a little bit of everything

So a little free time this morning, the youngest is to her playgroup, and the eldest is in school. I could start on ironing or cleaning, but somehow that feels as a waste of those 2 hours... so i better write a new blog to show you what i've been up to.

Last week was filled with all sorts of things, on tuesday there was a big fabric market overhere. And i have a wonderfull old chair, my mom got from a beautifull hotel. I found an older picture online of a bedroom in the hotel with  chairs like mine! I love this style chairs, and they are really comfy!

Once before i changed the fabric on the chair, but our cat decided it was the perfect place for his claws.... so on the fabric market there was a man selling last years collection for 10 euro's per meter.
I preferred a flower design, but that wasn't for sale. So i finally choose something else with a little help from my youngest. And it took a little time and mussle power...

but now the chair looks great again... untill i will find the most beautifull floral fabric.. and yes we do need to tell the cat he can't put his claws in it again. But luckely i have 2 little volunteers who are very keen on telling hem NO!!

I also did some spinning. A little while ago i got an order in with nunoco, a beautifull etsy shop filled with batts and blends in amazing colors!!
They also sell harmony packs, color themed, filled with tops, silk noil, silks, blends, firestar. Perfect for playing with blendingboards or carders.

I orderd a harmony pack in the colorway mizzle. It contains soft purples, grey, magenta, and also a linen blend.

 

 

the right one on the picture, the left one is a rockpool colorway merino pack.

 

So one night i spend with my blendingboard making rolags. And after that started spinning. I used the spindles my dad made me.

 

 

I tried to spin a bit thicker, not really worked out..

So i ended up with a big plying ball, i don't enjoy plying on spindles at all, so i got my spinningwheel.

After plying i decided it was still to thin for what i wanted so i started knitting with 2 strands.... what i was knitting? Well somehow i managed to wash both of my handspun hats in the washingmachine, they probably played hide and seek in the dirty laundery, or they were helped by a little 3 year old?
Anyway i got 2 warm winter hats which probably will fitt one of the dolls in this house....
So i'm knitting a new hat :) very warm and soft and long enough to cover my ears :)

And i really like, but i'm not sure which side i like best....

So goes for the cardigan i'm knitting, i'm always more of the stockinette knitside, but this time i think i like the inside better...

 

 

Yesterday the girls and i were enjoying some crafty time with polymer clay, the eldest made beads and the youngest made some ''dolls''. I however made some new spindles. Just simple ones made of a short double pointed knitting needle and a piece of clay. They spin very well!

 So last night i started on a batt from nunoco. A so called batt dropping, i really like those. You never know what you're going to get, they are made from leftover bits and pieces. And suprises in the mail are always great fun! I really like this one, black wool fiber mixed with soysilk and silk noils!

coming weeks i'm going to make 2 packages, in about 2,5 weeks the annual meet of the dutch spinners group is taking place. It's actually a whole weekend, but i'm only going on saturday. A wonderfull day filled with fiber, spinningwheels, workshops, a market and offcourse lots of spinningfriends!

And with a little group we're doing a fiberswap. You make a package with 4x25 (or 5x20 grams) samples of different fibers and you'll recieve a similar package of someone else. Great fun to try new fibers, and new colorways. A bit like phat fiber but in a free version.

So now i'm going to drink a cup of tea... hopeing you'll have a wonderfull day!!

1 down 1 to go

So here i'm sitting down after a busy day, the girls are watching Narnia, the oldest is a bit tired due to a cold. So after a busy day at school time to relax....
i made an ovendish made with leftover vegetables, so no cooking for me tonight!

And it gives me a moment to type a blog.

I finished one mitten! I really like it, i made a few more repeats in de leaf pattern, i have enough yarn, and i like long mittens! It actually has been a bit colder here, and i'm refusing to put the heat on early september, but i was tempted to wear my one mitten as armwarmer. But that would've looked a bit silly..

 



It's actually quite hard to make a picture of yourself wearing armwarmers... ;) you have to hold your arm in strange positions :)
I love the yarn, it has lots of subtle colors in browns reds and oranges. It's handyed by a fellow raveler!

The pattern is well written and easy to follow. However it doesn't have a chart, it's a written pattern.

And now i have to start the second one, hopefully i won't be bothered by the second mitten syndrome...


On facebook i joined  a group that sells yarns and such. Most of the times i'm not tempted to buy anythin, but then i saw an add for these

 



It looked interesting, definitely handspun. The seller could only tell it was acryllic. It costed 7 euros.
I took a chance and bought it.  It was almost 1000 grams shiny handspun and handdyed acryllic.  Not something i've seen very often.
Ihave to admit i'm a bit of a yarnsnob, not a big fan of acryllic. But this looked so great and a love the colors!

I decided to dye some drops Fabel white in similar colors. Very simple, cold water and vinegar in my dyepot, adding greens and blues and heat for a while and voila!

 





And combine two threads while knitting, one wool and one acryllic. I do look the look of this!

once again i decided to knit a topdown cardigan. I'm not much of a pattern knitter... and last few atempts were to big! And i am a big girl (ha but i'm shrinking due to the healty flow i'm in) but not that big. So now i'm trying to knit it a bit smaller!

It's going to be a bit rustic, but i do like the look off it!!

 

 



So you'll know what i'll be knitting this week!

it's been to long....

Well hello.... i know it's been way to long since i posted a blog.
A lot has happend since then and offcourse there was a fun filled summervacation.

We spend it at the house of my sister in law, who lives almost in the forest. Great fun for the girls. Because we live in the city, with a small garden, with no forests closeby... so we went to the forest almost every day!

Our youngest with her self  harvested rhubarb :)


The weather wasn't always sunny and warm but due to bad weather we found out our oldest really enjoys watching diving competitions on tv...

We went to the zoo, the pool, did enjoy a lot of outdoor activities in beautifull places! We found a great nature reserve, only 10 minutes on bike from the place we were staying. It's very big, heather growning everywhere, sheep walking around, lizards in the shrubs...  lovely to walk around a looking at all the beautifull nature!

It's called Heidestein, it used to belong to a family, who where living in India, but their daughter suffered from asthma, so they came back, bought this land and build a beautifull house and developed this land into a beautifull place. For my dutch readers here's a bit of the history with pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the creative part a lot has happend to, offcourse a big event was de Tour the Fleece, for the people who don't know what that is... during the Tour de France a lot of spinners worldwide try to spin every day... exciting enough was that the tour came trough our city!!



I spun a lot during the tour, even on vacation! I brought some spindles with me... enjoying the outdoor spinning a lot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just before the Tour de France a dream came trough... for a while i was looking around for another spinningwheel. I was hoping for a double drive norwegian wheel.  I found out you're not bound to find one for sale very often. So i tried my luck on a dutch spinning group on ravelry. Posting an in search off message. Soon enough i had a reply from a lady who was willing to sell hers, she bought another wheel and didn't use her ''Noortje'' (nickname) anymore. She was kind enough to bring it here, because we don't have a car!

She is a beauty, not made in Norway, it's probably handmade in the seventies. I thought i would take quite some time to get into the double drive spinning.. but we got along from the beginning! I just started and reluctantly left her at home during our vacation.

But, yes there's a but, i don't like this type of wood. But offcourse that can be changed easy with some paint!!

So here she is, my new colorful wheel!

 

I did some knitting, a shawl, 2 cute little dogs my girls really wanted, it's victoria a pattern of zij maakt het on ravelry!

Right now i'm knitting with a lovely sockyarn i got i think in a swap from Ineke on ravelry, she dyed it herself. It's a real autumnal yarn... i tried it in a shawl, but i didn't like it.
All the color nuances seem to dissapear. So i went browsing on ravelry and found these great mittens... so this afternoon i cast on. And allready 1 repeat is done!!

Actually a bit strange to start on such an autumnal project on a glorious summer day! Warm and sunny really lovely ''being outdoors weather''! 
Probably these warm tempratures will get the gladioluses to open up quite soon

Well from now on i'm going to blog more reguarly... for now it's time for my lunch.

Yes it's a juice, a cucumber,carrot, apple, celery juice! Homemade with our slowjuicer!
I'm back on the healthy journey again, i'm on day 5 now and feeling better already.

Cheers ;)

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!!!