A spencer for Christmas

I've been very busy with rehearsals with De Nederlandse Opera but have found time to fit in a bit of knitting here and there in the evenings. For Christmas I wanted to make a sleeveless pullover (or spencer in Nederlandse taal). I used a lovely sock yarn in wool/alpaca mix which I bought from Schouten Handwerken, Hoorn. It only took two and a bit balls of 100g so it was a cheap and quick knit! The yarn is so soft, and I've already washed it to settle the stitches and seams and is now even softer and kept its shape well. It's from a 1950's pattern that I purchased from ebay so is shorter than a modern fit (23 1/2 inches) so you need to wear a pair of high-waisted trousers with this one.

My Mum will be happy that I'm so well dressed on Christmas day!

The front is in basket stitch and the back is in plain stocking stitch

The finished neckline and the collar under construction.

I was really chuffed with the arm bands and the collar. I worked out the maths to make certain that the ribbing was even and my picked-up stitches are the neatest I've done to date. It's very satisfying to see a continuing development in my knitting skills.

Next on my knit list is another pair of gloves (almost finished glove number one) and then a pair of fair-isle socks using the remainder of the yarn from this sweater with a bright red sock yarn! Oh, and a spencer in navy blue merino sock yarn for my lovely model and husband.

Keep knitting and Happy Christmas :-)

Winter Gloves

Finished knitting my gloves for winter. Here is two pictures of the finished item, knitted on UK14 (2mm) two needles using Katia Olé Socks "condor".

New yarn!

This Thursday I took a little trip out of Amsterdam to my favourite yarn shop in Hoorn: Schouten Handwerken. Marjan, Claartje and myself had been trying for the past two months to find a date when we were all free or not held up in bed with a cold... and this Thursday was the day!

Despite the 75km wind and the driving rain (and the mix up at the train station - leaving Claartje behind on the platform as the train pulled away!) we had a wonderful time in Wilbert's family shop. As always Wilbert (and his father and medewerkers) were there to help us with our purchases, offering advice on yarn for patterns and colour combinations, and having a chat. And to warm us up a lovely cup of tea and a local cake tasting of aniseed literally called "chew chew" (something like kauw kauw in Nederlandse taal).

We finished our trip by having a nice cup of tea in the english tea rooms along the same street as Wilbert's shop: Gumbleton's.

And this is the yarn I decided to use for a sleeveless pullover I want to make for Christmas:

I am using the same brand of yarn at the moment to make a pair of gloves (wool/alpaca mix) and I find it so soft and easy to knit with. It holds its shape really well and the yarn doesn't split and copes well with being frogged.

I also bought some more Trekking sock yarn as I have used this before and find it a good strong brand for making socks (but this ball might be for more winter gloves):

And here is our friendly host Wilbert winding some yarn for Claartje:

And one of me knitting in public:

Happy Knitting guys!

Crafty Crafters

Last nights meeting was fun (as always!). Here are some pictures of the crafters getting crafty:


New member Afra brought along her sewing machine that she had bought on Marktplaats to get some advice on the tension and to help get the thing working (job done!).

Megan has only been knitting for 4 weeks but she's already buying yarn and knitting up to a good tension a nice blue scarf.


Donna working on a nice scarf in pink and blue stripes using a drop stitch pattern that she's 'mixing up' as she goes, freestyle scarfing!

Jose has some beautiful yarn that he bought in Scotland and is making a vertical stripped scarf and teaching himself the 'Intarsia' technique;

And Afra, once machine was seen to be working, picked up her needles and worked on her two-pin winter gloves for her boyfriend. Doubled yarn for extra Dutch winter warmth.

A gezellig evening as always, with biscuits, tea, bit of whisky as the night draws to a close.

Come join us!

2 new vintage patterns

Here are two new vintage patterns that I have bought to add to my collection. They are both from around 1940's - one is a fair isle sleeveless jumper and the other is a fun cowboy themed long sleeved jumpe! Which one to make first?

Men's lace scarf challenge

As you saw in my previous post I have finished a lace triangular scarf in a simple repeat pattern. This is for a friend's wife. But I love the look of lace and have got to wondering if there are lace scarf patterns for men out there. I searched through Ravelry and there are the regular wrap scarfs that are unisex but I'm talking about an open-work lace piece, something that is delicate, that could be worn by a man (namely me, as I have a really nice red 2ply lace yarn that I would like to use for myself).

So the challenge is to find a repeat pattern that could be made in to a rectangular scarf that would be considered "masculine" enough. I'm thinking at the moment of a 'drooping elm leaf' pattern or 'christmas trees' as shown in B. Walker's A Treasury of Knitting.

Let's see what happens...

Besides this idea I'm still working on Edgar. Having to adjust the arms to meet the tension of modern yarn, and the first sock is almost finished.

Keep knitting!!!

New Piece - Lace Shawl

Over the last couple of weeks I've been working on a triangular shawl project and here is the finished article. Knitted on UK9 (3.75mm) straight bamboo needles using Zitron Filigran Lace no.1 (which was from Schouten Handwerken, Hoorn):

Edgar: 2

So the back, left and right front of the cardigan are now complete (just all those ends still to sew in). I've begun working on the first arm. I'm having to adjust the pattern slightly to fit the yarn that I am using but I'm happy with how it is going at the moment.

It's beginning to get colder in Amsterdam now and this top will be perfect for winter, and especially Christmas with it's greens and reds!

I can't wait :D

Nanny's Buttons

I spent weekend with my family in England - got to see my nephew and have a play in the garden with him :-D Anyway... whilst I was there I thought I would ask my Mum for some buttons for the "Edgar" cardigan I am working on. I could just go and buy 6 buttons from the sewing shop but since I like vintage things (being raised in a family of antique restorers) I thought that some old, used buttons would age the cardigan nicely.

There was always a tin of buttons hanging when we were younger and I used to love looking at them - all those colours and forgotten clothes that they had come from - and it was also where old Scout and Girl Guide badges ended up too. Unfortunetly Mum had given her tin of buttons away (to a local knitting group), but she had a collection that belonged to my Nan Eva that they hadn't given away.

So out came the old tea tin, battered. Dad took the lid off, and we poured out the "gems" on to a tray. Wow! what a nice collection. A real mix of ages - from early 1930s-present. There was pearl buttons, and green glass buttons, and red plastic buttons. And I found 6 cream, cracked buttons that will work great on "Edgar" giving me the finish I desire.

I've taken some pictures for you to see the few that I brought home with me for future projects or just to keep in my sewing draw to make me think of my Nan. Enjoy!

Crafty Me

So next week, after a summer recess, my knitting (crafting) group starts up again - 14th September. We're based at the ABC Treehouse, Voetboogstraat, Amsterdam and meet every Tuesday 6-9pm. It's a great, informal evening. Friends and new people just turn up with a snack or a drink and we sit around with our projects and put the world to rights, may be listen to a bit of music (what ever is on my ipod - usually Bananarama or Peggy Lee).

We're always open to new members - experienced or novice alike. There is always someone willing to teach you their skill, whether that be knitting or crochet. We even have a box of spare yarn and needles so if you're not sure if its the right hobby for you you can try it out without spending a penny (or Euro cent).

I can't wait to get back to the group - the nights are drawing in, it's getting cooler - perfect knitting weather, and I love to see what others are making.

See you guys soon!

Temple Socks

The other project I'm working on at the moment is socks for HG Dhananjaya Prabhu, my temple president, as it is getting close to winter and for a Dutch winter a good strong pair of woolen socks is just what you need!

Using Regia 6, on 4.5 needles, in a neutral colour.

"Edgar" - 1920's cardigan

The project I am currently working on is using a vintage Patons & Baldwin's pattern No. 324 which I bought from eBay. It is an original 1920's pattern with full colour chart on the inside (I would imagine this would have made it a pretty expensive pattern to purchase at the time).

The pattern is knitted using 2-ply Real Shetland wool (made by P&B themselves) but since this doesn't exist I had to supplement a yarn that would knit up to the gauge correctly - that being 6 1/2 stitches to the inch (in old money) or 26 stitches to 10cm on No. 8 needles (again old Imperial money) or 4mm (US 6) in stocking stitch.

A couple of months ago I went on a trip to Hoorn with my friend Donna to Schouten Handwerken to ask the advice of Wilbert Schouten, and to also see what wonderful yarns he had on offer for me in his shop. After showing Wilbert the pattern, and some quick iphone searching for English knitting conversions he suggested that I use Lana Grossa "Cool Wool". It's 100% Virgin Merino wool, washes at 30.c and gave almost the correct tension even though it was a 5-ply. Selected 4 colour combination of grey, red, green, and dark blue and left with a smile on my face...

And after a couple of weeks knitting on this project this is where I am with it so far. The first image at the beginning of the post is the back, wrong side facing, being blocked. I usually use this towel to block as I can pin it out and use the squares to give myself a straight edge to measure against to make sure that the piece is laying equal. I was worried that the colourwork was perhaps too tight but once blocked it lays perfectly, and I think this is also helped by the wonderful spring that is in the Lana Grossa yarn.

The second image shows the ends that the colourwork creates. I have been trying to keep this to a minimum and carry the grey/red up the side as much as possible without having lots of yarn running up the side of the work! And the third image shows detail of the right side of the cardigan, the great colour combinations of the yarn and the pattern of the colourwork itself.

I have also worked the left front and blocked that too, but the images are pretty much the same (lots of ends, orange towel for blocking..). The only difficulty with the front piece is the grey band that runs up the centre of the cardigan - I am trying to use intarsia interlock but I will still need to go over the piece at the end and just tighten it together to the body with a few stitches. May be on the right hand side this will improve!

I'll keep you updated with how it comes together.

Helen and her chiller cabinets

Poor Helen, if only she could find the chiller cabinet log book for the health inspector all would be okay!

(I'll explain about The Archers in a later post for those who don't have a clue what I'm writing about...)

I'm decorating

Almost finished decorating our living room - so clean and fresh (ready for winter...). I even hired a carpet cleaner yesterday, the filth that was lifted. The previous owner had a really old gas heater which when we had replaced was informed it wasn't actually connected to the chimney as the flue was blocked with rubbish and it had probably been like this for ten years!! That would explain why the carbon-monoxide alarm kept going off, I just got annoyed with it and removed the batteries. All around the previous owners furniture was left a shadow of carbon - lekker!

But we have a new heater now so all is safe in Casa Miller-Rouse.

And once the apartment is tidy again I can get back to my knitting...

Nigel Pargetter - you snob

First Archers post. Nigel really annoys me. Such a misogynistic snob. "Lizzie, we Pargetter's have always sent our children to boarding school". But Lizzie doesn't want to do this. Will Nigel listen? I doubt it he always seems to get his way...

Ok scrap that... 12 minutes later (whilst Lizzie tells stall holders "you're not to distribute your leaflets here...") Nigel has a chat with David and came to the conclusion that Lizzie should look for another school for the children.

I still got a feeling that this won't be the last we hear about sending the Pargetter children to boarding school, but at the moment Lizzie 1 - Nigel 0

Fresh beginnings with fibre

I've started many a blog, posted a couple of times and then decline to pursue it any further. I've reached the conclusion that may be combining my passion for knitting (and the odd bit of crochet) with blogging will ensure that I keep this going for a bit longer.

Aims, aims - I like to have aims, achievements that I want to fulfil with this task (and which inevitably I will look back upon and realise I never reached). Firstly, I use Ravelry and though it is a great site I would like to create a diary of my projects that is a bit more in depth and able to reach a wider audience. Secondly, this may be a way to kick-start myself in to making knitwear that people will think "Oh, that's nice - I would like that nice young man to make me a one off piece that I can wear too"... and then pay me for my work. It's a dream and whether there is any money in it waits to be seen. But I do have a lot of people asking me if I sell my work and this might be a way of reaching those people

Oh dear, this is turning in to a bit of a desperate first post ("Give us ya bloody money" in the vein of Geldof)