zaterdag 31 december 2016

wishing you ...

... a lot of
happiness,
peace,
(desperately needed in some places)
good health,
and of course
creativity
!
To all my friends out there in blog-land
a very good 
2017



Just before the end
I received my last felting-exchange piece
(at least I think it is) 

Another lovely creation to wear

with a sweet christmas card

Thank you so much Helma !!!


And on the same day another sweet envelope arrived :
from my dearest friend Birgit

she dyed some things in her indigo vat
and sent it back to me
(we split the wonderful dragon-embroidered piece !)

A dragon and some lovely threads
(bamboo, silk and cotton  f.l.t.r.) 


My zigzag socks are finished


and because it is such fun knitting
and daughter had sock yarn leftovers too
I started right away with another pair

reds and purples this time ...

See you all next year !


dinsdag 27 december 2016

quiet ... quiet ... quiet

Yes it's quiet here,
the year walks quietly to its end.
We had lovely family days
and the rest was really quiet.

Just mending a bit
(not for me)
...
and knitting
(the zigzag pattern)
...
and making some more stars
(for the tree)

The jeans of daughter that were lying around for quite some time :
busy mending at last !

the beginning

the outside                   ...         and using pliers !!!

inside
(with some extra cotton fabric for strength)
*

Because the zigzag scarf pattern was so much fun
(using up all the sock yarn leftovers)
I thought I should make some socks
to go with the scarf
:-)



Now two socks on one circular needle

Nearly there !!!

!

I coloured some more wooden stars

such fun to do !

Some more for the tree ...

(which will be outside again soon !)

dinsdag 13 december 2016

odds and ends

This year
2016
and December
is rushing to its end.

Well not really,
but it feels like that ...
and it's rather quiet on the creative end here.

Though I can tell
that I finally finished my "zigzag sock scarf"
(a name which asks for an explanation :
a scarf 
in a zigzag pattern
with leftover sock yarn)


I must confess that it was nearly lost :
I left the little bag on the boat
when I came back from Rotterdam some weeks ago
(there were a lot of other bags to take care of ...)
But last week it was reported found
so I picked it up ...
and started knitting right away !

(here the colours are better)

All there is left to do :
weave in the ends !!!

*
When the weather was great last week
I started the long postponed cutting
of some shrubs in the garden.
The dust bin for all the green stuff
was filled to the brim
so there is lots more still lying in the garden,
waiting for the next round ...
Today, on the other side of the water
some men were busy
making pollard willows of our willows again !
They had obviously waited too long :
the branches were as big as small trees !!!


(at my side of the water you can see
half the Buddleja cuttings still in the garden
and the "Black Knight" near the water, isn't even done yet)

*
And yesterday we had a very strange visitor (again)

a ring-necked parakeet !

These birds are NOT native birds here :
they either escaped from captivity
or
were just put "outside"
because their owners didn't like them anymore ...
(They originate from Africa, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
but are good survivors now in many European countries !)

Very odd to see such a bright green bird
but they seem to flourish here
:-)

(this one is probably a youngster,
younger than the one we saw a few weeks ago :
this one doesn't have the dark ring
around its neck yet)


donderdag 1 december 2016

december .....

Ahhhhhh
first day of the last month of this year
.....
a bit of winter





As I could have predicted in advance :
November was a quiet month
after the frantic activities of October.

I made some more textile jewels
(just because it was fun)
but couldn't get myself
into starting something new.
But, I had to make my last two (!) pieces
for the felting exchange.

I made the one for October first :
a (big) fish
of which I totally forgot to take pictures
before I sent him off.

Then, in the last days of November
I fi-nal-ly had the idea
for the Zodiac sign Virgo
(the September piece !)


shrunk to the right size !

It was quickly dry on the radiator
and then came the fun :
embroidery

Finished,

... and it arrived safely, I heard !

I also received one of my
last "jewels" (corsages) I asked for

Ha, it's almost like Medusa's head ...
but I like it !
Thanks Paulien !

There was more interest in it  :

Ha, ha, ha !



*
And in a few days
we have the children's feast
"St Nicolaas"

(dress rehearsal)