A little bit famous at my little corner of the world :)

I haven't been writing a blogpost for more than two weeks again! And again, I only have the excuse that I have been too busy. I can almost hear you ask: 'What important things are going on then?' Well, can I brag a little?  I have won a prize. Workrelated that is. I know there are many readers among you and the exception proves the rule and all that .... let me tell you about it.

There is a prize for the best reading environment of The Netherlands. It is meant for school libraries and me, being a school librarion won it! And I got it out of the hands of Aidan Chambers, you might know him. so I am a little bit proud ...

As this was really exciting and so were the days after (local newpaper and local television visited my school) I decided to put both my feet on the ground again. In a new pair of socks, that is.

And knitting those socks gave me such a good feeling that I kept on knitting. Here is my New York Lullaby.

I also started a new shawl. this one is meant to be an example for the seller of the yarn. 

And today was a day for stitching borders. I almost catched up. I'm only three borders behind, this weeks borders included.

Getting used to work

As always after a (long) vacation I need some time to get used to work again. I think I am a pretty average woman LOL
So I took some time to knit and stitch after work and forgot to post a new blogpost.
That leaves me with a pair of finished socks.
Blue Socks Again.

My borders are reaching a length that doesn't fit on a picture. So I decided to make a little video to show all borders. I am not sure if I can put the video here, but I'll give it a try.

Summer is over, finished projects!

Tomorrow I start working again, summer vacation is over. The weather is adjusting to me, it seems. This week we had lots of rain and much less sun than we used to have since my vacation started. Oh well, that makes saying goodbye to lazy days a little easier ;)
I was able to realize a lot of plans this summer. My first NY quilt is finished! And so are a pair of socks and two shawls.
We also went away for a trip to Germany, I'll show some pictures at the end of this blogpost.
But first pictures of the finished quilt. This one is for youngest DD.

NY quilt number two had to wait a little bit, I think I'll pay attention to my bedquilt first.

Some socks and shawls were finished. Here are my blue socks. They caused some trouble, but I won!

And here is Anybody Out There? It was a fun knit, lots of nupps and lace knitting. A bit of a challenge, but not a too big challenge.

Today I finished My Pride and Joy. The original pattern is named Miss Elliot, by Paulina Popiolek. I love to knit a border like this and I started it on the first day of our trip to Rossbach, Germany.

So far my knitting and sewing. Our trip to Germany was lovely! We had sun, sun, sun and time to relax. The house we stayed in is a dream!

Here are some pictures. We went to some small towns in the neighborhood (Freudenberg, Abtei Marienstadt) and to some bigger cities (Koblenz, Köln and Bonn). 

Borders again

Before I talk about borders I want to say something else. You might know I never talk about politics or human tragedy, or ventilate my opinion about what happens in the world. I am not going to do so now, although I feel the need to say that of course I am touched by human tragedies and politics and of course I have my thoughts about things that happen worldwide.
But I use this blog and my facebook account not for sad things but for fun. Having said that, I will show you my latest borders. I am still on schedule :-)

I also casted on a new pair of socks. I liked the pattern, but after knitting one sock until the ankle, I knew it was too large, although I knitted size M, I need to have a European size 38. So I ripped the whole thing and started all over again. Less stitches casted on, less rows knitted. And again, too large! Beting tired of ripping I decided to rip only the toe. The sock was knitted toe up and has a nice cabling pattern. So now it is like this :( The challenge is to get a fitting sock out of it!

Hot, really hot!

Yeah, my summer vacation began two weeks ago and from that moment summer came in! This week it has been hot, really hot (considering The Netherlands). All I have to show you is the story of a sock ;) On July 10th I started to knit The Acrobat.

I knitted one sock and casted on the second. And then we went for a short trip to Hilversum. We stayed there for three nights in a lovely hotel and visited the Weversmarkt at Hoorn. And my second sock went with me. I kept it in my bag, carrying it all the way. And, surprisingly, it stayed in my bag. I didn't knit a single row that day. At the Weversmarkt (Weavers Market, a yearly wool event) I noticed some beautiful things. This wool is dyed after the palette of Van Gogh's Sunflowers. Beautiful! Green isn't my colour, but I regret not buying one of those skeins!

Some other pictures of lovely things that catched my eye.

After the Weversmarkt we went to Volendam. And my sock went with me. Without any knitting ;-)

The next day we went for a trip to Amsterdam. And my sock went with me again.

We visited the Begijnhof and went for a walk through the inner city.

At the end of a lovely day we went by tram to the Vondelpark. There we sat down to give our sore feet a rest and to enjoy the park with playing children and dogs. 

And then I was happy I brought my sock!

The next day we went to Bergen aan Zee to visit some friends. Coming home late at night, the next morning we went out of town again to spend the day at our cottage. And there I knitted ....

And finished my socks!