The witches

Yesterday was great, Boyfriend-Dear's mum (BDM) took me to this yarnshop she's been telling me about for ever. BDM is my present knitting coach, my omi is now too old and lives too far away, so these days BDM saves my disasters and shows me the ropes. She's great!



So this yarnshop is in Oudewater, a small town that's know mostly for it's witch weighing.
BDM thinks she was a witch in one of her former lives and what's even funnier ... she thinks I've been one too. I might have been, sure, I think I would've been a great witch, hehehe! So there we were, two witches in modern times, on our way to the yarnshop from were we get our supplies wich we then will turn into something that will look completely different. It's like magic...

The shop is called De Distel and is run by a very friendly lady that has a mega-amount of different yarns and all kinds of wannahaves. I love it when a shopowner takes the time to talk to you and is honest when it comes to selling. And in the knitting-bizz you really want to sell, since it's not soccer or golf, not everybody does it and not everybody spents their month's wages on it. (ok, maybe some...)



Anyway... after entering the magical world of yarn, I had, offcourse, in no-time managed to put a great big pile of new yummiestuff on the counter. But I was on a budget (as I usually am) so she helped me to, step-by-step, decide what to take and what to put back in the cubicals, and she made me feel good about my choises too. BDM added some of her wise mummy-like remarks and I left the shop feeling happy and in a 'new-project' mood instead of a 'deprived-of-what-I-so-obvioulsy-should-have-but-the-world-won't-let-me' kind of mood. (which is good)

Since I've become more serious about knitting (read: obsessed) I have visited about 6 or 7 yarnshops in the Rotterdam area and this one is definately in my top 3 so far. It wasn't the biggest, it wasn't the prettiest and it certainly wasn't the closest to my house... but the combination of a great choise of yarn, the friendly owner and the way she talked about keeping her prices low by deciding to do things differently is definatly worth a little free advertising. I took some pictures of the shop and my new cutieyummieyarns for my new projects. And since I can't make a link because there isn't a website, here's the adress:

De Distel - Wol
Korte Havenstraat 1
3421 AG Oudewater
Tel. 0348 561935

So these are going to be my projects for the summer:

Tie One On ,
Tempting &
Clapotis .

I'll start Tempting first, because it's my first sweater and I might need some help from BDM or the internet, before I go on holiday. And I want it finished so I can wear it when strutting on boulevards in Italy or lingering by a Swedish lake (Boyfriend-Dear and me are still deciding where we want to go...).
Clapotis will be a great project to take with me and so will one of the Tie One On variations. And I've bought some sockyarn too, so I'm set. In summer the knitting is competing for my attention with reading. It'll be a heavy fight this year, I've got a bunch of great books waiting for me, but then last summer I wasn't so serious about (read: addicted to) knitting...

Oh I just remembered... I'll have to start knitting an orange scarf or something soon, the World Championships Soccer are almost starting and I have to look fantabulous in our national color (why orange... why?? WHY??). I'm thinking a very thin summerscarf. Any other great ideas anyone?

I think my camera is suffering from depression... I took these pictures in full sunlight, but they don't look sunny at all... Poor cammy ... :-(

The black yarn is Isis from Scheepjes and is 100% -slightly shiny- cotton.
The Jamaica from Katia is 100% cotton.
The light and dark blue glitter yarn(Rpma) is 81% wool, 14% acrilyc and 5% polyester.
That lush green number is for the most part mohair (the tag fell off...).
The multicolor sockyarn Invicta Coloris form Scheepjes is 75% virgin wool, 25% nylon. the multicolor yarn on top is Phildar, plaisance and is 50% cotton and 50% acrylic.