However, I'm starting with one of the other crafts I enjoy: sewing. A while ago, I made this doll for me my daughter.

I used the Kit, Chloe and Louise pattern by Wee Wonderfuls. Such a wonderful pattern and not difficult at all, even for a relatively inexperienced sewer like me..

Lotte even plays with her sometimes. Here, she's reading her a book.

The book she's reading is one of her favorites at the moment: Gonnie en Gijsje, or Gossie and Gertie, a cute little book about two goslings.

I'm so happy with the way the (still nameless) doll turned out!

I've been knitting socks lately, sitting on my sunny balcony. This yarn I got last May at an annual wool/craft market close to Groningen. I love the color transitions, not too stripey (although nearly) but still interesting. I don't remember the vendor, but the yarn is made by Schoppel Wolle.

It's a pattern based on a pair of gloves from the wonderful little book called The Mitten Book by Inger and Ingrid Gottfridsson. It's a very humble little book, but I love it. It starts with a bit of history about Swedish mittens and a generic mitten recipe, followed by page after page of mitten examples. They show you a picture of the finished mitten and charts for the motifs used, so you can plug them into the generic pattern (or your own favourite mitten pattern of course). It really is a nice little book if you like scandinavian type mittens.

I'll be sending them off tomorrow. In the meantime, I hope my cousin doesn't read my blog. No real danger of that, I guess, I think most people have stopped reading my blog about now, with my lousy update rate... I'm not quitting, really, I'm not, but I can't make any promises about updates. For those of you who are still reading this: thank you for your patience!

12 balls of Rauma Finullgarn, 100% wool, in colours I love. And for only 50 eurocents per ball.... I don't even know where you can get this in the Netherlands if you would want it. Very happy with this find!

I also found this:

A collection of small wooden toys. I especially like the little trees.

When I saw the beautiful flowers Heather Bailey made, I had a sudden urge to make one myself. Following Heather's brief description, I made this:

It was easy to make and I love the way it turned out. Particularly the rumpled edges: very clever if you ask me.

That probably had something to do with being up in the Alps at about 1000 m (3280 feet) above sea level. Luckily, I finished my raglan sweater right there, so I've had many chance to wear it. I'll show you some pictures later.

From a spot not too far from our campsite, we had a lovely view of the Mont Blanc.

There were lots of woodland strawberries growing all around.

I don't remember ever seeing so many of them before. Lotte (and we too) loved eating them, they are so very full of flavour, especially considering they're such a small fruit.

Later, we traveled to places much hotter and drier but which were also great to be in. Sadly, the amount of butterflies flying around was dramatically lower than what we're used to. Not sure why. Apart from that, we had a great holiday. Now it's back to work...

It's me again. My wonderful blog host Knitblog has been working hard on making it possible for me to use the 'blog this' feature from Flickr. That was her test in the last entry. Now I'm ready to start getting acquainted with it. This is my first try!

Here you see the raglan shaping on my sweater coming along nicely. I hope to finish it in the next couple of days, before we leave for holiday in France.

testing flickr blogging feature

Something else I knitted during the blogging hiatus: another small Bear Claw blanket. In December 2006 I knitted my first one for one of my cats.

As it turned out, it was an ideal baby blanket. Small and warm, very convenient to take everywhere. So we did, and unfortunately, it got lost. We searched and searched, but it was gone, never to be found again. What to do? Well, knit another one, of course!

I decided on using different colors, so the blanket goes with our bright orange stroller better than the first blanket, see?

The yarn I used is mostly from Klazien's Kreatie.
More details on Ravelry. Oh, and I put the details of the dress from the last entry on Ravelry, too.

About the Ikea dpn case in the last entry: Jill asked if the case would fit 8 inch dpns. Jill, all the dpns you see in the case are 8 inches long. And Stefania was wondering if Ikea sells a similar case for straight needles. Well, I didn't spot one the last time I was in my local Ikea, but I'll keep an eye out next time. They did have some cd cases that might be good for circular needles, however.

Right, I'm off to sit in the sun!

So: what have I been up to, knitting-wise? First of all, my latest FO:

A little dress for Lotte from this pattern by Tora Frøseth (also available as a Ravelry download). I really like the way it came out.

Although the pattern is quite straightforward, I managed to mess up the yoke three times, just because I didn't pay attention. I'm glad I persevered. I used some Drops Alpaca I had lying around. Details on Ravelry later.

On a different note, did you know Ikea now is selling cases for dpns?

Well, ignorant as they are, they call them something like 'multi media holder', but we all know better, don't we?

I can't seem to find it on the Ikea website, I guess it isn't there yet, being a new item. Anyway, I'm very happy with my new dpn case!

Here is a glimpse of the mittens in progress:

These mittens are from Sør-Varanger, way up in the north of Norway. I would love to visit there, but it's 3,063 km according to Google Maps. Maybe someday....

Display larger map

They knit up really fast because of the gauge of 25 st to 10 cm (6.25 spi). Most patterns in the book have gauges of 35-40 st to 10 cm (8.75-10 spi). I'm not afraid of a small gauge, but it's nice to be able to finish something quickly every now and then. Although it's not like we really need mittens over here right now, with temperatures of around 7C/45F. And besides, they're just an addition to the stash of mittens I've made before... I like having a choice!

A very happy new year to you all! I know I've been very quiet lately. There's nothing wrong, just life has been full with lots of things, including knitting. Here's my latest FO:

The famous Icarus Shawl from by Miriam Felton, published in Interweave Knits Summer 2006. The pattern can also be purchased from Miriam's website.

I decided to knit a smaller version of this beautiful design by knitting only five repeats of the main pattern instead of the seven the pattern calls for. Right now, I'm thinking six might have been better, but we'll see how I like it after using it a couple of times. I'm a small person and I don't like to feel swamped by my shawl.

The yarn I used is Knit Picks Shadow, lovely to work with.

So what am I knitting now? I kind of lost my knitting mojo lately, as we discussed at the last meeting of SnB Fryslân, but I seem to have found it again. I'm knitting a pair of mittens from Lapland. No pictures yet, but soon, I hope. Tomorrow I will be returning to work after a two week Christmas holiday, which may just turn out to be good for blogging, we'll see. I'll try my best.

I'll leave you with a picture of Lotte, who is seven months old already. She's dressed in a lovely comfortable grey cardigan, knit by a dear friend. Thanks again Hannie, it fits her beautifully now!

It's made from Jamieson & Smith 2-ply jumper wool, knit on 3 mm dpns (2.5 mm for the garter stitch edging). The pattern is available in Norwegian and English.

Here you can see the way the hat is constructed a little better. It fits quite well and keeps Lotte's ears nice and warm. Please let us have a real winter this year, not just months of rain and temperatures of 9C / 48F!

I'm very happy with the way they turned out. The yarn is Lana Grossa Meilenweit Seta/Cashmere (65 % merino, 15 % silk, 16 % polyamide and 4 % cashmere, 190 m/ 50 g). As you can imagine, it's very soft and lovely to work with. We'll see how well it holds up with wear.

Here's a shot of the calf decreases:

All in all a very comfy pair of knee socks! The pattern is in Folk Socks by Nancy Bush.

Something else:

I Got In.

I made it to The Other Side.

What am I talking about? Well, Ravelry of course! If you're there too, come and say hello (I'm Saartjeknits), if you're not there yet, be patient. It's worth the wait.

In the meantime, I'm having a great time spending the autumn holiday at Terschelling. Tomorrow we're going home again...

Some pictures of the old church in Hoorn, Terschelling

Lovely things have happened since I last wrote. For one, I became an aunt.

Meet the adorable Aïcha, daughter of my brother and his wife, just a couple of hours after she was born:

Of course, I knitted her something to welcome her to the world, but since she hasn't received it yet, I can't show you just now.

My brother owns a house with a garden, which means he has space for this:

It looks a bit like a rabbit hutch, doesn't it? But it's a baby house, really! If you look carefully, you can see Lotte enjoying her afternoon nap in it. Wait, I'll come closer.

See? A Dutch/Gronings doctor designed it in 1939. Lots of children in the province of Groningen have slept in little houses like this (during the day, and not in foggy weather of course). It's supposed to be very healthy. Want to know more? Over here there are baby houses for rent, and here is some more information and even a plan to make one yourself. Sorry, all of the information is in Dutch. Oh and yes, Lotte is wearing her strawberry outfit (scroll down) and is covered in my sister in laws bridal shawl.

Enough with all the baby stuff: let's talk yarn. My birthday last week, and I received some wonderful crafty things. Let me show you:

A skein of Tuna in a beautiful blue shade,

three balls of very soft Japanese yarn that came in the mail,

merino roving in four colors to felt,

a big box of DMC embroidery threads, silk roving in stunning colors that remind me of butterflies, a box of mother-of-pearl embellishments, and

a Clover yoyo maker. Yippeeee!

And what's more: I got some money to buy knitting books! I already ordered two, I'll show them when they get here.

So that's it from me now. More to come soon, I hope! (and the same goes for answering emails....)

Two balls of Regia Kaffe Fassett, given to me by the LYS owners of the Ryahuis in Zuidlaren to make something for Lotte. Such a nice gesture!

I'm knitting the Highland Scottische Kilt Hose from Folk Socks by Nancy Bush. I had always wondered what these stocking would look like when worn, and after seeing some examples at Mustaa Villaa, Knit two, purl two, Bowerbird knits and Knitting to stay sane, I just had to cast on. I'm using the new Lana Grossa Meilenweit Seta/Cashmere (65% wool, 15% silk, 16% polyamid, 4% cashmere) and I have to say: it's a pleasure to knit with.

When going camping, always take your Flicca!