X-Balls Tree

Not being a very Xmas-minded person, I have only set-up a Christmas tree twice in all those years I live in Belgium.

Last year's was only done in the afternoon of Christmas Eve and taken down that same night, because little Moku the cat couldn't be trusted with it.

That's how it looked like:

This year, I started preparing for the tree in November, finished it yesterday night and decorated it this morning.

Needle felting lesson

Since finishing Lalupe (who's now happily sharing a windowsill with her older brother Dagobert), not a lot has happened on the dry felting frontier.
Until, two weeks ago, my friend from Brussels asked me for an introduction. I showed her some techniques (round, flat and long thin shapes, face shaping, basic eyes) and invented a new one for tiny rattie paws.

Draggins!

Somewhere on the intarwebs... a picture from an etsy shop got reposted.
As a knitter, my first thought was, "I can do this!". But I know myself, and at the moment, starting a project is easy, finishing is not. So I decided to knit four mittens at once, one pair for a friend, one pair for myself.

This is how it started out:

shot by Ameria for Naaldzang

This was almost finished (I had switched to my pointiest circs for ease of cabling):

shot by Ameria for Naaldzang

And this is the result:

shot by Ameria for ravelry

shot by Ameria for ravelry

shot by Ameria for ravelry

So glad I was able to finish them, so happy to have them off the needles. So green.

Colourwork Double Knitting

After deciding to quit the Stephen West KAL, I had to find another use for my Einband yarn. Inspiration finally came to me in the shape of an interesting double knit colourwork scarf.

Scarves: check

Colourwork: check

Double knitting: Err?

A tutorial had to be found and I decided to use some stash yarn for a first try.

It's still kicking my butt, but I'm getting better - one stitch at a time.

       

Cancelled Color Craving

I got stuck in the last three rows of Clue I and when I had time to pick it up again I also had a peek at the FO's of others:

©Stephen West

I didn't like what I saw and decided to frog what I had and find a different pattern for my Einband yarn.

Sorry Stephen, but not my cup of tea.

Feeling grateful and honoured

Not only did I finish my shawl, I also grabbed the chance to have it photographed by the lovely Ameria during our last knitting session in Bruges. Thx AJ!
One of those pictures is even featured on the pattern page now, which is a great honour on Ravelry:

And here are the other shots, in beautiful light and detail:

Nahuatl

I think I finished my fastest project of the year yesterday:

The triangular scarf Yexcampa Tlamachiotili only took me 3 weeks to knit!

It's currently pinned out for blocking:

Pattern: Geometry @ Julia Weiss
Yarn: Lang Mille Colori Lace & Sock @ Suzywol

Great fun project which puzzled many who witnessed me knitting this in public.

Once this was bound off (by the fumes of my yarn), I could start clue 1 of the WestKnit's Mystery KAL.

At the moment it looks rather bizarre, but appeals to my inner dragon and I love love love the colours (though in this photograph the lime/petrol combo looks more like yellow/blue. I hope it'll photograph better on a less rainy afternoon).

So here it is, the first half of clue 1 for the Ixnēzcā shawl:

In case you're wondering about the strange title of this post and the names of my projects: I have decided to hencefort name all my projects in the language of the Aztecs, which is Nahuatl. For reference, I'm using the Nahuatl Dictionary of the University of Oregon

Why, you might ask?

Waiting for West

My knitting friend Dominique took part in a Mystery Knit-Along last year, creating a lovely version of Stephen West's Rockefeller. So when I discovered that she'll knit-along in another of Mr West's mysteries, it didn't take me long to jump right in. The project name "Color Craving" matches my crafting into the rainbow motto too well.

Together with Rozemie I went yarn hunting, and this is what I chose:

Yarn Lopi Einband @ Suzywol
Pattern @ Westknits

However, the MKAL only starts on September 13th, so until then I'll keep my hands busy with more colourful stitches:

Yarn Lang Mille Colori Socks & Lace @ Suzywol
Pattern @ kNotArt

And last but not least [imagine drum roll here], K is back in blogland! Best news of the week so far, but it's only Monday ;)

read the blog

Latl

A year ago, I took Crazi Henri along when my crafty friends Rozemie and Karin took me to the international teddy bear and doll fair in Bruges. Karin fell madly in love for little Henri and asked if I ever had the time and felt like knitting another one, could she have one too?

As summer progressed and we started making plans for another visit to that show, I started knitting.

Meet "Latl" (short for Teocuitlatl, "gold" in the language of the Aztecs, Nahuatl), posing with Henri during a coffee break in Bruges yesterday:

Yarn: Rowan Silk Twist @ Stoffenidee
Pattern: Henri @ The Yarnigans

Lazy light

Half-way August, the light is starting to be lazy, but the critter knitting needs to continue.

Yarn: Rowan Silk Twist @ Stoffenidee

Crazy Critter Lady

Helen over at Breien in Oostende called me "our reigning queen of knitted and felted critters" in her post about Dagobert the dragon. This got me wondering how many knit and crochet toys I have made in the last 6 years (you've seen the felted ones here).

Luckily I tagged my projects on ravelry, so I could easily create the following screen shots:

This represents 56 different projects, with anything between 1 and 6 versions of the same pattern.

How many did I give away as presents? 50.

So I say thank you to:

- those who designed these awesome patterns

- those who sold me the materials

- those who inspired me to make presents for them

- those who intend to keep their inner child alive and / or decide to procreate so I can knit and crochet for them.

Ostend & Bruges SnB Blog Updates

Dagobert Superstar

Read the blog

Read the blog

Quickie Bling

Sometimes a crafter needs an instant gratification project. Crochet jewellery can provide just that.

Over the years I made earrings, bracelets and necklaces

  

Today I had some fun with cotton yarn and a treasure of buttons / oversized sequins I had purchased many years ago

When it's done, it's finished

He's finished!

Oddly, the pattern didn't include a tail, so I had to add one.

Pattern: Joris by Annita Wilschut
Yarn: Scheepjes Invicta Everest @ Stoffenhuys Paulette

I'm very happy to have finished Dagobert (there were moments when I didn't think I would). He'll be a great companion for knitting events. I love Annita's patterns for the fact that she works in a very organic way. Each feature grows naturally from the previous one, the knitter doesn't have to spend an afternoon attaching body parts. "When it's done, it's finished", as a famous Buddhist monk is sometimes quoted.

Sunday I'll help a knitting friend get started with another of Annita's patterns, Suusje the mouse, if I'm not mistaken.

And I'll cast on for yoga socks with the same yarn now. Not for yoga classes though, but for a four session introduction to meditation, taught in the lovely Begijnhof in Bruges:

Knit it again, S.

Finally I can talk about this project!

A dear friend of mine told us last year that she'll be expecting a baby this spring. This, of course sent me into a mad search for a cute pattern. Once I had whittled it down to two designs, we had the following text conversation:

me - bunny or sheep?
her - bunny

We didn't need to say more ;)

pattern: Flat Foot Floogie by Barbara Prime
yarn: Bergere Sport, purchased at Stoffenhuys Paulette

Yesterday Bunny went to live with baby S.

I'm still standing

Don't you know I'm still standing better than I ever did
Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid
I'm still standing after all this time
Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind

Updates have been few and far between in June, as I was struggling with some motivation-, inspiration- and energy issues. But I'm still crocheting and knitting, and hope to return to beading and needle felting soon.

These are my current WiPs:

A stash-busting project, using the pattern Apache Tears by Sarah London

An irrisistible little dragon by Zij Maakt Het (Dutch blog)

What is it with me and dragons?
First and foremost, the dragon is my Chinese zodiac. Not quite water, not quite air, not quite real, not quite there. If I ever get a second tattoo (and I do want one), it'll be dragon-related. Often, they're green, and green is one of my happy colours. Scales are sexy.

Bruges SnB

We had a lovely meeting a few days ago:

Read the blog

Quote

http://www.createmixedmedia.com/make/journaling/journal-doodling

A doubting creative

I did this little quiz on the Jen Lee Productions journal and surprise, surprise, the result reads as follows:

What kind of creative are YOU?

New page - enter at your own risk

After graduating from highschool in June 1995, I started my studies to become a German and Geography teacher for 10 to 14 year-olds. One day we had to write a poem. A little later, I fell in love with a Belgian guy, who was quite proud of his poetry and so I filled a couple of notebooks with ideas and poems. I lost or destroyed these notebooks while moving to Belgium, but a selection survived on an old website of mine.

Proceed at own risk

WWKiP

WWKiP or World Wide Knit in Public takes place every year in June and I try to attend at least one of the events. I also harass everybody about attending on Ravelry.

So despite not really knitting lately, I joined two friends on the train to Ghent yesterday, where we met up with the local groups and some of our Ostend friends arrived at the venue (Stoffenidee, Burgstraat 38a) eventually.

The lovely Yarnlot took a lot of pictures, which she published on KnitFlanders:

Read the blog

Thank you for the hospitality and see you next year!

Lalupe

My most time-consuming critter so far is Lalupe, the little dragon.

I used the brown country sheep roving as core material. Normally I stick to my starter kit selection of merino for the top layer, but I had green "felting yarn" and thought I'd give it a try.

Learned:

- embellishing with contrasting fibre