Frisian Frillies

It's been a few months now, since I translated a really cool craft book into English: Visserstruien by Stella Ruhe. A book filled to the brim with historical information and patterns of Dutch ganseys, from up and down the coast. Het is al een paar maanden geleden dat ik een prachtig boek naar het Engels mocht vertalen: Visserstruien door Stella Ruhe. Een boek bomvol historische informatie en patronen van Nederlandse visserstruien van langs de hele kust. Of course, hubby admired the gorgeous jumpers in the book. A long time ago, I knitted my Irish hunk an Aran sweater (which he still wears). Now, after more than 15 years in the Netherlands, it's time for his first Dutch sweater. He selected the Ouddorp pattern. Natuurlijk werd er hier ook door mijn stoere man likkebaardend naar de truien gekeken. 'Ooit' breide ik voor hem een Arantrui, voor mijn Ier (die hij nog steeds draagt). Nu krijgt hij, na meer dan 15 jaar Nederland eindelijk zijn Nederlandse trui! De keuze

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.

Not your everyday location for a yarny event... If you don't take all the 'long yarns' into account that may have rolled off the pulpit here in years gone by... After holding the 'Brei- & Haakdagen' in Nieuwegein for a few years, the organizer realized that there was a great desire for a similar event in the north of the country. Spinnen in de kerk... Nou hangen ze regelmatig aan de balken, maar het ging hier toch even over iets anders... Nadat de Brei- & Haakdagen al een paar keer in Nieuwegein waren georganiseerd, kwamen de noorderlingen aan met de vraag of zoiets ook een keer dichter in de buurt kon. In the run-up to the event, I was asked whether I wanted to give spindling workshops again. Not just the short ones, like I did in Nieuwegein, but also a long one. Could I fill 2.5 hours talking about spindling and teach students enough skills for them to go home happy and addicted? Tijdens de voorbereidingen werd ik gevraagd of ik weer spintolworkshops

A while ago, I joined a club. They members had one thing in common: a love for turning fibre into yarn. All the people who are members of that club (almost 500 at the moment) know: once you start, you can't stop. Ever. Worse, you turn into an evangelist, and want to let everybody you know join in the beauty that wool, fibre, yarn and everything related has to offer. Once in a while, we meet up. We now have 2 annual meetings: one small one, which was attended by around 100 spinners last March, and one big one, always held in the first weekend of October. This year, over 230 spinners enthusiastically rsvp'ed when the first invitations were sent out. Around 100 of these spinners actually booked the entire weekend at Mennorode, in Elspeet, where we hold the annual Fall meeting. It was our 15th, so enough reasons for a big party! As I was too busy running from here to there and back again all weekend, I got very little spinning done, and managed to only take a few pictures. We h

I blinked a few times, flew to Ireland and back, had the odd adventure en route and there you have it: wind, rain, falling leaves... We're slowly slipping into Autumn. Time for hot chocolate, soup and spinning. But not before a short recap of the spinning Summer! I did continue with the Tour de Fleece while we were on holiday in Ireland. Spinning on the beach: yes, it can be done! It does get you some weird looks, but also lots of admiring smiles. It didn't go very fast though... Dough Dough Culdaff   Malin Malin Derry Peace Bridge Derry Peace Garden Derry Craft Village (not me, these were the girls from Knitfield) Portrush Lisburn   Malin I even managed to get some fibre-related visits in. How can you go to Ireland/Northern Ireland and nót see any linen or flax? The Linen Museum in Lisburn didn't disappoint. Bijoux, but very complete. The big weaving looms were impressive! Staff was on hand to explain all ab