(little) step ...

... by (little) step

I'm making progress,

still a bit of "wheely" chair 

or one crutch for support

...

Today was my first day out again 

(to the "Christmassy" Alpaca Farm)

We had tea, coffee,

yummy sweets,

chicken soup 

and talked a LOT
(and did a stitch or two)

Someone even spun a chunky yarn 

with christmas lights in it !!!

FUN !

The last few days I've been busy with felting

little bags.

While Man started with our Christmas cards,

on which I added a little (embellisher) felted star 

;-)

Ha, tomorrow I will meet all the ladies of the year-round

felting-exchange !

We will see all the 144 card size felts 

(plus some other artwork of each person)

hot !

HOT

Summer has arrived finally !

And right now it's so hot

you should keep out of the sun

sit quietly indoors and do little or nothing at all.

But

I went to the Stitch'nBitch group in Rotterdam

(by bike and boat, like I always do

knitting on my next pair of socks)

(some early birds)

 A lot of ladies

(there is sometimes óne young man)

went afterwards to the Alpaca farm, near the village where I live, 

where a special "wool" day was held

(so I took the next stop on the boat back)

There we were warmly welcomed by the owners of the farm

and then almost all of us visited the alpacas.

A sweet bunch but very shy

They were recently shaved, with a funny hair-do left.

It was nice to visit the alpacas but in fact a bit too hot

......

And this little visitor was wisely left in the shade

*

Finally,
 I made a little friend for my gray hare / rabbit yesterday

(he might become the "white rabbit" of "Alice")

(that's two, Gabi ... )

starting all over again

I started on this mitered little vest

in red colours some days ago.

Then, last week, my friend M visited me,

wearing the blue vest.

I asked her to take it with her so I could measure it

and decide what size to make the miters in the new red one

( she looks wonderful in it )

I decided to make less squares ánd use a smaller size needle  2,5

I made an extra sample with needle 2

Then I took it with me to the knitting group at the alpaca farm.

There, our new friend I

(who is making a gorgeous multicoloured BIG triangle shawl) 

said the knitting would probably become too stiff on that 2 needle.

I also realized that with one square less the pattern wouldn't fit anymore !

Thanks for the advice !

I started all over again !

ánd I dicided to add some bigger squares too !

That was partly because of the wonderful book

I found at our dear alpaca-lady's shop !

An very early birthday present !!!

Mmmmm ..... there will be more knitting, I guess

*

Uhhhh ...

more knitting ?

YES !

 

( pssssst : don't forget the giveaway .... )

winter ... and alpacas

At last :

WINTER decided not to move on unnoticed ! 

It's freezing up to minus 20 C

and we had a few centimetres of snow yesterday.

But ... we aren't used to that !

So that kind of weather brings on a lot of trouble in our small country :

lots of people got stuck in their cars in endless traffic jams ...

busses and trains that didn't go on time

( or at all ) ...

central heating that failed ...

in one word : "chaos"

But also this kind of weather starts another frenzy :

ice skating !

Holland has so much water in ditches, little canals and lakes

that, when all thát freezes over,

everyone, young or old, wants to be on the ice !!!

Many people are even having high hopes for the "monster-race"

of 200 km in the North of the country, in Friesland ...

This morning the white frost and a clear blue sky

gave us the most wonderful "fairy" world to look at and enjoy !

(this spider wasn't home anyway ...)

MAGIC  !

*

For our "normal" Stitch'nBitch outing daughter and I go to Rotterdam,

but this time we went to a new place in the next village

an ALPACA farm !

The friendly hostess (owner of the Alpacas)

had a cosy room (and yarn shop) in the cellar of a little house

where we met some new knitting and spinning friends !

They come together every first Saturday of the month.

It was fun :

we'll be back, that's for sure !

(We didn't séé the alpacas, but next time, we'll take a closer look !

and ..... alpacas have loooooovely soft wool !!!)