again Florida and more

yes, it's official! In only 5 more days I'll be back in Naples (see blog entry below), where I'll be staying with my dear friend Mara, she of the Naples knitting group I had so much fun with last time I was there. Last July I stayed with her in Boston and we had a blast!! And now a short vacation in Florida once more! Wow, I feel very glamorous writing this down, however most of the time I lead a pretty humdrum suburban Dutch life, mainly working! While in FL we plan to visit two LYS's, one in Naples, one in Sarasota (A Good Yarn).

On the fiber side of life: I do think I am back at that point in life where I was before the unlucky car incident, that is: I was contemplating the purchase of another spinning wheel. The dent in the budget the car left, is now healed so: which one shall it be? Another Majacraft, maybe a Suzie pro? An Aura? Or, for something completely different, a Schacht Matchless? Choices, choices...

I joined a batt club! Enchanted Knoll Farms Happy Hooves to be precise, am so looking forward to receiving my first batt and spinning something from it! Will keep you guys posted.

I was at the "Handwerkbeurs", the national Craft Fair, and didn't buy a lot of yarn, knowing I'd be going to yarn heaven (the US) fairly soon, but I did buy some beautiful books on lace knitting mostly, as well as several lace circ needles... my subconscious is trying to tell me something here I think. However, I'm not on a lace WIP at the moment, rather reanimated an old unfinished object, a warm woollie cardigan made out of Chunky Donegal Tweed by Debbie Bliss, it's a pattern from Drops Garnstudio.

(dear readers, I so want to link you to all these lovely sites named above, but somehow I cannot get the hyperlinky button to work... however, maybe it is a good thing I can't enable you, because these could potentially damage your wallet...)

A new car!!

About a month ago my lovely Chevrolet Trans Sport was totalled by another car driver carelessly backing out of a parking spot, who crashed into my car's side and front wheel base.
Ater a lot of thought I finally decided to buy a new family car, and it's arrived! It's a Toyota Rav4, a car brand I had driven in on my April trip to Florida. I had really enjoyed that car then, so it wasn''t hard to decide that was the car I wanted.
We picked it up today and I love it! It's heaven to drive...

A Personal Day

OK, folks, I know it's been a long time since I last posted, but I'm not gonna dwell on that for a long time. Let's just say I've been kept really busy with my lovely, but very stressful job where we for a long time were only half-staffed, with my troublesome teenage daughter and (on a happier note) with my newfound love Theo (yes, still the same as in the last blogs!).

Anyway, I'd been feeling a bit under the weather for about a week, not so surprising if you think how extremely tired I've been feeling for a long time, and then I came down Tuesday night with a terrible stomach bug. I just had to call in sick, and I was battling through this day feeling awful and rushing to the loo every hour or so, and just wantng to get better quick so I could go back to work. But then both my love and someone on Facebook basically said: "Well, if you're not feeling better, why should you go back to work?" And I realised that I wasn't in fact feeling much better, felt weak still, had lost a kilo and a half in one day, and that if I went back to work, everyone would - rightly so- assume I was better and I would be inundated with work again.

So I called in sick again today, to be able to recuperate. This to you may be not so abnormal, but to me it was very strange! And you know what: I enjoyed it immensely! I was able to do loads of things I never normally do. I had a real breakfast! (OK, so it was only weak tea and two crackers, but still). I read through the entire newspaper! I watched daytime television! I finished a knitting project for my mother and was able to do a lot of work on another WIP. And I finally came a around to handdying a skein of undied sock wool that I'd spun myself (with Koolaid, something I'd wanted to do before but never had done). Now I realise how other women on Ravelry or blogs I read are able to come up with these wonderful creative projects all the time.... it's because they ARE RESTED!!

Well, I will be rested too, I've had my recuperation day , and tomorrow I'm not working either and will have a long weekend together with my love doing a lot of nothing....

Finally Damson

In my second but last post I wrote about the Damson shawlette and how I had run out of yarn, but how some kind ravelrist offered to send me some of her leftover yarn of cote d'azure malabrigo.... well, the deal didn't work out, because apparently the US Mail was unable to find the Naples Hotel or maybe someone at the mail office was also looking to finish a Damson and had confiscated the yarn?? Anyway, after long dithering and doubting I decided to buy a second skein, ordered it at Wolhemel, received it two days later and FINISHED the damn damson the same night!!!
It came out beautifully after blocking. Still, Constance managed to find a dropped stitch as soon as she held it at the Dudok knit cafe!
Anyway,here it is:

Florida

So I'm back from Florida where I had a great time! I was very happy to return to the Sunshine State, I was there two years ago and enjoyed it tremendously the first time around. Well, it was even better this time!
I had an uneventful journey and was able to nearly finish a sock and a half, having brought my bamboo dpns in my hand luggage on the flight with no problems at all.
I also brought my Golding spindle, yes indeed, and spindled. Funnily enough no-one on the flight, to my amazement, came to enquire what the heck I was doing..!

On arriving I had to queue for 45 mins at the Budget car rental office in a hot and sticky Ft Myers, but it was totally worth it, the compact car that I rented turned out to be a huge! Toyota, or at least that's what I thought when I saw it:
WOW this was a totally cool car, made me feel very American driving it!

Like last time, I stayed in the Hilton Naples, and again I found this a great place to stay. The staff are incredibly helpful and nice and the room (on the executive floor) everything I could wish for.


The very first morning there started out with a tropical storm, a dark rain, with darkish green light, heavy drenching showers, thunder and lightning and heavy winds. You'd think, living in Holland, I'd be used to some rain, but this was NOTHING like what we're used to!

The conference was great and so was the company (I hung out a lot with three great Dutch pathologist buddies)
and so was the food, the wine, the shopping, the weather and almost anything else you can think of.

Last but not least I went to a LYS. It;s called Gabriella's Yarn Shop and it's run by Gabriella, who turned out to have lived close to the Dutch border at some time in her life, and who has a wonderful shop full of yummy yarn! I bought yarn... needless to say, two Malabrigo skeins, a lovely soft lime green variegated Merino lace by Hilltop Handspun, and a metallic rayon yarn in a warm brown, copper and gold.. I know this sounds horribly glittery, but really it totally is NOT!
and this is the Hilltop Merino

Then, I also went to a local knitting group where I met Mara, Susan, Marian and Lauren from (around) Naples, and it was great fun! It made me feel so part of a global knitting community to meet them, laugh at their jokes, compare knitting patterns, discuss yarn, and so on. Afterwards, Mara and Susan invited me to come for a drink in a cafe somewhere close, where I also met Susans husband, who was a physician also, and so I had a wonderful night out in Naples, discussing about all my favorite things in life (knitting, medicine... oh yeah and a couple of other favorite things too!)

I cast on a Citron with the new Malabrigo as a souvenir of this wonderful trip and I'll always think of Naples when I wear it!

Then, after a very tiring flight it felt great to be met at the airport by my boyfriend! And I discovered I had really, really missed him!

Then it's back to business as usual and I'm happy to be back with the kids, the dog, the house and the boyfriend, but Oh, I do like travelling on my own and above all, I reaalllyy like Florida, I think I'll retire there when I"m old and grey....

Spring Fever

In Dutch there is a saying "Een nieuwe lente, een nieuw geluid". (Actually it's not a saying but a quotation from a poem from Gorter). Literally, a new spring, a new sound. Meaning ofcourse how in springtime your mind gets refreshed by the time of year in which everything is new, trees come into their new leaves, birds start nesting, and so on, and you start to think of new beginnings..
Well, so have I!
I've finished a couple of knitting projects and started several new things.
This is what I finished:




simple pleasures, a pattern from the Purl Bee

and a quiviut smoke ring or whimple



and I started Damson, a lovely shawlette or shoulder shawl in dark blue Malabrigo sock yarn.


Now I had already noticed through reading the Ravelry comments on this pattern, it it's quite a close call yarnwise, and that many people had only just finished it with a tiny amount of yarn left or even had to use yarn from a second skein. Now normally I'm quite a frugal knitter and tend to use up less yarn than suggested, however. not this time! Maybe I made a counting mistake, but anyway, I noticed the yarn getting dangerously close to the end and indeed, I ran out totally 3 rows from cast-off!
A call for help on Rav ended up in an extremely helpful and kind knitter from the US promising to send me some of her leftover yarn. She'll send it to the Naples, FL hotel in which I'll be staying next week during the Urological Pathology course I'll be attending. Isn't that just amazingly kind of her!

So next week I'll be in Florida, and I will visit a local yarn shop (LYS), Gabriella's Yarn, and will also go tot two knit nights there!! Besides all those yarny pleasures, I will have the course, and will do some serious shopping. I'm thinking of buying an iPad!!



Last, but not least in all this spring fever: I've got a new boyfriend.. well, I use the term "boyfriend" hesitantly as we're no longer in the age group to call it that. A meaningful other? partner? anyway, I've started dating and it's working out between me and Theo! He's a wonderful guy I've known for about ten years already, but lately we've rediscovered eachother in a totally new light!

Now, I will post pictures tomorrow...

bye for now

A Serious Entry on Life, not Knitting

I'm alone this weekend with lots of knitting time, and no Ellen as she's with her father this weekend.
I didn't plan anything this weekend because I wanted to rest and enjoy my time off, with no obligations or chores.
But well, if you can just sit and knit (or sit and spin, and I did do some spinning as well) you can just let your thoughts run; and I did and I kept thinking about how it is, that we humans always want something else than what we have.

I realise I'm very blessed, in that I have a job which I love although I have to work hard, and with which I earn a lot of money. Also I have three kids, and though they can be a handful (two of them are teenagers with special needs) I wouldn't want life without them. Also, last but by no means least: my kids and I are healthy, I have no life threatening disease.

Why is it then that my mind, whilst knitting, keeps running on the same theme, how I'm feeling all lonely, that my marriage failed, that the man I've loved the best in my life didn't want to be with me, and how I long to have a partner in life who would love me, and who I could give all my love to in return.
BUT:
- I know that there are people out there (several of my friends) who do have a loving partner/ husband, but who have a very serious or even terminal illness, would I want to trade with them? Would they want to be in my place?

- I know there are people out there who have a good job and a loving partner but are unable to have children of their own, would I want to trade with them?

- I know there are people out there who maybe have a partner and kids but have a job they don't like, or maybe they're unemployed and are desperately looking for a job..would I want to trade with them?

- and I do also know there are people out there who are battling or even failing to make ends meet every month and who would love to have my wages... would they trade?

So I know I should just be thankful and happy, and I try.. I try to be grateful. I know I should. And it's not useful to cry over spilt milk or things I cannot have. I wouln't want to trade in my health, my kids, my job, for anything else.

But I'm sure this is true for not just me, but for lots of other people too. Instead of being happy with what we have or what's given to us, we are at times all envious of what other people have (or what they seem to have, because I know full well that not everything is as it seems - and people can project to the outside world an image of a happy family when in reality the truth is totally unlike that.. I've been there)

I don't know the right answer or how we can strive to be just happy with what we have. I wish I knew. For me, personally, I pray to God to help me be content with all the good things I have in life. For other people maybe it's found in meditation or self-realisation or another God, or maybe they're just sensible that way.

Guys, I'm sorry that instead of a knitting blog post, this came out...but I'm in a pensive mood. I'm looking forward to having my kids back tonight. And I'm also happy that Mark Tuitert won Olympic gold on the 1500 metres!

Ellen with glasses

Doesn't she look lovely? She picked them out herself. After putting them on for the first time, it was as if a new world had opened for her. "Wow, I can see that picture over there, I can read that sign!" she kept saying! Poor thing, we hadn't noticed her poor vision at all and she never said anything because she didn't know the difference...

Brijksmuseum

Yesterday the Rijksmuseum organised an afternoon for Dutch knitters to come and make a copy of a hat or tuque as worn by the Dutch whalers who lived in Smeerenburg on Spitsbergen in the 17th century. While one knitted this antique pattern, one could listen to museum people talking about clothing in the paintings of Avercamp and about the whalers of Spitsbergen.

This concept (Brijksmuseum) apparently appealed to a lot of knitters!It was very quickly "sold out", as participation was also limited to "fire and security rules" deciding how many people could safely be accommodated in the building. I guess they must have disappointed a lot of knitters who wanted to come too.

Needless to say, we of the SnB group Rotterdam were among the first to apply, so we decided to have a nice day trip to Amsterdam (rather like a school trip).

We went by train and had to be at the Central Station at an ungodly hour

as you can see by our appearances and the cups of coffee in hand.

Some of us were so enthousiastic that they already whipped out some knitting as soon as they got in the train (to the amazement of the other passengers) but I rather thought it too early for knitting
here Ellen is already getting out the WIP (socks) while Constance hasn't even taken off her gloves and hat yet..

After arriving in Amsterdam we went immediately to the Afstap. All of us had said we would definitely NOT buy any wool, as we already had enough.. but this resolution was not kept quite as firmly as we thought... and to be honest the shop is soooo tempting with all its lovely Rowan (mostly) lining the walls...
We were greeted warmly and immediately offered a cup of coffee by Janny /Jans (the blonde lady in the photos) Constance is holding up a copy of the new Knitting Brioche book by Nancy Marchant.
I was amazed to see sooo many knitting books in the Afstap, and rather unpleasantly surprised to find a copy of "Simply Shetland 4" a book I had gone to a lot of effort to get, and finally ordered through WEBS, paying for shipping from the US too... and here it just sat on the shelf next to Simply Shetland 1 through to 5.. it wasn't cheap, but definitely a lot cheaper than the book and shipping costs I had just paid!!!:-( Next time I will first post a query in the Ravelry Dutch Crafters group!

Anyway, we spent a lot of time in The Afstap, (I bought Spun to Knit, and Socks from the Toe Up), and then hurried to the tram to go to the Rijksmuseum. When we got there, we could leave our bags there, and then went for a bite to eat on the Museumplein.

At 1 o'clock we went back to the Museumatelier in the Hobbemastraat and met up with the other knitters, and it was very nice to finally meet some other Ravelry people and see them IRL. For example, the girl on the left turned out to be Hannekesieben
First we knit in a big room, then afterwards the group was divided in half and we could listen to the lectures (whilst knitting, ofcourse) with slides, very interesting, and afterwards back to the big and busy room, knitting and chatting.



There were people from the regional television there filming us! very funny..
We left at around 4, although it was hard to tear Constance away from all of her old and newly made friends (she knows everyone and they all know her) and went to the Avercamp exhibition in the Rijksmuseum. In order to get in, we had to wait for a long time queuing outside in the rain, because the security rules are extremely stringent. You had to be screened, pass your bags, keys, etc through an Xray machine and walk through a metal detector. All of the security people got very excited when they discovered Ellens craft scissors!!! Yes I know, she always looks very innocent but secretly she's a Rembrandt hater and has murderous thoughts of ripping apart the Night Watch.. bet you didn't know that about her, huh? LOL!

Anyway, we were let in (not nearly dangerous enough)but without the scissors, obviously, and had a good time looking at those lovely Avercamp paintings, and accidentally stumbling across a couple of Vermeers ("girl at window", "milkmaid", and "Delft house") and a couple of Rembrandts in the room next to that.

Afterwards we went to the ABC Bookstore to browse the... need I say it.. knitting books, and ended up in a Brasserie on the Rokin where we had mussels, dessert and a lot of fun. I got home at around half past 10 at night absolutely knackered!

It was a lot of fun with Ellen, Marijke and Constance (even if it was in Amsterdam), and now ofcourse I have the cap to finish...

Faded Rose

It's finished, spun and plied!
Again I'm happy with the result, it's very satisfying to see the finished and completed yarn. This took quite a while to finish because it was all of 200 meters long.. so it was an endless plying night (from half past 8 till 00.30), and it took ages to skein on the swift, and again to reskein after washing and drying... but the end result is so completely worth it!

I've got a couple more things on the bobbins and also on the drop spindle... hmm I'm beginning to be as bad with spinning as with the knitting and now have WIPS and UFOs with my spinning as well...but hey, I've always been a "process knitter" and obviously now I'm a process spinner, duh, go figure....

Now I'm also still knitting, and just finished my felted slippers! Hurray! Or.. well, they're not the most wonderful examples of the pattern and the felting process in the world.. but at least they sort of fit this time.. and they're warm.. will post picture later.

Drop Spindle!

The Golding drop spindle has arrived! Today I went to De Spinners to pick it up, it's a beauty !


Now, I had spindled before, but never liked it much. However, with this spindle, spindle spinning is easy! I started right after coming home and am already halfway through the fibre, spinning a lovely thin yarn (it's a polwarth silk wool blend, hand dyed in lovely vibrant colors). It has really long color runs so I want to try my hand at Navajo plying it on the spindle.

Today was knit cafe at Dudok, very nice as usual. Afterwards Ellen and I went to de Spinners in The Hague. As this is very close to the McDonalds, you can guess where I took Ellen for a treat..! (We don't go very often, poor Ellen, because I'm not really "lovin'it"..)
Afterwards we went to The American Bookstore, and I found "Respect the Spindle", and two other knitting books that were really priced down, as well as two knitting magazines... and a Sponge Bob book for Ellen. Then on we went to Desigual to add to our wardrobe, we both bought dresses!


It was a happy Saturday out doing the things I love best in life: being with my daughter, knitting with friends, spinning, and shopping for books and clothes.....alright, so the McDonalds wasn't that bad either;-)

Knitting projects at the moment are: my giant slippers (to felt) with Drops Eskimo, a Zitron Art Multnomah, I still have to continue my cardigan with the Debbie Bliss yarn before it'll be spring and it'll be too hot to wear! And also I've got two socks on the needles (and they're both first socks, two different patterns and different yarns)...am so NOT allowed to start another new project before I finish these.. however I've already got the yarn for several new projects.

Also on the 6th of February I will be at the Rijksmuseum for the Brijksmuseumproject and am really looking forward to that. I bought Cascade 220 to knit the hat with, that I will also use for a cardigan that I want to make that will show off my spun faded autumn rose

An old spinster's weekend

As Ellen was with her dad this weekend I had a rather quiet weekend on my own. Saturday there was no knitting cafe, but I went to Dudok nevertheless to have lunch with an old friend, and afterwards went to the Bijenkorf to the sales. Bought a very lovely grey wool/angora cable cardigan, a very fine knit that you could never knit yourself, or at least I couldn't! And also some posh dark grey woolen trousers, two shirts and two leather belts. Besides this, I also spent tons of money on some antiwrinkle cream that I like and that think actually helps.
Sunday I mostly spent spinning... I'm spinning my wonderful Merino superwash top dyed by The Painted Tiger.
I'm not spinning this on the Woolee Winder, as I've got a lace merino/silk blend yarn on that bobbin and I've only got two bobbins as yet...
The spinning was at times accompanied by The Yarnspinners Tales podcast.

Then I went and prepared for myself the absolute ultimate single person's dinner, or rather "tea" in the best of British tradition.. it was beans on toast, with a fried egg and grated cheese topping. I added some parsil and chives to add a vague touch of wholesomeness.. but that's just nonsense. It wasn't maybe very healthy but it sure was nice, with a good strong cuppa with milk. It made me mentally jump right back to my 21st, when I lived in a bedsit in Reading and had this sort of meal all the time!