Frisian Frillies

I've joined Sounds like fun!

I've had these Owlishly patterns for a while now, but only last week got round to finally making one. Meet Violet, Faith's sister. Hannah loves her!

Another year! How time flies... Tomorrow this little girl will be 5. This was her last year, just before starting school. And now she's all big and smart and wise... Because I'm so proud of my princess, I decided to make the cake she really wants, with strawberries and chocolate. Well, that's not really a punishment is it... We made the base together, the rest had to stay a surprise for tomorrow morning, and also made and decorated some little cakes to hand out at school, all wrapped up in nice foil with pink ribbons. The apple pie for the 'grown-ups' is in the oven...

Thanks for the compassion re. wee S's poxies. Luckily, he behaves as if nothing is wrong. He just looks awful! Especially since this morning, when he decided to hit his head on the rabbit cage. Ouch... So not only a poxy face, but also a huge bump right next to his eye. No itching yet, but the calendula is a good tip to prevent scarring. We don't want that. And no, they don't do pox jabs here. They jab you for everything else, but not chicken pox. It is quite a harmless disease, and the earlier (after age 1) you get it, the better. We're still not sure whether wee H ever had them, cause she was exposed loads of times, but never had marks. Well, proof will be in the pudding in a few weeks time... Haha, and the shoes... Mmm, was thinking of returning them, because even with shining them, after a few meetings with salt (because of snow), they lost a bit of their lustre... Will try harder, and I can also put some real black dye polish on them...

Pattern: Sideways sock by Yvon (Storm op Zolder) Yarn: Berkenblad BFL sock wool (Storm op Zolder) Needles: 2.5 mm Profi bamboo circs After trying to knit Anastacia with this yarn, I frogged that sock and thought about what other pattern I could use to knit up this lovely yarn. And then it hit me: I still wanted to try the sideways socks again. After reading the instructions again, I saw where I went wrong: I had measured from the heel to the toe instead of the heel to the ball of the foot. That does make a BIG difference, so this time, it did make sense... I am still going to make some adjustments to the calculations with my next sock, to make it a bit tighter still. But I really like the effect of the yarn knit up this way. Happy. On to sock nr. 2! And other news from the FF household: Yes, chicken pox... Finally...

I hardly ever do these things, but because I was personally invited by Monique , I couldn't say no ;) 4 Jobs I've Held: Waitress Dutch teacher Publishing project editor Translator 4 Movies I like: Underground As it is in heaven Gladiator Moulin Rouge 4 Places I've been: Singapore Barcelona Sarajevo Kuala Lumpur 4 Places I've Lived: Dublin Belfast Utrecht Zeist 4 TV Shows I Watch: Project Catwalk Holby City Casualty Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes 4 Radio Shows I Listen To: Omrop Fryslan Radio 1 5 Live BNR 4 Favorite Foods: Kroepoek Lasagna Fried rice Home-made bread 4 Places I'd Rather Be: Macchu Pichu (Peru) (I'm joining Monique) Koh Samui In a hot bath with candles and a ginormous book In my garden, in the sunshine, with a ginormous book Read this? You're IT!

after it had a major overhaul at the bike shop... But I had two kiddies with very cold bums and a mouldy screen which were shouting for renovation. And, being inspired by Kitsch Kitchen, I decided to get some table covering (yes, the cheap plastic stuff your granny used to fold over the dining table to make sure your jam would not stain her preciously rubbed and waxed hard wood...), and foam and get to work. Here the picture of the seat before Amy's Treatment: Even though I should have been doing real work, this just had to be done. I got the seat and screen in and made some sketches on brown paper, indicating where the velcro had to go on the seat cushion. I cut the foam to size and checked whether it fitted. It did! Now it was time to bring Hannah to bed (which took some considerable time, as she has a new high bed, wants loads of stories and songs, and then wants to mattress on the floor because it's still too scary), get some Dutch courage (i.e. wine), haul the sewing machi...

Here's the progress with my socks. It's quite fun knitting different socks at the same time. It does wonders for you brains, because I try to remember the patterns and to them by heart. Even the Pomatomus is going quite well without peaking at the pattern! Pomatomus, pattern by Cookie A., published by Knitty. Monkey, pattern by Cookie A., published by Knitty. Anastacia, pattern by Pepperknit. These last socks will be frogged (aaaaahhhhh), because I love the pattern and the yarn, but not together... The yarn is too stripey and I foresee great problems when I knit the other sock with the lace the other way... So I'm on the lookout for another fun pattern to knit, toe-up with my Storm op Zolder yarn... In the meantime, Jeanie has grown to about 70-80 cm (pre blocking). Slowly but surely we'll get there...

What a change a few skeins of wool can make! I have now got 4 projects on the needles: - Pomatomus socks (Fortissima) - Anastacia socks (Yvons yarn) - Monkey socks (Araucania) - and my Jeanie ;) (Malabrigo) My plan is to do a repeat of something and then switch over to the next project. I've reached the heel now with the Pomatomus (my first ever patterned sock I tried to knit and horribly failed to understand, but I've got it now!), am halfway the foot with Anastacia (easyyyyy, once I got past the toe, and I actually like knitting with bamboo needles) and the Monkeys (I LOVE THIS YARN!) are 2 repeats gone. No more socks, because all my 2,5 circs are in use. Tonight, if I dare go outside, I am probably going to measure up and cut the material for new seat cushions on the bike for the wee ones, plus a new screen. I feel inspired! My bag with projects to show tomorrow at SnB will be overflowing...

Today I took my daughter H to the Craft Fair in Zwolle. What a success! She had great fun from beginning to end, from the moment we stepped on to the bus till coming home! We travelled to Zwolle with Simone , and while we were knitting away, H was counting trains, bridges and houses outside. And ate all the sandwiches and an entire apple (I got one wedge, how nice...). Once there, weathering a short blizzard, we homed in on the 'pimping' table, where H got stuck into decorating a lovely box and then pulled off her skirt, so I could Hotfix that as well :) The results can be seen on Youtube here: After this, we had to run to be in time for our second workshop, making a friendship band. It took a while, but Hannah did like it a lot. She had this thing about the black strand, which was a spider and she didn't want to touch it. The silver strand was her favourite. We worked on it again on the train back home and should be finished with it soon. Results on photo soon! Then i...