Books and Fiber!

Finally..


News from the Books & Fiber front. I've been so busy with work, rearranging my furniture in my house, my BF and also fighting off a heavy cold. I'm still not completely well, but I will... eventually.

Anyways. News! Remember me telling you about putting my name in the hat for the Book Blogger Holiday Swap? Well I received my gift from my Secret Santa.



Look wat Cheryl sent me:

I love Terry Pratchett and these 2 are not in my collection yet. I'm very happy with these. You can find Cheryl's blog here.

I read that the package I sent all the way to Tokio, Japan has arrived too. Have a look on Nat's blog here.

Meanwhile am I knitting frantically on my Jacobean socks and I'm already over the heel part:

On my swift I have True love by Wollmeise:

I'm going to knit the Sleekitt Mitts from this yarn.

I've cut the picture from the pattern and paste it below:


Well thats about it. Tomorrow (Fiday) I have one more day at work and then two whole weeks off. We had a small X-mass gathering / -drink at work today and we all got our presents. A book about the history of the "Oudejaarsconferentie" or Old Years Conference. A dutch tradition on television on witch a well known cabaret performer is talking about the past year, usually this show takes untill a few minutes before midnight. The second gift was vouchers to buy pesents for ourselfs; value €50,-- I am thinking about getting me some DVD's

Dan_e (thats the BF yes) will come over tomorrow after work and we will spent those 2 weeks in my house.

I'll try to keep you posted more often :)

SP 13 final box & Rogue Hoody update

My postman always rings twice, and boy did he bring me a nice package :)

A box filled with goodies from my - no longer- Secret Pall Asuka from Italy. And OMGs did she spoil me:

Thank you soo much Asuka, i realy, realy loved the goodies. And next time I'm on the scales at my dietists, and it still shows no decrease in my weight, I blame your chocolate :)

I'm also still making slow progress on my Hoody:

The knitting in the round is done, the back is done and i have started on the front. I can actually wear it, and more amazing: it fits :))

So, that's it for today.. I'm off.. fondeling my new yarn.

Colombian Stuff

Nantko, a friend of Danny and me went to Colombia and brought us back some Colombian stuff yarn. When Danny visited me last night for some spinning, stitchin, bitching and Hackers along with some Chinese food she brought me my part of the Colombian stuff yarn.

Tonight when I went to my studio/bedroom to get something out of it, Ayla followed me in. Soon she started to sniff in the air like a real sniffer dog (it was an embarrasing sight, trust me) and then she discovered the Colombian stuff yarn.

Look for your self what happened next:

I think I have a little Colombian stuff yarn junkie in my home now. X)

Tapis de Bayeux in Leiden

Danny and I went to Leiden last Wednesday, to visit the Tapis de Bayeux. Well actually a darn-good copy of it. Marloes Keereweer makes replica's of the famous tapestry.

The exhibit was at the Museum het Leids Wevershuis (the weavers house). I took some pictures:

Weaving:






Natural dying ingredients:


and here are the replica's:

look at the back how it's done:

And here is some more Tapis de bayeux:

We did more that day.., we fondled yarn, shopped till we dropped and had a nice lunch at Bagels and Beans and at the end of the afternoon some tasty Australian ice cream..

Fondle...


Noro sockyarn


Shops:


New shoes:


New Troll bead:

Magic Yarn Swap

I am participating in a "Magic ball swap" in The Netherlands. You hand-make (at least) 1 knitting related gift, get some more small presents, with a total value between 15 and 20 euro's, get a ball or skein of yarn and wrap all those presents into one a big ball of yarn.

You sent it to your recipient, anonymously, and she (or he) will find all the gifts while she (or he) starts knitting with the yarn.

Yesterday I received mine:

I can hardly wait to start knitting, but first I need to start some cross stitching swaps.

Anyway: Thank you very much, secret Magic ball partner.. I already like the smell that's coming out of the package and the colour of the yarn is very pretty, dark green. I love it.

Yarn - and other goodies - from Ribe

Lets have a look at my new collection items.
I bought this yarn in Ribe's Broderi & Garn shop, in Ribe.

First:

Sandnes Garn Fritidsgarn. A Bulky 12 ply yarn. colors go from dark green, to lighter green to light brownish.

Then ik have this:

Løve Garn Highland. A worsted 10 ply yarn in a blue-purple colorway.

The spectaculare new item is - if I may say so myself - these lovely balls:

Look inside:

Kauni Effektgarn 8/2. Fingering 4 ply in the colorway EF (purple, red purple, blue, moss green)
YUMMI!

On the vikingmarket I bought some viking singles, hand dyed with wild madder (Rubia tinctorum L):

I've started needlebinding a new pair of socks in a new stitch Danny taught me.
The white fluffy stuf beneath it is a batt of sheepwool, ready to be spun. It's from an ancient sheep breed, but I forgot the name. I'm sure Kees or Danny knows.

And I've got 3 more cones of Lingarn. A linen thread for embroidery or tablet- or cardweaving.


The other goodies are these:

10 leather tablets for tabletwaeving/cardweaving, a wet stone so I can sharpen my knife and 12 authentic pins.

I'm am very happy with this:

A bag made out of birch. I love it. Nou I can carry around some stuff without hanging it all on my belt. Viking age or no Viking age. I'd like to know the time every now and then, and I need my 21st century money to get my 10th century goodies. And my camera, so I can show you what I've been doing.

Well I'm of to knit a few hours before I go to work this afternoon. I need to finish my Hoody before I can start knitting the Kauni ;-)

Seeya!

Bags and yarn

Yesterday I went to the Tassenmuseum Hendrikje Museum of Bags and Purses with Katja. I was not allowed to take pictures from the collection, but I did buy some nice postcards. So Have a look:

A beaded bag 'Remember the poor 1630'

Eveningbag with silver frame. 1929

Working bag in silk. Circa 1800

Embroidered silk letter case. France circa 1800.

A leather bag with metal frame, 16th century

These are just a few of the many beautiful bags we saw. It was very, very nice and I will visit this beatiful museum again some day.

Katja and I had a very nice cup of tea and coffee at the Museum Café, with a great view on the garden:

When we got home I had another nice surprise. My package of the Dutch sock yarn club came.

Just look at this yummie yarn:

Gerda also put in a nice project bag

and a lavender couloured candle and a green silk covered lipstick holder.

Yarn!

or not.... :)

Yarn!

Sarah asked on her blog if we could guess when her Ravelry invite would be dropped in her mailbox. I made an educated guess and look: I won! So she sent me some very beautiful, bright coloured yarn. As she described it:


"Self-striping, in, um, vibrant colors. Wouldn’t that look good on your feet? That’s about 460 yards of superwash merino - nylon, more than enough for a pair of socks."


I love it:

So now I have to get me a nice pattern for this yarn.


And then last week or so, Annemarie wrote an email to our SnB-Yahoo group. She had free stuff and if we wanted anything, we had to let her know. I was game for her off-white and so she came to our SnB-Meeting yesterday evening and look what she got me:



A bag full of lovely off-white yarn, more than enough to knit me a sweater..
I also need a pattern for this.

Any suggestions, anyone? :D

Remember that sentence?

"Be careful not to twist when joined in the round."
I'm afraid I wasn't careful enough...

It was twisted.. So I frogged it and casted on again, knitted 1 row and a half. No twisting this time :D

Speechless

Look what my Secret Pall sent me:

Her name is Hanna and she's from Finland
Thank you so much Hanna, I love what you sent me, especially the hat :D

Gifts and Mirror Socks

Look what the mailman brought me yesterday:

Thanx Metal and knit! I love the goodies! You rock grrl :D

We started a new KAL in my Dutch sock knitting group. "Spiegelsokken" or Mirror Socks. I want to knit mine in the wollmeise colourway Frosch and I've been winding my yarn:

As you can see I'm great in winding rugby balls :D
I wonder if a ball winder winds nicer, more round balls of yarn..


Anyway. I started the cable cast on on 2 circs, knitted the first round, pulling the first stitch realy tight and look:

A large "mind the gap" -hole between my needles....

I'm going to frog this and do my regular cast on, so I can knit the first 3 stitches with working yarn and tail yarn together. That should give me a nice close fit and no hole.

I hope... :D

Look! No holes in my toe.

Firestarter continued

The patters for the Firestarter tells me to do a provisional cast on, and make short rows with the wrap & turn method. The cast on went pretty wel, but the first wrap & turn did not go very well. I had holes in my toe:

I sent this toe toe the frog pond, did another cast on and started over, wrapping and turning and all went well. So I thought...
Until this happened:

BUT.. I really, really, really want those socks, so I went looking for another method of casting on toe up socks and I found a 'magic cast on' in Knitty. And look:

So far so good ;-) I've never done a sock on 2 circs, so I'm very curious if I can do this without any holes ;-))

If it works, I'm going to be so proud of myself :D