Norwegian Stars and Happiness

I'm home sick today with a nasty cold and the boys are being kept away from me for their own safety, so I've had some time to play around with this baby blog and my camera, which I am determined to learn how to use properly.  First up - some very exciting knitting photos.

I have an unhealthy obsession with all things Scandinavian - clothes, design, murder mysteries, Kristin Lavransdatter - so I was excited to try this Norwegian Star hat pattern.  It was my first attempt at Fair Isle knitting, and it was easier than I expected to pick up.  Check it:

 

I took a few, um,  liberties with the pattern, if that's what you call it when you have no idea how to do some of the techniques (anyone know how to cast on using the backwards loop method?  Anyone?), but it seemed to turn out passably in the end.  It looks like a hat, at least.  I also added a pom pom on the top, because OF COURSE.  And now, as modeled by a cutie 3-year-old with an adult-sized head:

He's not so sure about it, but I'm sure he'll learn to love it.  Now I feel compelled to knit a matching one for his little brother, and then I can turn to knitting for the baby girl (because what does a baby born in May need more than a closet full of wool clothes, right?). 

 I also wanted to share this fantastic article about the difference between a "happy" life and a "meaningful" one from the Atlantic - I just loved it. It's so hard to pick out one quote that sums up the article, but this comes close:  

"'Happy people get a lot of joy from receiving benefits from others while people leading meaningful lives get a lot of joy from giving to others,' explained Kathleen Vohs, one of the authors of the study, in a recent presentation at the University of Pennsylvania. In other words, meaning transcends the self while happiness is all about giving the self what it wants. People who have high meaning in their lives are more likely to help others in need. 'If anything, pure happiness is linked to not helping others in need,' the researchers write."

I had never thought about the search for happiness that way before - as "taking" instead of "giving." When I told Jon about the article he said "something something something Aristotle something something something" so apparently these are not new ideas, but they were new to me.