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December 30, 2006
Santa was good to me
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I know I did. We spent it visiting relatives at the island of Terschelling [Wikipedia link in Dutch: Terschelling]. The weather was very dull and grey, no chance of a white Christmas. The island is lovely in all kinds of weather however. At the site of the Dutch Weather Institute, I read that the chances of getting a white Christmas in The Netherlands are about 6%, so why do we keep hoping and expecting it?
While I was there, I took the opportunity to visit the only yarn shop on the island. It's called Tante Lies.
It's located in a village called 'Lies', which is also a common girl's name in Dutch. 'Tante Lies' means 'Aunt Lies', just so you know! The shop sells an eclectic mixture of yarn, baby things, icture frames and postcards (with lovely pictures of the island, check them out if you're ever at Terschelling and you want something different than the usual tourist cards).
The yarns they sell are mostly by Online and Scheepjes. A lot of it is displayed in this beautiful old glass cabinet. Most is acrylic stuff or at least a large percentage, not really my taste. But of course there was some sock yarn there, so this is what I got:
Supersocke 100 by Online, in a purple colorway. All in all, I would say this shop is worth a visit when you are at Terschelling!
And then Christmas came along. We had a small gift exchange with the family. I'm very lucky with my inlaws, even though they don't knit, they know they can always make me happy with yarn! Look at this:
A ball of Record z10 Color by Schoeller+Stahl (100% cotton, 50g/90m) in blues and greens. Doesn't it go well with the green moss?
Two balls of Rowan 4 ply Cotton (50g/170m) in pink and blue.
And last but not least: 12 balls of Rowan Wool Cotton (50% wool, 50% cotton, 50g/113m) in a shade called 'Grand'. I'm going to use it to make this:
Sorry for the crappy picture (as I said, the weather was very grey). It's a cardigan from Poetry in Stitches. I really like the shape. It looks a bit like Mermaid, as it is constructed in a similar way. I can't wait to start it, but as always, I'm going to try to finish some other thing first.
I wish you all a very happy New Years Eve, don't eat to many oliebollen and be careful with fireworks. Talk to you again in 2007!
Posted by saartje at 5:38 PM | Comments (26)
December 19, 2006
Still knitting
There's not much news from the knitting front, except this:
I started a stole/scarf from the Kidsilk Night I got at the SnB-day in Rotterdam. It's based on the Party Lace Scarf from Magknits. I didn't get the Swarovski beads as they're quite expensive, and I cast on more stitches than called for for the scarf. Originally, I wanted to finish this thing so I could wear it on Christmas. Well....
Last week, I got a belated Sinterklaas gift. Look:
Five small amounts of carded wool, dyed with natural dyes. I was so surpised, as I got this from someone who isn't into handcrafting/needleworking at all, but who recognized the wool as something I might like. Those are the best gifts! I don't know what I'll use it for yet, maybe some needle felting. Luckily, I have two weeks off of work after Christmas. Crafting time!
Posted by saartje at 10:42 PM | Comments (11)
December 10, 2006
'Tis the season to be jolly
Another Noro scarf is finished! This time, I used Noro Kureyon and some pink Highland Tweed from Klaziens Kreatie.
I think the colors work very well together. While I was knitting it, I thought I would give this scarf away, but now that it's done, I'm not so sure.... I'll wear it this week and see how I feel then. Details of this project are here.
While I was at it, I made a project page for the Bear Claw Blanket too.
And for the Over-the-Knee Socks as well (with a picture of me wearing them)!
I'm really getting in the Christmas mood here. I put up our small fake Christmas tree and made myself some more korknisser.
Gets Christmas going for me like nothing else! I did some searching and I found lots of other korknisser on the net. Check them out:
Acornbud's
AmpuTeeHee's Blånisse
Erica's
Chelee's, also spotted at Knitty Iris
Ev's (love her presentation!)
Last year, I made this from a pattern in the Marie Claire Idées Hiver 2005 issue:
It's made from a wooden clothespeg and some felt. I'm going to make more of these!
An oldfashioned knitted Father Christmas I made a couple of years ago:
from a free pattern from PieceWork. I should block his hair again, he looks a bit like he's facing some strong wind or having a bad hair day (but really he has been in a plastic bag all year, squashed the wrong way by some knitted hats and scarves).
And last but not least:
A knitted star from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac.
Happy Christmas preparations!
Posted by saartje at 6:22 PM | Comments (15)
December 4, 2006
Bear Claw is done
In the car on the way home last Friday, I bound off the last edge of the little Bear Claw Blanket.
After that, I wove in the remaining ends. I was very happy I had woven in a lot of them along the way already. So this is what it looks like now:
Picture taken in artificial lighting, so the colors are a bit off. The piece measures about 55 cm/21.65" square. The pattern is from the Spring 2005 issue of Interweave Knits, the yarn is 2-ply Shetland yarn from Klazien's Kreatie and some leftover Shetland from Mermaid. By the way, Klazien finally put up her new website and it looks great! You have to register to browse the shop though, which strikes me as a bit odd, but oh well...
And how does Dropje like it?
She does seem to enjoy it, some of the time in her own, elegant way (bottom right picture). But then again, she will usually recline on whatever you leave on the back of the couch...
With some leftovers from the blanket, I made a felted flower pin.
I used some of the flowers from Nicky Epstein's Fabulous Felted Bags (another great find at De Slegte in Leeuwarden! They had only one. Remember, knitting books are very hard to find in the Netherlands.) They flowers are really easy to make, you basically cast on 5 sts, cast off 4, cast on 4, cast off 4 etc. untill you have the amount of petals you want. I also made some leaves, felted everything by hand, sewed the parts together and added beads and a pin. I like the way it turned out!
Remember the scarf I started, using Noro Kureyon in reds and some unidentified bright blue yarn? I wrote about it on Novemeber 12. Well, I bought some Highland Tweed in a pink shade from Klazien, frogged the red and blue attempt and started again with red and pink.
I think it looks a lot better! I will probably give it away as a present when it's done, not sure who will be the recipient yet.
With all the yarn I've been buying from Klazien lately, I ran into a problem. The Shetland yarn she sell is in skeins, in stead of ball, so you have to wind it first. A 100 g skein can take quite a bit of time, so my helper was getting a bit tired of holding up yet another skein. Last week, my mother came to the rescue: she gave me her umbrella swift!
I'm really happy with it, and I've used it a couple of times already. Thanks mom!
Posted by saartje at 8:52 PM | Comments (24)
