Annuska's knitting and spinningadventures

Fårfesten/Sheepfestival

2012-03-01T08:22:00.004+01:00

Idag är jag laddat för jag ska göra mig i ordning för Fårfesten i Kil och det kommer att bli jättehärligt.
Sista rycken nu på morgonen och sen ska jag ger ut mig och då dra det hela igång imorgon till söndag.
Hoppas vi ses på Fårfesten.

Today is the day I am going to put together my market stall on the Sheepfestival in Kil and I am looking forward to that. I have the morning to make the last preparations and off I go!
I let you all know how it went and I hope to see you there!

Before and after

2012-02-25T12:59:00.001+01:00

It is time to give the rabbits a good haircut man what it is hard!
I was very glad not to cut in him.
The family left this morning for a short vacation and I am staying home to prepare for the sheep festival next weekend and in spirit of that I thought it would be nice to have a bit of my own rabbits wool with me.
I started with Linus and I am going to finished the sheering tomorrow with help of a friend, because Linus was not so cooperative with lying on his back so I need someone to hold him.
He is a very sweet rabbit so I do not think it is a very big problem.
Some of the very fine wool got stock in my throat so I have a bit of a hairball situation!
Tomorrow I will start with Adam and he is not that calm so that be a challenge.
Here some photo's of Linus:

My second podcast has launched

2012-02-21T22:54:00.000+01:00

Today it was a bit of Christmas Eve.
I got a package today and it was full of wool. Yeahhhh
It is always a treat to open the box and see if your dreams has come true!
Mine did come true, I must say.
Todays podcast is a lot about my treasures today.
This week I will not have to time to blog I think.
If I have some leftover time I will definitely blog.
Have a nice week everyone and enjoy my podcast here if you want.

Nothing special

2012-02-15T23:27:00.003+01:00

It doesn't happen that often that I have knitted almost nothing.
Just one row, that's it!
That doesn't mean that I have not been doing something with crafts.
A dear friend of mine has began with crochet, so I decided to make a crochet handbook for her.
Now the only problem is that my file is too big to send it to her, even zipped.
Tomorrow another day to tackle that problem.

Het gebeurd zelden dat ik een dag niet brei en vandaag is het er dan bijna van gekomen!
Ik heb maar 1 toertje gebreid.
Dat houdt niet in dat ik niet met handwerken bezig ben geweest!
Een goede vriendin van mij is begonnen met haken en ik besloot (om haar op weg te helpen) een haakhandboek voor haar te maken.
Nu is het probleem dat het bestand te groot is om te mailen, zelfs ingepakt.
Morgen maar eens kijken hoe ik dat op kan lossen.

Det händer inte ofta att jag nästan inte sticker.
Har bara stickat ett varv.
Men det innebär inte att jag inte har gjord någonting med hantverk idag.
En väldigt god vän har börjat virka och jag har gjord en virkbok till henne.
Nu är problemet att filen är för stort att skicka.
Det får vi ta hand om imorgon, nu är det sovdags.

It is a fact !

2012-02-07T09:58:00.000+01:00

It is now a fact!
I have published my first podcast.
Me, myself think it is a bit rusty and I hope I will better in time.
Hope you enjoy it and I made a separate blog for it.
You can find it here:

I would appreciate every comment you have on that (and this) blog.

Podcast

2012-02-01T23:02:00.000+01:00

Last monday I thought it was time for my first podcast and so I began to talk to my computer.
I have never been more nervous!
How can you be nervous by speaking into a webcam on the computer, well I was.
The recording took a little (read, a long) time before I was kind of satisfied and then the whole circus began.
I thougt it was just easy peasy and it was not.
Untill today I have been struggling and searching and asking how to do it.
Finally I came to a very good friend and he told me what to do.
Thank god for that.
I was beginning to lose hope and I allready mad another blog for only my podcasts.
So I was thinking that I was well prepaired.
I hope, with the help of my friend and Vimeo, to have this podcast up and running by tonight.
I really, really hope so.
And all off my big plans went up in smoke because I have not knitted a lot, only a view rows, but tomorrow is open house and everyone is welcome to come to craft at our house and I think I am going to knit a lot.

A nice weekend/Een goed weekend/En härligt helg

2012-01-16T12:24:00.000+01:00

You will find the dutch and Swedish version below the English.

The girls were alone this weekend because dad had to work in Finland and mom was off to a spinning-weekend.
E was celebrating her birthday and we were expected to be there Saturday at 18.00!
I drove south at 11 am or so and as I did I called P to ask if she wanted to meet me earlier on and that we could drive together to E and so we did. I was almost when my oldest daughter rang to tell me that I forgot a black bag and that bag was my weekend-bag with all of my clothes, toothbrush etc.
So P and I went to the nearest store to buy me some knickers, T-shirts, toothbrush and deodorant.
I had my important stuff with me, read knitting-projects, spinning-wheel, E's present! The rest you can buy and so I did.

We were welcomed at E's with some nice recipe of wine and I am not fond of wine and I liked it very much and no, I did not get drunk!
I met some very nice people there as well.
I had a great time. Everybody was knitting and chatting and it was over 1 am when we finally went to sleep.
Thank you E for a nice birthday party!

The next day we had breakfast and a nice walk and then it was time to drop off P again at home and I was of to my next visit to S.
I arrived in the afternoon and began knitting almost directly. S has so many nice knitting-books so I spend some time looking in them and got inspired once again.
During the evening we looked at several podcast which i normally do not do and definitely are going too and I spun in the meantime my yak project. It is finished so all what is left to do is plying. That will be a job for tonight.

Een heerlijk weekend is weer achter de rug. De meisjes waren deze keer alleen thuis, want papa was naar Finland en mama was ook de hort op.
E vierde haar 30ste verjaardag zaterdagavond en aangezien P in de buurt woonde had ik eerst met haar afgesproken zodat we later samen naar E haar verjaardag zouden gaan.
Ik was bijna op bestemming toen Sanne belde dat ik mijn weekendtas vergeten was.
Lekker bijdehand, al mijn kleding en toiletspullen, maar goed, het belangrijkste had ik bij me: mijn breispullen, spinnewiel en E's cadeautje!
Voordat ik en P op weg gingen heb ik dus nog wat T-shirtjes, toiletspullen en een pyama gekocht en ik vergeet eigenlijk nooit wat!

We werden bij E verwelkomt met een wijntje waar iets speciaals mee was gedaan. Ik hou niet van wijn en dit was erg lekker en nee, ik ben niet dronken geworden. Na 1 glaasje lekker over op water!
Het was hartstikke gezellig en al gauw zat iedereen met een breiwerkje gezellig te kletsen.
Zo heb ik nog nooit eerder een verjaardag gevierd en beviel mij prima en weer leuke mensen ontmoet.
We lagen om 01.00 uur op bed en ik ging voldaan slapen.

De volgende ochtend ontbeten met degene die bleven slapen en een wandeling gemaakt voordat ik weer vertrok naar mijn volgende locatie, S.
P op de weg daar naartoe thuis gebracht en ik was ongeveer 14.30 uur bij S.
Erg gezellig. Ze heeft een heleboel mooie breiboeken en kon natuurlijk niet nalaten om daar lekker in te snuffelen. Heerlijk, 's avonds lekker het spinnewieltje erbij om mijn Yak projekt af te spinnen en vanavond ga ik die navajo twijnen en een heerlijk weekend is weer voorbij!

Tjererna har varit hem ensam denna helgen. Papa reste till Finland och mama åkte till en födelsedagkalas/stickfest.
Innan jag åkte till E's födelsedagskalas åkte jag till P en liten stund och tillsammans åkte vi till E.
Jag var nästan när min älsta dotter ringde att jag hadde glömt reseväska.
Det var typiskt. Den viktigaste hadde jag väll med mig: Stickprojekter, spinnrock och E's present. Resten kan man köpa som jag också gjorde.
Vi fick jättegot mat hos E och vinet var något alldeles speciellt. Jag gillar inte vin och det här var jättegott. Mums, får fråga efter receptet.
Där var några som jag inte hadde träffats förut och vi hadde jättetrevligt.
All stickning kom snabbt fram med mycket prat och skoj.
Tack E för en underbart kväll.

Frukosten morgonen därpå började med vaktelägg och dem är så fina och gott också!
Efter frukost tog vi en promenad och åkte vidare till nästa destination, S.
Jag var där rund tvåtiden tror jag och efter en kopp te gick vi till vardagsrummet för att prata och sticka.
Hon har så många finna böcker så jag tid att kolla på alla och fick såklart inspiration också.
Har inte bestämmt mig en vad nästa projektet blir!
Tack alla för en underbart helg!!

A new year has began!

2012-01-10T11:41:00.000+01:00

For everyone all the best wishes for the year 2012.
I hope dreams come true with a lot of joy and happiness.

The new year started off with nothing to knit.
That does not happen very often and suddenly I remembered that I had a dress to knit.
I bought the pattern at the weaving fair in Borås last year:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/37-violet

Mine will be knitted in silk and Cotton in a kind of brownish color.

This week I cannot knit because I have a big translation job to do.
I have to finish it this Friday and then I will be on my way to a birthday on friday.
It seems to be a big party and I am looking forward to it.

A little sweater with big consequences

2011-11-17T10:00:00.000+01:00

In oktober we (my husband and I ) went for a trip to Denmark and bought some wool and a description of a hoodysweater at Rasmilla in pink. This is what it is going to be:

I began knittin almost immediately and after I lost my countings several times I got tired and threw it in a corner!
But christmas is coming and it is after all a christmaspresent so last week I decided to gather courage and began again.
The same problem again: I keep losing track of my countings. So I decided to make a knittingchart and looked on google and I found a knittingfont !!! Have you ever heard of that? I certainly did not!
Here are some links to a view:
http://home.earthlink.net/~ardesign/knitfont.htm
https://sites.google.com/site/kauriknitsfont/
I used the Kauri font.

With the chart it was so much easier to keep track of knitting and my cables untill I found out that one of my cables were not right! I did not take out the whole sweater, just the cable and fixed it. You can see it on the second picture.
But now thinks are looking good and I have come so far and only have to cast off for the neck:

I hope my brothers daughter will keep warm in it and I keep you posted here on my blog how I am getting on.

A lot has happened.

2011-11-10T14:02:00.001+01:00

A lot has happened since october.
Where shall I begin?
I have been very busy to make my webshop and it is now online!!
Yeahh, finally and you can find it here. My shop is called Fibershoppen.
Hope you like it!! I am very pleased with it and offcourse it will be filled with a lot of goodies in the future as well.
On the third of november I had my second Drop-In Day and that we so very nice!!

Sandy came the day before so we had a great time crafting together and she gave me a lovely tops as well. I span it with a certain technique I never heard of.
You learn everyday and I totally forgot the name and I will ask Sandy about it.
A lot of nice ladies showed and we had a great time so I hope to see them (and new additions as well) on the first of december!
I'll take care of coffee, tea and baking.

Thanks to a lovely lady on the internet I bought a E-spinner and allthough it makes a lot noise, it is great fun.
I had to try it out right away. Everything else had to wait to test my new toy. I had butterflies flying around like crazy in my stomage and laughed out lout and nobody at home understood!!
So I was in seventh heaven when all the packages came in the same week.

On the twentysecond of October I had a spinningcourse with 6 lovely ladies in Skillingfors.
Randi gave my a bag of angorawool from her rabbit to try to spin it.
I carded it first and then I spun it and here is the result of the sample:

And between everything knit as well. Knitting a couple of shawls and slippers for my oldest daughter and giving courses. Life is sweet !!!

A great day !

2011-10-05T10:20:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was a great day.
After weeks of having no warmwaterpreasure, it finally got fixed yesterday.
How you can appreciate a good shower with a lot of water!
And before I got to bed yesterday I checked my email and got a surprise.
A couple of weeks ago we went to the weavers fair in Borås and at the stand of Färgkraft you could write down your emailadres for a lottery and guess what?.......... I won.
This is my price. I could pick something from their webshop.
So yes, I would call yesterday a great day !!

Igår har varit en toppendag.
I flera veckor har vi inte haft något tryck på varm vatten.
I måndags blev det fixad efter vi har väntat i flera veckor på underdelar.
Vad man längtar efter en bra douche med mycket varm vatten och tryck efter ett tag.
Det var så härligt att doucha igår kväll. Blev väldigt uppskattat.

Och innan jag skulla lägga mig kollade jag på mejlen och fick en överraskning.
Jag hadde vunnit lotteriet på Vävmässa i Borås. Det var nämligen så här att vid Färgkraft´s monter fick vi skriva ner vårt epostadress och då skulle dom drar sen.
Och jag var den som fick priset.
Jag fick välja bland deras härvar i webbutiken och jag valde denna.
Så jag skulle säga att igår var en väldigt lyckat dag!!

Ik had gisteren een geweldig dag.
Al een paar weken zaten we met warmwater zonder druk.
Koud water was niks mis mee.
We hadden al eerder met dat bijltje gehakt dus een warmteregelaar besteld en gisteren was het dan zover dat deze geïnstalleerd werd.
Wat is het toch heerlijk om te douchen met normale druk in het water.
Voordat ik gisteren naar bed ging nog even mijn email gecheckt en wat bleek?
Ik had een loterij gewonnen! Ik win nooit wat, dus dit was dubbel geslaagd.
Een paar weken geleden was ik op de weefbeurs in Borås en bij de stand van Färgkraft kon je je emailadres opschrijven en daaruit zou dan een winnaar getrokken worden en ik was de gelukkige.
In hun webshop kon ik een keuze maken uit een streng garen en dit is het geworden, dus ja, gisteren was een topdag !!

Finally ready

2011-09-30T17:05:00.001+02:00

To be sick has it advantages! I finished my second Gailshawl. It turned out beautiful. All it needs now is blocking.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A lovely day to sort wool

2011-09-24T14:01:00.001+02:00

Today is again a beautiful day and I am sorting wool before we go on our way to a basketbalgame from our youngest. The washing is going very slow because I forgot to feed our heater!! Silly me and now I have to wait for warm water and my baskets are already full and waiting.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

shawls

2011-09-18T20:35:00.000+02:00

After a disastrous attempt to knit the fichu I came up with a solution.
I decided to just knit a triangle shawl and then count the stitches I needed to apply the fichu border.
There after it took my I day or two to figure out how to begin so that the border would come at the right side and in the end I mastered the puzzle! I do not no exactly what kind of wool I used, because it was in a stash that I got from my grandmother.
The last border with the leafs took like forever. So in between I knitted another multnomah exactly after the one I allready knitted and sold. It is the perfect color to match a pair of jeans.
The project before the fake fichu I knitted a shawl by the name of Cladonia.
I have not blocked them yet and I hope to do that this week.

The project I took on today is a Gail Nightsong and now in a beautiful green alpacka.
Pictures will follow.

Prototype Handy Andy Plyingtool

2011-08-21T21:10:00.002+02:00

We have some old stools lying in the garage and my husband made a plyingtool off it. It was just a prototype he said! So when he comes home again next week he will make it smoother and nicer. I am satisfied the way it is. Let's go spinning!!

Bijna hersft !! Almost Autumn/Fall!! Nästan höst!!

2011-08-20T19:10:00.000+02:00

De zomer is alweer bijna voorbij en wat is het snel gegaan!
De kinderen hebben hier 10 weken zomervakantie en begonnen 10 juni aan hun vakantie.
Onze jongste begon al goed met een weekje Cyprus met haar oma, een weekje rust en toen een week op basketbalkamp met het nationale team.
Aansluitend kwamen vrienden van ons drie weken vakantie vieren.
Daarna een goede vriendin van ons en dan zijn er alweer 7 weken voobij !!
Nu is het over met de vakantie en het spul begint maandag alweer met school.
10 weken gaat gewoon razendsnel voorbij.
Wat heb ik allemaal uitgespookt dan?
Volgend weekend ga ik op een markt staan bij Sanne op school, Lillerudsdagarna en als voorbereiding daarop ga ik bijna elke woensdagmiddag naar een breicafé hier in het dorp.
Ik had een hele mooie sjaal gebreid en die wilde de eigenaresse wel kopen, dus mijn sjaal verkocht.

De sjaal heet de Multnomah en ik heb deze gebreid in Noblesse, jeanskleur en de Feather and Fan rand in Alpaka, lichtgrijs.

Dus nu was ik van mijn sjaal af, dus een nieuwe opgezet. Begonnen met de Gailsjaal en eerst verschrikkelijk verkeerd begonnen zoals hier te lezen en doorgezet en ook deze is prachtig geworden.

Ook deze sjaal was ik na het blocken ook gelijk kwijt !!
Deze sjaal is gebreid in een gemeleerde Alpacka in een beetje herfsttinten.

Het volgende project was een Bellasjaal in hetzelfde garen als de Gail.

Foto`s van deze sjaal volgen nog.
Verder heb ik tussendoor natuurlijk nog gesponnen.
Eigenlijk te veel om op te noemen.

Vorige week een spinweekend gehad en Paulina had een spinnewiel meegenomen die ze op de rommelmarkt had gekocht voor ongeveer € 7 en dat bleek een Ashford Traveller te zijn.
Ze hadden hem helemaal verkeerd in elkaar gezet, dus de Traveller ging mee naar huis voor een onderhoudsbeurt en dit is het resultaat:

Er miste hier en daar een onderdeeltje en Pieter heeft van alles gemaakt met spulletjes die hij nog in de garage had liggen. Moet zou ik toch doen zonder zo´n handyman?
Het spinnewiel was nog ongelakt dus ik heb het hele wiel uit elkaar gehaald en met was behandeld.

Een tintje donkerder is `ie geworden en erg mooi !!

Ik heb hem ook al uitgeprobeerd en ze spint er lustig op los en kan dus weer terug naar haar eigenaar.

Ondertussen ben ik met nog een sjaal bezig en ik weet nog niet wat dat gaat worden.
Voor volgend weekend is hij natuurlijk af, dus maar gauw aan de slag.

The summer is almost over and it past by so fast !
Here in Sweden de kids have a ten weeks summerholiday en began the 10th of June.

We have had a lot of visitors and now we have the house for our own again.

The summerholiday is over and they begin school on monday. Back to normal!!!

Ten weeks passes by like a flash.
What have I been doing?

Next week I will by on a Fair at my oldest daughter`s school, Lillerudsdagarna and I am going to try to sell my shawls there and some handdyed wool.
We will see how that goes!!!
I had been knitting this shawl and I sold it right away!!

The shawl is a Multnomah and is knitted in Noblesse, jeans and the Feather and Fan banner in lightgrey Alpacka.

I began with the Gailshawl and at first it was a drama !! I could not get it right and I have to have it right, so after a week I got the hang of it and it turned out beautifull.

Also this shawl was sold in an instance!!
This shawl was knitting in Alpacka in a kind of autumncolor.

My next project the Bellashawl in the same color as the Gail.

Picture`s of this one will follow.
And in between I have been spinning, knitting and had fun with our guests.

Last week I had a lovely spinweekend and Paulina came in with a very nice catch.

She had bought a Ashford Traveller for $ 7 !!!
We were amazed, shocked and overwelmed.
It was in bad shape and the had assembled it so very wrong.
I took it with me home and began renovating it yesterday.
I began to seperate everything and wax every single part of it.
My husband has been working on it too.

Some parts were missing and he managed to duplicate several parts.
What would I do without him ?

I have tried it and it works like a charm !!!

No it can go back to it`s owner.

Tuttifrutti !!

2011-07-13T17:30:00.001+02:00

What have I been doing today?
I woke up this morning fairly early 08.00 am and the whole house (we and our guests (7 off them)) was in rest and the weather looked fine so I went out to the veranda and took with me my spinningwheel and started spinning. It is wonderful to sit outside with your spinningwheel and not a soul around !
I must say I have done a lot today.
When the two youngest guests woke up and watched me spinning I had to get two spindles which I made myself and here they are, spinning like pro`s:

Then my oldest daughter woke up and had planned to go horseriding at friends of ours and the girls wanted to come along so I picked up my cardplanks, wool and my campingchair and off we went!

I have to make a lot of them in preparation for the Gammelvala.
We came home a couple of hours later and there was peace and quiet again so I carried on on the spinningwheel and this is the result:

Pictures taken in the shadow

Picture taken in the sun

Tour de Fleece

2011-07-09T01:11:00.000+02:00

What have I been doing the last couple of days?
I have had some Bed & Breakfast guests and in between I have made a start to transform my stash of raw wool into some yarn stash. I am now to tired to write more.
The results so far:

To be continued

2011-07-01T23:15:00.000+02:00

The first attempt to me Gail shawl was not very successful so I took it out again and started again. I must say that it is now looking and I have the hang of it!! It is fun to knit once you get the picture. At first I just knitting following the instructions but you have to think for your self as well!
I have come a long way don't you think?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Dyeing with KoolAid

2011-06-28T19:02:00.000+02:00

Today I did my first affort with KoolAid.
From Elin I got three small bags of KoolAid.
One orange and two pink ones.

I started with two times 30 gram BFL and two bowls of KoolAiddye (lemonade!)

I was so concentrated that I forgot to make a picture of every phase.
In a zippbag and 3 times 2 minutes in the microwave.

and after the water was clear I had to cool them down.
Rinsed them with a little soap and now they hang out to dry.
Hope they will be pretty once spun!!!!

My shawl

2011-06-26T08:07:00.000+02:00

I have been struggling lately with my Fichu shawl and two days ago I decided to take it out.
Did not work for me !
I still love the shawl and started with another project.
The same yarn and another pattern.
It became the Gail (Aka Nightsongs) and on 5mm needles.
So får it looks very good!

The gail shawl is all about leaves.
The yarn does not show it now because this is only the beginning.
To be continued .........

Decision is made or not?

2011-06-09T16:22:00.000+02:00

I decided to go for the Fichu pattern by Fadenidylle and I do not get it.
I think I started the right way:

The triangle is exactly how it is supposed to be, I suppose and then I had to go over to the short rows!
Man, what a strungle!!!
This is what it looks like:

It should look like decreasing instead of staying the same the whole time!
What am I doing wrong?
I want to give up !!!

My new project?

2011-06-06T13:48:00.000+02:00

This morning I wook up early and decided to block my Multnomah shawl and here it is:

On the Siv fest a couple of months ago I won 3 skeins of Noblesse in blue/grey and that was not enough for my feather and fan border so I bought 2 skeins of Alpaca from Schachenmeyr and that worked like a charm. I am very happy with my shawl!

Now the question is what to start for a new project?
I have some lovely alpaca in a rustlike colour and about 300 grams of it!

Any suggestions?
So far I like this and cannot decide:
Fichu by Fadenidylle
Cladonia by Kirsten Kapur

All suggestions are welcome!

Gothenburg

2011-06-06T13:31:00.000+02:00

Last wednesday I went off to Gothenburg to stay with Elin till Sunday.
My youngest daughter hada Basketbal tournement there so I took the time to combine those two.
The car was filled with goodies and with goodies I mean wool and that kind of thing.
Elin asked me to take the carder with me and I took with me Värmlands wool and a lot of other things.
It was like an invasion when I came to Elin:

I had my own corner :)
The next day I went to see my youngest play Basketbal and I am very proud to say that I went with the tram into town and to the hall she was playing. I am so used to use my car.
I even managed to find my way back again!

We (Elin and I) spend the afternoon with sorting wool and it was a lot !!!

You will understand that this is woolheaven for us!!

Some of the wool was in great condition and a lot wasn´t.

We do not agree on all of the wool though so Elin has to proof something!!
I´ll hope see managed because then I will save also a bit more wool than I used too.

We will see.

In the evenings I made a new friend: Frasse !

Here he is lying on my lap while I was spinning.
He sure loves the rhythm of the spinningwheel and my lap.

So relaxed and cosey.

The days went by so fast and now I am home again.

Elin offered to wash my Värmlandwool so that was staying behind, together with my Ashford Joy that she wants to test. So I am forced to spinn on my Majacraft Little Gem.

My värmland wool

Will be very nice to see here again.

Love that girl !!

More project finished today

2011-05-21T19:53:00.000+02:00

I have been busy today.
First I finished my bag and I finished my amugurumi dragon.

Isn´t he the cutest?
He will be soon on his way to The Netherlands.

I had to make some samples as well from the Merino/silk bland from Ashford and today I did the Pomegranite and the Mulberry and turned out pretty nice. I spun 15 gram of each and twined it Andean style.

Mulberry

Pomegranite

Finished a fantastic bag!!

2011-05-21T11:22:00.000+02:00

The African Flower Bag came to me through Mia.
She is very good in crochet and making fine yarns.

I bought the cottonyarn from Mia as well!

She dyes it herself.

It started out like this:

and became this:

Very satisfied with the result.

It took a while to find the button and I finally found it !!!

Workshop

2011-05-12T07:38:00.000+02:00

How time flies!!!

Yesterday it was a week ago that we started the workshop spinning and dyeing.

We have had a marvelous, productive week with beautiful weather, good food and good company

Our participants has done a lot of different things like felting, dyeing with different methods, weaving and even how to learn to spin.

We have also visited Klässbols Linen Mill and the ladies loved it.

We went on a saturday and the machines were not running so it was nice and quiet and we had all the time of the world to admire the work.

Shopping in Arvika was also one of the events on the agenda and you have a lot of small second hand shops and the ladies bought a lot of weaving cloths.

In the evenings we chatted and knitted and sometimes span as well on the veranda with a good glas of wine.

I had a fantastic week and if you want a week like this as well. Just let me know!

A small photo impression!!

Enjoying the view

Lunch at Olssons Brygga in Arvika

Dye and spinningcourse

2011-05-05T23:52:00.000+02:00

Today it was the first day of the course.
And we did a lot.
Photo´s will follow. I have not yet put the pictures from the different camera´s on my harddisk.
Tomorrow another day and we had a lovely evening.
One was spinning on a dropspindle, two were making a bat and one was busy with needlefilting!!
Tomorrow will we start with a short course of swedish knitting.
Now it is time for bed !!
Good night.

Colour Queens

2011-05-02T10:42:00.002+02:00

Last thursday it was finally time to go to Gothenburg.
My first visit was to go to my dear friend Elin.
I arrived at 05.00 pm or so and had a wonderfull time at the balcony in the sun with a drink.
We made a dutch diner which I succeeded with I guess.
Then we went trough our fibers of course !! Up to the loft to find more fiber.
Girl, how much can you store !! :)
I got some very nice yarn from Elin and three bags of coloured finnull wool.

The next day Elin had to got to work so I followed with her.
I had a great time! To see Gothenburg from a boat is something different!

After that I had some errands to do and went off to a very small, nice, knittingshop.
Thanks to my GPS I managed to find everything.
And then off to Lena. The Colour Queens weekend can begin!!!

I arrived att Lena´s around 13.00 o´clock. Marie was allready there and made a wonderfull lunch.
The rest of the afternoon we spend with spinning at the veranda because it was beautifull weather.
We also went to Ikea to buy some jars and you always come home with more!!
After diner I visited Mia because she has some beautifull cottonyarn she dyes herself and I am going to make a african flowerbag.

Mia´s yarn

The beginning of my bag!

Saturdaymorning Dineke and Else arrived just in time for breakfast!

We unpacked the car and then it was time for lunch again and again Marie fixed it again.

Els with a hat to protect her against the sun.

Lost something Lena?

And then it was just waiting for the girls to show up.

It was beautiful weather and only sunday was a bit chilly.

Other pictures will follow when I have collected them all together.

And this is what I have done:

All of it !!

Blue Faced Leicester dyed with all the leftover from the course with Landscape Dyes

Humbug

Close up of the Humbug

Eva´s alpacka dyed with Landscape Dyes Sarsparilla and Sugar Cane

Really love those colours

Silk

The same silk as above

On saturday night I got some spinninglessons from Mia about Thick and Thin spinning.
Not a bad result for the first time I suppose. I am going to twine it with silk dyed with Sarsparilla.

I had a lot of Alpacka lying around and I was able to make rovings on Lena´s fantastic electric Cardmachine

A close up of the Alpacka

I am very pleased with the result and I am sure the rest was pleased as well.

I am looking forward to our next meeting!!!

And in the meantime: Go Colour Queens !!

Something totally different then yarn!

2011-04-27T11:51:00.000+02:00

Two years ago we bought a wooden boat from the scrapheap and today was the day we went out with her!
The weather is lovely, a bit chilly on the water and with a thick sweater we will coop.
We took a few pictures with almost no battery. Typically us !!!

Jessy our dog in the back and behind the car the boat!

Fantasy-yarn a la Elin

2011-04-24T11:45:00.001+02:00

I have been told to do something with yarn and it has not the effect I was hoping for.
Maybe I did right or maybe I did wrong.
I think the yarn turned out pretty nice.
A bit different and with overtwist.
Sometimes you have to try something!!!
I will see her next week and have saved some yarn so she can show me how to do it.

Cosy !

2011-04-17T09:40:00.000+02:00

It took awhile to settle down for her and I was able to continue spinning at Ashford Joy and my alpackawool!

I tried to knit the other day and found a cat in my basket.
You see to she is enjoying it!!

Dirty wool!

2011-04-13T12:21:00.000+02:00

What can be more rewarding then dirty wool!!!
Yesterday I heard of a man who had a lot of sheep and I drove by and got home with a bag of Rya wool.

Isn´t that nice?
My camera is not all that great and Pieter will soon be home.
It will be too late for this one and I have more to wash so......

I washed it with salt and the results are fabulous!!!

I cannot decide what to do with it!!!
If I shall dye it and then spin it or first spin it and then dye it.
We will see.
I love the result and I have not weighed it yet.
I will keep you informed !!!

A lovely day!

2011-04-11T20:45:00.000+02:00

Today was a really nice day.

You could almost believe it was summer!

On Mondays I often go to Eva to knit.

This time I had my spinningwheel with me and allthough some think it is cheatspinning with this "pregarn", sometimes that is nice as well.

It had a great day in the afternoon.

my treasures

2011-04-10T18:50:00.000+02:00

Today I had to drive Noortje into town because she had a basketbalgame.
So I took the chance to drive by my adress who had some wool lying for me!
A lot fits in my very small car.
This is wool from the Swedish Värmlandssheep.
We will see what I will be able to do this week!!
Have to work on Thursday and Friday!!
So hopefully before that I have done something.

In the meantime I began spinning again from my Alpacka wool.

I think I have 6 baskets in the basement and after spending a whole they on the computer it is definitely time for something else.

And then my hens!!!

I do not have to colour any egg this year!!!

Just look at that.

Smal, thin, big, fet, gorgeous eggs.

We always had one hen to lay blueish/greenish eggs and I think one of her daughters does it too.

Update!

2011-04-09T22:35:00.000+02:00

What have I done the last couple of days?
I offered a friend to take care of her shop this month on thursdays and fridays and I really did a lot.
Thursdaymorning I had a busy morning!
No knitting just selling and serving and then I had my chance after 13.00 o´clock.
I had two shawls waiting for me to be finished so I did. It was kind of a project and I managed.
A purple I had knitted an I-cord on the knittingmachine and was not a great succes.
It was tight and not at all comfy so started again by hand and it turned out beautifully.
The otherone is also nice but not as soft as the purple one.
Pictures of the shawls will follow.

I also finished twining my baby Alpacka from Lena on my Ashford Joy.
Yesterday evening and this evening I span coloured rami to twine it with the alpacka and turned out lovely.

My Alpacka with coloured Rami.
Maybe I will take a better picture tomorrow in daylight !

I was thrilled by the mail yesterday!!!
Ordered to books at bookdepository and have been waiting for them all week long.
Finally I have them and now I can take on my next project.
I have been invited to a springfair in May and the themes is....: FOOD!!!
So I am going to knit and crochet food.
I love them and hope it all turn out well.

And I have to finish some other projects as well.
Only one foot left of my dragon so I better be moving on!
Hope I have time tomorrow.

webshop

2011-04-06T01:32:00.001+02:00

Today I had big plans!!!

The main goal was finishing my webshop for all my swedish friends.

When I looked at my calendar this morning at 10.00 am I discovered that we had a planned outage!

So between 11.00 am and 14.00 we had no electricity and I usely do not plan my days and today I had plans!!!

So no computer for me and then a friend called if she could drop by. Sure, always welcome !!

She left round 16.00 and then dinerpreparations and all that.

So that leaves me to sit behind my computer at about 19.00 hrs.

I cannot keep my eyes open so now I am really going to bed.

At least I finished spinning my baby alpacka while my friend was here and the website................

not yet I amfraid. It takes longer than i suspected.

Good night everyone!!

What did I do today?

2011-04-04T21:12:00.001+02:00

My days are just to short !!
I began with a round of running with the dogs.
They have to go out and I definitely needs the exercise !
I cleaned out the chickencoop and they would not leave me alone.
Ofcourse they wanted to lay eggs exactly the moment I began.
They were really anoying me!
After the big cleaning and showered ofcourse and then............... some spinning.
I began with the baby alpacka from Lena.
And here are the results:

Baby Alpacka is so fluffty

I am very proud of my thread till now.
Tomorrow evening I will do the rest.
It was only 50 gram so we will see what to do with it.
I have some dyed tencil in my stock, maybe I will twined it with it.

It was getting late so a short round for the dogs and then of to Eva with her First Aid Knitting Mondays!
I always try to go there and today I was a bit late and I managed.
But before I went I picked up the telephon (as a formal telephonist I cannot let go!) and a lady called to order a Rose from Majacraft!!! I am over the moon! She was a participant in the spinningcourse.
Very nice and I hope I can deliver The Rose very soon!
After all an exciting day for me.
The icing on the cake!
And tomorrow I am going to sit and finish my websiteshop in swedish. I am not a nightperson and maybe tomorrow I will be!!

En dag i bilen

2011-04-03T20:33:00.000+02:00

If you are stuck in a car the whole day you have some knitting with you in the car right?

We took off at 9 am and I was back home with Noortje at 5 pm!

In Sweden my eldest daughter (16 years) is allowed to drive a car if I am sitting next to her!!!

So her we are!!

So my basket was filled with goodies.

First I took up an old project and it is called a heater shawl.

I dyed the wool myself and it turned out beautifully.

The only thing when I picked it up again was that I had found something wrong!

So I took out a big deal and that took the whole ride.

Sanne did not want to drive back so that was my knitting !!

I am going to knit now and watching tv with Noortje (my other daughter)

Yesterday I managed to begin with spinning babyalpacka from Lena.

Very nice. Pictures tomorrow because my Iphone is not taking good pictures when it is dark.

My camera is really not working. Not nice

What a day !!!

2011-04-02T21:14:00.000+02:00

Today I have been sitting behind my desk to try to build a webshop and I most say that I am on my way !!!
I have a long way to go and I hope to publish my site next week.
Time flies sitting behind my desktop and creating everything.
Tonight I wanted to crochet something and got very irritated about a pattern.
In swedish it is called vikmask and I do not have a clue how to do it or what they mean.
Tomorrow we will be in the car most of the day to pick up Noortje in Västerås and no computer for me tomorrow!!!
I am doing some knitting or spinning I think.
Good night everyone !!

A white world again !!

2011-03-31T21:27:00.000+02:00

It looked like it would be lovely weather today and I was so wrong!!
Pieter told me so and I would not listen.
It began round 11.00 c´clock, big white snowflakes and I was thinking about springtime!
Pieter had send me a picture of our boat on the trailer

Isn´t she lovely?

Nothing to do about the weather and I decided to have a look at what I took with me.
A whole basket full of stuff.
Some knitting, some crochet and a spindle with wool.
Where to begin first?
Opening the shop ofcourse...... how could I forget? :)
I hadn´t much to do so I did a lot of handcrafting.
Mostly spinning on Lena´s spindle I must say and when I came home I did a lot of Navajo plying with the wool I had spun, because Pieter already made diner so I didn´t have to do much.

It looks like my camera has had it´s time.
I will make some better pictures tomorrow by daylight.
Not bad for one day´s work. So I worked and I didn´t !!!!!!
Good night you all and sweet dreams

Fairtrade

2011-03-31T07:35:00.000+02:00

Today is a Fairtrade day!
My dear friend Samudra has a small Fairtrade store in Arvika and it is called Sagoblomman.
She is in Sri Lanka and her husband asked if I wanted to be in the store today!!
Offcourse I want to!!
So I take with me some knitting and I will be working from 11.00 till 18.00.
Hope it will be a busy day and if not..... I always have my knitting with me.
Have a nice day everyone!!!

The last evening of my spinningcourse

2011-03-30T22:13:00.002+02:00

Today was the last night of my spinningcourse.
My students were very pleased with the whole course and they want to continue with spinning.
Not everybody was excited about the Joy spinningwheel from Ashford and continued working on the homemade spindles.
Ofcourse I forgot to make some pictures of the course and next time that won't happen because I have to have material for my blog.
Goodnight everybody!!
Here are some pictures

Very concentrated!!

Not bad for a first time!!!
It was a bit harder with the merino wool (orange and white )

My first weaving experience

2011-03-29T09:24:00.000+02:00

Inspite of my cold I put on my first weaving project on the knittersloom from Ashford.
I had to put it on myself and I think I managed.

my first effort !!

This is the material I am going to work with.
The very pink on the bobbin is Merino 18.5 which I spun and plyed Navajostyle for the warp and the two pink mixed colours from silk and BlueFaceLester for the weft.

Putting on a knittersloom is fairly easy.
I have put it on within 45 minutes so very fast.

Here I am threading through the whole of the reed

Putting the yarn on a shuttle. Doesn´t it look amazing?

And here I am weaving under a watching eye of Marianne!!

My first blog

2011-03-28T16:08:00.005+02:00

Last weekend has been great !!
I was invited bij Dineke van "de spinners" from Holland to help her to give courses at the Siv (Stickfest i Väst) on an island which is called Grötö in Sweden.
It has been a marvelous weekend!!!

A week before I found out that it was on an island and had to take two ferries to get there.

I can say that it was a small adventure!

First of all there are now cars allowed on the island so we had to park our car at a parkingplace nearby the ferry and get our stuff (and Dineke had a lot of stuff) on the pier and later on on the ferry.

This is the ferry to Grötö

Mostly Dineke´s stuff and a little bit of Marianne and me

Luckely there where a couple of women who helped us carrying everything on the boat.

We got a little extra because the ferry had to go to another island first before he would take us to Grötö.

The weather was excellent as well as the accomodation.

An electric car was waiting for us to get all our stuff to the Västerhav.
We had to walk the small road to Västerhav.

The key to our small cottage was arrange very quickly and we made ourselfs at home and went to the mainhouse for a lunch.

And during the afternoon a lot of knitters came to the island.

I think we were with about 100 people.

Everywhere you looked people were knitting. It was very cosy.

The food was by the way excellent.

We listened to a speaker and then it was time to have diner and after diner it was time to set up the workshop and Dineke´s shop.

Marianne´s silk scarfs and handspun embroidery yarn 3-ply

A part of Dineke´s shop

Dineke´s shop

We turned in late and tired after all the impressions.

The next day was an early morning because the lessons started at 09.00 am.

Lena on the electric spinningwheel from Ashford

Mia making a beautifull thread with silk on the workshop

Dineke and Marianne had 1 workshop in the morning and 1 in the afternoon and I took care of the shop which was very nice.
On Saturday the workshops were all about spinning silk.

It was amazing how everybody picked it upp so quick.
On Saturday evening their was a knitting contest and Marianne and I participated.
Their were a lot of nice prices to win and everybody went home with something.

Marianne at participating in the knitting contest

Elin and me casting on as preparation on the contest

We made a lot of new friends and we had a marvelous evening with a lot of laughter!

Sundaymorning Dineke and I gave spinning and twining lessons and that was also a succes.

A lot of people went away with a lot of inspiration.

And we went home with a lot of inspiration as well.

Today is a day to reflect and sitting out the cold I got.