Picture Post (with hidden mini contest)

There's a new baby girl next door and I made this for her mommy. It's been years and years since I did some needlepoint(ing?). So it was a bit of an adventure. It's a handkerchief for the 3rd or 4th day after giving birth, notorious for lots of tears flowing. I haven't got a clue how to translate 'kraamtranen' so if any of my Dutch readers know, feel free to comment!

This I made for the wee girl herself. It's from 'One Skein' , a great and quick knit. I've used a vintage skein from a bag that was given to me by my MIL, no idea what brand it was... I made one for my little boy too (though it's a little girly I admit) I thought that one turned out quite big. I changed the needles by one whole size and made this pretty little thang. She'll only wear it the first few days, but that's when loads of pictures are taken ;-) and eventually she can use it for her dolls.

A while ago I made a little baby shrug for Iep to wear in his sleeping bag when it's colder. I used two random skeins from my stash. One Rowan type tweed in two threads (no label, sorry) and the other a Lana Grossa type tweed. The pattern is described in a Dutch book about how to go about getting a good daily routine for your baby. Although it's considered a bit old fashioned by some people, It's very popular and was an absolute eyeopener for me in the first few weeks of my little boy's life.
A late afternoon at the zoo. Bright and great light for pictures.

Yup, they're real. It looks like the set of a jeans brand's picture shoot or something, but it's the indoor space for these beautiful deer.
Spring is coming!
This is my view while nursing. Although I'd rather look at a bunch of trees (even one would be great) this is really kinda cool too. I'm enjoying how it looks different every time. Sometimes it's so foggy that the skyline just isn't there, very spooky.

Rotterdam's skyline from a bigger distance. A nice long walk around 'de Kralingse plas' (mini lake).
Back to knitting. I'm working on this pattern, it's a .... guess what it's going to be and I'll send you a small surprise! (first right answer wins, winner will be posted in a week's time)
Cobblestone is slowly but steadily growing.
Did I tell you I'm cheating...
I'm taking sewing classes at the Sewing Café where I teach my knit workshops. I've had two lessons and I can tell you now, it's a quick fix compared to knitting. Like a shot of tequila compared to a glass of wine. But I can never imagine setting aside, let alone leaving, my true love:
knitting!


Wow, I just blew about a dozen opportunities to post about in one blow. Talk about a quick fix...

If only I could do this to Ravelry... I'm still not updated and it's starting to haunt me.... argh!

All Things Bright and Shiny

Hi everybody, or those of you who are left... I'm sorry that I haven't been very blog-active lately. I have a very good reason but can't tell you about it (yet) so hang in there and for now I'll leave you with some pictures of shiny things. And who doesn't like bright shiny things? Well, I know I do!

We start off with the bright. My SIL CC got me a tray of viola's (I have no idea if that's the proper English term...) and I've decided to brighten up a dreary day and plant them in my balcony plant hanger.
It worked! The day got a little brighter.

Now on with the shiny. These I've been meaning to show you for a while now. The top ones (with one fish bone missing because I'm using it) are a gift from this lass. The Delft blue hearts I've made myself. and these...
These I've bought from Ballee and they're as lovely as the personalised gift wrap they came in! A Tiger! I love tigers. How's that for client friendly service?
I'll leave you with this brightly colored thing. It's this design and it was supposed to work, but it didn't. I looked for a pattern for this hand spun, hand dyed yarn for ages and was positive it would work... Problem: my boobs are too big and the edge isn't stretchy. I tried to fix it by making the edge bigger and smaller in the neck. Still didn't work. I'm not going to show you a picture of me wearing it, because frankly, I don't want to do that to you! The texture is lovely, the colors are lovely but it's no where near soft and skin friendly and looks best when knitted with 10mm needles. So, I'm thinking: FROG IT and BAG IT, that is; make it into a bag. So if anyone has a nice pattern for a bag that's knitted on 10mm's, HOLLAR!

I'm still knitting on Tempting II and some toe up socks and they're both getting there so bear with me!

Tomorrow is an exciting day for me. Hopefully I'll be able to tell you more about it soon.

:-)

On How to Embarrass Yourself

I hardly ever take the subway. Only when the weather's really bad or when my bike's broken. The latter was the reason to go underground today.
It can be quite convenient this small world underground, if you need to fix your shoes or get a quick juice, for a time management freak like me anything that needs to be done that's on the route and for the grabs is a big plus!

The downside of taking the metro (I'm using as much synonyms as I can here...) is that I really don't know the way very well. Even after living here for about 9 years I still fuck it up. As long as I have a steady A and a steady B (as in: from A to B), it's fine, but as soon as they change on me I'm Alice in 'I'm Wondering where the hell this train goes to Land'.

Since I've got the new job, I've taken the subway 3 times (the weather's been really bad...)and I got on the wrong train 2 times!! Today wasn't the exception.

The funny thing is, that thís time I actually took time to think about my failures in the past and promised myself I'd get it right this time. So I drew an imaginary map of the roads on top of the tracks in my head. I distinguished the North from the South, the East from the West and made my decision.

THE WRONG ONE!!

The general direction was good, the line wasn't.

So when I got out at the next stop, crossed the tracks to go back and waited for the return train to come... I took some work out of my bag and started reading it. Might as well make myself useful while waiting, right?

After a few seconds some guy came towards me and stopped just a little bit to close in my 'comfort zone'.
(Hold your arms as a ballerina in front of you, your fingers touching each other. That's the general comfort zone of a Dutch person in the city, anyone that gets closer than that is considered either a very, very dear friend, or a freak.)
So I shuffled to the left. But about half a minute later another guy moved in 'the zone' on the other side (the side that I just shuffled to to get some more space).

All this zone-clogging wasn't necessary, there was plenty of room, but I returned to my reading and hoped the train would arrive fast.

Then, suddenly, I smelled a foul odour. Gosh, it was nasty... No way, they wouldn't... NO WAY!!
From underneath my eyelids and over the edge of my glasses I threw a quick look to one guy, nothing... and then to the next, nothing... I couldn't bélieve it, how can you let one pass and keep such a poker face... It's should be illegal!

That was the drop, I had enough.
I moved 6 big steps away and didn't care if it was obvious that I was walking away from them specifically. I was not going to take this. Whatéver!

The train came, I got in and it took about 4 seconds before I smelled that stanch again... 'Oh my god, what's going on here?!' It didn't make sense, the two guys were in another part of the train. It drifted off and I arrived at 'B'.

On the way up, to the light, to the fresh air, it hit me...
In my bag was a microwave steam diner with salmon and broccoli that had been there (unrefrigerated) for most of the day...

I was the skunk!
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I've finished my dark green simple slippersocks (pictures soon but they will be boring) and I'm working on the shrug made out of the Texel handspun and handdyed wool, a bit scratchy but be-au-ti-full!

X-mas Knitting & a Ruined Ego

I thought I was pretty clever, designing and whipping up this shrug a day before Christmas, to match my new sleeveless dress...

And then my MIL went and showed me this....

She's making a dollhouse and everything in it herself... There's some mean knitting, lacework and embroidery going on there...!

Have you ever seen hand knit mittens this small??


And this is how she does it:


And along with all sorts of other presents she also got me this:
sock yarn!! great colors, perfect to wear with jeans. I love having a MIL that knits! Even though she's ruining my knitting ego with all her teenytinyknitwear...