Frisian Frillies

The latest request from the brood was hats and scarves. The hats were a definite yes, as Batman had outgrown his hat and Mermaid had been wearing one of mine, but with regard to the scarves, I said no to Mermaid. She still has about 5 hanging in the hallway! Of which one, the mini Annis , was quite haggard looking... and on closer inspection showed signs of rabbit damage (sigh...). So, instead of knitting a winter scarf, I promised I'd 'fix' her Annis... First up are the hat and scarf for Batman, knit from a similar yarn as his idiot mittens, Lana Grossa Paddy (no idea why they decide to call it Paddy instead of Teddy though...), and they are super soft... It took ages to sew in all the ends for the scarf though... I again realize why people like selfstriping yarn so much... Hereby: dear Lana Grossa, can you make self-striping Paddy with a long and nicely varied rapport? Thank you! Then Mermaids hat. Same principe, but two more increase rows before the k1p1. And yes, of...

On this 'day of rest' in the Tour de Fleece/France there was still a lot of television. We followed Commons Debate on the phone hacking closely, absolutely flabbergasted at every new revelation made. Unbelievable... How suitable that I was knitting a 'whiter than white' and innocent winter hat ... This morning, during Gordon Brown's interview, I sewed it up, and here is the tadaaaaaaa moment... Caught by the papparazzi Soft and fluffy, funny and wintry... Close-up of the brainholder... This is size L, which again proves I have a large head... :)

Today a box went to the post office. A box from Sam for Sam: A biiiiiiig box! The box is starting the first leg of its long journey, all the way to India. Which probably gives a clue to what was inside... The hats our SnB group knit for India! All 66 of them! What a great result! Hats great and small, in all the colours of the rainbow...

Well, a lot, if I have to believe the invoices I've been sending out. I've been working flat-out during November, and then sort of took December 'off'. Well, as 'off' as I can ever be... ;) It basically meant I still did my business translations, but there was no book for a month. And that was quite nice! It gave me some time to prepare for the SinterRAK, make decorations for the Xmas tree and to hand out to neighbours, family and friends in lieu of Xmas cards, decorate the house, clean the house for our Xmas dinner and just enjoy being home and with the kids. Which also explains the lack of blog updates ;) We've been around each other a lot, and it was great. Although we can look like a chaotic bunch, we are a lovely chaotic bunch, and we love doing things together, which, with two parents trying to work fulltime and two kids going to school, isn't always easy. There was some progress on the crafting front, apart from all those lovely decorations, tho...

It's been. It's been busy the last year. And it's not really letting off... Work, getting the house ready to be sold; it's busy in my head, in our house, in my diary. So, small projects are best! Preferably projects in stockinette, which are relaxing and not too demanding. Spoke is slowly but surely getting finished (knitting the sleeves now), while the second hatheel sock is also getting there, but at the moment, I'm knitting these: Yup, hats. Lots of hats. Very tiny little hats for tiny little babies in India. Save the Children has a great project on at the moment, with a lovely informative website to go with it: Brei voor India . Using the very easy instructions and pattern , we have set to work. Yes, WE! The idea of our SnB group trying to knit enough hats to fill a huge box to send to the organization in time for Sinterklaas was met with a lot of enthusiasm. With me, around 20 other moms and grandmoms are now knitting these tiny hats. I hope to show you the e...

For some strange reason, I've decided that I'm going to knit less pink this year. If you look through my projects over the last year or two, the colour pink is just slightly over-represented, and that needs to change! I'm noticing a shift towards greans and blues, especially petrol, as this is a colour which seems to suit me very well, so that's good. But on the needles at the moment are: - Saskia, in pink - Lapwing, in pink - Sokkenpad, in pink - Scarf and hat from Garnstudio , in pink. That's a lot of pink! Hmmm.... I decided to undo this wrong by finishing off this last project. It's a gift for Elayah, who's turning two today (a big hoera!!!!). I could not decide on what to buy her as a gift, and as the wintry weather is here to stay for a little while longer, I decided to knit her as nice hat and scarf. Unfortunately, because of my quite last-minute decision, I did not have time to knit mittens, but I might do that later this week and then send ...

We started our new year fresh and early on the beach. We decided to do our own little 'Elfstedentocht', going from Leeuwarden to Harlingen, Workum and then Hindeloopen. We begonnen het nieuwe jaar vandaag fris en vroeg op het strand. We besloten een kleine 'Elfstedentocht' te rijden, vanuit Leeuwarden naar Harlingen, Workum en Hindeloopen. At Workum, the beach was covered with a nice layer of fresh snow, which created a beautiful backdrop for pictures and made it a great place for running around and playing. At the edge of the sea, the water was frozen, and with Steve, the kids were collecting big chunks of ice, which they were then lifting like weightlifters... Bij Workum lag er een mooi laagje verse sneeuw op het strand, waardoor het een prachtig plekje was om foto's te nemen en rond te rennen en te spelen. Aan de waterkant was de zee zelfs bevroren, zodat de kids met Steve grote brokken ijs konden losmaken om er daarna als gewichtheffers mee rond te lopen. ...

And another hat done. Nice and big... Hubbie calls it a bit girly, but I don't think it is. It's just nice and big ;) Made out of dark brown soft acrylic yarn and a lighter brown cotton/silky blend yarn (label-less from that huge stash of mine). Thanks for the sympathies and all the comments that my stash isn't big at all. ;) Wee H also needed help from daddy yesterday. Not to model a hat, but to pull out her second loose tooth, which was getting in the way and a real pain in the a... when trying to eat something. See that big-person-tooth popping up on the right? Honestly, where did my little girl go??? And a little peek of my sweater project for Sam, made out of yarn donated by blogless Marijke (yes, the one from the spinning class - too generous for her own good, that woman!!!):

While the kids were playing (nr. 1) and sleeping (nr. 2), and we had a bit of a weepy Sunday afternoon (too wet to go and collect crops from the allotment), I looked around for something to do. First I clear out the cupboard under the stairs and after pulling out all my boxes with stash, the bug hit me. MUST... SORT... YARN... BY COLOUR! I need help... I guess any knitter will be know my reaction to this: I DON'T HAVE THAT MUCH STASH, DO I?????? Guess what my DH said when he saw it: 'Shall I carry that upstairs then, babes?' Yes, no 'I guess someone doesn't need to go to yarn shops anymore' or 'You're always saying you've nothing to knit'. No, 'Shall I carry that upstairs then, babes?' What a darling ;) (Yes, I'm very happy with him too...) After this feat, I decided to treat myself: And to be honest, I ate 3 of those 'zoenen', not just the one... And had 3 cups of Senseo, two sips and it's gone. I'm so glad I drink d...

Last weekend, I spent a night away to catch up with some friends. I had been talking about my wheel so often that of course they challenged me to take it with me. And of course I did, to their surprise! But it was great. I got to chat, drink wine (but not that much) and spun, and spun, and spun... until my roving was gone. Thanks Brenda for the lovely photographs! And then, last night, knitting through the annoying pain in my arm, but thoroughly enjoying the knit and all the pre-election antics on the telly, I finished Mesi! The inside is almost as much fun as the outside. Made out of Juvel, a 100% washable wool, in purple and green. This will be given to a friend of mine at SnB Fryslan, who has contacts in a shelter, and there will be some homeless gals and geezers walking the streets with cool hatwear this winter! I knit this with the yarn in both hands, purple in the right and green in the left hand, to get some practice for my Snow Bird Mittens, which I started straight after. No t...

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...