Frisian Frillies

Miss me? I bet ;) The last few weeks, I've been mostly working on one single large project, which is taking up most of my crafting time. Very little 'finished' projects to blog about, as a result! But yesterday was such a fun day that it deserves a loooong looong post, to make up for the month-long absence! It was my birthday yesterday. I'm a double 19 now, joy joy, and especially for me, the great people at Second Events organized a Yarn Fair, the Breidag . Well, maybe not especially for me, but still, it was a great way to spend my birthday! The few days before the fair, I was busy busy busy as well... I had promised that everyone who'd come over to congratulate me would get a cupcake. And eh... I don't know if you know how many members Ravelry has in the Netherlands, but let's say I was glad I didn't invite them all over to my house, haha... While I was at it, I also baked 'a few' cupcakes for the spinning group on Thursday and to put in ...

With the arrival of Spring (some time soon, I'm told) comes a lot of inspiration to make things. To finally turn all that homespun yarn into cushions, toys, shawls and other wearables. To finally turn all that fabric into coats, skirts and pants. And to finally turn that plot of land we call a back garden into a fruitful vegetable patch. But first, some stash enhancement... On the yarn front... 100 gram of roving turned into... 568 m of BLF and silk goodness (2-ply). Courtesy of the Dutch Wool Diva (January yarn club).    There's more yarn in the making... This one speaks for itself...  I started spinning it yesterday, quite thin, again, planning to turn it into a n-ply yarn. But I might change my mind and twine it with something twinkly. Who knows... Fabric-wise, I have been inundated with the stuff... Not only did I get meters of green/brown fabric which would be perfect for a tunic or long skirt, yesterday we also went to a 2nd-hand store where there wa...

Sometimes yarn buying is just like a box of Pringles: once you pop, you can't stop... Over the last few weeks, I've bought a lot of yarn. And have been gifted lots too, like during our SnB party. So, a quick run-down of the new yarnsies living at Chez Amy: Bought during the National Spinning Convention, 3 cakes of merino/tencel roving, called Damiane, 300 grams in total, bought from the love Dutch Wool Diva . This will be spun up and knit into a sweater or something else swish. Then four balls of Lana Grossa Paddy, to knit a hat (done) and scarf to fit the idiot mittens for Batman, and a skein of some unknown yarn from the Sale bin. It was pink, it was fluffy, I liked it, so I bought it (if only all things were so simple). These five come from Het Zwarte Schaap (no website) in Burgum, where we were because we had a voucher ánd because we (me and Marieke from  Wereldwol ) had paid a visit to Monique from  Kantwerk , who celebrated her birthday last week. Yes, 21 again! Five...

Yesterday, we celebrated the 5th anniversary of our local Stitch 'n Bitch group. The preparations started a few months ago with an inventory of ideas, and the organizing committee got to work with all that input, planning the big surprise for all of us. We were first invited to knit, crochet or otherwise craft cool head gear. No party without hats! This is our Frisian geisha Marijke, who unfortunately did not win the prize for best head dress. That went to blogless Gretha with a beautiful summery hat with butterflies on it. I have no good pictures, hopefully I can put up a link to better ones soon! We started the party with some Prosecco, of course in suitable glasses... There were pictures to look at (and take home) of our yarnbombing event earlier this year... And then after depositing our swap yarn for later on that evening in the big box, and writing down our estimates for the 'Guess the weight' competition, we got stuck into the food. Café Wouters had put up a gre...

Yes, the final day of the Summer holiday has arrived! We've thoroughly enjoyed it this year, even though the weather was abysmal at times! We spent a week on the Dutch west coast in the forest, close to the beach (which we didn't see at all, due to a massive sand storm when we went, rain and low temperatures which meant we did mostly city-related day trips) and a week in the east of the country, on a great campsite which we are definitely going to again. I did some knitting, but I read a lot. I really missed doing that at home, so it was great to be able to just sit down, let the children run wild and just read... Read... The knitting isn't finished yet (socks, of course, the perfect bring-along for camping knitting), but I do have to show you some other stuff. During the holidays, I also did some sniffing on eBay, and because I am such a bad loser, I bid hard (not too hard, by the way...) and won two lots from Colourmart. The first one was three cones of DK 2/6 merino i...

We're nearly in Paris... The cyclists are crossing the Alps and I almost went to bits today... Well, as a figure of speech, that is! It was such a busy day: first getting the kids to school for their last day before the Summer Holidays, baking pancakes, dropping them off at school, getting our own lunch ready, then back to school for the class performances... But I never got to that last one. Work put a bit of a spanner in the wheels, in the form of a software glitch, which meant I spent 2 hours cleaning a document up that I had to hand in that afternoon. So no performances for me, but luckily hubby was able to go and take some pictures. While the kids celebrated their first free afternoon, I got on with the rest of the translation jobs in my queue, some cleaning, some cooking, lots of laundry etcetera... to finally sit down to some relaxing and spinning around Question Time... I first n-plied the yarn I spun yesterday, and then got to work on the French (yes, French, not Fresh.....

It was supposed to be a nice outing, to see some more sheep being shorn, enjoy the glorious sunshine, buy some nice goodies, sit down and knit and spin with some of my homeys, chat some more as well, drink coffee, have cake, blah blah. And then the day came. And the heavens opened. Even though it rained, we did go, me and the little Mermaid. See, we had seen on the good old tinternets that the rain would subside and it would become nice. It was just a bit of a shame that the good old tinternets was slightly accurate in that respect. The rain kept falling, although it was just a drizzle, and the wind kept blowing. But isn't it weird that when after three hours of tramping around on a field in your boots, when you don't even feel your toes anymore, you look at each other, smile, and go: THAT WAS GREAT! It was great! We had a great time. And yes, sunshine would have helped, as the rain had scared some of the stallholders away (I didn't blame them, some actually got blown awa...

I have sooo much, and the school was in dire need of more yarn... So, this morning, this left our house. A whole box full of yarn, acrylics, ribbon yarn, wool, all different colours, and lots of needles! Kids, enjoy!!!

Even though I had promised to do it earlier, only today did I find the time to do some blocking. I had also finished my Drops top, so both my Saskia and top went into a little bath and then outside under a towel (in the case of the top) and onto the bed, stuck down with pins to keep it in shape (in case of the shawl). The top came out great. It fits nicely (even though knits can sometimes look huge!) and I love the neckline with the ruffle, which gives just a little (ahum) boost to my bust. And boy, do I look slim! (Yes yes, I know, still several pounds to go, but the 70kg mark is drawing nigh... - don't look at the mess in our hallway...) Pattern: Yoke top Yarn: Drops Alpaca, both single and double thread. Needles: 4 and 5 mm, knit in the round. Size: I knit size L, and probably would have gotten away with a size M. I also realize I don't like knitting this much stockinette, but the promise of the yoke kept me going :) I did not use as much yarn as indicated, so I will ...