more spindles....

Monday i told about my dad, he is really getting into the whole woodturning thing. He has loads of tools, which makes woodworking a lot easyer. All i own is a saw and a hammer and a couple of screwdrivers.

I shows him some pictures of spindles. And he thought i he could make spindles which have wood combinations for the whorls.
He glued multiple types of wood together and then turned them into spindles, and i really have to say he has done an amazing job!!!

He made me 3 spindles, 2 light ones, and one a bit heavier. They all spin great, no problem with the balance.

I can't tell you all the different kinds of woods he used in the spindles, but i do recognise oak, cherry and beech! 


Here we go, number one, a slightly heavier spindle, oak cherry and a shaft is beech. Spins like a dream. Very fine single noticable on the shaft. 
I really like the shape of this spindle!

oh in case you're wondering the fiber is from the Enchanted Knoll Farm, it's a merino tussahsilk blend, in the colorway cleopatra. Supersoft and a delight to spin it!! I got it from a friend from ravelry!

Here are some more pictures. I do say we just got a new camera, and we don't get along very well yet. It's very different from my old one... all the pictures were made at the same time... although the pictures don't show that!

The second spindle, this is a very light and very fast spinner, with a little beehive whorl, it's made out of 5 different sorts of wood. Again cherry and oak and beech.
I really like the fast spin on this one!!

woohoo that fiber really pops off the screen, doens't it? I got it from another ravelry friend Marvelknits, we are both in a fiberswap group.
The idea behind the group is, you have in the USA the phatfiber box, in the U.K you have the fiberholics box. Both are great, but add the shippingcosts and from the USA the possible extra custom fees, those are quite expensive bits of fiber. So i started a small group on ravelry, and we now did 2 rounds. Everybody tells how many packages they want to make with 4x25 grams or 5x 20 grams, and then the swapping begins. Batts, top, roving, rolags everything can be in there. The last time was great fun because we were all present on the annual day of the spinning guild here in the Netherlands. So we all recieved great presents.  one of mine was this fiber. Something i would never buy, due to the neon colors. But i must admit, i really like it!!! It's so much fun spinning those bright and happy colors, with cool colors changes. And those sparkles make it even more fun! I'm guessing it's BFL.
It's dyed by another ravelista, her etsy shop is no longer open, so i can't link her.



But oh wait i was supposed to show you the spindles...

 

 

 

 



And last but not least, a no fuss spindle, with a good balance, nice woodgrain in the shaft. Also a light spindle, just how i like them!!



I'd say my dad has found a good new hobby as spindlemaker!! And i can tell you he is planning to make so more with tulipwood!! I will keep you posted!

birthday girl

Oh my this has been a busy week! Haven't wrote anything here... Last thursday was the birthday of our oldest! She turned 6, she's getting so big so fast, just the other day i watched some movies we made when she was around one year old... it feels like a decade ago!!

But our girl definitely knows what she wants, she wanted the party for her friends from school on the same day, but she didn't want a very long party.
The theme had to be princesses, and she had one BIG wish..... a pinata!! Offcourse i could make that, right??



We started the weekend before with paper mache and 2 balloons, that wasn't to hard.

 

 

 But it dries so slow. But it was finished on her birthday and it was a big hit, all those little princesses hitting with a branch on that pinata. I actually made it quite strong, cause it took them 25 minutes to open it!! We filled it with candy, sparkle bracelets, erasers and hairclips. And home made confetti, which the girls made togheter and enjoyed that a lot. We are a confetti factory mom!!

We had great fun that afternoon, my mom came to help. And she made for all the girls a little cape. We decorated our own crowns, and decorated cupcakes!


The weekend was filled with grandparents visiting for the birthday girl. My dad brought some great spindles!! i will show and tell you about them later this week! Oh and i bought my mom and myself a little orchid, we walked by them in the city. They were so cute! And only 2,99 each!

After the birthday a nasty cold got hold off me,  couhing, headache and soooo cold. But hey as a mom you can't be sick, so i spend quite some time in a chair knitting. While the girls played around me.

And what i was knitting? Something very easy... just improvising.
At ravelry there's a dutch karma swap group, and in a swap i claimed four skeins of Drops Eskimo in a olive green.

  i spend the weekend knitting a bag from it,

put it in the laundry machine, and voila a felted bag.

And now i'm adding little flowers so much funnto do.

I really like these little chamomile flowers.

 

 

 

and now i haven't even told you about my new yarn, the shawl i started with the tosh sock yarn and and... but now it's time to prepare the turnip mashpot for dinner tonight.

sand water and a bit of culture...

Saturday, Saint Valentine's Day. Well we don't give each other gifts, it's a bit to commericial...
but my husband came home friday with a bottle of Mandarinello. The bottle itself looks so happy, i don't want to open it!

In our city Gouda there was a Secret Love Route, you could get a bright pink paper bag at the old city hall, and you'll get an adress, at that place you would get something and get the adress of the next stop. Josanne really wanted to go, so we decided to go on time, because there were only 100 bags...

 

Our first adress was the cafe at the Gouda Museum, were we got a lovely scone, after that we visited an art galerie, we got a lovely drawing of a couple dancing the tango.

There were backeries, little shops, one of my favorite shops is a chocolate shop, where the make everything by hand, and there we got two of my favorite pieces!
After walking for more then 2 hours, Lieke got a bit tired, so i put her on my bike and Josanne went into all the shops, she loved it to go in by herself. We all enjoyed it, we visited places we never had before!

And today we went to Schoonhoven, a beautifull old city, next to the river called "Lek''. It's just a little trip by bus. It was nice and sunny, not very warm, but nice! At the river are small ''beaches''  perfect for the girls to play and watch the boats go by.

 

 

it was lovely, the girls laughing and running around, climbing the rocks. And i brought my sock project along, i did quite a bit of knitting.

We also walked a bit into the city...

Spending so much time out doors, we all are a bit tired.... some more then others (Lieke fell asleep in the bus on our way home) so after dinner and the girls are in bed i'm going to continue with my fair isle kisslock bag

 

hope you all had a great weekend to!!!

 

fun things!

Last week we did a lot of fun things, my girls both love to be outdoors, but not when it's cold. We all long for spring and being more outdoors again.

One thing they both enjoy is collecting stones, i gave Josanne my old mineral collection, and she loves it!! But what can be more fun then finding you're own stones with crystals!
She takes a lot after me, because i remember a vacation when i was about 7 i think, i spend the whole vacation with a hammer outside, crushing stones to see what was in them.

But being in the city limits to options to finding rocks.... so i decided to get a bag of pebbles at the home depot. Only € 3,20 for a big bag.  Easyer said then done, 25 kilo's is quite heavy, but Lieke, the pebbles and myself came home on my bike!

So we all could have our pick from the pebbles. Josanne tried to find the ones which would likely have some crystal in them, Lieke collected everything she picked up, just as any 3 year old she sees in everything a treasure. 
I went looking for smooth flat ones to try my luck at rockpainting again.

 



Here are the girls, looking for hidden gems!

And after that they both got an old toothbrush and some warm soapy water to clean their pebbles.

 

Painting time .

 

 

My results, not spectaculair but we had fun!!!

We also had fun with some beautifull glass beads, which i got from this webshop. We also added some plastic beads, and ironwire.

 

 





 we cut of long lengths of iron wire, and put some beads on it.  And put them in our window. It's actually quite hard to take a good picture from it. Josanne says it looks like raindrows. Especially when the sun shines it's really colorful! Like we have a lot of seaglass in our window!

 

 



 

Last year i had a personal shopper, yes really! A friend from ravelry was willing to buy some things at Sostre Grene,  a great shop with decoration, craft materials, and all kinds of lovely things. But the shop is sooo far away.

 

So that personal shopper was wonderfull. She got me some great things. Teatowels and a thermos flask, and a table!!

 

Lieke and i decided to put the table was a project for the two of us, it turned out she could do it by herself!

 

 

 

 

And the end result!! A very cute little table!

 

oh and i bought yarn, in great colors!! But i will tell you another day, right now it's tea with bisquits time for me and the girls!