Life and knitting: Craft Fairs

Craft Fairs...I love them and I loathe them :-)
But mainly I love them!

Yesterday saw me venturing out to the Dutch Craft Fair held in Rotterdam, accompanied by my good friend and fellow knit-spinner Shaby.
Another woman who is not afraid of texture and colours.

Here she is, exchanging knitting secrets with a wonderful gentleman!



You should see his socks!



And this is my loot:




So, what do we have, from the bottom row up:

Part of a 1kg undyed hank of yarn, courtesy of Bart Francis. I'm contemplating how to dye this. Probably I will not kettle-dye, but paint it. And this one's mine!

5 packs of Sari Silk Fibers, three packs Polylux Fibers in Metallic and one pack each of Polylux Fibers in very colourful and Mulberry Silk in natural. I'm looking forward to card and spin this

And the top row consists of three balls of Grignasco Loden, courtesy of Astrid's Dutch Obsession. I really have to visit her shop in Zwolle!


There were barely any art yarn, roving or spinning related stalls. I loved that I could get some yarns that are usually hard to get hold off (Koigu - which I didn't get...yet), but only very little buttons, one booth with roving and cones, none with batts (other than the Landelijke Spingroep, who lured me into their wide open arms.

So - I think I will have to go there next year with my own produce and set up a stall. I don't know how yet, but it's a goal and I love the idea.

I also ordered some wonderful buttons - aren't they gorgeous?



The yarn in the picture is a 90's acrylic abomination unto Nuggan plied with some handspun BFL Humbug.
They look good together and will make a nice scarf or cowl. Especially in combination with the buttons.

And I still have a lot more yarn and a pattern to photograph! But I'm going to start with more coffee and some breakfast, what do you think?

Crochet: Yes, I do that, too

The weather has been amazing the last couple of days!
Dry, sunny and with a certain chill in the air.
The days get noticably shorter and it's still dark when we get up. And it's twilight when we get home.

But nature is amazing right now! Acorns everywhere, chestnuts and mushrooms. Not of the edible kind, at least not as far as I can tell, but simply due to the moisture under the trees.

I still try to wear my sandals or Birkenstocks and get dew on my toes. I love dew on my toes!

Earlier today the view outside my living room window inspired me.
I had this handspun yarn around for a while and now I knew what I wanted to make:



Headbands!
So mundane, yet so wonderful. And useful. For me not right now, this still takes a while (oops, I think I gave away my secret now), so these will hit the shop.
Pumpkin Patch (that's the yarn) is already listed.
Four more creations are currently being washed and will hang to dry in the shimmery autumn evening.

So - yes, I crochet, too. I usually forget about the older brother of knitting, but I used to love crochet. Hats, tops, scarves...and now headbands.
There will be more :-)
Because I have some amazing buttons coming my way! I show you when they arrive!

And now lunch is calling! Later, my lovelies!

Knitting: Pattern for Through the heather published

My first pattern for sale!

I had lots of fun figuring this one out, I've worn it out myself already and I love it!
It's easy, it's quick and makes a cozy and warm cowl!
Made out of super bulky yarn - commercial or your fabulous handspun!
Cables of a different kind!
Thick needles!

Dyeing: Pickled Sheep, Part 2

Remember my first Pickled Sheep experiment?

I wasn't too happy with two of the skeins and had decided to give them another bath in onion skins.
Well, they are currently well under way, but this is what they look now:

When I started:



Just now, about three hours later:



My Mom had seen the previous pictures and liked them very much - I think I might have found my Christmas present for her :-)

Some more dyeing for the shop is currently going on, with one yarn only for the winter season. Something very special! But so beautiful - and it takes dye like a dream!



Wool-silk-nylon-silver blend, kettle-dyed.
Looks amazing!

And of course - a Doctor Who inspired dye bath:



Many more to come!

Dyeing: the onion skin experiment - aka Pickled Sheep

So, the last couple of months I had collected onion skins.
Red and yellow.
Mine and the ones left in the crates in the supermarket.

Yesterday I set the experiment up:
3 hanks of woll-silk-bamboo sock yarn
mixed onion skins
water and vinegar
one large pot

One hank I untwisted and left ot loose, no strings attached.
One hand I left twisted
One hank I untwisted and tied with white cotton.

Then I soaked them in water and vinegar and went for my usual swimming session.
When I returned I changed the water, put the onion skins in, brought it to a simmer, threw the hanks in and left it alone for about an hour.



Came back, looked in amazement at the colour that had developped, turned the stove off and left it standing overnight.



Just now I took the hanks out of their bath, rinsed them and hung them to dry.

The loose skein:



The twisted skein:





The inside remained natural coloured, I might overdye it with just yellow onion skin to get a different effect. Too much white left for my taste.

The tie-dye skein:








Like this better than the twisted skein, though next time I will not double the length over and tie, but tie in the round.

A really interesting experiment! The three skeins are now hanging to dry, afterwards I will give them a gentle wash and work with them. Well, one will hit the shop, one will get another round in the dye bath and the tie-dye is going to be used to re-knit a pattern I want to publish soon - the shawlette you can see in one of my earlier posts.

And that all happened before coffee or breakfast!

Life: I am a fan girl - Doctor Who Experience, London

We went to London for a long weekend, to celebrate my brother-in-law's 50th birthday.

While we were there we took the opportunity to go and see the Doctor Who Experience.
You see, my husband is already a fan of this series since about 500BC - no, seriously, since the early 70s. His favourite Doctor is the Fourth Doctor. You do the math ;-)

I only got in with the Tenth Doctor. I tried the Ninth, but it was not meant to be.
Now, the Tenth Doctor, that was a completely different story. A geek with glasses and a suit, travelling in a box that is bigger on the inside - yes, I could get addicted to that.
The Eleventh Doctor sealed my fate! Serious fan girl stuff! Bow ties are cool!

So, we flew the Tardis, fought off Daleks, got the Doctor out and on his way again. All in between shopping ;-)

So, here are some snapshots:

Scarf Action, part 1:



How to dress to impress:









Idris - and the details of the make-shift Tardis are amazing! A shaving mirror, a shower head, a cassette tape recorder...



More scarf action:



Daleks!!!







Do they really work in offices like this? If yes, why did I always get told off for my desk????





I leave you with Silence:

Knitting: posting again already?

I know, I know, it was only yesterday I blogged. Posted. Wrote to you.

But a lot can happen in one day and one night.

Knitty released their Deep Fall patterns and I'm in lust.

I think I need to explain...

My knitting has changed over the years. Not only in colours and experience, but also in style. While I started with the usual scarves and then turned to bulky sweaters I used to knit a lot of intarsia and ajour with cables. Or just cables.

It then turned simple. Straight plain sweaters. Nothing wrong with plain sweaters, but it seems now that I didn't want to put the effort into my knitting.
It had to do with me gaining weight and always thinking that I don't want to knit an intricate design because, you know, I was going to loose this weight.
Guess what?
I haven't. And I won't ever go down to the weight I was when I was 18 - and I finally accepted that. I have lost some weight and my lifestyle has turned a lot more healthy, but the weight will remain an issue (medically mainly, the medication I take for my missing liver enzyme makes it difficult to loose weight, if I stop taking the medication I will die in the long run. Guess what is more important to me ;-) But with all the swimming and healthy eating I'm feeling better than I have in years. And not having IT-project related stress helps, too).

And when that happened I started looking into more intricate patterns.

Plus size patterns! Intarsia and cables, oh my!

Friendly Grey, while not that intricate is an instant favourite! I love the colours, I love the texture - done deal!

Ogiku, while not a sweater or cardigan it is a gem! The colours and the style of this beret are just amazing and I'm looking forward to spin and card. I have lots of left over merino tops, so I don't need to dye (much).

Memories in lichen is going to be a winter project for me. Isn't that just gorgeous? I have some Fyberspates Sparkly Lace yarn as well as a purple lace yarn and will dye some sockyarn to go with it. A-line designs suit me and my ample bosom very well, so it's a match made in knitter's heaven.

I'm also working on several patterns I plan to release.
A cowl - the one I sneak peeked in the previous post as well as a shawlette you haven't seen yet.
So, here is a preview:

Whole lotta love!



Yes, cables :-)
Used one skein of Chasing Clouds sock yarn - this one was a happy dyeing accident that I didn't put into the shop. It came out wonderfully, even if I do say so myself.
But pattern writing is a fiddly thing to do, let me tell you that!
I still have more ideas that I need to knit, write up and share...scarves and shawls mainly, I just love to top up my outfits with something hand-knitted on a daily basis.

And now, my little munchkins, I'm off to crochet. For myself. An existing pattern. In commercial yarn. I know, the mere thought of it. But it's my travel project, because I will be travelling for a couple of days and I need to learn the pattern by heart. And then it's London calling!