Frisian Frillies

I had a great time last Saturday at the Handwerkbeurs! Despite the fact that the location was not used to its fullest (it has gorgeous large industrial windows, but it was all blackened out, snif snif), it was lovely to walk around the craft fair and let yourself be engulfed in the positivity of handicraft. Sigh... So many people who still think it matters and who attends fairs like this to show off their work and to purchase great quality material. It was super cool! At the fair, I met quite a few people who read my blog. It was so cool to see yous! Handy, those Ravelry buttons, aren't they??? I had a chat with Saskia , with Niek from a new store, De zeven katten, and met up with Mariella , the Frisian knitting fanatics and loaoaoaooaoads more people (I'm still blaming post-birth-dementia for not remembering all your names...). I knit scarves for the KiKa bears, bought a bear myself and bought stash. Loads of stash. Well, not as much as some people (I did not need a trolley, h...

Me? Naaaahhh! I didn't cut wee H's fringe way to short because I wasn't paying any attention but fantasizing about what yarn to buy tomorrow. I haven't checked the train time table 50 times to make sure I'm not going to miss it (6.36 AM!!! SHARP!) I've not buttered 10 buns with cheese and ham and packed six packs of apple juice for the journey to Rotterdam. I'm not wondering what on earth I'm going to wear... Naaaaah ;) See you tomorrow!

Why do I keep reading the wrong instructions for the Suzy Q? And why don't I listen to my instinct, when it says: 'The other bag you made looked a lot different!' Anyway, NOW I'm on the right track, finally... And also a quick picture of the socks I knitted for Wolhemel , to show off their new collection of Malabrigo sock yarn. Yum!!! (These are not my feet, they're Angelique's) Right, back to work... Have to get loads of things done before we can go to the Handwerkbeurs on Saturday. Yeah!!!!

And then you’re soooo glad that the both of you are at home when something happens, even though it was only a minor crisis… Last night, after dinner, wee H decided to go and watch some telly. She lay down on the sofa, turned round and boom, rolled of the sofa straight into the table with her face. As she started screaming really loud and quickly, big S and I jumped up to see what had happened. All we could see was blood, lots of blood. Scared shitless, no other way to say it… Big S took her on his lap, pressed a cloth against her face and I desperately started looking for the number of the emergency room at the hospital (not the emergency number for the ambulance, but to request an admission to the ER, they are a bit weird about that here…). When I finally found it, it took a while before I was connected through, and I saw big S sitting with wee H, white as a sheet (both of them), wee S not knowing what was going on, but on the verge of crying himself… And when I finally got someone on...

Today, I went on a spinning course to Marijke's with Tijm , her sister Froukje , Gawy and Marieke (with Lida as Marijke's assistant) and we had a ball. It all started out at home, where we had to fit 4 Ladies & 4 Louets in the car. No sweat! It looked cool too: When we got there, Marijke had prepared 'goodie bags' for us! So cute! All with individual name tags and filled with some wool 'nearly straight of the sheep', roving in the colour we requested, plus some white wool and wool/silk roving, a bit of angora goat pre and post washing and carding. Here was my wool: It was a case of sit down and get started. Me and Gawy had had some practice, but the others really started from scratch. We started off with the grey sheep wool, and after a break (and some yummies), we went on to the roving. According to Marijke and Lida, we were excellent students and produced great results for our first time! Here's a few shots of us at work: Marieke and Tijm are looking a...

As we have an SnB spinning course on Sunday and I wanted to try out my Louet first (that would be painful, going to a course learning how to spin and not knowing how to work with my equipment...), I spun a bit of my sheep, twined the yarn and gave it a bit of colour. Me silly, because I had stuff that doesn't work well on wool, plus I did not have any fixatives (yes, salt of course, but hey, I'm still blond) in the house to do it properly... And as Hannah wanted to see how it was done, I just plonked it into cold water with some dye, just to see what happened. I finished up with 77 grams of a bit overtwined pinkish yarn, not bad for a first attempt, I have to admit. It will be turned into a sweater for Hannahs bear. Watch this space...

Bought: Much deserved: Me happy bunny

The first Sokketiers yarn and pattern has been sent out, and although I dropped out, I still want to mention it here. The first pattern is Schier , which I had the privilege to test knit for Yarnissima. A great pattern, also challenging for experienced knitters and no doubt beautiful in the yarn supplied! I'm seeing the projects pop up here and there on Ravelry and can't wait to see the first results! (PS: yes you are too late to sign up...) O yeah, and here is a picture from the sock I test knit... Totally forgot I had taken pictures...

A new idea for a hat for Tryater I found: Tepes . Instead of impaled people, I'm going to knit skaters, haha.... This one, Impaler , is also going to be used. Instead of a spike, I might try and knit the Oldehove on it... or a Christmas tree or something...

While I was looking around Ravelry, I found this lovely little pattern . I cast on straight away, I think this yarn was the Grazie... very fluffy and extremely soft (almost microfibre soft, which does scare off some people, I can imagine)... The knit is soooo easy. It's just a square piece, which is then sewn together. I also sewed the legs to the body and head to keep the shape. Ears are a bit small, because I ran out of yarn. With the fat bum, it looks a bit like a pig, but 'Fluffy' is much loved already! Or look here: Fluffy )

This morning, the weather was glorious, so I took wee S out in the buggy and we walked into town, abutton huntin'. Lucky for me, there was only one type I liked, so I was finished and done within minutes. Coffee and apple pie very much justified (it is a half-hour walk, you know... ;) ) On coming back, sewed the buttons on and, tadaaaaa.... Pattern: Hey Teach! by Hélène Rush (published on Knitty.com ) Yarn: Scheepjes Delphi (4 balls I think... not sure) Needles: 5 (US 8) Dates: September 9 - October 3 Me and big S had a bit of a discussion about Hey Teach! though. He thought it looked a bit frumpy on me. Too course a pattern. Maybe that also was because I was wearing a long sleeve white shirt and azure training pants (no, don't try and picture it in your brain, haha)... I think it looks cool! But I have to agree with him on the shirt thing, maybe not. Probably only as a Summer vest... On closer inspection of the original pictures in Knitty, I noticed I've done my decreases ...

It should now be possible again to post a response anonymously. I have no idea why it wasn't working, because I had set it to anonymous reactions allowed. Ah, the wonders of Blogger... Hey Teach is resting. I will put it together later on in the week, knit the buttonhole rows and hopefully find some nice buttons on the market on Friday... The trickiest part with garments, I find, which is probably why I haven't knit anything that needed buttons since.... eh... well... Saw some gorgeous things tonight at SnB and got praise for Wolhemels Malabrigo sock wool. Go and buy people! They will also be at the Handwerkbeurs in Rotterdam!