Frisian Frillies

While eating lunch, consisting of toast with stinky cheese and with the doors to the living room closed (let's just say the kids are less enamoured with livarot cheese than I am), time for an update on the hap! Yes, it's been done for a while and yes, I've been wearing it as well, but something with life taking over and bla bla. Two weeks ago, we had a glorious Saturday - the first one of the year, basically - and we decided to go and do a good garden Spring clean. And while we were at it, I got out the bamboo sticks and built a frame for my hap. The frame building was the easy bit... I then had to string up all the points of the hap. And then I saw the frame could have been a bit bigger. Ach well, next time I want it blocked a bit bigger and tighter, I'll just have to use long-sized bamboo sticks only, as I was a bit limited to the length of the shorter ones this time.   But it did the job! I rested it against the clothes line, where it would not be in the ...

I was SHOCKED when I saw the date of my last post. Really??? Three-and-a-half years??? Not that I haven't done any crafting, as I've knit, crocheted, spun and sewed lots, but when you combine a move to a cool house with a huge garden, a family, a busy business - something falls by the wayside... But it is such a shame not to have a place to put my stuff on show, apart from my Ravelry project pages! The desire to restart the blog was ignited by a short message on Facebook, inviting people to join a #sohapalong. A what? Yup, my reaction exactly! And then I realised that I actually bought a book on Haps when I was on Shetland, had always planned to spin and knit one, but never got around to it. And as I had no projects on the needles (...), I decided to run up the stairs to my stash attic and dive in. Yup, enough brown to use as a base colour, and I decided to go for purples as a contrast... That would work! The brown was probably a Frisian milk sheep, or something else. N...

Nearly everyone starts with this stitch, it's the first one in any stitch dictionary and it's a stitch that forms the basis of many intricate Shetland pattern: the garter stitch. Bijna iedereen begint ermee, het is de eerste steek in elk stekenboek en het is een steek die de basis vormt van heel wat ingewikkelde kantpatronen uit Shetland: de ribbelsteek. It's busy in Casa Moss. So busy that the thought of having to knit complicated patterns is slightly too much. The triangular shawl I knit in stockinette for the National Spinning Weekend, with a crocheted border, was complicated enough, as were the Hermione socks (knit 3, purl 1), and to make sure that I have a few more options than just spin white Shetland wool every night (totally no stimuli and difficult decisions, great to clear the brain at the end of the day), I went back to garter stitch. Het is druk in Casa Moss. Zo druk dat de gedachte aan het breien van ingewikkelde patronen momenteel even iets te veel is....

Christmas started early this year... On Ravelry, I was part of a 'Glitter & glamour' exchange, which meant a whole group of grown-up women decided to send each other fun, useful or just plain beautiful gifts, simply because we want to ;) This was what hit my doormat one afternoon (well, actually, the postman had to ring the doorbell...) And inside? A whole pile of packages, and chocolate coins. My own little helper was on hand to help... See that look on his face? That's him begging if he can please, please, please have one of the chocolate coins... And after we unwrapped all the gifts... I had a desk full of yummies, a soft scarf, black soft yarn, a new circular needle and glittery body lotion... And as luck would have it, we drew each other, so while I was unwrapping (blogless) Cloudhead's package, she opened mine... She got some of the snowflakes I crocheted over the last few weeks... Snowflakes were crocheted galore over the last few weeks, as some were also ...

After all that spinning, I decided to get on with some other crafting this week. The first thing I did, was get a project done: Expectation , a design by Dutch Knitting Design. I used that funky yarn I bought at Balloo, and although you can't see the shimmery thread running through the yarn, it really shows up when you wear it. Shows you again that a picture cannot capture all of reality... The shape is amazing. It wraps all the way around, and especially as this is a shawl for Mermaid, it can even be worn in a way where you tie it around the waist. This shows you how large it is for me.Quite small, but a nice shoulderette for those chilly nights or visits to a church during the Summer holidays. I am notorious for always wearing shoulderless tops and to not offend people, I will gladly wear this type of bling. It was nice to knit with something so colourful after spinning the natural fibers, and it inspired me and Mermaid to other things... After this shawl was done, we ra...

After two days of spinning white, today, on the rest day, it was time for some colour. Not that the weather co-operated in making it a colourful day, though! It rained, and rained, and rained... Several roads were blocked because the sewers couldn't handle it, a water mains pipe burst because of the pressure (not here, luckily), and I'd say roofers and plumbers will be busy today. But we, we knitted. We as in me and hubby. Yes, he did it! I'm so proud! He knit a few rows and despite still finding it a bit fiddly, he has great technique. He has already promised mermaid a pen roll, so we'll see how quickly that gets finished. I got to grips with the 'Expectations' pattern, and while watching one revelation after another unfold on the tv (both in the hacking scandal and the football club buying scandal - which was, obviously, not covered at all on the other programs) I managed to get quite a bit done. The yarn is lovely and shiny, which you can't really see y...

The thing about shawls knitted from the center is that by the time you're nearly done, you have a lot of stitches on your needles... You start out with 3 stitches, increase a few here and there... Then add some more and notice that slowly but surely your needles are filling up... Until you get so many stitches that they hardly fit on your needles anymore and you have a frump on your lap... And after two hours of casting off stitches... you have a lovely, soft, squishy, shawlette. Gorgeous! Meet Citron... Knit from homespun merino with some with silk threads spun through here and there... See how soft it is? The colours also keep changing in the light... One minute it looks blue, another it looks green. Amazing. Now, all that is left is to sew in a few threads, give it a light stretch and then wear it proud on days when that morning cycle is still a bit too chilly... On to the next project... What to knit from 4 balls (200 grams) of this? I think I'll actually crochet this...

On the last day of August, I finally finished Haruni. The Haruni I thought I'd finished on the way back home in the train. And who thought that that frumpy bit of yarn would turn out so nice after blocking! After frogging back to chart A, I decided to add an extra repeat, because I wanted it a bit bigger than it was when I first finished it. The second time round the change-over to chart B was much easier. I really enjoyed knitting this shawl and especially because I had the pattern on the eReader we had on loan from the library. I just finished it in time, as the eReader has to be returned on Friday ;) Guess what will be on my Xmas list... I'm not a 'hard blocker', and noticed that trying to block such a large shawl on a lits-jumeaux is a nightmare... There's that massive gap in the middle, where you can't stick pins . Problem! Have to think about how to do that next time... So, lightly blocked, not with all the crochet loops pinned down (that would have ta...

While my yoke top was drying, I also blocked my Saskia this week. And I fixed the hole, which had indeed been the result of a dropped stitch in a double decrease. Invisible now! I really adore this little scarf, and it will be in my suitcase in 10 days' time (yikes) when we jet of to Northern Ireland's favourite holiday destination: Portrush! We can't wait to see our mates again, and Steves mom is probably also going to come up to see us. And if this all isn't nice enough, from tomorrow I will be 'officially' on holiday for a month. Well, take the 'official' bit with a large chunk of salt, but still. No books to translate! I just need to finish an extraordinarily tight deadline (when will I learn) for tomorrow, and then that's me. Off! More time to knit stuff! To sew stuff! To get the house ready to sell! Yeah!