Just a quick note ...

To let you all know that I won't be around for a while. Yesterday we were hit by a huge thunderstorm. I was at the ridingschool at that moment and the whole place was flooded. I helped out and it was only afterwards that I noticed that huge hail had destroyed the roof there (the hail was as big as eggs!). I went home to see that the roof of the business was even worse. The downstairs was flooded completely, and there was water in my bedroom and the "Winter garden" (lucky for us we don't live on the ground floor). So I cleaned up till 10pm.

It was only then I noticed my Internet was down. I waited till tonight but it's still not up and I contacted the company. They are having so many calls they can't keep track. So it won't be till Monday before someone can come around to fix the stuff! That's horrible for me, being an Internet addict!

So I'll be doing other stuff I'm afraid. Happy birthday to me. NOT. Internet is my life-line, so I'll be lonely over the weekend. :'(

Oh, and a HUGE thank you to my sweet SP!!!! I got your package today, and I just love it! I'm so happy to be pampered by you for my birhtday! Sorry I can't email you, I will do so as soon as my Internet is back up!!

Ps.: If you really need to contact me, don't reply over here but email to rrej37 at hotmail dot com! I can check that address from another computer - like my moms where I am now - but I can't check my own email and so I can't read comments! Keep knitting all!

No knitting but art

I didn't do much knitting today, though I have a few pictures to post from things finished over the weekend (will do that tomorrow). I did do some art, ATCs to be exact, and here are a few small examples for those interested ...




More tomorrow!

Oh, and I signed up for my first stitch marker swap! Never made stitch markers but am not new to beading so I think it'll be ok! Off to bed now!

Lousy felter

I'm really not good in felting. Why you ask me? I have no clue. I have been thinking it's the yarn, but then again, that's a stupid excuse. So I wanted to make tiny felted bags like this to send to my secret pal and maybe some other people. They look so cute. So I knitted this up Wednesday evening :

I knitted up another model yesterday and put them both in my machine with some jeans. Look what I got after 2 cycles :

I'm SOOOOO dissapointed!!! It looks awful, I'm even embarrassed to show the picture over here let alone that I will mail it to my SP. :( I such a bad person at this.

The other bag you ask? That one is looking better, though not perfect. I'll post pictures later.

Now I'm off to go horse riding. I don't feel like it, not at all, but I don't have much of a choice. It'll be a horrible weekend again, and the weather is still way to hot, so you won't hear much from me I'm afraid. I long for WINTER!!!!!

Sick

I had to come home early from horse riding today as my stomach was totally upset. I was feeling so sick I thought I would fall from my horse. So I just came home and went to bed. I'm still feeling quite bad and I would love to go back to bed even though it's way to hot right now to lay there. But I just don't feel good. I still have to cook but then it's to bed with some knitting I'm afraid.

Oh, I'm so excited about the yarn I painted last night! Turns out the Tinfix I'm having is really good to paint yarn - though I have to figure out measurements better! - and I can't wait to start painting more! My grandmother will be getting me some old pots and ovendishes so I can paint more. Can't wait really! To bad the weekend is so busy! I'll be getting more dye next week though while I'm in the city. I have so much to dye! So here are the yarns :


From left to right : the orange is sock yarn died with koolaid (the "white spots" were supposed to be green but the green didn't take well, I guess I didn't have the good colour or added to much water), this is going to turn into those little ankle socks (I'm usually not a fan of orange but it's Summer and I had so much of this Koolaid), the middle one is yarn I got in huge amounts at my LYS for a really low price, it's 100% wool, also died with Koolaid (red, pink, purple, but the purple dissapeared :( ), this will turn into a small felting project, and then the last skein is the one painted with Tinfix! It's and old skein from my grandmother, one of the 2 100% wool I found in her stash - which she gave me by the way - and I wanted to use it to felt but I'm not sure if it will. Doggie ate the label so no way I can find it out. As you can see I used a bit to much black for this skein, but I was in a hurry and I just wanted to see if the dye would take. It does so I'll do more precise measurements next time. Can't wait though! :D

Oh, and there were a few people who offered me to send some KoolAid, please do leave me another message, I can use some more. I'll send you something nice in return!

Then, finally a picture of the stuff my SP5 sent me :



The lovely branching out scarf, a tiny booklet to make notes (great to take with my in my knitting bag) and a holder with 2 tapestry needles, which is really hand is well! Thanks again sweet SP5! You are a great knitter!

Oh, and I found all the stuff I needed - the roving and the ball winder - to my great pleasure. I'm so happy and I can't wait to get it, hopefully in about 2 weeks!

Off now to cook some and crawl back in bed ...

Short update

It has been mighty hot out here! For the last 4 days it has been up in the 30's with hardly any wind and no cooling down in the evening. Well, now there's wind and it might cool down. They said we were going to have thunderstoms tonight. One can only hope! :D

So I didn't do much knitting this weekend. I hadly did anything. I was lazy once again. Nothing new to me. Oh well, at least I relaxed. And thanks to using a bunch of sunmilk I managed not to get burned during our 2-hours walk with the horses on Sunday. Yay for me! I decided that I'm sick of trying getting a tan 'cause it doesn't work anyway and the sun isn't healthy (I'm at high risk for skin cancer) so I'm going for the white look! Don't care what fashion sais. I love the heat of laying in the sun but I hate getting burned every time. It's just not worth it.

I'm not a Summer person so I'm not loving this weather, though it's not really bothering me. People are complaining it's to hot, while a few weeks ago they were complaining it was to cold for the time of the year. People should make up their mind really. I do hope we'll have a proper Summer, but on the other hand, if it just doesn't rain I don't care how hot it gets. Well, I don't mind rain, just not all the time!

Yesterday one of my kitties came in and started asking for attention - she always does when I'm at the computer - and in a few minutes I was covered with hair! I can assure you, when it's 35° outside and you are sweaty you don't want to be covered in cats hair. I was amazed with the amount of hair she was loosing so I decided to give here a petting moment. Well, I got out and got one of Blue's (the horses) brushes which is actually a cat brush but they are used for horses as well (for the tail mostly). I had one outside in the stable which I don't use often as I usually clean Blue at the riding stable. Anyway, it took me half an hour and I did 2 cat's - the third one didn't seem to loose much hair - and I got a bunch of loose hair, look :



And I have to say I didn't even removed it all! The black cat in the picture - Spike - started enjoying the brushing in the end. She was the one that showed me the hair she was loosing! The other cat in the picture - Angel - was the one that didn't need the brushing. Third cat - who didn't want his picture taken yesterday - has semi-long hair and needed the brushing really badly, but he didn't like it so after 10 min I stopped. I had already removed quite a lot of hair! So when I was done the cats came checking the hair on the balcony! :D So funny! I kept the hair. I'm going to see if I can blend it with some wool and then spin it! :D Nice experiment I think!

So tonight I'm going to plant some plants - it's late but at least now the temperatures aren't to high anymore - and I have some yarn soking to get dyed! Yeah, finally. I've been putting this on hold for days now. I tried calling my grandmother to see if she had some old pots to use with the Jacquard dyes but she didn't pick up her phone. So for now I'm not trying those. I am going to try the Tinfix dyes I got at the local art shop with one old oven dish I'm having. All the other stuff will be dyed with KoolAid. And I found some Easter egg dye in one of my drawers which I should test soon too.

If someone can help me : I'm looking for not so expensive mohair that can be shipped to Belgium. Doesn't have to be roving, can be curls. I saw some great deals on Ebay but I'm not sure if that's the cheapest way plus the ones selling curls wouldn't ship international. Secondly I'm also looking for wool rovings. Can be in the UK, or in the US. Just not to expensive and possible to ship international. Last I'm looking for a place to order a good sturdy ball winder. I'm willing to pay a bit more if that gives me higher quality. Again, low price and International shipping are the deal!

Off now, to pull on some old clothes and start planting and dyeing!

Got my first surprise!!!

First, a little personal message :

****************************

Dear SP5,

I got your first package in the mail today, thank you so much!!!!! It was such a nice treat! I went through it all very slowly, like I always do, to really enjoy everything inside. I love the scarf you made me! It's unbelievable I actually owe a Branching Out scarf! I was going to make one myself, but I don't have to 'cause this one is gorgious! Well, I will make one, for my mother or so. But thank you so much! I also love the little notepad and the Tapestry needles with the little holder, really can use those!

Again, thank you so much! You are a lovely SP and I already adore you as the scarf was so wonderfully knitted!

Lots of Love!

*******************

I will be posting pictures tomorrow but it's dark and cloudy now so the pictures wouldn't do justice anyway!

As told I got my lovely books and dyes yesterday at my moms. I'm really happy with them though I had hoped to have more sock patterns in the Twisted Sisters book. But I love it nonetheless and I can't wait to start dyeing wool. I hate the fact that it's virtually impossible to get rovings over here. Actually, I just don't have wool to dye right now. And I wish shipping over here wouldn't be so expensive.

I now want to order either the Socks Socks Socks book or the Knitting on the Road book, but on the other hand I'm afraid I will buy something my SP might send me. Oh, please, dear SP, you really don't need to send me books, but well, you know, I don't want to buy a book twice! But I will be ordering one of these next Tuesday. Along with the Folk Socks book. And some other - non-knitting related - books. I need to order these at a special book store and they get the books in the states. So that saves me money. I also want that book written by the Yarn Harlot , I think Amazon UK carried it. I'm not sure though.

That being said, I didn't do much knitting today. I did finish the first Chutes 'n Ladders sock yesterday and will start the second one tonight. I also got my fabulour yarn from Hello Yarn yesterday. She's so fast with shipping! I'm loving it and my sister is loving it too so I'll be starting her socks soon too. Plus I love the colourway I got for myself, as expected I'm in love with it! I had been drooling over that yarn for weeks but had put myself on a diet. The diet I'm on again but won't keep for long. Well, I think I won't be getting much yarn online during the Summer. I need to knit up what I have and save money for other things. Like I know I have a few heavy bills coming at the end of August - like my medical insurance - so I should save up for that.

Speaking about Summer, it has been hot and humid today. Temperatures are going to rize during the weekend so I'm going to get some knitting done tonight while it's still quite fresh. Well, not that I was so hot. Last night most people were sweathing to death and little me here was having frozen feet. I slept with the blanket pulled up and warming my feet at my boyfriend who is a more normal person and was way to hot! Oh well, we'll see.

I will be dyeing yarn for sure. I wanted to order some mohair online with a girl to mix up with the alpaca so I could dye it and spin it. I want the alpaca to be more sturdy then they say it is without anything added. And I don't think I'll be able to get mohair roving over here. But the girl isn't getting back to me so I'm guessing she doesn't want to ship oversea. I'm going to contact this lady in the neighbourhood to ask is she has mohair. We'll see.

I might be giving my boyfriend some hints about a possible birthday gift for me. He was kidding me about getting me a sheep. We can't keep a sheep, but an angora rabbit would be nice! Or 2 maybe! :D Angora is just wonderfull to spin, I know 'cause I tried it a little bit! :D

Ok, that being said I'm going to update my LJ and then it's knitting for me! More to follow over the weekend, including pictures!

The Happy and The Sad

First the happy. My mom called tonight (not with happy news though, all about the problems with my father) but at the end she told me a package had arrived today for me. I was like, hmm, what package? I haven't ordered anything to arrive at her home, did I? Well, her name is on all the payings as I use her Visa but I always state very clearly things have to be delivered over here. Not that it's bad it's delivered over there, but if they have to pay I don't like it. They had for this package, about €25. My sister was home, luckily. Anyway, I asked her over the phone to open the package and guess what? Oh yeah, finally my books and Jacquard Acid dyes made it! Can you imagine? I think it's about 5 weeks now since they were sent. I was so happy I could have jumped in my car to get them! I'm most excited about the books. Oh well, I'll drive over there after work tomorrow to get everything. Can't imagine I have to wait so long though.

Another happy thing is that I got a freshly shaved fleece today. From a regular sheep, but that's ok. It's of course filled with dirt and parts I can't use, but I'm sure I can get some nice stuff out of it. Plus I'm going to get one more fleece tomorrow. Same quality. It's ok, it's mostly practice fleece and I'll get nice stuff in the near future.

Sad thing? Well, boyfriend just told me that if I wanted to knit tonight I had to stay downstairs. I love my hour of knitting in my bed every evening. It's so relaxing and nice only having to put the knitting down and fall asleep. So now I'm banned from the bed. :'( It makes me sad and angry at the same time. Like he lets me sleep quietly. We have a small bad and he's a hectic sleeped (I'm really quiet, I hardly move, if I get into a new made bed the sheets will have hardly moved by the morning). He likes to push me to the edge of my bed, throw body parts on me, give me elbow punches. Need to know more? He snores! Loud! But I do too, or so he sais.

I'm also a lousy secret pal. I still haven't mailed out my first package! I should get started on it. I was going to do it tonight, but after cooking 3 different soups (boyfriend is on a soup diet and I want to have some in the freezer 'cause sometimes I just don't feel like cooking soup) and doing a bunch of papers (we have to give in our taxes, but I haven't even gathered everything, good thing the state decided to give us 2 more months as they changed the tax forms completely and almost everybody is having a hard time with them - oh, I'm not filling out my tax form myself, the account-person of my boyfriends business is doing it for me :D) I'm just not having the energy. Like I don't have the energy right now to do art while I have plenty of ideas. I did some yesterday and I'm pleased! Seems like my creativity is coming back to me! Only 2 more weeks of work left and more time for art!

Oh, we might go on a holiday anyway this Summer. That's what boyfriend told this weekend with the inlaws. Well, we might just go to Spain. I was hoping for a further trip, but I should be happy with whatever I'm getting ,right?

Ok, I'm going to take a shower and get my knitting downstairs and watch some tele. I'm lazy ...

A weekends work

Ok, first of all I big thank you to Blueatd for the tip on the html! I took me a while and it's not perfect but that's another addittion to my limited knowledge of html!

Now here are the pictures I took last Sunday. I knitted more that evening and yesterday and today so both knits have evolved past this but at least you get an idea!

First of all there's the Clapotis in Lorna's Laces Lambs & Pride, in the colourway Black Purl. I love how the colours are turning out and I love how the pattern is turning out! This is one mighty hot scarf! I was laying on the couch knitting this thing and it was resting on my belly (which showed from under my top) and it was feeling so hot! Ok, it's Summer over here too so it's quite warm (even hot now) but still. I will be wearing it a lot, that's for sure!

Oh, and I love dropping the stitches! I always unravel them right away. It's so much fun!

Sunday evening I made ah uge mistake dropping the wrong stitch. It was too late and I should have gone to sleep sooner. So I ended up spending an hour trying to fix my mistake. Ok, true, you won't notice it's the wrong stitch I dropped, who cares, but I did. And of course I had already unravelled the stitch till the bottom before I noticed! Stupid me! But it's all fixed now!

Next on is the Chutes 'n Ladders sock from the SixSockKnitALong. I'm loving the pattern! But the sock will be slightly to small so it's going to my mother, the only one with my shoe-size but smaller legs/feet. I will knit a pair for me in the future though! I'm using my standard sock yarn with addi-turbos (2mm) and I'm continuing the pattern on the foot. Looksie ...

I'm already quite a bit further now. It's looking nice.

And last, our doggie is not allowed on the couch, see how she slowly moves over?

She's taking over! :D Well, after I took this pic she run to me to pose for a nice picture. See the leg? That's boyfriend. I was friendly enough to cut off his ugly crooked feet. Oh, that reminds me, his socks are next on the to do list. I put them aside when he started getting angry at me for knitting to much. He's no longer angry and begging for his socks so I guess I'll take them up again!

Some of you might think I'm not a true knitter for owning no cats (oh yeah, some say a true knitter has cats, but on the other hand, there are probably enough true addicts without these gracious animals). I owe 3 cats, but they hardly come inside these days and they are not fond of pics. Well, they are not fond of the dog and every time I pay to much attention to one of my cats the dog gets jealous and chases them off. :( To bad.

Oh, and I'm now the proud owner of a whole set of Addi turbos! As I expected they arrived yesterday. One is of course in back order, as always the one I wanted to use for my next socks (no turbo, but an addi 2.25mm, a size not available over here as it's more US I guess).

So much for now. We'll be visiting my sister tonight who's released from the hospital this afternoon (she probably already is). She's ok though in a lot of pain. Can't wait to get the sock yarn I ordered from her so at least I can give her something made with love for her next hospital visit!

Html

Almost forgot. I read at some blog today about someone who was having the same problem I am having but I don't remember where so I'm hoping someone will help me. As you can see the things at the side bar moved to the bottom of my post which I really don't like, but being an html nerd as I am I have no idea how to fix this. Any help is welcome!

I was going to do art tonight, but my mom just called me that my sister was admitted to the hospital. We were aware she would have to go in. She was having some problem with her buttom (sp? you know, but butt) and as it wasn't healing through antibiotics she would have to have surgery. Now after her last exam this morning they went to the ER and she was admitted and gone for surgery immidiately. She's awake now, I called her, but she's facing a 1 to 2 months recovery and another surgery then. That all for a little thingie in her buttom. You can't be carefull enough.

Someone today told me that in Canada you have free medical care but you have to have a family doctor and there are huge waiting lists for those. We do have family doctors over here, but apparently not all are that well as my mom - a nurse herself - heard the nurses saying something that told us that the doctor made a huge mistake in this case thus making it worse. So far for good medical care (why o why do we keep having such bad experiences with medical care?).

On the knitting front, did get quite a bit done on Clapotis this weekend, and on the sock for the six-sock-knitalong. Will be posting those pics tomorrow. I'm now off to bed myself to get a bit of knitting done before I start dreaming!

Self striping socks

I finished my first self striping sock today! :D (at work, but who cares?) Remember the self striping sock yarn I died with Kool-Aid? This is how it turned out :



I decided to use a different colour for the heel and toes as I died only 50grams of sock yarn and that's like 20 grams to little for socks for my feet (yeah, I don't need 100 grams). I really like how this yarn turned out. I can hardly believe it was my first time dyeing yarn and I did stripes! I hope now I'll have enough for the second sock. Luckily I don't mind knitting the second sock, I even find them easier then the first. Somehow it feels like it goes quicker.

On a sidenote, when I learned how to knit I started knitting with my left hand. Now I know that's continental knitting, but till about 3 months ago I was under the impression I did it totally wrong. Over here only the English method is learned, as far as I know I have never seen someone knitting the continental way. So I was surprised to learn my way wasn't "bad" and I always managed to knit quicker then people around me, so now I know why (continental is said to be quicker ...). Anyway, with this sock I'm trying to purl continental as well as I think it'll go faster, but I'm not good at it yet so I'm considering this my "try-out-sock"!

More during the weekend ...

Yarn shopping!

Ok, I went shopping today, and of course I bought way to many yarn! You have to keep in mind that we don't have much designer yarns like Lorna's Laces and all over here. It's even hard to find pure wool yarns, especially those that don't felt. I think that over 90% of the yarns sold over here have some amount of acrylic in it.

The LYS I go to used to be huge in the Benelux, they sold the best yarn around. Now the lady running it has 2 yarn stores and works for big couturiers in France. The last job allows her to have really high quality yarns in her shop, stuff you can't get anywhere else. So everytime I go there I find a ton of stuff I haven't seen yet. And every time I see other things I like, and since the second time I went there she keeps saying "Oh, if you want that, I'll give you a special price", and she always does! So I end up buying to much stuff. I have a huge stash already just because of her! I swear, I don't think I'll ever knit this all.

So, let's start. I bought this huge bag of pure nature wool yarn. She kept giving me special deals on stuff, so I couldn't resist.



The yarn on the upper right is Norwegian yarn, so very high quality. She won't have it anymore (though I'm sure she'll have other stuff) so I had to buy very much! :D All this yarn is to dye and felt or just knit.

Then I bought another cone of this :



I bought the first cone like this last time I went there. It's lace weight yarn and I'll probably use it either for lace or for socks (I'm thinking a ton of socks!). Both cones are huges so I sure have plenty to dye and knit! Oh, and it's pure wool, of course! The lady will be looking for more of these cones, or at least more sock yarn. Probably on cones!

Then I bought a ton of mohair :


Very special, she only had it for about a week and it was almost sold out. She told me what it was (one of those famous couturiers, don't remember which one). The colourse are better in reality, some pink, grey and light brown. Not sure yet what this will become. A scarf or a shawl.



Loopy mohair. Showed this before. I bought more. The yellow/orange is going to be a scarf for my mom. The pink/purple in the right bottom cornor was a new colour she had it, totally my colour! I'm in love with it! Lace scarfs or shawls I'm thinking!


Pure mohair, really fine and fluffy. I already have black and might call her soon to keep me a cone of black as I'm so in love with black and will always be able to use this. This is also the last she's having so I can't afford not to buy it!

And then last, but not least (though no nature stuff this is), a cotton/acrylic blend for a Summer top I want to knit. I had forgotten the magazine the thing was in but of course she had bought it as well. She advized me this. I wanted pure cotton but she said pure cotton was so hard to get. The yarn suggested in the book was ... oh damn, I don't remember. Oh well, I'll let you know later. I'll start this one soon, as it should be done for the Summer.



Oh, I might not be able to do the top! Doggy took the yarn, she likes it! :D


I'm off to knit some more on my socks. I'm so happy with them! I will have to start dyein yarn soon though!

Oh, and I got my yarn from PippiKneeSocks today as well, I LOVE it!!!

Awful evening

It's that day of the month again and when I came home from work I started having huge cramps. I find it hard to sit on a chair really, so I'm off to bed early tonight, with a hot bag of pits, and some knitting.

Still no sign of my package with books, I'm officially giving up now, it's probably lost or returned.

I just placed a big order for Addi circulars. I like my 2mm and wanted some other sizes for socks. Luckily it takes those orders only a couple of days, so hopefully I'll have them by the end of the week.

Tomorrow I'm off to my LYS (or at least my fave one at the big city, 30min from here) to get some stash for my SP5 and some stuff for myself - again! I'm looking forward to that!

Back to sock knitting ...

Knit-less weekend

Last week was quite busy at work as we had this blindness-awereness week. So a lot of special activities, quite tiring if you ask me. Then because of overtime I had Friday afternoon off. I went to the riding school after a nap and I actually spent the whole weekend with the horses. Friday was washing, Saturday was day out with the band + horses, after that preparing my own horse Blue for some dressage, and then this morning was dressage, and in the afternoon helping with the judging of some other dressage competitions. So yeah, horses all weekend long. I was exhausted most evenings, even today but I took a nap when I got home and I'm fairly awake now (opposite to bf who's sleeping!). If you are interested in a longer write about my weekend you can always visit my LJ (see profile).

I'm going to start on the new sock for the "Six Sock Knit-a-Long" which I am now part off. I want to post the button to the side bar but I just don't know yet how to download these to my own server so right now there's no button yet! The nex sock is really nice and I can't wait to get started on it. Just another sock project!

I did get some knitting done on the Clapotis, but nothing impressive really. I'm about the start the drop stitch rows so that should be interesting. Will post more when I have things done.

The self striping sock is coming along nicely, it'll stay my on-the-train project for now. I'm happy with the striping it does, I'm amazed it turned out so nice!

I heard from my Secret Pal today (will send her an email after this). This is so excited! Contacted my SP a few days ago, and I'm excited to! For my secret pal, my Wishlist is here , I hope the link works, if not search for "Rebecca" in Belgium. If that works. There are a few books on the list I have on order ('Spinning Designer Yarns', 'The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook: Dyeing, Painting, Spinning, Designing, Knitting' and 'Hands on Dyeing') and hopefully that order isn't lost as I'm afraid it is. But to make sure I don't have these books twice, don't send them to me! I only added sock books so far, and some on dyeing/spinning, but I need to add more (not only on spinning) in the near future. These are my most wanted books right now though! Might be ordering some in the near future, but will post that (probably the Vogue knitting on the go-books).

That being said I'm off to do some actual knitting! :D Goodnight all!