The world of Hygge and Crochet
What is hygge you may ask? Hygge, pronounced “hyue-gar,” “hoog-jar” or “hoo-gah”, or how I like to say jokingly: huggy, because let’s just say I love hugs and cuddles, especially when I get to cuddle with my cat Napoleon, oh, and of course my life partner, Pieter. Hygge is a Danish term used for coziness, well being, homeyness, friendship, reading a book or spend a nice afternoon binging on Netflix. Ok! There is more to hygge than what I just said, but it’s a whole atmosphere, slow or quiet living, taking time to smell the flowers, things that gives you warmth and happiness, be that alone, or with a friend(s)/family.
Hygge is not something new, many people have been practicing and creating cosy atmospheres, that are welcoming and homey and it’s not just a Danish thing either, it’s just that they use the word and make it their own, not only to describe something or a place but the Danes take the adverb and turn it into a noun or a verb. We also have a similar word in Dutch: gezellig (adverb), pronounced “heh-SELL-ich”, and gezelligheid (noun), just not the verb. The term gezellig is at the heart of Dutch culture and you do hear it often. Germans and the Scandinavians all have their own take and words (adverb and nouns) for describing hygge, and making it a thing, their term for coziness is more meaningful than any word you may care to find in the English language. So why so much hygge in Nordic countries, and this sudden worldwide hashtag craze for hygge? Good question. From what I have experienced personally, I say that life gets in the way of creating hygge, and unfortunately most cultures foster and reward stress and how we deal with it, as a major factor for getting hired to do a certain job. That’s just crazy! The reason why Nordics are amongst the happiest in the world, is because they don’t foster this crazy stress culture. Stress makes you less productive. Managing stress is not, and should not be a quality to aspire to have, or learn to deal with in the workplace. Stress is a factor that shouldn’t be a part of anyone’s vocabulary, work practice or culture. “Out of mind, out of sight”, so to speak. We all need to introduce more positive terms into our lives and foster love and happiness through the little things, the pleasurable moments, and radiate the positivity that comes with hygge towards ourselves and others. Hygge doesn’t have to exist in Utopia, anyone can introduce it into their lives quite easily. Just be aware of hygge and say it to yourself daily. Make a mental note of this new word and introduce it into your day. We should always have time for ourselves, make time to recharge, time to make ourselves happy, so we can radiate that happiness towards others.
There are many little things we can do to add to hygge toour daily lives and moving from Australia to Portugal and then to the Netherlands, did not stop me from Hyggerizing my home. You see what I just did there, hyggerizing… I already practiced hygge back in my university days. I remember how I would decorate my room with flowers, decorative objects and scented candles. I would constantly invite friends and colleagues over for a good chat, drink some tea, or wine and chill. I was so popular back then, especially when we had blackouts, as I always had an endless supply of candles. Ha!
I discovered the world of crocheting after moving to the Netherlands and have introduced many Dutchisms to my daily rituals, but always keeping my Australian/Portuguese identity. You adapt and there is something I like to call ethnic fusion, that takes place. Crocheting is so peaceful and definitely hygge. So I decided to create this blog to share my crochet patterns. I’m sorry to all my friends on social media or Keto, low carb foodies, for not making a food blog, but I don’t want to spend my life thinking about food and blogging about it. I much prefer sharing my recipes in a book, which I promise to at least try to publish by the end of the year or early 2018. No guarantees. I do need to share my low carb journey, for awareness but I have no patience for it. I don’t like going against the grain or preaching a healthy lifestyle. Most people don’t believe that a high fat diet is healthy and actually makes you lose weight. Most people continue to invest in a high carb, high protein diet, instead of eating real nutritious foods. When I see people filling their food cabinets with substitute meals like grain filled bars and protein shakes, I cringe. Oh dear! The money they waste on expensive powders and supplements… *rolls eyes* It’s just too much for me. I’m over it! So no food blog. I don’t want people to think I’m preaching anything. I just want to share things that can make people happy. And so Crochet Hygge blog was born today. I hope you will enjoy my crochet goodies and patterns that I will share on this blog, and that it can bring happiness and hyggefy your life. Yeah! Why not? Let’s ‘crochet hygge’ together and become one big Crochet Hygge family.
For now, I will leave you with my favourite quote of the day:
“There’s a lot of beauty in ordinary things.”
Be happy! Happy crocheting!
