finished my summershawl

I brought it along with me lots of times, when the girls went playing in the park, and that helped, my summer shawl is finally done!! It was a KnitALong at the dutchwooldiva group at ravelry.

I bought this bamboo blend at  the dutch wool diva just before the tour de fleece last year. If i remember correctly it's called silver blood ball.
And i spun it during the TdF into a thin 3 ply, navajo style to keep the gradient colors together.
It was about 650 meters!

And it became this shawl!!

Just a plain stockinette shawl with a small lace border. I wanted the gradient to really show! It's actually quite a large shawl. Funny enough these are so not my favorite colors, i decided to choose something out of my comfortzone, but i do like this gradient a lot!!! The bamboo gives the yarn a really nice shine.


Oh and i wanted to show you these little notebooks i bought. On a very small flea market aren't these cute!!

today we had a little trip, it was a very spontaneous one ! I was telling my husband about new colors of stylecraft and about lucy from attic24. And somehow we ended up cycling to the trainstation on our way to Alphen a/d Rijn. To a shop called echtstudio. They have quite a spacious shop, filled with colorfull yarns, room for workshops. Offcourse with two little girls and a husband, one has to choose quite quickly. But i already knew what i wanted... stylecraft!!
I got two of the new colors, i didn't like the pale lavender grey one, but i really like the new sage and storm blue!
I also got denim, violet, cloud blue, meadow, lime, grape and parchment. Seeing all the colors makes choosing so much easier!!

actually this is a present from my husband for mothersday :)

After that we walked around Alphen, we haven't been there before. Josanne got an childrens atlas she's very happy with it!


This morning the girls had fun with my other stylecraft colors!

and now it's time for some crochet!!!

ugly dolls

It's been a while since i blogged, i've been busy with loads of things.... not all of those involved knitting and spinning. 

A few weeks ago i came across a message on facebook, about a lady from Tasmania, Sonia Singh, she is the creator of Tree Change Dolls. She buys second hand dolls and removes the make up and changes them into natural girls.

So inspiring!! I've talked about her works and the dolls with my oldest. I showed her one of the dolls, a bratz doll.

 

 

And asked if she liked it, she thought the doll looked silly with such big lips and strange eyes. Then i showed her how we could change them. She really liked the ''natural'' dolls Sonia Singh makes.

 

On the 27th of April we celebrate our king Willem Alexander, it's  a national day with music, parties, and all kinds of activities.

 For us it means waking up quite early around 6:45  to go to the fleamarket in our city. And afterwards we travel to my parents to celebrate my dads birthday!

 

 

The flea market was great for searching for ugly dolls. My oldest daughter was a great help in spotting them, hey mom here's another ugly doll!! Saying such things gives funny reactions :)

 We ended up with a few bratz and some barbies. The girls both had some money to spend and had a great time. They did found great new toys. And Josanne really knows about the value of money, when she found something was overpriced, she would say it and walk away!

 

 

I still had some acryllic paint and aceton, so the next few days i gave it a try. I can surely say it's hard!!! Especially the eyes, giving them the same shape is so hard!! I still have to find realy fine brushes, the smallest i was able to find where size 2 and i should use size 000.

 

But it's so much fun to do!! My girls wanted to try to, so they used some very old ugly dolls ;) due to bad hair not really useable for me. So we spend an afternoon together painting our dolls.

 

 

And now i found a good use for all those little balls of thin handspun... knitting dolls clothes!!

 

 

Here a few before and afters, i still need lots of practise! But they don't look so creepy anymore! And it sure is really fun to do and see the dolls change :)

 

If anyone has some ugly dolls they don't want anymore.... i would like to take them off your hands ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                              kinda creepy look don't you think....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

to be continued....