Frisian Frillies

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 ...

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 ...

And then it was done... There was some frantic action this last week... First, I stee-eeeeeeeked! It was actually not as scary as I thought. I just took my scissors and cut open the cleavage... And tadaa... After picking up a gazillion stitches along the neckline... Then it was time to finish this baby off... It's weird to knit a 'winter' sweater, when it's nearly 30C outside... The sweater likes lying about in the sun too... And then it's time for a soak and some more sun... Lots of waiting... more waiting... and more waiting... And then: the big reveal! TADAAAA! I have the cleavage to pull this off, apparently ;) And my hips don't look half bad either. Happy happy!!! I'm ready for Shetland, baby! Now, off to find another project... Thankfully, a little dragon baby was born in Austria... Guess what I'll be knitting...

I know it's not Sunday today, but I've been planning to write and upload this post sinds Sunday, so it sort of counts... Look! We booked our trip! Next October, for the Shetland Wool Week , me and my friend Monique  will be off on a plane to the beautiful Shetland Islands. We have been jumping around like little girls ever since. Just the two of us, no kids, no husbands, just us and an entire archipelago filled with yarn... The cottage has been booked, the car has been reserved and we also decided that for our trip we just had to bring something Shetland-knit. And my eye fell on the Autumn Rose sweater by Eunny Yang. I am adjusting the colours slightly, with blue and green as main colours, and after some fiddling with numbers and colours, placing my order for Shetland yarn with Tissien , this arrived in the post... Lots, and lots and lots of yarn! I immediately cast on a swatch (despite my over-full diary...), and got gauge (sort of). This meant I could sort out my colour...

Every woman likes to pretend she is a diva. I'm a disco diva. I transferred from puberty to 'womanhood' at the end of the eighties, and when I was 16, (the) disco was my life. Me and my mate Christina spent many a Saturday Night feverishly looking for boys (well, be honest, 'men'...) to seduce and then leave stranded. We were taken, you see, both totally in love with our foreign boyfriends. We would smile, flutter our eyelashes, drink their Bacardi/beer/Martini and then vamoosh. Those were the days... ;) My disco days are now behind me (saggy bum, saggy boobs, saggy bags under my eyes), but now and again I dare to squeeze my legs in fishnet stockings, paint my nails (fingers and toes) bright red and sing yelp along with INXS. When I got a huge bag of Gratia de Luxe  last year, the disco diva in me awoke again. And a while ago I started knitting a discotastic glittery sweater, which is now finished: I know that some people would already start itching on seeing the...

I finished Sam's knight's chainmail tunic Sunday, and on Monday morning saw that what I had already feared, had happened. The decreases as per instructions in the pattern just didn't work. I brushed a few tears away when I told the little man he had to take it off again and that mommy would fix it as soon as she got out of the hospital, and put it in the knitting chest again. Big was the surprise when I was told I could go home today, as my operation (not a biggy, no fear) is not until tomorrow afternoon. So, after all the doctors had a good poke and prod, after enough blood was taken to help out in a war, I got back on the bus home. And of course, finished the knitting ;) And now I have a happy little knight man. Who is blissfully asleep, dreaming of fighting dragons... Sam with his outfit and his huge dragon sword and armor. Who can say no to a face like that... Yes, I will be making pants to go with that (anywhere I can get some cheap leather(ette) stuff?) and a helme...

It's amazing how quick you can knit with some time on your hands... It was great to have a little, simple project for the Xmas period, which I could knit on while watching telly after a nice meal. So, without much trouble, I finished Sam's stripey sweater I started a few weeks ago, and which, instead of being a Spring sweater, has already been christened by a very happy little sailor boy! (I apologize for the fuzzy and small pictures.. phone-camera and a quick moving child don't go well together...) Het is verbazingwekkend hoe snel je kunt breien als je even wat tijd hebt... Het was heerlijk om een klein, eenvoudig projectje te hebben voor Kerst, waar ik aan kon breien tijdens het tv-kijken, na een heerlijke maaltijd. Ik heb zonder veel problemen Sams gestreepte trui kunnen afmaken waar ik een paar weken geleden aan was begonnen. En in plaats van een voorjaarstrui is hij direct ingewijd door een zeer blij zeilmanneke! (Mijn excuses voor de vage en kleine foto's... mij...