Merry Christmas!

First of all I want to wish all readers of my blog a Merry Christmas! Thank you all for reading my blog this past year. I also want to say thanks for your lovely comments. I really enjoy them all!

Last week has been a busy one, again, it becomes boring. But as holidays started last Saturday (two weeks off, yeah!!!) I feel quite relaxed.
In spite of being busy I still have accomplished some progress. My Tweets block 11 is finished!

And I started block 6 of the VHRH. I want to have half of this sampler done by the end of the year and there's a lot to be done, so you girls do some cheering from the sideline, please!

And my Lazy Katy 2 is almost done too. The only thing left to knit is the lace border, so maybe its a finish this year.

All trees are up ;)

Not only our Christmas Tree is up, all other trees in Block 5 are done! I am surprised I did it, it took only two weeks for this block and I had little stitching time this week.

No handmade ornaments in the tree. These are stored in my sewingroom, apart from the tree stuff and I simply hadn't the energy and spirit to gather them.

Not much going on this week, besides from work. Yesterday DH and I took a ride to a Woolmarket. While DH waited for me in the car (he doesn't like to come inside and loves to read a book while waitng, so no need to pity him LOL) I enjoyed the handwoven and handdyed woollies. Of course I took some of them home with me. The first is dyed by Dutch Wool Diva, the second by Monique

While DH drove the car, I simply sat beside him and enjoyed the ride, meanwhile sewing on block 11 of My Tweets. I hope to finish it this week.

Planting some trees

Several weeks ago I mentioned I was making a gift to someone. Well, now I can show and tell. I'm a member of a Dutch internetgroup and through the years we became good friends. It's a small group and one of our friends is an expat, living in The United States. And... she is pregnant of her third child.
We wanted to surprise her with a giftbox and a good opportunity was Sinterklaas. So we all did our share and there was a box with goodies sent to her. This is my contribution, a hanging quilt.

This week I have been busy planting trees, block 5 of the Village of Hawk Run Hollow.

And I started a new project, a small one, a broomstick lace scarf. Although the loops look a bit of a mess now, after blocking they will be nice and round (I hope).

There's also some progress on Lazy Katy 2. The colours aren't as bright as in real life, due to dark days before Christmas. We already have the tree up!

House nr 4 finished

In spite of a busy week (I had to do fun shopping for Sinterklaas, click on the picture for an explanation) I finished house nr. 4 of The village of Hawk Run Hollow. I love this boarding house and I will remember this in case of emergency LOL

There also is some progress on Call of the Raven. Every month a small part will, in the end, result in a finish, isn't it?

Besides stitching I restarted a Lazy Katy shawl. A friend did the awesome job to enlarge the pattern (I never could do this!) and I trust the better outcome so I started with the same yarn. It looks a little bit like this, except I now started with purple (this is a picture of the first Lazy Katy)

House nr. 4 and knitting

Me and my family had some emotional times this week (sometimes life is unfair) and the best way for me is to stitch. It's quite relaxing and it helps to get my mind clear.
So I stitched on house number four and as a result the house is finished. Of course there is some more stitching to do to fill the block, but in a way I always feel satisfied if the house is done!

Do you remember DD and I visited prison? Well, the slouch hat I promised to knit for a little girl is finished and on the mail.

Yesterday a friend and I visited the 'Handwerk-en Quiltdagen' at Arnhem. We had a great time together, looking, feeling and discussing the fabrics and woollies. We returned home with some more stash in our bag...

Today I was busy preparing block 11 of My Tweets. I thought you might like an overview. I only show block 11 when finished. Only two blocks to go ...

Constructing and a walk through the woods ;)

One of the comments on my last post is from Olivia. She only wrote 'please post cross stitch projects'. I don't know who whe is, so I don't know how she meant this comment. It maybe short because she lacks English words, it may be because she dislikes the knitting and quilting projects. However, I like to think she meant well, so maybe she wrote this comment because she loves my cross stitch projects. Of course I have been stitching these last weeks, but not as much as I would like. Some other projects asked for attention. I stitched on the Village of Hawk Run Hollow this week and I constructed another house. That is, part of it.

These last days were sunny, with in the late afternoon and the early hours of the day a, sometimes dense, fog. This afternoon DH and I went for a walk in the woods and DH took some nice pictures. Maybe you enjoy them too ;)

The stork's nest is waiting for next spring

I am waiting for next spring too ;)

New look!

I can image followers of my blog look surprised seeing my blog. I did too, this evening. It seemed to me photobucket had taken over the template I used, there was a sort of watermark in my blog I couldn't remove, so I decided to remove the whole template. Next days I will be playing around with templates and pictures to create a new look.

Fashion item ;)

Wow, a week passes by quickly! First of all I want to say thank you for your comments! Two of you asked if I blocked Lazy Katy, that way it becomes larger. Well, I did! I blocked it well, so that isn't the problem. I think it's the yarn I used. So I'm starting all over in a while.

But before that I have some other items to knit. Last week DD and I went shopping and she wanted a little slouch hat. When we noticed the price (€ 10) I told her I could knit one for her and I gave her the link to Ravelry.

She told me she wants several things: hats, shawls, mittens. So we went to the market last Tuesday and bought some yarn. And yesterday I finished it, so she has this little black slouch hat. After this one, she wants a coloured one, and a grey one and .... when I asked her how much she wants me to knit the answer was: I'm going to collect them ...

When we had dinner yesterday evening we (her parents) asked her to put off her hat. She kindly refused, telling us : "this isn't a hat, this is a fashion item" LOL

This afternoon we went to Holy Stitch, in Leeuwarden. It is a craftymarket, located in an old prison.

While we were having a good time, DD was asked if she could tell where she bought the cute little hat she was wearing. And before I knew it I had my first order: knitting a slouch hat for a little girl that likes it so much!

Of course I did some stitching too this week, but sorry, no pictures of that. And I did some working, no pictures of that either LOL.

Lazy Katy finished

Yes, frequent readers of my blog may have guessed that Lazy Katy is finished by now. As far as the knitting it was a nice project, the scarf looks good, but I am not satisfied with it. Lazy Katy is smaller, much smaller than I reckoned it to be.

According to the picture on the pattern it is rather long scarf, long enough to cover your shoulders. In fact it only covers my neck and I don't think my shoulders are that way out of shape... I figure it must be the yarn I used, so I'll knit another one, different yarn, different needles.

Almost finished ...

My Lazy Katy shawl is almost finished! After a very busy week (again, I know, it gets boring) in which I hardly did any stitching I enjoyed a weekend full of quilting and knitting.

The quilting is something I can't show you, because it is meant to be a present, so be patient, somewhere in December I'm able to show what I did.

The Lazy Katy I am talking about is almost finished, I think I can manage this week. So here's an update. Do you see those lovely markers? A dear friend made them for me ...

Shawl , Tweets and a short break

Last week DH and I went on a trip. We left home on Monday and returned Friday, leaving DS and youngest DD at home (they were invited to come with us, but they declined). We hired an appartment at Fronhofen, near Simmern in Germany. And, as DH said, we must have had hard times, to deserve this beautiful weather! The days before we left it rained and rained all day long, but during our stay in Germany the sun was shining.
As usual, I'll add some pictures at the end of this blogpost, for those who are interested.

Of course, it wouldn't be vacation without my stitching and quilting. Having lots of space in our car I took several things with me. During the long drive I stitched and finished block 10 of My Tweets.

The third block of the Village of Hawk Run Hollow is finished too.

And there is a little bit progress on Vibrant Vista. I'm filling in the window with Kreinik, not my favorite stitching job, but, one has to do what has to be done ;)

And last but not least, a shawl was started, Lazy Katy, the pattern can be found by clicking on the picture.

Mine is like this now:

And now our trip to Fronhofen. Nature is beautiful this time of year and we enjoyed the coloured trees and little villages in the Hunsrück.

Traben Trarbach

We took the ferry to the other side of the river.

Wiesbaden

Beautiful tiles at the bath house

Bad Kreuznach