 yogis under the sun. They made exercise, spiritualty and fun reach new heights – don’t get me wrong it was hard, mind blowing and sweaty – but oh so good.

More than 150 yogis under the sun near the sea – wonderful

And thus filled up with positive energy and vitality I am venturing into new territory and am now actually trying to start a business. Something I’ve been thinking about for years – but I just never really went for it – guess I didn’t really believe in my own abilities. I still don’t but sometimes you just have to try, just have to give it a go – hoping that my inability to really believe in what I know and can do. Also hoping that this lack of believing that what I can do is good enough will help keep me on my toes and help me to keep strieving to become better in all my endevours not just this one.

I know the road will be long – but I’ll start small and work my way up…learn along the way…as it should be. I need to face my fear of change and future head on – only by doing this I can take charge and make things happen – good or bad. Times will turn no matter – and I hope if I can accept this – my hips will gradually accept me 🙂

But I am determined to do far better than Dino down here

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu
May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all.
And with a sweet namaste I will bid you all godnight.

Yoga Photo Documentation

Seeing this makes me want to start a folder of my yoga life. Dedicating a pose to every city I visit documenting it with a great photo. Normally I would shy away from anything to do with pics of me – but how can you avoid this combo – yoga, travel and view.
Going to Berlin in a few days – and I can’t wait. Perhaps I’ll start there. But first of all I’m going to visit the Jivamukti Yoga Centre there. I’m so excited and a little nerveous. My yoga teachers have recommended two of their teachers – but that leaves my with a choice. Do I go for the classes held in English or German. I can follow the asanas – but how much of the philosofy will I loose if I choose the class in Germen – which is also the teacher recommended as the best…

But it is still a choice between good and good – so really I can’t go wrong.

Looking forward to seeing Berlin again and expanding my yoga experience and mind.

Lilla Lykke

Source: mindbodygreen.com 

 

Jeg synes, at det her er et enormt smukt billede. Det er meget drømmeagtigt og imponerende akrobatik-yoga. Og solskin og skyline. Det er godt til at fodre drømmene sådan en søndag aften i sofaen i regnfulde København.

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