New!

Our garden gnome, made by L (7y).

Little piece

Don't wanna talk big, but yes, I so love this result! From the first moment I saw the pattern I knew it was meant for me. These kind of simple designs bring me joy and happiness.

Found here and made with a double yarn as described (color 2020 and 9020). I recommend this yarn, that I tested before. It's lovely soft and supple.

Dear Mees, I wish you grow fast so you can go home!

For Mees

A very little baby boy was born too early. I'm knitting to warm him when he is leaving the hospital. It's work in progress but I like to show it this way as well.

Keep'n it simple

Oh yes, I know how to knit gloves, socks, sweaters with cables and other textures... I used to go for it when I was young. But nowadays, the most simple knitwear I prefer. Just doing it with nice yarn: a soft mixed alpaca in my favorite color (nr 7233). Which I used double and that I will use once again for sure. I'm dreaming of a nice and warm sweater for M...

L is such a sweet and patient model; she wanted to show you all possibilities. I added a tiny detail for her, a surprise after waking up this morning. And yes, she's really happy with it.

Btw, does anyone have a tip for getting a fully invisible seam in a case like mine?

Scary

In school L loves to make colorful meters with her knitting fork. This week her teacher created a snake of it; now L has a new friend that she's carrying everywhere she goes.

To wrap a baby

My friend R became a mother! Of course I love to bring her baby boy something when I'll go to see him. This little man needs warmth, being just out of a warm belly, I thought. So this knit was made, inspired by this knitting on the bias. The used yarn is as pure as possible, as if straight from the sheep.

The cotton yarn you saw before. It was just added randomly like I saw here some time ago and still love. I used needle EU 8 and 500 gr of yarn. The pattern is so easy and great to do, as if climbing and descending a mountain.
Do you want to try this blanket of about 80 to 80 cm yourself?

Then cast on 1 st
row 1: kfb
kfb, k till the end
repeat.
When you're halfway:
k2tog, k till the end
repeat
last row: 1 st, bind off.
Done! Simple as that.

On the bias

Are you still curious after this post? To be honest, this dress was planned for L's birthday! Only the borders to go, I decided to quit this knitting to be continued after those busy days. A good exercise to let go!

Looking at the final result I was afraid L would refuse to wear it, but pfff, she loves it! She's wearing it now three days in a row. She may. It took quite some time to make it and you never know whether my youngest self-assured daughter likes or not, so I'm glad.
Thanks Saskia for the nice stay in your small shop and for inspiring me. Browsing through different kind of knitting books I really fell in love with this dress in this book. I used this affordable yarn. But my bag was filled with more...

Some changes I made: the description for the borders was way too complex, so I decided to do it my good-old-way. And I changed color on an even number of rows to take along the waiting thread and thus to avoid weaving in ends. Here I found the perfect rose pattern...
In my opinion the dress is a tiny bit too long right now, but she'll grow!

Work in progress

It's wintertime. In need of plenty of rest I'm sitting on the couch and knit. Striped and on the bias. It's my cup of tea at the moment.

The different pieces look like tea towels but will be ...

Smaller one

I tried to crochet this pattern. Great to do, but after a while I decided to quit. In this case the pattern is too open looped and too cold in my opinion to wear on a colorful dress with short sleeves like this one. So I started again and knitted a smaller bolero version, this time with needle 5 and this yarn.
What do you think? L likes it.

Out of fashion?

Before I told you we had a Christmas dinner in style in the office. To be able to wear a sleeveless dress I was looking for a bolero in town. But, I was told, they're out of fashion and no more available... Mmm, what to do? I remembered this post and decided to knit one. Due to a lack of time I wasn't able to search for a pattern, so I just started to knit once I had bought the wool. Luckily the fit appeared to be fine, so it's no shame to share a tutorial. The bolero is made of exactly 3 balls of yarn of 100 gram each. I used this yarn, needle 8.
Here comes my very-first-can't-be-more-simple tutorial:

Addition: to see the kids version, click here.

Special friend

My friend Kristel invited me to her birthday lunch and workshop last sunday. There was no doubt about bringing along a self-made gift for somebody like her. Because she's an allround crafter but knitter I made her a knitted pillow cover. There's no pattern, after casting on I just knitted purl and knit stitches randomly. For the filling I used this, because the proportions are great in my opinion (I only made it some less thick).
Kristel, thanks for the creative afternoon. Now I know how to crochet again! I'll certainly continue doing this and will try to transfer the crochet virus to my daughters ;).

Swapping

Kristel of Vlijtig and I know each other for a long time. We are different and at the same time have a lot in common. When she saw this scarf she asked me to make one for her daughter. We agreed on a practical swap of Sinterklaas presents, so we could make them in daytime. And so became swapping a new experience for me.
I sent her this post: a scarf on which I pinned some mini-presents for her two daughters. Hopefully they all like them. Have a look at Kristel's blog which beauties she made for M!

Tip for 'Sinterklaas'

On one hand I very agree with Petra. But at the same time I love to be an active mother when it comes to preparing for Sinterklaas. I early collect all kinds of presents and start from now on to make some of them myself.
For those other early ones like me I have a tip. Here you see our productive 4-years-old last sunday morning, sitting on my pillow. I don't know if you all know a knitting fork. L loves to make meters of cord with it. It is more easy than 'punnikken' (who knows the word in English?). If you think it's a great Sinterklaas present you can order it here. Together with some thicker yarn than L is using, it makes your child can start right away.

Set

My daughters both love sets. Underwear, but also this hat and scarf. M was so happy, especially with the yellow kisses! I hope she is not going to sleep with it...

This hat is really simple, so you don't need a pattern. To obtain the right size M only let me fit a few times. I prefer simple, classic patterns, but a site like Ravelry is a tip for those who don't know it yet. Go there to download thousands of amazing free patterns!

P2 k2, p2 k2, k2 p2, k2 p2

Great wool to warm my daughter, that's a lovely thought. Just finished this scarf. Made of this soft yarn, quickly done with needle 10 and finished with a colorful thread.
Autumn can do his job!

Hard to stop

I stopped doing it for too many years. It's so relaxing, lining up all stitches. I'm talking about knitting: I started again and just like former times can hardly stop again.
Last week I shortly searched the internet for sheep wool and coincidentally the same day I passed by Wernerkinck in Delft, selling beautiful woolen yarns. I prefer natural materials and colors and looking around in this shop, which actually looks like an old loft, is a feast to the eye. Sadly I can't link you to the shop because they have no site, but here you can find online the yarn I used. I even like the ball of wool as an object.
I feel like exercising for grandmotherhood, because they are going to be blankets for the sleeping dolls of my daughters. I decided the blankets should be as simple and pure as possible and off course finished before wintertime!