Frisian Frillies

After buying 3 double-album records, both seasons of The Lakes on video, the 3 Indiana Jones movies on video, 13 Diddl magazines, 6 children's books, one R2D2, one Spiderman, one soft Dory and 4 mini Spongebobs, we called it a day and went home. And to be honest, we only scratched the surface of stalls with kids and adults trying to sell all the stuff that had been filling up their attics for years. Unfortunately nobody was stash busting in Leeuwarden, so no yarn for me... Shame! (Or all the yarn sellers were in those streets and squares we never got to, haha...) So instead of fondling new yarn, I had to find something else to do when we got home. We decided to make the kids' rooms spring ready (finally), do some serious dusting and hoovering, and while we were upstairs and the beds were being changed, I decided to put Gail out for blocking, which I bound off last night. Yes, that is my daughter in the background, and next to her is 'Schaduw van de wind' by Carlos Rui...

do I realize that a lapwing is actually a bird, and a very special one at that. One that we hold very dear here in Friesland: the 'kievit'! Every spring, when the birds are laying their eggs, there are thousands of people who go egg hunting, or 'aai sykjen' as we call it in Frisian. Only a few thousand eggs can be taking out of their nests, and only by people who have a permit to do so, to keep the population numbers up, and every egg collected has to be registered. When we were on the allotment this weekend, we heard them singing up in the sky, dancing about against the clouds, and giving away a great show for us mere earthbound mortals... It's nearly time for a next generation of lapwings to be born! Pas nu realiseer ik me dat 'lapwing' eigenlijk gewoon kievit betekent! En de kievit, tja, die kennen we hier natuurlijk enorm goed. Dit weekend hebben we op de volkstuin weer kunnen genieten van een prachtige luchtshow van de kieviten die hun nestje in de w...

Crazy Lapwing girl showing off her new sweater. It's still a bit big for her now, but she does look super cute in it. I'm sure her arms will grow out of those sleeves some day ;) And even though she sometimes has some trouble smiling, she absolutely loves it! Pattern: Lapwing  by Sarah Hatton from The Rowan Story Book of Little Knits Needles: 4, lace and sleeves single-thread, bodice double-thread, crocheted straps Yarn: Mystery Yarn by Ballee Adjustments: a great patterns, but one to READ. I did adjust the decreases of the two front pieces, as I ended with too many stitches. My gauge was slightly wide, which also explains why it's a bit wide on the back ;) Added crochet border to make it a bit neater.

That doesn't mean that it's not there... Our potatoes have been planted. Now we wait... In the meantime, there's plenty  more to do, both here in the allotment (yes, that 'stuff' in the foreground, which techically doesn't belong to us...), in the garden back home and business-wise. Another deadline is looming; I'm procrastiblogging at the moment... ;) Lapwing is getting on nicely, I'm knitting the sleeves, so hopefully by the weekend a picture of daughter wearing her new sweater. But in the meantime, she's wearing this: She won third prize in a gymnastics tournament this weekend, and I'm a super proud mommy! She got a new outfit, as it had become slightly too small... We also treated her to lunch, and she was allowed to get cake. So while we were munching on a (low WW points) sandwich, she was digging into strawberry cake. :D

Was long. Quite long! I started Aragorn , when it was still called Sokkenpad, back in November, and now we're April! These socks were a case of 'I know I'm going to get into trouble but I'll continue anyway', as I knit them in gorgeous biological cotton from Storm op Zolder , gifted by her , and me and cotton don't really get along when it comes to socks. I love the feel, but they sag a lot quicker - mostly because I'm blessed with a pro-cyclist's calves, a high instep and narrow ankles - which is a killer combo for yarn that doesn't cling. And maybe the design worked against me too a bit. After finishing them and trying them on, I desided to operate on the heels, frog a few rows from the short-row heel and rekitchener the stitches. But enough about the negatives! The design is gorgeous, the yarn is gorgeous - it's just me that's just a bit oddly shaped ;) So the blame squarely lies with me! I started out with a new cast-on technique, then...

Easter is a time to reflect, to take some time out and think about life and things. For me it beats Xmas by miles, because however great it is to celebrate the birth of Christ, his death and what that means to us as people, is way more impressive and important! It is also a time to remember those who are no longer with us, and who we miss so much. We have decided to take things easy a bit this weekend, so after a lazy morning watch Star Wars, we cycled out to the playground to have some fun, and spent some time decorating eggs. Even though I actually loathe how beautiful Christian traditions have been 'commercialized', I do decorate the house for Xmas and we have a nice Easter brunch - with home-baked breads and decorated eggs. As this Sunday we will be enjoying a brunch made FOR us, the egg decorating has also been put forward a bit and was done today, to eat up tomorrow. As I have quite a bit of yarn dye in my stash, I decided to use it for the eggs. If egg dye can be used ...