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...

Whenever I tell people that one of my hobbies is spinning, I often have to clarify that this does NOT involve a gym, or a bike. Last weekend, no explanation and clarification was necessary, because we were here. Tadaaa... See, chair on the left, that's mine... Als ik mensen vertel dat spinnen een van mijn hobby's is, moet ik vaak uitleggen dat ik daar NIET voor naar de sportschool hoef en dat ik ook niet op een fiets zit. Afgelopen weekend hoefde ik niets uit te leggen, want we waren hier. Tadaaa. Zie, die stoel helemaal links? Die's van mij. With four amazing women, I'm on the board of the National Spinning Group. We spin, spin and spin some more. We chat, laugh, shed a tear and share everything from apple pie recipes to life stories. It's amazing. Not just with the board, though. I have my own spinning groupies in Fryslan, and in October there will be over 200 of us in one room again. Can't wait! Met nog vier fantastische vrouwen zit ik in het bestuur v...

This Summer has been mostly spent working on ' Pumpkin Ale ' by Ysolda Teague, or 'Guinness Froth', as the cardi was soon re-baptized. It has been quite a project! From sorting the yarn, to washing and carding, spinning and knitting, and then inserting sewn pockets (wah), it all took just over 4 months. And yes, it was fun, although I did have quite a few 'This is never gonna get done' moments! Especially at the start of the knitting, there was a lot of doubt... Is this going to be soft enough? Is my gauge not horrifically off? How am I going to adjust the pattern to this yarn? In the end, all was well... Deze zomer heb ik vooral gewerkt aan ' Pumpkin Ale ' van Ysolda Teague, of 'Guinness Froth', zoals het vest al snel werd gedoopt. Het was echt een groot project! Van het sorteren van de wol tot wassen, kaarden, spinnen en breien, oh, en dan de zakken er nog in (ah), duurde het net iets meer dan vier maanden. En ja, het was leuk! Hoewel ik we...

The last few months have been hectic. The ease of use of Facebook and Twitter almost made me forget there was something called a blog, so both the craft and family blog were grossly neglected. I could recap about everything I have done, made, experienced and been through, but that would take me forever. So, instead, a glance back over my shoulder at last weekend. We were in Orvelte, where we enjoyed a sunbaked day among the sheep and other crafty folk. With great music and a great atmosphere. Lovely people and lovely yarn, wool and other things. Me and the Mermaid suffered from bad sleep deprivation (it was the morning after the night before - World Cup quarter finals, with a penalty shoot-out way way way past our bedtime), and I was glad that I had been so smart to sort everything out for the fair on the Friday and loaded the car up on the Saturday afternoon. Me and Mermaid picked up Judith on the way. She had a bag full of fleece to card, so she spent a lot of time demonstrating ...

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...