I've been busy...

It's been more than a week sincemy last post and a lot has happened.
My livingroom and kitchen were out of reach for me for 3 days, it was impossible to live in it.
That meant no cooking too !
The floors were sanded and waxed, so we couldn't walk on it . This also meant that we couldn't go upstairs because the stair is in my kitchen. I know this a strange place for a stair but it just happens to be there. Middle daughter had to climb a ladder to get into her room, we were lucky and could use the front door as our bedrooms are downstairs.
So it was kind of hectic, and on top of that I have a terrible cold. Running nose ( I hate that), watery eyes, sore throat and soar all over my body.
I couldn't use my own computer with my pictures on it too, but all is back in place now so it is time to take some rest :-)






This almost seems like a picture from one of the previous posts doesn't it ?
Well I can assure you that this a new start of the Morning Glories Wrap with new yarn from Briar Rose. It arrived super fast ! The same day it was wound up and on the needles again. I am happy to be knitting this again, the yarn is a different color, more purples and plums with some gold in it. It is really soft and works great together with my rosewood needles.
I prefer knitting with straight needles, I am what they call a "thrower". My right needle is tucked under my armpit, it is kind of glued to it. I keep my yarn in my right hand, and let it slide through it. I don't wrap it around my fingers or anything, then I "throw" my yarn around the needle. Probably a funny sight to all the US knitters who seem to hold the yarn in their left hand and knit mostly with circulars BUT it works for me !



Nice stitch marker isn't it ? There were two of them in the same colors as the yarn as a gift from Chris.





This wonderfully soft Alpaca yarn is handspun by the very friendly Maple from North Star Alpacas. Here is the link to her Etsy Shop : http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5001683
She sends the yarn with a picture of the Alpaca whose yarn it is spun from and with a lovely smelling piece of lavender soap. This was from the cute looking Beau !


And this from Rouge, spun together with a thin lurex yarn for a shimmery effect. If you look closely you can see it. It was just so lovely I couldn't resist. I never bought handspun before, but it is really beautiful. So special to have your own Alpacas, spin their yarns and then knit something from it.
I know what I want for my birthday now ! My own Alpaca and spinning lessons !




Yesterday this arrived too. Two laceweight yarns from Wollmeise from Germany.
The bright blue one is called "Vergissmeinnicht" and the very dark blue "Mitternacht".
These are 100% wool, it is her "Babygarn" with more than 1500 yards per skein. She also sells to International customers !
http://www.rohrspatzundwollmeise.de/flash_content/rohrspatzundwollmeise.html




I love how this was wrapped up with the little feather and the extra little skein.
Now I'm off to knit some more, I have to do something with all those yarns after all !

Moving on

After my last post I needed some comfort knitting so I decided to start something new with a really soft and yummy yarn with a bright and sunny color. 100 % cashmere is enough to make you happy again isn't it ! I bought this yarn a while ago at Posh Yarn from the UK. Here is the link to their site http://www.poshyarn.co.uk/index.html

They update every Sunday at 6 PM (GMT), if you want something from the shop you'd better be ready behind the screen because these yarns really sell out quick !

I decided to make something that was not too difficult, so when I visited Dee's Blog from Posh Yarn and saw that she was going to make the Fir Cone Triangular Shawl and was looking for someone to join her the decision was easily made.

Knitting outside in the sun, what could make you happier ?

Maybe seeing these tiny little birds, hidden away in their nest between the Orchids ?


For weeks we have been carefully moving around the nest, careful not to disturb it. Their parents are used to having people around it and wait untill we leave for a moment to feed the little ones. It's alway quite clear when they are fed, loud chattering welcomes mom and dad when they arrive !

Today they flew out.

Goodbye little birds, have a save journey !!!!

The Rhododendrons are in full bloom now and it's quite busy around the bushes. Dozens of these

are zooming around them, searching for honey. It wasn't easy to capture one of them on camera becausethey won't sit still for a moment.

When the ladies arrive I know summer isn't that far away any more.

Nine of them are standing in the meadow in front of our house. Just to give you an idea how close this is..........

This is the really ancient milking machine the farmer who owns the cows is using. This thing should be in a museum ! Really, this thing is so old and oldfashioned nobody uses something like this anymore. But is has something nostalgic about it I think. Every morning around 5 AM he starts the (damn) thing. Thump, thump,thumpumpumpumpum........ We all wake up for a moment and then turn around to fall asleep again. Middle daughter and youngest daughter sleep at the front of the house, we sleep at the back. We don't mind, they well....let's just say they accept it.

The ladies are already waiting at the gate for him when he arrives with his car and trailer with oldfashioned milkbarrels in it . No worries about milk quotums for this farmer !

When we sit outside in the evenings we can hear the cows graze and ruminate ( I hope I looked this up correct because it sounds like some kind of dirty word to me!)

Everything is still and quiet and we just sit there and listen ......

About the Morning Glory Wrap : new yarn is on its way !

Not happy !

In the previous post I told about how happy I was with my Briar Rose yarns. Well that's over !
At the moment I am feeling very unhappy and that is an understatement.
See the picture below ?

Do you see the difference between the left and right ball ?
I decided to wind the other skein I have in a cake and then I found out that they are not the same AT ALL !
The one at the rigt is more rusty with greens and the other has more pinks and golds. In real the difference is even more obvious.
I don't know why I didn't see this before I started to knit with it. Must have been the heat of the moment I guess. How could I have missed this I keep asking myself this again and again.
With the yarn itsself is nothing wrong, it knits up like a dream, the skeins just don't match.
So I can't continue to knit with it anymore because one ball is NOT enough to finish it.
Yesterday I almost made it to the final repeat of the first half.....
I will have to rip it, but not just yet.............

Finally some rain !

It's raining over here ! Can't tell you how happy I am with that !
It hadn't rained for more than 8 weeks, now that is so not normal for this time of year.
Everything just stopped growing. The grass wasn't just that green anymore. All kinds of measures were taken to prevent the damage to nature. I am living in a country where we are surrounded by water but still we were having lots of troubles. We have a huge waterbassin where we collect rainwater to water the Orchids but it was completely empty. Never happened before in spring. We also have a well that we use in case we run out, but this was also empty. Now this has never ever happened before so But now it rains....... and I enjoy it.


When I saw the Morning Glory Wrap that Anne http://knitspot.com/ made from Briar Rose Wistful I really wanted to make this one. The yarn was already on my wishlist but I had already given up on it to ever get my hands on one of their yarns. It said clearly on their website that they don't ship internationally, so as the good and brave girl that I am (ahum) I accepted this and didn't inquire any further. But... I needed a little push and now that I have it I wanted to knit with it rightaway ! Honestly wouldn't you ?

A little trip to the US to go yarnshopping is also HIGH on my wishlist but not quite as easy to realize as ordering some yarn. If only I could visit just one of those big yarn and fiberfestivals, just once...
Well the yarn was petted and admired and wound into a cake so I cast on for the wrap saturday evening.
I have just finished the first repeat of the Morning Glory pattern, there are four repeats in total for the first half of it. I did one repeat less than was stated for the mesh pattern and I think I will also do one repeat less on this one. Otherwise it will turn out too long I'm afraid. I have very short legs...
I added a picture of it, as always the colors are not quite right, it's darker in real. I seem to have problems with reds on my camera. A well known problem for most cameras as I understand. It also shows a lot of yellow in it, but it's more a gold/greenish kind of color.
The yarn is knitting up great anyway on my rosewood US 9 needles or 5,5 mm for me.






The knitting with beads was so much fun that I wanted to make something else with them. I still had this in my stash. Handmaiden Sea Silk in Berry with megatama beads in 4 mm. The pattern is the Gothic Leaf from Sivia Harding. It's also in one of the Babara Walker books, not sure in which one.
So with two new projects just started and the ones still on the needles I will be busy for quite while.

This River Rocks !

The River Scarf is finished.
I am very pleased with the result, it came out just as I had hoped. The knitting with beads was really fun to do, a bit heavy at he end because this one weighs a lot ! It has more than 1550 beads in it !
The Silken is a dream to knit with, this yarn is buttery soft and shiny.



Pattern: River Rock Scarf from No Sheep for You.
Yarn: Handmaiden Silken in colorway Paris. I just just over 1 1/2 skeins.
Beads: Matte Gold 6/0 from http://www.earthfaire.com/
Needles: 4.5 mm, US 7.

I have included a selfportait this time, for the ones who are reading this blog. So you know who you are dealing with ;-)

A while ago I ordered the pattern for the Morning Glory Wrap from Anne at http://knitspot.com/ . It is knit in a yarn from http://www.briarrosefibers.net/ I had visited their site for numbers of times but it said they didn't ship internationally. I was quite disappointed about it at the time but I set it beside. When I left a comment on Anne's blog she told me I could always ask Chris at Briar Rose if they were willing to sell to me. Chris was very nice and emailed me back right away, no problem she said. Well to make a long story short I ordered QUITE a bit. A large box arrived finally last week with these wonderful yarns in it. I took one skein of each of them to make a picture of them, so there is more !

On top is Wistful, an Alpaca/Merino/Silk blend. This is for the Morning Glory Wrap.

At the right is Legend, a Merino wool with 1550 yards on the skein. This is only half of the skein here, the other half is already wound into a cake.

The two at the bottom are Sea Pearl, a merino/tencel blend. These have a wonderful sheen over them and the colors of all of these are really georgeous !

But if you buy yarns internationally it sometimes CAN get caught up at Customs.

That's what happened with this shipment too ! I had to pay the postman guy almost $ 80,--

Oops !!

I hard to swallow loud and hard, cause I never expected to have to pay that much !

This isn't normal I think, so I won't be ordering for any large amounts anymore.

The postman also brought me this:

Sundara Silk Lace in Cherry Blossom.

A beautiful Cattleya Orchid to look at, wish you could smell it though. They ought to make a perfume of this !

It really is spring now, the duck who lives in the pond in front of our house has little ducklings !

They are so cute !