It was a pleasure: thanks to you all!

I knit like I did before, I live like I did before, but: I do not blog like I did before. Seems like: my blogging times are over. And so I decided to stop blogging. I can meet any blogger in reality if I want to, and I can react on any blog if I want to. But I have had it with blogging myself for now. So this is it: my last entry. I lasted three years, and me thinks that is great. Have a great good knitting time all off you!

Good, good, good, good intentions!

The new year is just four days young, so I think I am right on time to wish you the happiest year in your life, with lots of health, luck and good knitting. Make this year a big one and enjoy it!
Right on time before 2009: I found lovely Karisma from Drops on Marktplaats for an apple and an egg and my cardigan that is knitted from it is growing.

This year is the Year of the Natural Fibres (when you read their site: I agree. They don’t have the slightest idea what to do with it, except giving a year a name…..And we’re talking big worldpolitics now…… Anyone have a clue how to help these suckers?)

Well, allso, this year is my Year of the Stashed Fibres.

How come?

This is what happened.
Someone on the net wrote that Dille&Kamille is selling 100% woollen yarn, 100 grams, for just 4,95 euro’s. The minute I read this, I flipped like a total jarnjunkie. I had to have at least TWO! But no: FOUR! But no:…..

TEN!!!!!!!! ……skeins of this Ridiculously Cheap Skeins!

I made a yellow note to remind me of the fact that I had to go buy this wool, and then (it was two in the morning) I went to bed. The next morning I found my yellow note and I (have to do this more) started to think. What project could be knitten from the D&K skeins? Had to be a felted one, because the label said: this yarn can only be washed in cold water. What felted projects were on my wishlist? To be true and to be honest: none. OK: no felting. But there had to be something….? And to be really true: everything I could think of that I could knit with this yarn was something I could knit with the yarn I had already in my stash. And more. And to be very honest: there is a lot more in my stash then I can think of to knit with it at this moment….

Moment of deep insight: I will Not buy this Yarn.

Yagh.
So.
Now.
Yugh.
YACK.

Moment of deep insight, again. Decision made.

2009 is the year in which I knit with what is in my stash. There will be no new yarn

(other than:
Yarn necessary to finish my already started projects.
Yarn that was ordered in 2008 but was delivered in 2009 and
Yarn that is absolutely adorable and cannot be ignored because I have to have it )

until the first of January 2010…. !
From now on I will knit with the stuff that is already in my cupboards, in my study, in my bedroom and in all the hidden places in my house. (all the hidden places in my house are stuffed with yarn).

I’m so proud: I have ONE good intention for the coming year!

I started my holiday knitting wit a very private and new variation on this pattern. I intended to use my own homespun blue on it, mixed with a very thin blue machine wool. I had high hopes, but alas: me and the pattern were not a good match. On Monday I started and frogged four times, and on Tuesday I tried five times again: it did not work.
Then, on the first day of Christmas I decided to start a totally new project (this one, which is a very obvious copycat of very famous patterns from a Scandinavian Knitter Queen). I, being the very experienced knitter that I am (this is an ironical meant description of me, wisdom comes in afterthought....), decided that the very first row of the pattern could not be on the right side, as was told me to do. So very happily (and convinced of my knitterly expertness) I knitted one extra row and called that the right side. Seems this was the reason that the whole project turned out to be awfully wrong. This is a beginners fault and yes: all to blame on me and on my self.

Yesterday evening, while watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, my troubles mounted as they were for Harry, but unlike him: I could not solve them. This morning I frogged my imitation Hanna Falkenberg cardigan.

Conclusion: I am knitting for almost a week now, and nothing is done!!!!!!!

But holidays are for knitting. Had to say to myself: start over, find something else. This is the one I finally chose to tackle for the coming days. (and in an between: I finished the 10th block of the Groninger KAL Blanket).But: I am distracted. WehkampSinterklaas had a lot of trouble bringing me one of my presents, and it arrived almost four weeks later then the biggest of my men that ordered it for me had expected. But last Saturday: I got my Professor Layton and the Curious Village game. And what a game this is! Much better then Sudoku, funny, brain teasing and just the thing for the quiet Christmas holiday mornings. (when both of my men are sleeping and dreaming about the Christmas night movies they saw together last night until early in the morning….).

Blue

End of the start of the academic year.
The students, as allways, are original and very inspiring; it is tough accomplishing all the professional tasks that me and my colleagues are supposed to fulfil, and me and my colleagues worked a lot harder than we are paid for. But the students are cute!
For me personally: it was a tough year. So here are the Christmas holidays: They Are So Welcome!

One of the presents that was given to me on my birthday in September this year was the littlest of spindles. And; on and off in the months that followed, I spun. My goal was to learn to spin very thin and even. I do not think, in any way, that I reached my goal, or that the yarn that I made is very professional, but I like the skeins that were the result of all my practicing.

I need a project for my holidays, so today I decided to dye all the cobweb yarn I made until now. It took me four tins of Dylon, a lot of salt and some dyeing time, but now: there is a very lovely blue bunch of yarn drying on my stove. The rest of the day will be occupied by the creative process of figuring out what to do with approximately 400 grams of pure wool in different shades of blue.

And imagine: I can dream on and create on, not bothered bij students or colleagues for the coming 14 days!

Knitting block (s)

I have loads of the most beautiful yarn, but I’m in the mood of just not being able to figure out what to do with it….. So: the last days I just fumbled and played with my yarn, looking for the right idea what to do with it. This is the so-called knitting block: yearning to start a new project, but not knowing what. But: thinking about what to do is some kind of a creative process too, so there will be a Big Creative Flash in the coming week that will keep me totally occupied in the coming Christmas Holidays. This I promise myself…. In the meantime I'll do my knitting duty. And it is a very nice one! Every week I knit a block adding to my own Groninger knit a long Blanket from Wolhemel. I knitted all the blocks from the start until now, but I added my own twist. When I did not like the pattern that was given, I submitted it for something else. For example: the cat and the bonus alphabet became fair isle blocks. This weeks block, filled with cables in a very tricky pattern is exactly what I need for this weekend. So: knitting block becomes knitting block….

Sint: loads of knitting presents!

Yesterday Sinterklaas visited our house. It was a very special evening. We played games, ate real nice snacks and all three of us received very nice poems, and very nice presents. Here are my knitting presents, I am so happy with them all!This is the little knitted sheep that was given to me. I think it was knit thinking of hanging it in a christmas tree, but I like it without the thought of christmas. In the future: he will dangle on my mobile, or on my working bag. It is such a cutie sheepie! These are the two packages of party lemonade. Sint found them at the Wibra and I want to experiment with them: can they dye wool as well as Kool aid does?
This book is from the seventies, Sint found it on Marktplaats. I was surprised (when reading it very fast and not thoroughly this morning) of the fact that in this book knitting is a feminist issue. Whow. I was part of that idea, but it is way and years behind me.....!Sint gave me this sheepy ashtray. Both of my men hate my smoking, but they love me that much that they allow my addiction to it. Isn't this a cute sheep?

And this is a very beautiful, handmade knitting bag. Sint found it at the recycling store and was afraid I did not like it. But what a beautiful bag this is! And when I opened it I found:
Two skeins of beautiful Manos del Uruguay from Trikoo in burgundy red and purple. Whow! Just thinking about what to do with them is big fun, let alone the knitting. Whow, whow, whow!

And: Jose (who does not have a blog) and I found each other on Marktplaats. Her idea was to swap her sockwool. So I offered her my rainbow sockwool ( I realy do not know what to do with it) and swap with her very green yarn. That yarn entered the house yesterday evening. More knitting opportunities!

It was a very good fifth of december this year!

Super Simple Beautiful Scarf

This is what happens to me when I visit a big needlecraftfair. I must buy yarn. There is only one goal; one thing that makes the day complete: there must be yarn in my bag when I go home. Whatever happens: it is not possible to come home after that without new yarn.
So this is what I bought in Rotterdam last October: Two skeins of the most beautiful Manos del Uruguay Silk, bought from Trikoo. (I love this shop: all their yarns are fair trade and eko, the yarn is affordable and last but not least ( this being the trigger for me) their yarn is absolutely huggable …)
After that big day the two skeins became Coffee Table Yarn: they were beautifully draped in a bowl on my table. So I could feel them, hug them and dream about the superknitting that was to become their destiny in the future.

And, low and behold,two weeks ago I figured out a very beautiful destination for the most difficult of the two skeins. Difficult? Yes, because it combines blue and purple with brown and ochre. More low and behold: I thought of a perfect way to combine the Manos Silk with hand dyed, autumn brown very thin wool from Storm.
The pattern of this scarf is simplicity to the core, but the effect is gorgeous. So is my very simple super shawl! (have to think of a way to use the second skein of Manos Silk….)