Frisian Frillies

Nothing finished to show yet, as I'm suffering from severe startitis, gardenitis and workoverloaditis, but I am still plodding along at a few things... The hankies are being torn apart and turned into fingerless mittens, to wear while working on the computer (not necessary now, as the weather is glo-ri-ous, and the garden office season has already been officially opened and celebrated with its first office barbecue). The merino and silk blend has been spun up and partially plied. The 2-ply and singles will be knitted up into a Citron, probably... And my Blush socks are now at their final pattern repeat. Cuff, here I come... But first, I'm going to retire to my office again... Note the arty piece of driftwood we found last weekend on the beach. Apparently, it's a Star Wars gun. ;)

No, not III, but ill. Yuck. Feel like I'm shouting all day, because my ears are blocked. As is my throat. And my nose. Great combo... I do have progress, such as a finished clapotis (worn at the moment, unblocked as of yet), the first of my Salida socks (beautiful!!!), started on a pair of socks for big S, and I got asked to knit a Celestine as a baby shower gift. Hopefully I can get the camera to do make some pictures tomorrow for me. Should take off clapotis and block it. Nah... hot soup first...

A white wall... well, nearly, just a few patches to touch up (note to self: by daylight!) here and there. And mystical powers have created a perfect circle in the middle of the wall where the paint is much whiter than around it... Strange... And some projects! My Hourglass socks are done. Love the colour and feel of the socks but.... they are very saggy and a bit big. Socks for my boots! I might frog back a bit and shorten the foot, but when I pull them up they seem fine, probably because of the combination of a lacey pattern and my voluptuous calves... ;) And some WIPs, firstly my Chullo, in Alpaca, still a bit doubtful whether I made the right choice there, but I'll try it on after the next 2 patterns and then decide... And socks in a yarn I got gifted for my sock blanket. As it was a full ball, I thought I try some socks first. Well. What can I say. These are being frogged back and I'll try to make them with Lieke's Pieken & Dalen pattern.... This is not really my ta...

Well, a little peak won't hurt... First of all, I have to rectify. The colourway of the yarn isn't Angelic, but Archangel. Sorry! It's a lovely rich purple with some orange, a bit of soft pink, a bit of grey/green... Yum! Can anyone guess the pattern? And then, Mooooo. The colours look a bit off here, but we are planning to knit a rainbow. Ssssst... And, last but not least: Hey Teach! Back nearly done. I've been a bit sidetracked by the sock yarn...

Means new mittens, hat and scarf... Soooo, sometime soon I will cast on the Snowbird Mittens from Vogue Knitting, in white and dark grey. Let's see if my local pimp has enough Karisma in stock to get this little project done... (this coat is red, VERY, even though it looks pink here... Just blame my self-photography skills... lol) For now, I'm test knitting some Malabrigo sock yarn. Yum! And very cleverly they put a little knot halfway the skein, so you know where to break it if you want to knit two socks at the same time. Cool hey? Results will be up sometime soon in the appropriate place... Sorry, still a bit secretive here... But the fact the colour way is called 'Angelic' should be a little hint ;) More secretive stuff: SnB Fryslan is knitting a bit of a Santa project. So much fun! I have 'it' at home now and am busy working on that too... I'm also writing a poem to go along with it, so some inspiration in that department would also be welcome. Hey Teac...

Even though Gillian was my favourite, I have to admit that the best 'man' won... Fierce! I secretly start knitting Hey Teach! sssssst... Don't tell anyone...

I finally decided to produce some 'affo's', as us Dutchies affectionately call FO's, as I could hardly show up on Wednesday's SnB without my Mimosa and Acorn mitts... I will take a picture later today, loads of appointments and I think big S filled the camera's memory with pictures of baby S (soon to be wee S) in the swimming pool this morning. So... be patient! I love the way my Mimosa came out! I did have to improvise the bind-off as I ran out of yarn. I did half of it 'properly' and then when from the other site backwards (I love circular needles...). You don't really see the difference, so I'm not too bovvered... The mitts are nice and long, ideal for on the bike or when pushing the pram this winter... I have also booked a ticket for the SnB event in Rotterdam on November 3rd and booked myself into Yvon 's class on sideways sock knitting. I've seen it before and it looks intruiging! Only on my shopping list: yarn for the Secret of th...

Saw this on another blog (sorry, forgot which one, had closed my windows...)... Haha... Somehow I don't think I'll get big S into knitting... But maybe something for baby S, to make him into a proper metrosexual whenever he's growing up? (Let's get him to start talking first...) Ballerina is coming on fine. Body is done. Dress is ready until the straps (got a bit confused there, but I'll figure it out). And I've cast on a new pair of socks for wee H. Toe-ups! And two on one circular. Thought I'd test myself and see if I could do two new things at once, haha... I'm going shopping today in Groningen, so it's a nice project for on the train there and back...

Yes, I've succumbed again... I so enjoyed knitting the Mystery Stole, that I've joined the Secret of the Stole group on Yahoo for another KAL. This time it will be a soft pink (o no, not pink AGAIN...) stole, hopefully with beads (as I now know where to get them...). So that makes my autumn/winter programme as follows: Sept 30 - finished: Mitten Exchange Oct 5 - Nov 23: Secret of the stole Oct 14 - RIP: Sock Wars I've also got orders outstanding for some kiddy and baby mitts, scarves and hats. Guess that's going to keep me busy for a while... :-) My KDDB socks are nearly done. Bit busy with work these days, so not a lot of knitting time (grrr)...

Yeah, my first KDDB sock is done! Here it is... Tadaaaaaa... Very pleased with the result, and I guess the second sock will go super fast. Stupid thing is I should have knitted two socks at the same time, cause it took me for-e-ver to find the right spot to cast on for the second sock. Ach, well, live and learn... Nice to finish the sock last night after a difficult day with the funeral. But we all got through it and it was good. Right, back to work!

I promise I will knit my next project in another colour than pink. Have to admit it does not photograph very well :-P, but it does brighten up my blog... These are my Acorn mitts after a gentle spray and pulling straight. I hope to have finished my scarf this weekend so I can sew these little ones up... And the bane of all knitters, a spiralling scarf. What do you get when you cast on 200 stitches, double those, double those again and then double those again? Right, way to many stitches. It takes for-e-ver to finish a row. Luckily there's only a few more rows to go and the next one or the next one after the next one and the next one will get some beads... Be patient, I know I am... And so are my KDDB socks. I know babies, you're next to get finished!

Today started with some bad news. After a struggle with cancer, my friend Daniella's mother passed away this morning. It made me very angry, cause it is always such an unfair way to go. Luckily they all spent the last week of her life together and everyone important to Sietske was there. It made me just want to break stuff and throw things away. Actually quite a good thing as we had to clean up our and the kids' rooms today. We only really got our own room and baby S's room done, but I did manage to sneakily fill our wheely bin with loads of toys wee H never plays with, baby S will never play with and which are not fit for recycling. We also rearranged their wardrobes, exchanging summer for winter clothes and in baby S's case, dividing up all the usuable clothes over 4 boxes for various friends and their kiddies. Turns out that including what I got this week, he has enough clothes to get him through the winter. On the knitting front, I finished my first Acorn. They'...

I got my yarn for my Acorn fingerless mitts today... Wow. Bright. Cerise. Bright. Very bright. Coooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool! But the beads I have, don't look nice on it, so I have a great excuse to venture into town today (despite my cold, hatsjoe!) to get some colourless glass beads. I think that is the best option, because when I held the shiny silver ones against it, big S asked me when I had my date with Madonna :-S Okay, say no moah... I'm also making this as a present for wee J from next door, who will turn 2 next week. I saw it on the newsletter from De Hobbydoos and fell in love straight away. So, this weekend will look a bit like this: * wake up at 5 AM * knit Acorn mitts for 1 hour * knit KDDB socks for 1 hour * have breakfast with the kids * play a bit * have a big cup of coffee * clean the new windows and doors * clean the kids rooms * get baby S to bed and wee H into the garden to play * sit down with another cup of coffee and crochet Ballerina until ba...

I have finished the Kort door de bocht (KDDB) socks up to the heel. I've actually done three repeats, cause I wanted the socks a bit longer. It turns out that with the Trekking XXL striping I get two stripes per repeat, which looks quite cute. Very pink though, just what I like. Now I need some crocs to wear them in, but I guess the season for crocs is really over... :-S Finally managed to drag my feet towards the camera and take some pictures. Here are my finished Online socks, just plain stockinette. They do sag a bit, and the striping is not as nice as I had envisioned it, but they sure are comfy...

No pictures of the Mystery Stole yet, because it was incredibly busy, and yesterday I went to see As you like it . Great!!! If you like Shakespeare, if you like open-air theatre, this is definitely the place to go!!! So, instead, a nice picture I took last week when I had some lovely white roses... And one of our house in its current state... Have to admit, even with all this mess, it still looks better than it did. If you don't believe me, have a look at this: We're getting new windows and door in at the moment, a lot of work, but boy, is it worth it... Everything is 'in' now, apart from the boarding at the front, so now it's time to get the insides all tidied up. The attic is done, so big S can enjoy a lovely new work place already :-)

And the decision has been made. Gulp... The feathers will be frogged and I am lengthening the stole. When I saw this the decision was easy. Tonight will be the night. I've still got a bit of rose left in the bottle, and together with some Japanese nuts that will ease the pain of all that hard work being undone. But hey, I had also made a mistake in the feathers, which will now be taken out too, yeah! Nothing to show for my diaper efforts. I spent a lot of time making a proper template in cardboard, which saves a lot of time when you have to draw out the shape on multiple layers of fabric, and reading and re-reading the instructions until (a glass of rose later) I finally got what she meant. I'm trying out the Wee Weka AIOs in the S/M size. It is slightly bigger than the Jobbes pattern I've been using, so baby S's butt should be sufficiently covered this way. And guess what? I thought I had loads of fabric for diapers. Uhm? Where? I do have some jungle fleece which I...

Yeah, piccies of my stole! While I was pinning it out on the bed, wee H was goofing around and when she lay down for a second, I noticed she is about as tall as the stole is long ;-) As you can see, I only have a short bit of 'flower' pattern. I had knitted about the whole length of the pattern, but the stole turned out to be too long, so I frogged back to the point indicated by Melanie. V happy now. It's wide, but very 'chique'... Tonight, I'm starting on clue 6! I've also decided not to continue with the house blanket. Because I chose acrylic yarn and not the Rowan indicated, my swatching already indicated it was going to be a bit wider... But, after only 15 cm, it is about 2 meters wide instead of just over a meter (???) and I've already knitted up one whole ball of 300 grams :-S As I have 3 (I could always get more, but prefer not to, weight-wise), I decided to change it for a different pattern, which is easier to extend/shorten than the one from the...

...when there are so many hobbies to spend your time on? Sigh... Today I managed to actually translate about 5 pages (ooo, not good...), but hobby-wise was cool. I translated 2 pages of crochet instructions for a Barbie dress (my mother's English is not very good, so she requested a translation), which meant I did have to crochet parts of it to test whether I got the instructions right, and scrapped 3 birthday cards. My baby blanket for baby S is also progressing nicely and I told myself I'm not allowed to continue with the stole until I've taken some photographs of the current state. haha, I'm SO strict on myself... Plans for the weekend are to make some new diapers for baby S as well, because he's getting to big for some! The width is not the problem, but the height is. You can see his bum crack and unless he's thinking of a career in construction, I think we'd better rectify that :-) Not that his bum is ugly or anything... And maybe in between it all, I...

Clue 5 is done, Harry Potter is finished, so to tide me over until Friday, I've cast on 286 stitches (gulp) for a baby blanket for baby S. I found some cool extremely cheap acrylic yarn at a local store, so instead of knitting it in super expensive Rowan, I thought I'd try this first. Piccies to follow!

Inspired by another great SnB evening with the gals, I've FINISHED the lace cap for my friend Cee. Yeah! I had already finished the knee socks for wee H and started baby socks for S with the rest of the wool. Sooooo, to treat myself, I've signed up to this ! Two of the members of our SnB group had already started the first bit of the mystery stole and it looks so cool that I'm going to give it a go! Now it's to decide what and how... I'm very probably gonna make it in black. I know, a difficult colour, especially for lace knitting. But I do consider myself an experienced lace knitter (at least in socks, haha), so that shouldn't be the problem. When I've ended up with 2 meters worth (?) of stitches, you can come and laugh me in the face. So, where to buy black laceweight? Time to give my friend Renske from De Hobbydoos a ring... Pictures of the FO's tomorrow, it's a bit late and dark (yawn)..