I have somewhat again neglected you over the past few weeks. I have been busy, what with the bake sale at school for which I baked 6 big cakes, 32 little cakes and 6 loafs of bread (although only 5 made it because my dear neighbour who was in charge of taking them there decided to keep one for herself). There has been a christening (not Noelie's). There has been the discovery of delicious Swedish cinnamon rolls that I can't stop baking and eating (I'll post the recipe soon if people are interested). There has been sickness (a baby up half the night for 3 nights does not make for great inspiration although I could have posted about that but I feel like it has been done and redone and I had no new insight into it that people would find a) interesting, and b) useful. There has been studying for my course. And there has been the discovery of a new hobby, knitting. Marie had to bring in needles and wool into school and teacher showed them how to knit. Do you know how difficult it is to find knitting needles and wool these days? I hadn't knitted since those summer nights when I used to stay at my grandmother's and she taught me how to knit. But I decided to give it another go. So I went in search of more knitting needles (the kiddies ones were somewhat too small for me) and some nice wool (once again the one brought into school wasn't the nicest looking wool). It took me a few days to find it. I had to travel a bit to get my supplies in and I also bought a kids book on how to knit. People can laugh but kids books are great. I bought one for Mr Foodie so that he would learn how to cook and it worked. So I bought one for myself on knitting.
People look at me weird when I tell them I knit. It's something that their grand mothers used to do, not our generation. And I think it's kind of sad that all this knowledge and art is being slowly but surely forgotten. Not just the knitting, but the baking and to an extend the cooking. We are forgetting how to do all this when not so long ago, it was a normal everyday occurrence. We are hungry, we just buy ready made meals, we are cold, we buy a scarf and hat, we want something sweet, we pop into the shop and buy a pastry. Is it fulfilling? Not really. Instant gratification but no lasting sense of achievement. And although some people might find me weird and that even Marie calls me a granny (because you know, mummy, that's what grannies do. They sit on the couch with a blanket over their legs and they knit), I don't really care. I am proud of what I do. I am proud to see that people enjoy my food and my pastries. I am proud to say that I made that scarf and hat. And I am proud to say I baked it, I cooked it and I knitted it. Because it is fulfilling.
Maybe I was just born in the wrong era. What about you? Is there anything that would be considered old fashioned and on the brink of extinction that you enjoy and are proud of doing?
