Stars 'n Flowers

My homegirl Sterre, daughter of my homegirl Roos celebrated her second birthday not too long ago. I asked Roos if she'd like me to knit her wee girl something. And she did. She'd like a black hat and scarf.

And so it was done. From this book I took a pretty 'hat with flower on top' pattern and designed a scarf to go with it myself. It took me a bit longer then expected, because of the small needles, but it was really fun to knit, especially the flowers; quick and cute! The whole project took me about a week and a half or maybe two weeks... can't remember exactly.

At first I was worried whether the hat would be to big for her, but it fitted her perfectly and because I decided to knit a size in between the sizes in the book, she'll be able to wear it again next year.

Oh m'gosh, how cute is this girl?! Two years old and smiling like a professional model!

Together with her gorgeous mommy showing her new winter outfit.

You'd think; 'what an adorable picture.' But what you don't know is that this little star just got out of bed and smelled like poo mixed with toothpaste. (lucky you!, poor me.... it does explains my weird facial expression!)

Pattern: Flower Toggle Hat from Designs For Kids By Lucinda Guy + self desingned scarf which is basically using the same stitch knitting an 8" wide scarf, starting with a border in one color, (the same length as the one in the hat) and ending with the second color. Graft it together and make more flowers from the book to pimp it up. The length of the scarf is about 1.15 m (45")

Materials: Lana Grossa, Merino 2000, superfein, 100% virgin merino wool. needle size 3-3,5 (mm) but I used 4,5 mm. 1 skein of 437 (hot pink), 1 skein of 433 (red) and 3 skeins of black (lost the number...)

Alterations to the pattern: Sizes in de book are for 2-3 yrs old / 3-4 yrs old and 4-5 yrs old. The hat is knitted in two pieces, I took made one piece in the smallest size and one in the medium size to come up with a size that's somewhere in the middle. The girl is two but fits it perfectly. (she doesn't have an unnatural big head by the way...)

Time 2 knit: About two weeks, knitting an hour or two a day, for the whole set.

End result: Both loved by myself, the recipient (she'd actually wear it indoors while squeaking and smiling) and the recipients parents. (the kind loving it a knitter loves, repeatedly crying out how cool it is and how lovely it looks and how fantastic you are for making it) Should I just come clean? ... This is why I knit, it's just a self esteem booster... hehehehe

Tag Rotterdam

Remember the Ladyfest? Well, I promised you I'd show you some pictures of the finished knitted tags from the workshop I gave. Well, the camera results were a wee bit disappointing, but still, here are some of the tags in full glory, framed by the beautiful city of Rotterdam. (most of them are taken at night... so it might just as well be Paris... Barcelona or Capelle a/d IJssel...)

knitted by a Romanian knitter who's organising Ladyfest Romania

you'll remember this one, I added it for picture volume...

anonymous knitter in action in broad daylight (bold!!) while actions questioned by wee Chinese passers-by.

Tagging right in front of my favorite hang out, I'm fearless!

Some funky knitwear by another 'anonymous' knitter. I was told that the Erasmus Bridge (aka 'the Swan') is prominently in the background... somewhere...

Anyone who feels like tagging in Rotterdam with me, let me know. I'll provide you with the logo so you can print it on adress labels, attach it to your tag and go Heat Up The City in the name of 'Tag Rotterdam'!! Let's give the people of Rotterdam something to smile and wonder about and brighten the place up a little!! (I know the logo's not great, I just quickly whipped it up before the workshop, but hey, it communicates, right?!) If you want to join, HOLLAR!

On other knitting matters:

I knitted Daniel a simple skull wristband for his birthday but forgot to post the pictures. Daniel is a very talented and extremely nice photographer. He printed one of his pictures for my birthday. I love home-made gifts! In the picture you see my friend Steven (on the left) with Reinier together with two other fellas they form the band Cellophane. They absolutely rock, you should really check out their 'My Space'.

maybe not so flattering a picture but it's totally due to my poor camera phone, let that be clear to y'all!

At the moment I'm working on a i-pod nano cover and a scarf for Daniel (I guess he's become a fan...) and a scarf for his girlfriend (and talented multi-artist) Kim. There's hardly any time for 'my own' projects, but I'm enjoying myself to no extend. I'm really, really flattered that people are now ordering 'SAS Knits It Again' knitwear.

I've almost finished the hat and scarf for Sterre, pictures coming up shortly!

Now I'm off downstairs, where there's more knitting to be done. I just luuuuuurv the weekend!

Raspberry Beret

Let me just start you off with this beauty. A double rainbow appeared over WaterFront (the pop venue/club that I do PR/publicity for) I was too late to capture them both, but I did get just the one. It was be-au-ti-full, and we're already in a great location. I just wanted to share this with you guys and now...

on to the knitting:

Remember when I got that great package from Andrea? Well, it came with some really soft and funky kid mohair/merino blend from Touch Exclusive. Great New Zealand made stuff. Well, I conjured up some plans to make the most out of it. And I think I succeeded. Two skeins of a 100 grams made me a complete fall/winter set. The beret is the 'last minute purled beret' by Wendy from Knit & Tonic, the shawl pattern I also took from Wendy's blog. And the pattern for the mittens is this one from Garnstudio. I finished the shawl the last just so that I could make the best usage of the yarn since the pattern is done when you're done with your yarn... I added two pink buttons, but it can also be tied as a scarf and a pink crocheted poodle I got from my friend Roos.

Thank you Drea!! I'm wearing it all the time, I love it! :-)

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Last Friday we had our first Knit-together (Brei-eenkomst) of the season. We have a summer stop since most of our knitters are beginners and still associate knitting with winter... but we'll soon kick that irrational thought right out of them, I promise! Zita hosted the knitting party and invited two new knitters; Nancy and Cindy. It took them about two seconds to get the hang of it and they each finished about 1/8 of a scarf by the end of the evening. Faultless!!

It was all good! (and not only for the human knitters...)

This is my current project. A hat for Roos' daughter Sterre's birthday.
It's from this book:

The original title is: 'Designs for Kids' by Lucinda Guy and was first published by Rowan Yarns in 2005, it's a great book full of fun kid's patterns for sweaters, hats, scarfs, blankets and stuffed animals. I'm making the Flower Hat as requested in black. But I'm using some pink and red as well to spicy it up a little. After I finish the hat I'm designing a scarf to go with it since there's no matching scarf design in the book. But hey, I'll manage. I have some Ideas, how hard can it be?! (or am I tempting faith here by saying this...?)

Meanwhile I've finished an i-pod nano bag and as soon as it's received by it's new owner, I'll take and post some pictures and maybe even the pattern. I can tell you, it's really, really, no wait... REALLY small! And I've come up with some rather nifty designing solutions. But all that later! Bye!

LadyFest Knitting Frenzy

'Starting off with a picture that's a metaphor for this weekend; knitting & rock 'n roll! (note the whiskey on the side!)'

At the LadyFest, I spread the knitting word in a MULTIPLE of ways. Prepare for a picture-fun post full of knitting crazyfunkyness!

COMERCIALLY, I sold some of my own knitting and promoted Debbie Stoller's work through posters, flyers and books. The Dutch publisher of the books naturally agreed that a LadyFest, with lots 'n lots of (feminist) ladies, would the best place to (re)introduce knitting and sent me lots of stuff to make it happen.

ARTISTICALLY, I was DJ-ing for 3 hours while Kim watched my booth and presented me with a small list of orders on my return. Thanks again Kim! Being a total knitting obsessive nerd, I had to knit while DJ-ig, 'fcourse. When I spread the word, I spread it well! And not one person laughed at me... they were surprised, had question marks in their eyes, but everyone was amazingly friendly and open! 3VOOR12 Rotterdam journalist Sander wrote a really cool review. In English (loosely translated):'Female DJ's Saskia (while knitting) en Valesca (smoking a cigarette) talk to the crowd and show us what women are good at; doing more than one thing at a time. The fine tracks they're playing and the hospitality that's radiating off off them, gives you the feeling that they run the LadyFest bar....'

EDUCATIONALLY, I came up with a workshop that was all about knitting 'tags'. I've read about the idea and love, love, love it. You knit swatches and heat up the urban landscape by attaching them to lampposts, car antenna's, bike's, banisters and what not. It's such a friendly and funny way of leaving your mark. And by doing it, you just KNOW you're going to make some people smile. So during the day there were a handful of knitters that got a swatch done, attached and photographed. I'll be posting them in about a week, when the pictures from the 'cardboard' camera have been developed. Some other knitters didn't get the swatch done in time, the were hopping back and forth from bands to knitting, to the bar, to knitting, to another band, to the vegan food stand, and back to knitting... and so on. They fully enjoyed the festival with everything it had to offer but couldn't let their project go completely. Then there were those that got creative and made something else out of their swatch. But none of them knit one or two rows and left it at that... they were all very committed And I have to say, that means something with all this other stuff going on. Some were even so committed that they were at my booth for most of the time, missing out on everything else. That's what knitting will do to ya!

'If I knitted more skull wristbands I could've become a zillionaire... This is Leyla, showing her made-to-measure green skull arm warmer that I made live @ the fest for her and CC showing a black and white version.'

About this moment Sander (the journalist) wrote: 'Close to a delerium, I noticed Saskia's knitting art, that -except from- knitting 'friendly grafitty' was also knitting handbags to hang from your ears. Great invention!...' Weird guy...
Annet Brugel (another journalist) also wrote about our knitting in this review.

'Kim knitting and beeing her charming self.'

'Silvia has been in the Netherlands for 3 weeks and speaks AMAZINGLY well Dutch. Her continental style inspired me to start learning it too. On the right there's CC, Valesca and Allison helping each other out.'

'me and Serfa chitchatknitting'

'knitting frenzy'

'here's Serfa, knitting like a pro and in the back you can just see Ruxandra & Andrea from Ladyfest Romania with Melény and Puk.'

'it takes a lot out of you, you'd HAVE TO smoke, to stay focused..'

'there was ONE boy, who was in touch with is feminine side enough to give it a go.
Should I mention he also was, well, pretty drunk...?'

'here's one I did earlier'

'Melény's finished tag'

It was an amazing weekend, I slept for about 8 hours the whole weekend, knitting the whole day through and on into the depth of night, but it was worth it.

One of the best things this weekend was that I got to meet this gal, who is even more charming in real life than on the net. We couldn't stop jabbering on about everything knitty. I have found myself a kindred spirit, definitely. She joined in the teaching and stayed as long as she could. we almost had to kick her back to her babies, she didn't want to leave. I should've made a clearer picture of her, but here she is, in the distance, teaching Melény.

Black and white pictures courtesy of Daniel Baggerman.
Read the reviews and see the pictures (and some more) on 3VOOR12 Rotterdam.