Winter, a shawl and some stitching

Today we have winter. Yesterday evening, all of a sudden, it started to snow and this morning this was what I saw when I looked out of my window.
The street

And the backyard

So I stayed home today. I know, it would be healthy if I'd go for a walk, but DH was at work the afternoon and I didn't want to go all by myself. So I curles myself up at the couch and did my Sunday project, the borders from Randje per Week.

After I finished my borders I took my NY quilt and did some quilting, in the meanwhile watching the video of our summer vacation of last year.

I have been doing quite some stitches last week. No progress picture, but that is to come!

There's also some progress on my shawl, Winter Dreams. Part four (of five) is finished. I hope I have enough yar, there's only 14 grams left now! The colour is a bit darker and I know you can't see the pattern yet. But that will be a surprise after blocking! I hope to have it done by next week.

Progress without pictures

Yes, you read it already, I have a lot of progress on th NY quilt for DD, but no pictures. It's clear that it will not be finished for her birthday next week, so today I spent my time quilting on my bedquilt. I have been quilting most evenings, but now my fingers are sore, so I decided to take a little break and do some knitting tonight :)
I have some pictures for you though. Last Thursday, after a workdonference in Utrecht, I went to DD, who lives in Nijmegen. Next morning I went to Arnhem, to visit the Abbey Koningsoord. The abbey closed their embroidery atelier and all left materials were for sale. I bought items for a bargain. Embroidery thread, two pair of scissors, a piece of lace. And a lot of knitting yarn.

The weekly project has some new borders. It is a pleasure to stitch them. It takes only an hour or so and I plan to do this on the quiet Sunday mornings, when the rest of my family members are still asleep.

New project

You may have noticed there is a new hype in The Netherlands, called 'Randje per Week'. It is a facebook group and a blog, you can see the button on the right side of my blog. The idea is to stitch a border a week, like schoolgirls used to do in former days.
I joined the group and am stichting along. These are my first borders:

These borders don't take much stitching time, so I had plenty of time to do other things, like quilting my bedquilt. I have done quite some stitches these past few weeks.

I also am busy quilting the first NY quilt. DD has her birthday in two weeks and I would love to give her the finished quilt as a birthday gift. I quilt by hand, but I can't quilt for hours, I have to pay attention to my back and shoulders. Yet I hope I make it!

And there has been something new that caught my attention. I participated in a game at a group of knitters I'm in. You were asked to post a picture to the theme 'Fairytales' and I came up with Aladdin. The owner of the group is a hand dyer of all knids of wool and she dyes according to the picture I sent. This is the result. The picture of Aladdin is my contribution, the wool is hers. And, good part of the deal, I got this wool for free!

I have one little problem, I don't know how to make yarn out of this. A dear friend took me to her dear friend, who showed me how to spin a wool batt into yarn. And after that I went to the attic, looked around for my spinning wheel (my dad once made me one, but I never used it) and assembled it. All I have to do now is practice! 

My first handspun thread!

First finish in 2014!

My wish for all of you is at the bottom of my last blogpost in 2013. The year 2014 had a quiet start. No accidents in my environment and in my family. I started this year with backing my New York Quilts. A dear friend helped me doing that. It made fun, we had real quality time together, just talking and sewing. Luckily we are able to multitask!

Coming home I started quilting immediately. I have a silk batting and it quilts without any effort.

Of course I have been stitching on my Call of the Raven. I reached the bottom, but still 14 pages to go!

Also there was happy news in the family. My niece is going to have a baby. And although I don't know if she likes it, I knitted a little babyhat. You can find the pattern here. I knitted it with yarn, handdyed by Loret Karman and I like the little hat. A quick knit, only a few hours work.

Speaking of work, tomorrow morning duty calls again. That means less time to sew, knit and stitch.