Frisian Frillies

This was one much-anticipated weekend... We were going to the Handwerkbeurs in Zwolle ! This craft fair is absolutely amazing, chockful of traders, not only for knitting and crochet, but also for other crafts. We were a bit on the late side, so I immediately ran to my Swedisch embroidery course, by Blomsterstuga . Excuse my terrible picture, but this is my first attempt at 'yllebroderi'. The beginning of a cover for my BlackBerry It was great to brush up on skills that I have, and to get to know a bit more about the traditional Swedish patterns... After I finished this workshop, Mermaid started hers. She had been walking around with Hubby, and she saw that it was possible to make 'whish hearts', something she really wanted to give a try: Utter concentration... Even though I am a experienced crafter myself, I suffer from a condition which has stopped me passing on what I know up to now: lack of patience... It takes time to teach a (now) 8-year-old how to do a bl

Today a box went to the post office. A box from Sam for Sam: A biiiiiiig box! The box is starting the first leg of its long journey, all the way to India. Which probably gives a clue to what was inside... The hats our SnB group knit for India! All 66 of them! What a great result! Hats great and small, in all the colours of the rainbow...

When my mom asked my to knit a cowl for one of her girlfriends, who will be celebrating her birthday next weekend, and she tried to explain to me what she would like, I was a bit at a loss... She said her friend had admired a woman in a restaurant wearing something soft and squishy, light and white and with cables. Well, light, squishy and cables don't really go together in my mind, if I thing of light and squishy, I think mohair, lace knitting, and the odd bead here and there. So, just on the off-chance that it would also be a good choice, I started knitting Ice Queen . It was a great knit, even though the beads are a story of their own. I bought the beads on the Internet, and, as before when I did that, I managed to buy beads with the tiniest of holes, just big enough for the yarn to pass through - but no way would I be able to use a crochet hook to get them on. As I didn't want to fiddle with metal wire (I did consider it for about two seconds), I decided to thread them. Al

After slipping in a street fountain in August, falling behind the sofa in November, Batman decided to start February off with a bang. A big bang. A type of bang that makes your heart skip about ten beats and turn your hair grey. Last Sunday night, just before we wanted to get the kids to bed so we could start our Pre-Superbowl Party, Sam fell down the stairs. Probably 3 or 4 steps, but for a little 3.5 ft boy, that's high, comparable to around 7 ft for us! We heard a big bang and found him lying on his back at the bottom of the stairs. Luckily, he came to his senses quickly, started moving about and started crying, but we did not want to take any risks and rushed him to the hospital straight away. Where we were put in the waiting room. For 2 hours. A bit of a misunderstanding... We ran into the door for the Out of Hours GP, but as Batman threw up all over the hallway (nice) and was not really responsive, they should have sent us on to Casualty straight away. But, alas, despite u