autumn decorations

I'm indulging in a little felt embroidery.

The big red mushroom is a fly agaric (had to look it up - thanx google translate)
Apparently you can call these mushrooms  'punks' or even 'spunks' in English. In my language they are called 'zwam'.  I liked to sew the spores - that's the detail to make it look real.

catching some late rays of sun

So I guess the little baby on the swing-chair can be called a baby punk..... although he doesn't look the part... Maybe I should 've gone a little more crazy on his hairdo. 

I'm putting it on display under a glass bell.  In Flanders, in the fifties & sixties, every home used to have a glass bell with a madonna + child under it.  In the zen-nineties they became really old-fashioned and were thrown away or sold at flea markets. I bought one there, threw away the (plastic) madonna and now I fill it with other objects.  It's vintage revival.
Feeling pretty hipster now. :-)

Swing along, little punky.

recent work

learned to knit a pearly coin bag, on tiny needles 1.50 !

tapistry crochet, little mochilla bag

love this new magazine !

this will become the annis shawl, with pearls

the jamieson & smith mitts are finished !

casting on for a Marie Walin design....

got these skeins from a friend, made a nice wrap

the spinning wheel is working

in the spinning group at Middelkerke

wonderful how fleece turns into wool

a bit of embroidery...

sometimes it's crochet

carding lots of rolags to spin

haha, first result ever... haha...

a little boy's vest

these apples needed a travelling coat

a teacher's sock to make clear all the different steps

made myself a skirt

spinning adventures

The spinning wheel is working overtime.  I bought wonderful fibres at the Craftsfair in Rijswijk.  Alet from  Textielwerk wol en zo  sold me 500 grams of mixture:  baby Alpaca, camel and silk.

It needed careful spinning and even more careful twining.  The short fibres broke easily, so I needed to handle it with the utmost care.  The result is as soft as butter.

I'm thinking of knitting a pair of mittens and I got just enough meters to make them.  Thanks to the niddy noddy I could count that easily.

I soaked the skeins in a tiny bit of  eucalan, but that wasn't really necessary.  It couln't get any softer than it already was.

As I was spinning I was constantly reminded of a cup of coffee.... the coffee colours were all there : soft brown, milky white, creamy caramel....

So, my name for these skeins is : the cappuccino collection...

little mouse

Back in July, when I was headed for the spinning and dyeing workshop at textielwerk wol en zo I made a little detour to Arnemuiden.
There is a wonderful blogster on line, Jeanet from Blij dat ik brei, and she posts very inspirational projects.  Crochet or knitting, she always seems to find pretty things to put on her blog.  I recently discovered that she actually has her own woolshop, in Arnemuiden.

isn't it a picture ?

So I planned to visit her.
The shop is such an amazing colourful experience.  She has so many beautiful wools and many many scarves and bags and hats en mitts on display.

so many colours of unicat !

 Some of her projects are so yummy !

 Unfortunately, it must have been the hottest day of the summer when I came around.  Luckily, that also meant there was hardly anybody in the shop, and I could have a stroll and gasp at all these amazing things.
Jeannet is such a lovely lady, and so eager to help in any way she can.

I couldn't resist the lovely cuddly ragdolls she made. The pattern can be found on ravelry here.
I made the little mouse.

And I also bought some of the beautiful fabric, typically for Zeeland.
 

 

Thanks Jeanet for making this a visit to cherish and remember !

art quilt

At the beginning of this month, I enrolled in a quilting class at De draad van Ariadne.
The workshops are organised at the house of Dorien.  We used to live in the same street, many many suns ago.  We even went to the same school, and she will always be that girl to my mind/eyes - no matter how grey our hairs are now.  So, she hasn't changed a bit, and when we met, it immediately 'clicked' like in the old days.

3 afternoons of quilt making.  Starting with a drawing, collecting ideas, fabrics, slowly forming.  No ordinary quilt, like the beautiful throws you think of.  No.  Art quilt.  It means you can throw in anything, fibers, pictures, embroidery, any stuff.  That's easy.  Yeah, right.  Not to my mind.

the others were wonderful !

Great combination !

The difficulty in this proces is the 'letting go'.  There is no limit to what you can do, except the limits and bounderies of what you learned before.  So it took me a while to feel comfortable with this.  And if you can do anything, it is restrictive too.  The liberty can block the creative process.
I'm used to following a pattern, an outline - created by somebody else. I guess I'm a copy cat at heart.  When I see a beautiful pattern, I want to copy it.   I always add something of my own, and very often change things along the way. But start from scratch ?  Brrr....


Dorien wanted me to make something. Create ! And I'm telling you, that isn't easy. So I had come up with a basic idea.

Living in a seaside village, I wanted the quilt to reflect that.  It had to be about sea and beach.  a sunset perhaps, since that has nice colours ?
Then I remembered an evening my son and I had a stroll along the sea, we took some pictures and jumped over little waves.  He lost his mobile phone that evening, it must have fallen out of his pocket.  The sea ate it.  It is probably floating towards England now...  big crisis, I remember him being very upset about this. So maybe I could encorporate this into the quilt.

Arno at the sea

Ok.  The ideas were there.  I arranged fabrics and threads on the canvas.  I embroidered and stitched some with the machine.  Added stuff I had made on other workhops. And when I got in the flow, It was real fun and time flew by.

arranging and changing

I am now the proud owner of a hand made art quilt.  It is hanging on my wall.  And you now what ?  My son immediately recognized what it was about !

can you see the sun, the waves, and the mobile phone ?  tihihi...

Some leftover from another workshop finally found its place

silver threads arranged to symbolize the waves

Dorien has a special talent.  Her house, the workshop area and everything she showed us has a waw-effect.  She has won prizes with her wonderful art.  She is a very patient, sweet and lovely teacher - I'm going back there next year.  Can't wait !

fair isle headband

Just a quick knit - in summer it is too hot for big projects.

This pattern was in a Christmas Calendar by Regia knits, a few years ago.  It was love at first sight. I had to settle for another yarn though, there was no regia to be found in the nearby surroundings. Sachenmayer is just as soft, and came in these lovely colours.  Bright Fuchsia pink and creamy white.

The fair isle technique makes it double layered, and will be warm around my ears come autumn winds.