Work in progress

We are changing our garage (attached) into a new kitchen. A builder did the construction work but we decided to do all the rest. Unfortunately we are not making a lot of progress. Sometimes we can't seem to find the time to do as much as we would/should but we will get there in the end! I always dreamed about an Aga cooker and I finally got one. He is standing there all by himself, covered in dust (you poor thing) but he's already working and keeping the whole annex quite warm and he cookes like a dream!




We layed bluestone tiles, recently made a ceiling and now we are sanding and painting and sanding and painting and......... We are using only classic colors of Farrow & Ball. The kitchen will be in oak and the working tops and sink are in bluestone. It will be gorgeous, in the end........I can hardly wait to decorate the kitchen with my collection of bowls and pottery. This is only a small part of my collection :)






I had a lovely day off. I did all the cleaning in the morning and took some me-time in the afternoon to listen to some music, knit a little bit, read some magazines etc. It was one of those days that I don't mind the pouring rain and dark skies.

Happy knitting and enjoy your weekend!

x0x0x

Project bag

This is my project bag and I am in desperate need of some little project bags to separate all my projects. This bag is quite big (the picture doesn't show) and it feels like some kind of black hole! It contains about 7 different projects, all my knitpick needles, a box of nicknacks and some books. Any suggestion for a nifty pattern for little projectbags that also looks nice?



Enjoy your day and happy knitting!

xxx

Mad Max

Not really so mad at all, actually, he is the funniest, most cudly and cutest cat I ever had. Max had a surgery last week. I don't know how to explain it exactly in English but I'll give it a try. He had a herpes virus that caused a problem with his eyes. The eyelid somehow was suddenly to wide and his hair was constantly in contact with his eyeball and caused a lot of damage. So they removed a little skin beneath his eye and the problem is completely solved. The eye itself is already fully cured. He wasn't supposed to scratch at the stitches so I stayed on the couch for two nights to make sure that he wouldn't. Who is the mad one here? :D




I almost finished my second Gail I showed earlier and started a new sock, the Twinkelberry but I'm still not sure about this pattern and the yarn or the combination yarn/pattern. I have about all the free patterns available on Ravelry but still can't seem to find my perfect pattern.



Only one more workingday left and then my weekend starts! Yoohoo!


Happy knitting!

xxx

Still alive

At last, I’m back. I’m absorbing of all your blogs but can’t seem to find a little time to write something. I also asked myself some questions; who is interested in reading about my life, the things I do and the things I care about? But, today I had a 30-minute session with an aura-reader at work (this week is ‘the week of your career’ and we can have sessions with aura-readers, coaches etc.) and the things she said gave me some food for thought and I discovered that I really don’t mind if there is only 1 person who reads my blog. Even if no one reads it, I just like to write about all things I care about whenever I feel the need. In the first place I’m writing this for me. I also love to read your blogs to taste a little of all of your lives all over the world. The similarities and differences in live, the way you live and love, about your jobs, what you eat etc. Sometimes so different, sometimes so much the same……

In October my very best friend Wilma and me visited the ‘Handwerkbeurs’ (handicrafts fair) in Rotterdam. We loved it! We had enough time to catch up during our trip by train and did some knitting too. I met so many lovely people who are so devoted to their jobs (dying, spinning or just selling yarn). Even met some ravelry friends from abroad. My stash almost reaches ceiling but I’m happy with everyting I bought. I bought some handdyed mohair and already knitted 4 tams and 1 cowl. I felted the tams and they are so soft. I’m making 2 out of each color (a total of 6) so I can add some tams to my stash of birthday/Christmas presents.

I bought a little book about knitting toe up and started my first pair of toe up socks ever. Still feels strange...........

Some lovely Colinette sock yarn (you can never have to much sock yarn :D)

The most exquisite lace yarn (a blend of baby alpaca, cashmir and tussah silk. So soft! Bought by 'Storm op zolder' (Storm in the attic).

I also bought a new skein of Evilla lace yarn




Finished my Tesserae socks



And started another Gail for my sisters birthday which is on november the 18th so I what to do for the next two weeks.


I'm in a good mood because my weekend starts in about 3 hours and I'm longing for some me time!

Have a nice weekend and happy knitting!!!

xxx

They arrived!!!

Friday afternoon I found a note in my mailbox from the mailman telling me to pick up something from our local postoffice. I drove as fast as my little car allows to pick it up, what else could it be than this package I was waiting for!!! It was a very small box, hmm but I took it to my car and ripped of the wrapping immediately and when I opened it, it was like Pandora's box. I found 6 skeins of the smoothest merino I have ever touched before. They are so tremendously soft and the colours, although a little different than shown on the pictures, are so beautiful. I love them big time and I'm definitively gonna buy more. They were also delivered 2 weeks earlier than expected. No problem to me :D. I bought them at 100 pure wool in Uruguay.

May I present?! (not the best picture ever, taken in a hurry but you can still see the beautiful colours). The first four are a single-ply lace yarn and the last two are single-ply fingering. I bought the fingering for socks but they are way to beautiful to end up in my boots! Don't know what to make of them now, any suggestions?




Last week, as soon it was available, I bought the beautiful new pattern of Anne Hansen for a splendid shawl, the Nightingale wing. I'm using the following skein for it and it knits like a dream!



A few weeks ago I bought myself an Interchangeable Nickel plated circular needle set, Knitpicks of course! I know use them all the time, superb!!! Last week I made a little yarn trip with my friend Wilma. We visited Petra again at 't Kluwenest, I bought another handdyed sock yarn.....



...... also some extra needles for my interchangeable set. It's always a pleasure to visit Petra, looking around over a nice cup of tea (coffee), talking yarn.

After that we went to Rosa (pottery and woolfarm de klosse). It's so much fun to see my future skein walking in the fields near the farm :D...



She dyed some beautiful single-ply mohair (lace weight) in a nice grayish black.




And now the only thing I need is time to knit! Please tell me where I can buy that!

---

Happy knitting!

Yarn from Uruguay

Today I ordered some yarn from Uruguay. It feels a bit risky but I love the yarn so much and it so cheap that I decided to give it a try. This is what I bought........

A sock yarn.........



Some lace weight yarn







It's a 100% Merino and the price is only $8,50 a skein of 3,5 oz and 950 yards (lace weight). That is amazingly cheap I suppose. I bought it here http://www.100purewool.com/servlet/Categories. And now I'm waiting, and waiting and ..............................

Happy knitting!

Back home, back to work

The days of laziness are over, the days of doing whatever I want, whenever I wanted to or doing nothing at all. Back to real life and back to work. But, I enjoyed this summer, the five weeks of travelling, knitting, reading, drinking wine with friends (lots of wine :D ), the murderous heat in the south of France.

The view from our campsite..........


Beautiful little villages...........


The cutest little shops................




We visited the 'Pont du Gard' ...............



So typically French, a beautiful and very old olive tree.........



And of course I did some knitting! For example, the Gail I made for myself. I used a beautiful mohair I bought from Rosa Hultink . The yarn is made from the wool of their own angora goats. It is so soft and warm!



A pair of socks for my very best friend Wilma who looked after my cats while we were in France! The yarn is a Trekking hand art and she loved it so much when she saw it a few weeks ago that I immediately decided that this one should be hers. These where made during the 4000 km drive whe made! The pattern I found in a very old knitting book.



Knitted another pair, Osnabrücker muster socks, for myself . A lovely handdyed yarn in lilac I bought by Petra




Yesterday I started a pair of Leaf remains. I loved the pattern so much I almost started immediately after the pattern was added on ravelry. They will take a while because of all the back loop knits etc. but they are worth every hour!




And I also started a pair of quite simple socks, the Tesserae, to have something to knit while I watch tv......This yarn is also a handdyed of Petra.



And now, after five beautiful weeks it's back to normal life. Tomorrow it's back to school, reading loads of emails, catching up with colleagues (some I haven't seen for about 8 weeks!). Although it's still very warm, it feels like the end of summer........

Happy knitting!!!

xoxox

What happened to June?

What happened? Where did this month go? It's July already and I didn't even notice that June had gone by so quickly! I'm in the middle of the last weeks before summer recess (actually summer recess just began but I'm still trying to finish my work so I can start with a clean slate next school year). But, thursday will be my last day and then I've got 5 weeks ahead to do whatever I want! I'm working at the IT department of a University of Applied Sciences and Johan is working on a school for children with special needs (autism, adhd). He especially needs his 7 weeks off summer recess. He loves to work with those kids but it sucks out all of your energy. Some people think it's a luxury to have such a long summer recess and being a teacher is an easy job but sometimes he really really needs this time off.

What's new on the knitting front? I finished my Kiri.....


and gave it away as a present to my good friend Bernadette (a going away gift, she found a new job)

..... bought some new stuff that I really needed :D. Such as a wool winder, some new knitpick circular needles (Knitpro in Europe) and some handdyed sockyarn at Wolboerderij 't Kluwenest


I really love the knitpick needles, normally I use Addi needles but the cables of the Knitpicks are extremely flexible!

I also learned myself to knit the continental style. I learned to knit when I was 5 years old and learned the English (or throwing) knitting style. It's hard in the beginning, like riding a bike backwards after 35 year of doing it forwards. But I succeeded and the days of aching shoulders are over.

Last saturday I went to 'De Klosse' and bought some very soft and gorgeous mohair of their own goats in pink and a soft grey (sorry, no pictures yet) and I started a new lace shawl with the pink mohair, the beautiful Gail. I hope to finish that one next week so I can cast on the Percy next.

Next week we will arrive in the south of France and stay there for about 3 weeks. I am now trying to sort out which yarn I shall bring with me and there are now 2 plastic bags loaded with yarn and I'm trying to reduce them to 1! I also can't decide which socks to knit!! Aargh, choices, choices......:D Maybe I can add some beautiful yarn to my stash in France but I really don't know any lys in the area we are staying. I'm so ready for this holiday, the heat, the smell, the colours of France! We have Wifi on the campsite we are staying so maybe I will do some blogging over there to show my finished Gail :D



For all of you, happy knitting and happy holiday!!!

Summer?

Almost summer but it's really cold and at the moment it's pouring. This afternoon we went for a little walk in the woods nearby but beside that (and doing our weekly shopping) I haven't been outside much this weekend.



What else could I do than start a new knitting project? I'm making a 'Kiri' shawl for my good friend Bernadette. I want to give it to her on the 3th of july so that gives me plenty of time to finish it and do some sock knitting at the same time. I'm using the Evilla lace yarn in dark purple and I think this works out quite beautiful (but it's always hard to see when a shawl is not blocked yet)


And now it's sunday evening again, the weekend is almost over and that means getting up at 6 tomorrow and getting back to work for another week. But, I'm counting the weeks till summer recess. Only 6 weeks to go and then have 5 whole weeks to knit, read, sleep and do whatever I want!

Happy knitting!

Knitting club

Last night I met a few of the members of our little knitting club. My throat is still soar...... we talked so much and I knitted..........uh, not even 1 stitch! I was busy using the ball winder that Ineke brought for me and made these beauties


Especially for co-knitter Corien; a picture of the table I made with the circular saw I got for my last birthday. Try not to see all the clutter and building materials! Dimensions 2.60mx0.9mx0.78m and made out of old roof-beams



Thanks again Ina for inviting us! I had a lovely evening!

Happy knitting!

Working days are here again

This is where I spent most of my time during weekdays, working very very hard :D



dreaming about these new yarns and trying to decide which pattern to use for my next pair of socks (Yarn - Trekking Hand Art Trinidad) Any suggestions?


I also bought some new lace yarn, Evilla single-ply lace yarn in a very dark purple and a natural brown one. The purple one I'm using for a present for my good friend and ex-colleague Bernadette. It's gonna be her good-bye present and I have to finish it before july 3rd. I need to cast on straight away but I just can't seem to decide which pattern to use! Help!


Last february I followed a workshop at 'De wolmand' for advanced sock knitting. Tonight I'm meeting the co-sock knitting addicts I met there and we are trying to meet once a month. The whole evening talking about yarns, patterns and knitting! So much fun...

Happy kniting!

Seven weeks

Only 7 weeks and then we will leave for another holiday in my beloved France! We will stay in a little village called Vernet les Bains and it is situated in the 'Pyrenées Oriental' near the Spanish border. It is so perfect, near sea and mountains, charming little villages, cold at night and very hot in daytime! I just love it there! I'm longing for a visit at the local market early in the morning when it's not that hot...............


And I am all out of that beautiful french soap 'Savon de Marseille'. I can buy them here but it is so much more fun to get them from far :D


Don't you love those beautiful colours? I wish I had sock yarn in those colours.......