Dramaqueen

I am -offcourse- a huge dramaqueen. Got you folks all worried for nothing... well... nothing... In knitting terms it's not even a huge drama, just a small setback. But I was just so frustrated with myself, dissapointed and, yes, even a little sad.

This is what happened...

While knitting row after row of the same on Boyfriend Dears Cobblestone, eventhough getting a little tedious, I'm very much looking forward to the fun part so I'm knitting on the automatic pilot and....

Instead of a K row in between the rows with the purling on both sides of the sweater, I just kept doing the same thing.

For about 10"

sigh...

I've never been a reptile fan, but the frog is about as appealing to me as a bowl of crispy grasshoppers (have you heard? Insects are the new 'organic').

I

*sob*

don't

*sigh*

want

*sob*

to
*splutter*
frog

...

On other news...

Dagmar has won the mini-contest. I'm working on a new pattern called 'Nessie' and 'draakje' (little dragon) is the closest to the good answer; a water monster.... ;-) Sorry Ajour... Dagmar if you send me your adress I'll send you a little present.

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!

You can't always get what you Quant...

I finished Quant! About two weeks ago but I can't seem to get myself to blog. Between taking care off and playing with Iep, starting my own business (more about that later) and that darn fantabulous Ravelry... I just can't seem to find enough time.
But here it is. Knitting Frog surprised me with a skein of really soft yarn and beads to match, luscious stuff. Thanks again Froggie! :-)
The colours are no way near natural, I tried all the buttons and handles on my camera and I can't get it right. It's brighter, more yellow and more green and not so grayish in real life!


Somewhere in between I managed to finish Iep's sweater. It's from Marie Claire's 'Knitting for Baby's' (sorry no link, can't find it online...) and I ran out of yarn right at the last sleeve. I decided to make it a patchwork sweater and added some Phildar pure laine in two threads to sort-of-match the gauge. It works!

'Help mommy, I flew up onto the ceiling!!'


'Mom, listen, this blogpost has loads of spelling mistakes in it, you better get here and fix it!'

FO Parade

Gosh, I wouldn't have guessed that being pregnant could mess up my social (and digital) life so much... I haven't been to the Stich 'n Bitch-group in about a month. My pregnancy yoga is also on tuesday nights and combining it seems harder than I thought. Also when your FIL has a birthday and one of your favorite artists is finally playing in town again... well, let's just say that I feel like a half knit sweater, not really complete and not really 'not there'.

The artist I'm talking about is Andrew Bird, I really really love his work, totally original and beautiful. I promised myself I'd go, I've been living a less rock and roll lifestyle than I'm used to and haven't really been missing it, but there's been a few shows that I just couldn't get myself to go to on the night itself, simply because a lack of energy.

I have to face it, I'm really preggy, It turned out to be a too long period to stand so I didn't make it trough the whole concert and my hips and back have been hurting ever since, but it was so good and I got the new CD to listen too at home. And to know that those tunes are amongst the first things my baby hears is very cool, it's a good start.

I'll get to the knitting soon, let me just get this of my chest, it may look like I'm complaining, but I'm not, I've never been happier and when today we saw the little sprout on the scan (ultrasound), bouncing around like a rubber ball, sucking his/her hand and yawning and when we heard that everything looked fine and healthy, who cares about anything else? Anything at all. So... knitting...

Well, I won't disappoint you, although I haven't been blogging or seeing my S'nB buddies much, I really have been knitting. I've been really productive I might add. So here it is, the FO Parade, the update of what I've been upto.

Of course there's Tempting II, I've finished this baby a while ago but didn't find the time to post. The neckline was about as easy as learning to speak Chinese (I imagine) and about as fun as waiting in line at the post office while sweaty and loud people surround you (no fun...). I followed the pattern and after about 2 creative solutions, or more like -attempts-, my head bulb lighted up and I checked for errata online. Turns out this baby has a neckline problem. Who knew... I couldn't find any solutions though and so I K2TOG and K-ed en P-ed with all the creativeness I could harvest and it worked. Well, it worked partly, I really wanted a low neckline (to show off my cleavage 'show 'em if you've got 'em') but it turned out too high. By this point I was so frustrated with it that I left it like that.

Oh I need to remind you, I knit Tempting I in a cotton that was so droopy that even if I was pregnant of quadruplets it would still be too big. This time I made a wiser choice and went with Phildar's Legende, a tweed/alpaca mix. It was great, maybe a wee bit scratchy but overall a good choice. I knit a swatch and knit it just a little too small since it's a stretchy design and the pattern warned me about it. And still... too big... it's starting to become a serious problem, I'm knitting everything too big and I can't figure out what goes wrong. So now, to end all the drama, I've decided to clear away from big projects for now and stick with smaller patters or projects that may vary in size like bags and blankets. There's noting as frustrating as trying on a piece that you've been working at for months (that lóóked ok) that's too big (agaín...).

Luckily baby's are small.
This is me with my 21 week big belly, the fact that the sweater's too big has it upsides too, I'll be able to wear it while carrying Sprout.

Onto the next FO. These are the socks that I've knit from the Magic Ball Swap. The pattern came with it They were my first socks that weren't your basic K/P socks and I needed to adjust the pattern. That wasn't easy, but with help (thank you Constance and Ajour) I figured a lot of stuff out while learning about sock logic in general. I'm really happy with the result and I only wear them at special occasions. Read: when I can brag with them... More socks, but smaller. These are from the latest Phildar baby catalogue. I've knit them for my colleague Anne. She's expecting a baby one week later than I am. I used Phildar Bamboo, great stuff to touch, not so great to knit with because of all the different threads. But then again, great looking when finished! And yes, yes, yes, finally I finished the lace scarf that has been eating dust and growing live things in a corner for the last months. I don't know what came over me, I just had had enough, it had to get finished. I'm wearing it with pride while ignoring the obvious mistake in row 10...
And here's a quickie I did last weekend for my MIL. It started out as a cushion but because of the lack of yarn turned quickly into a handbag. I knit it with a cheap acrylic yarn (don't tell anyone) on 10mm needles and it took me about a day. It's my own design, brutally stolen from the beret from the winter issue of Interweave Knits (the beret that turned out way too big as well...) and very simple I'll write out the pattern for a following post.

And onto the baby-stuff. Here's one other bamboo sock from the Phildar catalogue and a vintage soaker (don't know the real word). Very rewarding projects, each done in a night.

And? Productive or what? Right now I'm working on a stole that might work as a baby blanket too, it's my own design and made with yarn my SIL gave me last weekend; a pink, fluffy kid mohair/wool-mix. I'm working on some ideas for embroidery with little pearls to jazz it up.

And there's the baby blanket from Handknits for Kids that I'm still working on and looks like I will be for the next 5 years... it's fun to knit but I have to be able to concentrate and that's where the problem lies...