To all my readers....

...whom I have neglected a bit the last months....
First of all I want to thank you all for being here the last year. You are dear to me, old friends, new friends and those just dropping by for the first time. Thank you.

Well it all started with one morning waking up to a craving need to let things be and snuggle up on the couch with a book, followed two days later with a craving for wool, needles and an idea to knit. Before the week was over I felt sick; morning, noon and night......
Yup, there has been a lot of creating going on.... besides the usual socks, mobiles, cookies, bookmarks, breads and holiday dinner plans.

So now we live in a household of four.
Miss N. was born in July and 9 months later I'm starting to become my self again. Life has settled a bit and creativity can take its course in new directions.
There are nap times and school times and with those there are times to open the door of our atelier and do some work with most times a cat on my lap.

So sorry for the silence, you were all in my mind and hart, but I just needed the break.

Love, Karen.

Weekending

Just a sheet over the table would do fine I thought...

But before I knew, my beloved took over and Miss E. had a 3-room villa with a covered terrace as a tent. Porch light present!

Have a happy weekend!

Sewing Basket

Have you ever heard of the fairy godmother?
I have a fairy mother in law! She read my post of dreaming about a new sewing basket and look what I got! this dreamy old little basket, perfect for my wooden bobbins.
I love the carmine red fabric.

I have collected a nice set of antique darning tools. One day I'll really have to learn how to mend my own socks. It takes painstakingly for ever to knit a pair so it will be worth it. I already have one favourite woollen skirt that needs mending after a firecracker exploded during New Years Eve.
I am sooooo grateful for youtube and all the people who are so nice to put their expertise in instruction films.

Thanks to a mild autumn, until this day the sucky thumb mitts RULE!

They are so great, keeping her small hands cosy and warm, lending a helping hand/mitten whenever she falls or decides to crawl over the playground. (She is still mastering the skill of walking.)

This is the second season they come in handy :-)

Knitting Lekker Zacht

She is finally finished, My February Sweater, or as we know her: Lekker Zacht, (nice and soft).
It took me for ever, I had to frogg her when I was at 1/3, and she taught me so much.
(I still have to block her.)

First of all that when doing a lace pattern, one should embrace the use of stitch markers. I first made some with a couple of contrasting pieces of wool, but soon decided I could do better and made these ladies:
I call 'em Lady Tears, inspired by a fairytale of a lady weeping at a stream.

Making my own markers has led to a reawakening of my passion for metal crafting so I'm working at various projects at the moment.

But back to Lekker Zacht. It is the first cardigan I made and it took me forever because I decided to do it in fingerling wool, so I started with 71 stitches, resulting in 218 after all the increases. And I'm not a fast knitter.
This cardigan has seen so many places, I took it everywhere with me, and I will cherish it for the rest of my life because of the memories that have woven their place within the fabric.
And Miss E, who is its current owner, also seems happy with it. I let her feel the wool when I was making the cardigan and she rubbed it against her cheek with a big smile, hence the name: Lekker Zacht.

So I'm quite happy and proud of the result.
And I loved to read the instructions and accompanying story of  E. Zimmermann.
(I got the pattern from Knitter's Almanac.)