Random things and projects

Christmas days are over and I'm glad... On towards a new year! After the divorce I still feel myself climbing up out of a deep ravine, and every new year can only get better than the year before.

The day before Christmas Ellen came with me to my work and it resulted in this:


cheering up my office no end!

She was very sweet and stayed pretty quiet, drawing, playing with her toys and going out with me and my coworkers to lunch in the hospital, which she liked enormously, because of eating there together with "ALL the doctors and nurses!" This really impressed her.

The Xmas days I used for knitting, mostly. I did want to spin, but somehow it didn't happen. I did finish two projects though, which is a very good thing as I am now allowed to start another if I want;-)

I finished the Moebius scarf that I mentioned in the post below:

and furthermore, I made myself a pair of fingerless mitts using my handspun yarn. I had never really understood why these fingerless gloves were so popular on Ravelry, but now I do! First of all, they're really warm on the wrists and hands, and we all know women usually have cold extremities. Secondly, they're very quick to knit up, so instant gratification! I made them in about one evening, and I do sooo like the way they've turned out:

Now on towards a new year with new knitting and spinning challenges and enjoyments. I really feel that with my discovery of Ravelry only this summer! a whole new world has openened for me and I'm glad and thankful for that and all the new friends I've made through Ravelry.

Another handspun!

Here it is, "Zeewier". It's again a sport weight, plied as a 2-ply, and it measures about 120 meters in a skein. It has a lovely green color that is somewhere between forest, seaweed and watermelon in color. I'm very happy with the result.

Yesterday I had a wonderful evening with lots of good memories, and I'm sure this yarn will help me remember them...

Link didn't work

But.. I can post this photograph of me and my daughter Ellen, sitting on a fence, knitting "peacefully".
It was an article in the Xmas special of Medisch Contact a doctor's magazine, with a couple of portraits on physicians who had a "peaceful" hobby.
I think it's a great photo and you really can't see it was taken on a very windy day (we were nearly blown off the fence!)

I've spent some more time spinning and twining my new yarn, a green BFL, which I'll post a picture of when it's dry and skeined.
Also I am currently working on a Moebius scarf, amongst many other projects. Constance (Csteekjes on Ravelry) taught us how to cast-on for the Moebius at our Rotterdam SnB group, and I'm knitting it with Zitron Opus, a lovely yarn that has Aloe Vera and Jojoba oil added to it, so it's really soft. Surprisingly I found it at our LYS Lydialaine, which usually doesn't have much to tempt me, but now have gone more enterprising all of a sudden with intriguing yarn choices...

Christmas article on peaceful hobbies

I will try to link in a connection to an article in Medisch Contact about how peaceful knitting is to me

Two projects using the handspun, or YES, I'm still knitting

The first is a neckwarmer I made of the Blueberry Ripple BFL. Added some Olde Worlde silverlook buttons I had.



The second was a very quick spin-stash-busting project. I had this orange mini-skein, that was my first foray into spinning, that I didn't know what to use for. It was sooo orange... so anyway, it sort of turned itself into a goldfish when I wasn't looking, I swear!

to cheer up Ellen who is ill with a nasty cough (potato crisps do help for that, too don't you think?)

Navajo-ho-ho

I've spun a third skein. In it I tried several new things. It was a BFL in the color "Elegy", again by KelpieFibers
I wanted to not muddle the colors by spinning through them, but rather trying for longer color runs. So I prestripped the top in several lengths and gently fluffed and predrafted slightly. Then I inchwormed, trying to get the color runs as long as I could get them without too much intermingling. Then after I had spun, I tried the Navajo-ply technique, this makes a 3 ply out of one single, as it rather preserves the color runs if they are long enough. For this technique, if you don't want to end up with a very thick yarn, you have to spin thinly, so that was the next challenge.
The spinnign went quickly and fairly smoothly. I did notice some strips went better than others, though. After thinking about it, I remembered having read in one of my spinning books: "top is directional" (maybe this isn't true but this is what I thought I remembered". So I had to find out all of a sudden which way the direction went! Well, all of a sudden I had a whole new thing to watch out for, having spun completely ignorant of this before...

The Navajo plying was another challenge. In itself the technique didn't at all strike me as being particularly difficult. I watched a youtube video and thought: "hey, nothing to it, I can do that!" Now my Little Gem unfortunately hadn't seen the video:-( It behaved exactly like a stubborn pony, hee-hawing my yarn off the hooks with a "bang" and a mighty heave. A little Navajo pony, I guess!?
Any how, it took some patience. I have the technique pat now, and with the second bobbin things went a little better, also I did it more slowly and paid more attention to the Gems' wishes. The yarn turned out lovely though with fairly longish color repeats, but also sudden color transitions on the "bumps" where the loop goes through. It's nice enough for now though it still leaves a lot more room for practising!



I had a sudden itch for internet buying, I guess again comfort buying, after a disappointment in the Love Department (in which I don't get to shop too often anyway).
So the easy solution is Etsy, Amazon with the ever so handy PayPal. You just click a button and without having lifted your butt out of your chair you know you will get loads of nice pressies delivered to your door (in my case always delivered by the same handsome Turkish TNT guy with the cutest smile I've ever seen, as an extra bonus!) and it doesn't cost a lot. Honest Mom, it's reaaly cheap stuff I'm buying here! And with the exchange rate for US dollars as it is, it practically free! You see, Mom, don't worry, there's enough left to buy food for the kids

So next week I will get some spinning and knitting books, a cute wooden thingy with sheep on it as a gauge, a Little Gem cup holder (yes! how American is that?), and some wonderfully painted top by a lady who dyes her own stuff from Ohio. Or something. And I get to look at the Turkish smile, ho-ho-ho!

Second handspun skein, knit night and good resolutions

I'm very proud to post the photos of the second piece of spinwork I made!


I love the multicolor effect and I think it's not too bad for a second attempt.

It was actually really hard to photograph today because it's very dark in these current December days, there's hardly any natural light as it was cloudy and overcast.

Yesterday was knit night with the Rotterdam Stitch and Bitch group in Hoofdstuk II. I was keen to go, to show off the homespun. Constance was very kind to lend me a copy of the Spin-Off..think I'll have to take out a subscription because I'm A Spinner now, aren't I?
It was good fun as usual. I must admit I didn't knit a lot... Moontje was there and she showed her first skein, straight off the bobbin because she had only just finished it. She got a Louet S10 just this weekend so I guess it's another one in our SnB group bitten by the spinning bug... She's even more adventurous than I am, because apparently she is also going to dye her own wool.. wow! I think it'l be good fun - but not for me, I hardly have any time for myself as it is.

I 'm beginning to find out there's a disadvantage to spinning.. my stash was already full but now it's bordering on overload. With spinning I'm only gaining more yarn while having less time to knit it up. So I made some early New Year's resolutions: I'm NOT allowed to buy ANY more yarn until I've actually knit up some. And I mean SERIOUSLY knit up some!

Sinterklaas and more yarny delights....

Yesterday it was Sinterklaas and it started off rather well as I got an early present.. in the afternoon my package from http://www.finlandiaimport.nl/ (Finlandia Import) arrived.
It wasn't really from Sint, as I'd ordered it myself but it was a surprise nevertheless because it arrived earlier than I expected and it it were:

-2 skeins of the very new Drops Delight yarn
-Addi lace circular needles sizes 4.5 and 5 mm (for the shawls I plan to knit with my new handspun yarns
-a tiny Addi 2.5 mm circular, that I wanted to try knitting socks on
-the new Spectra Trendz rainbow coloured acrylic interchangable circular needle set (wow, what a long sentence and I haven't even added they're from KnitPro or that in the US they're called Zephyr!!) in a cute shocking pink cover, great for travelling I would imagine



yummy yummy, I was soo happy!

Well, I was lucky it arrived that day, because although I had heavily hinted to my mother that I would really like some yarn for Sinterklaas, like for example Noro at the Ryahuis in Zuidlaren... I didn't get any :-(

Late at night, after everyone had gone to bed, and sitting in the middle of the Sinterklaas rubble, I started a sock with the Delight yarn on the tiny needle, and knitted some with the Spectra needles.. mmmmm not too bad!


Then today I twined two bobbins of spun singles (from the Spinner's 80% Australian Merino/20%silk sliver) into a 2-ply yarn, wound it onto my Mama Bear swift (I havent't got a niddy noddy yet, although Netteke and Meey(Ravelry) bought one for me at http://shop.die-wollfabrik.com)




this finishing, winding, washing and drying is also a fun part of spinning!
I now have another rather thinnish skein, 73 metres, don't know the weight yet), that is approximately sport weight, and - for only a second effort- I'm quite happy about the evenness of it. Could become (teensy) wrist warmers I think!

My first official skein

Aaaaaaahhhhhhh, it's spun, plied into a 2-ply yarn, washed, dried and twisted into this skein, measuring 96.3 meters and weighing around 80 grams. I think most of it is about Aran weight.
I love the colors, blue/pink/ purple fitting very well with my outfit of the day..


I've spent some time cuddling it as it is very soft!
Made with BFL top from KelpieFibers on Etsy.

Now what project will I make from this???

still knitting...

Although the spinning has taken up a lot of my spare time and most of the blog so far, I do actually still knit, ofcourse!
I've taken some pictures to prove it:




The green thing is a Drops Cardigan pattern in Donegal Chunky Tweed, forest green. I bought the yarn in Woool in the Hague, a lovely yarn shop that I wish could be my LYS, owned by Pauline who is always very helpful and friendly. The cardigan is going to be fairly longish with a knitted belt and a ribbed shawl collar and a cable on each front panel, a kind of rugged thing that you can just picture yourself wearing on a winter's day.. I hope it's going to be a cold winter!

The other project is a simple cabled sock in Trekking Art something or other, in a made up pattern. It's a smallish sock but so far it still seems to fit (either it's stretchy yarn or I have chicken legs...)

And as it's nearly Sinterklaas I'm adding a photo of a tiny Piet enjoying a good diner at my table