Little sleeping hours, restless mind and a heavy heart. All I wanted this week is to stay close to my yarns. Here is a life update from our little roof top apartment in Ramat Gan Israel these days.

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In one of the conversations with our little son ​(11 yo) ​he told me this: “I feel a pain inside my heart whenever there is a missile sirene​“. I looked at him and had nothing clever to say. We hugged close and long. ​He described it as simple as that. I literally feel pain in my heart whenever it comes. I can barely close my eyes at night. Waiting for this terrible sound to come with eyes wide open. Thank you Bea, if you are here, for recommending me the Valerians and Lavender capsules.

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And when the missile sirene comes our shoes are ready at the appartment entrance so we can go out to the stairwell​. Which ​according to the instructions​, is considered as a safer spot​. Since a missile fell​ ​in Ramat Gan, ​not very far from us, ​we have been running fast to the safe shelter at the bottom of ​our building. We have ​90 seconds to go seven floors ​down. Elevator can not be used. We do not always succeed, so we stay at the stairwell and hear the ~BOOMs. As you can see a tidy mom is a tidy mom even in hard times. What can I do? that’s me! Keeping my home tidy is an existential need for me.

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​Sleeping in a bra so I can meet my neighbors in the middle of the night with some dignity is one of the facts that have to be mentioned on this life update. Not fun at all but something to make jokes about. Feels good to be able to laugh at myself. Self humour is life saver. 

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On Sunday we celebrated traditional ‘Shavuot’ holiday. We cooked together for hours and enjoyed a special holiday dinner. Luckily it was a quiet evening without any heart hearting sirenes so we could enjoy a lovely holiday dinner. The baking department performed quite well considering the circumstances. On the morning of Shavuot I baked sourdough New York bagels. Which made me the queen of the family for the whole day.

Knitting and Crochet

I was totally shocked when the knit night girls asked if they could come on our usual time, Tuesday evening. They said that if there was a sirene during the meeting, we would all go to the stairwell​ together​. This is what they ​would do ​if they were at home​ anyway. It was THE most clever thing to do this week because it was such a pain relief for all of us. ​We had such a great time together with some knitting, crochet and tea. I can’t believe there’s a knit night in this life update, really. We had a Chunky Benji on the table as well as Starfish blanket and a few other projects. 

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Looking back at this week, what I mostly did was holding yarn in my hands. I crochet and knit daily, for hours. It’s the light at the end of the tunnel for me (tunnel is a complicated word for us these days). ​Knitting and crochet saved my life this week. Touching yarns has it’s own power on me. I could write a whole post about the progress I made in all my projects. Without my yarns and needles I would have been completely miserable these days.

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I finished knitting, weaving in ends and blocking this Cardigan. It’s a simple cardigan pattern by My Favourite Things Knitwear. I knitted it out of 5 balls of BENESSERE yarn in col. 003 and a 6.5 mm needles. These 20 mm buttons are so beautiful but I only have four. Pattern calls for seven. If you have an idea where I can get them, can you please let me know? 

So happy to include the Bee Creative socks in my life update. First sock is done! and as you can see the second one is on it’s way to the toe. LOVE this stranded knitting project. I hold the main colour on the right hand and the contrast colour on the left. Knitting with both hands is such a joy for me and I spend hours with this project in my hands. These are knitted with Arwetta classic by Filcolana. The colours I’m using are: 147 – cuff, heel and toe. 101 – main col. 220 – contrast col. BEAUTIFUL pattern by DUCATHI. I also work on a new crochet project. This is a secret project so I can’t give you any details at this point…

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I feel too sad and exhausted, therefore I decided not to record a YouTube video this week. ​Maybe it’s a mistake I don’t know. Life of a maker in Israel includes a constant miserable security situations. Thanks for watching my videos. They get more and more views and it fills my heart with gladness.

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Thank you so much for your warming notes and comments here on the blog as well as on DM’s, FB massages and emails. Your words and prayers for us are touching our hearts. Thank you for taking the time to write to me. It appears that both sides will soon agree on a ceasefire. Who knows, perhaps even a brave leader will suddenly emerge and plan a better future for us here in our two square meters of land. A future that will not include pain. We pray for better days. 

Edit to add

By the time I wrote this post a ceasefire has been agreed upon. We had a quiet night. Hopefully the people in the south of Israel will enjoy quiet nights from now and forever as all of us on this little patch.