Shopping

Officially my employment ended on april 1st. So I thought I should take al little vacation these last days of march. I'm planning a major springcleaning in April and a lot of knittin and sewing too, but I'm still tired.
Today I went to the biggest bookstore of Rotterdam to spent the bookcheque (I don't know how to call it in english, it's a piece of paper saying I can spent some euro's on books) I also got from the bosses. I walked around on those eight floors for quite some time, trying to decide what I really wanted.
I finally bought this:





The magazines got me over budget, I miscalculated (forgot those prices on the cover are pounds, not euro's) and only realised that when I had to pay. I decided I deserved that little extra...
I'm really happy about the books. The three on top were really cheap. I love Jose Dew. When I read her books, I instantly want to jump on my bike and cycle around the world. And I'm not that sporty at all! The other one is about Australia and the way the aborigines live. Always a fascinating subject.
Nigella Lawsons book is the big buy ofcourse. I was a bit confused when I opened it in the subway (it was sealed) and found out there were no pictures in it. I usually choose recipes based on how it looks, so it will be a new experience for me, reading, imagining the taste, choosing more carefully. It's a good way to down-shift a little.
And that was one of the main reasons for my carreerchange. To remind myself of that I bought this little treat.



And now I'm off to reading "how to eat". But I think I'll wait with that way of cooking until my dishwasher is working, or at least the kitchensink.
Don't get mad at DH, he had some bad luck this week. He hit something and his leg has been hurting for four days. Some damage on the muscle. But he's better now and it's weekend, so I think the kitchen will be ready (kind of at least, let's say usable, the finishing touches will have to wait a little longer).

WAHM

Today was my last day at the office. I got some pretty white flowers from the bosses and some pretty coloured flowers from the co-workers. And that was it.
My replacement is very capable and from now on I will be a work-at-home-mom. That will take some adjusting after seven years of running between home and the office, but I'm looking forward to it. Taking care of the family, getting the house a bit more tidy, helping DH with his growing IT-bussiness and maybe doing a little more crafting...

Kitchen update

Tiles are in (only on visible places).
Floor is half in.
DH is at a customer's now, but he's planning to have the rest of the floor in tonight.

Work in (very slow) progress

Yes, that's my kitchen right now. DH got a severe flu, and I got a minor case of the same flu, so not much has been done last week. We're hoping to finish it this week...

Not much crafting done either.
I've been knitting a bit, it's supposed to end up as a poncho, but I'm not sure I recalculated this pattern okay for my much thinner yarn. The strip I'm making seems to be rather small, although I did cast on enough stitches for about 40 cm, which is more than the pattern asks for (32 stitches on a gauge of 9 stitches per inch). Also, it's a bit tricky that the pattern doesn't give a length for the strips, just the amount of ridges in the chuncky tweed the writer used.
Knitting garterstitch is the only thing I can manage right now, though (very tired and rather stressed out), so I'll just go along with it. If it doesn't work out, I guess I can always sew the strips straight together, add another two and make a blanket of it.

Mess

I'm living in a mess, right now.
Spring brought us new energy to take on some things in the house, so this morning DH ripped half my kitchen out. The half that we didn't redo yet. The rest of the day was spent hammering old tiles off. This week we'll put new tiles on, do some rearranging on the pipes and than put the dishwasher and the sink that have been waiting for over a year in. It will be great once it's finished.
I do have some before pictures, but I'm to tired to remember where I put the cd they are on. I'll post some pictures when we're done, but I don't think there will be much (other) crafting around here until then. Which is a shame since I still have a lot of untangling to do, have to knitting projects on the go, half a dress and the beginning of a bag. So many things to do, so little time!

Blue dress and bb-bag

Monday I started making a complicated dress. A button-down safari model. I think I never made a dress before out of so many parts.



I ran out of thread in the right blue, just when I was on a roll. So now every little part is waiting for me to go and buy it, which I can't do in our own village.

Yesterday I needed something to take my mind of things (I flunked my drivers-exams for the fifth time). I already had plans to make a bag out of a end-of-roll piece of a black-and-white vichy print, so I went ahead with it. I also had a zipper in the right size, so I decided to make a more complicated model than I did on the other four.
I think I did and redid every part of it. The zipper has been in it upsidedown and inside out. But I do like the endresult!

Look what I found!

Yesterday I had a real urge to go to the "kringloopwinkel" (thriftstore?). I used to go there at least once a month, but it had been three months since the last time. It's a 7 km bicycle ride for me, which I like with good wheather and good health, but that wasn't the case for a while. Anyway, DH likes to go there too, so we did some shopping in town and on the way back we stopped there. It's a real mess this one, but everything is real cheap too. I spent a total amount of 12 euro, but came home with a lot of goods.
I seem to have a thing for small plates like these. I have several with different prints. Someday I will find a way to display them, but for now the stash in my cupboard is growing...

For christmas I got myself a new old recordplayer (remake) and I love it, but I only have two old christmasrecords. I looked through the loads of records they still sell there and found this one of Boudewijn de Groot. I love his songs (he was a protest singer in the sixties, but some of his text are still very touching), but I also totally love the cover (click for bigger and better view).
Remember I told you I wanted to get rid of the yarn I had before buying some new? Well, it seems I didn't.
In the back of the store where they have cloths and old curtains and so on, I was looking for some retro fabric, but I found something totally different: bags and bags full of yarn. I bought three of them, the pile on the table in the picture is only the bigger skeins. There is another big pile of shorter threads and small balls. Everything is kind of tangled, but I think I can salvage a good amount of it. It's just a matter of winding a bit of it into nice balls when I can find the time for it. I did three so far, so I guess it will be at least a week or two until I can show you my suddenly expanded stash...
Hidden in the bags I also found these little treasures: I have no idea what wool they came from, I gues some remainders of it will be in the pile, but I like the retro pictures on it.
And don't you think this little matchbook is cute? It says "Good advice that will make you more beautiful."
I never heard of Acis-Moara Shira and can't find anything on Google, just that it was taken over in 1986. Interesting how things sometimes just disappear...
How about these patterns? You can tell by the style of the little dresses that it's from the sixties.
I have something like that about ten years old lying around somewhere too.
The best things about these trips to goodwill or recycling stores is that you never know what you'll find. I often go there with a vague idea of what I'm looking for, but I always come home with something completely different and unexpected. I really love these little adventures!

Moodboards

I'm still working on our home. In my mind, I'm not doing much today.
Here you can make online moodboards. I like that, because I don't like cutting into my magazines.
If I look at what I made, I think I need light and warmth. Time for real spring weather (and not just on the days I spend in the office. I know it was wonderful weather yesterday, but the only thing I got out of that was a terrible headache.)

Spring is in the air!

The new Knitty is out!

I love Ribena and Isabella. Maybe I can use the Kyoto yarn for the first one. I will have to check the gauge carefully, which is not my habit. I usually just wing it, but this will be worth it.
I also love the pattern of the Paperbag. I was planning to knit a bag from some of my odd balls (I still have about two and a half of the purple yarn I used for a cardigan and a scarf earlier. I think the squares with the bobbles will look great with it (maybe less, because the yarn is really chunky).

B&W baret and matching scarf

After finishing the cardigan (a very long knit) and picking up a wip on very thin needles (2.5/ us 1), I needed a quick fix. I still want to get rid of my stash and had about 2,5 skeins of this bulky yarn and knitted myself a baret and matching scarf.
The baret is my first FO on dpn's!

mid-march KAL

I did a KAL for the first time since... (checking my blog)... december. This one was interesting, it was knitted diagonally. You can't see the picture in it (an easterbunny) very well though. I should have used a smaller size needles, this cotton yarn is thinner than the cotton I used before.

Retro Cardigan

I finally finished the cardigan!
The two different colors worked out great, I like the way it looks, retro but wearable. I have already worn it yesterday, it's really comfy.