maandag 26 december 2011

365 day-projects and Sky Scarf

Ever since I saw a movie about a woman who committed herself to cook every single recipe of a Julia Child Cooking book within a year, this idea kept spinning around my head. Later on I heard about it being a hype: doing something for 365 days. Flow Magazine had an article about it. (That reminds me of finally subscribing to this marvellous magazine. Otherwise I'm missing out on all the fun...☺). Anyway, thanks to twitter it did cross my path, after all. And I came across Sanne Swinkels (@sanneswinkels and @365dagenproject) who got intrigued by the idea of  "Elke dag een draadje maakt een hemdsmouw in een jaar" (A thread a day makes the arm of a shirt in a year) who dedicated an entire website to the hype: 365dagenwebsite where she brings all ongoing projects together. Here you can present your own project, follow others and communicate about it. And having organized one thing or other myself, I know what an effort this is, how intense and how timeconsuming to set up. And I say: thumbs up for Sanne! 

Having had a good look at her site I was surprised about the diversity of projects: Sanne herself is posting photographs of herself with a heart, another girl does everyday something creative with a clothespeg. A teacher from Utrecht sends out a tweet a day about something she enjoys. And many more. I especially like the organizing projects: clearing out a cupboard or a drawer a day. And after a year you've reorganized the whole house!

And of course the 365-day-project hype has reached the crafters as well. There was some talk on Twitter about a 365-project, involving crochet: #grannyaday making 1 granny square a day, which should result in a huge blanket after a year. Also very tempting: http://buildinghousesfromscraps.blogspot.com/ this is a quilting project from Jeanneke. She designed a beautiful small quilt pattern in the form of a house. Too beautiful to just make one. So she turned it into a 365-project for the year 2012. And what to think of the 365mouse project?  

You've gatherd by now that I'm absolutely thrilled by the idea! And wouldn't this be the ideal way for an "all-at-once-person" to introduce more "graduality" into her life? The decision is made: I'm gonna join in!! And being a crafter, (with an impressive stash, I dare say) I'm prone to choose something involving needles ☺ But as much as I do love granny squares...I don't have that much stash in the same colour/thickness. And I'm NOT going to buy new yarn for this project. I opted for a crochetblanket: 1 row a day. And suddenly somebody suggested the Sky Scarf. Sky Scarf? I found it after some googleing... and I'm instantly smitten: what a cool idea is that! The pattern comes from lea at http://www.leafcutters.com/ and you can download the instructions there.

Here's what it is about: You start out collecting balls of yarn in a rather "thin" quality in colours the sky "could" have: +/- 7 colours like: white, gray, blue, lightblue, darkblue, etc. Then you start out by looking at the sky, at that very moment and then you take two strands of the colour that resembles the present colour of the sky most. Or you combine two colours that give the best result. Cast on a number of stitches in that colour, and knit one row. The following day you go again: find the matching colour, knit 2 rows, and that's it for that day. As you are going along you won't cut the threads, but lead the strands up, and wrap the yarn that you are supposed to knit with, around the others. This way, you don't have to take care of a zillion loose ends, when you are done ☺☺And after a year you'll have a unique scarf of about 1,50 m that tells you the story of the weather during the past 12 month.

I've still got some days to think about what pattern I'm going to knit. And how many stitches. "Ordinary" scarf or stola...? I'll keep you posted!!



woensdag 21 december 2011

Onze kerstkaart

... en voor iedereen die'm niet live ontvangt komt hij digitaal! Deze keer met een speciale vraag...

... und wer sie nicht "in echt kriegt" der darf sie sich hier digital angucken: Unsere Weihnachtskarte. Diesmal mit einer ganz speziellen Bitte...


Peter is genomineerd voor de prijs: "Vrijwilliger van het jaar 2011". Een prijs die hij dubbel en dwars heeft verdient voor zijn ongelofelijke inzet en vaak meer dan 30 uren per week die hij het afgelopen jaar heeft gestoken in de Wagenwerkplaats en de Verkeerstuin in Amersfoort. Vind jij ook dat Peter die prijs heeft verdient? Ga dan naar het stembiljet en breng je stem uit op Peter van Swieten. 

Peter wurde nominiert für den Preis "Freiwilligenhelfer des Jahres 2011". Ich finde dass er dieser Preis wirklich verdient hat, für seinen unermüdlichen Einsatz, und oft mehr als 30 Arbeitsstunden in der Woche die er in den Wagenwerkplaats und den Verkeerstuin Amersfoort gesteckt hat. Findest Du auch dass Peter den Preis verdient hat? Surf zum Stimmzettel, wähle Peter van Swieten aus, und klick auf "Breng mijn Stem uit". 

zaterdag 3 december 2011

Knitting with Létt-Lopi

A couple of weeks ago I started to knit a cardigan, finally using the Létt-Lopi that has been sitting in my yarn stash cupboard forever. I found myself a nice and simple pattern, and started to knit the very garment that is supposed to keep me warm during the horrorwinter the wheather-experts have forecasted. But how disappointing: this nice looking yarn doesn't look that all that spectacular, once it's knit and it feels rather coarse.... Hmmm

Een paar weken geleden begon ik eindelijk eens iets te breien van de Létt-Lopi, die ik al een halve eeuwigheid ik mijn kast had liggen. Ik had een simpel patroontje gevonden, en ging rap aan de slag met wat het kledingstuk moet worden dat me door de voorspelde horrorwinter moet slepen. Maar wat een teleurstelling: eenmaal gebreid ziet het garen heel gewoontjes uit, en het voelt zo ruig aan als ...jute.... hm

Die Wolle liegt bereits seit gefühlten 10 Jahren in meinem Wollschrank, und jetzt war der Moment gekommen um endlich mal was zu stricken aus meiner tollen (dachte ich) Létt-Lopi Wolle. Ein einfaches Strickjackenmuster fand ich bei Drops, und ran an die Nadeln. Aber wad für eine Enttäuschung: wenn die Wolle einmal verstrickt ist, sieht sie gar nicht mehr so toll aus. Und Anfühlen tut sie sich wie Jute. Hm...

Dawanda 5 years!



Dawanda viert z'n 5e verjaardag met een leuke winactie. Zelf heb ik nog geen geluk gehad, maar misschien lukt het jullie wel?

Dawanda celebrates her 5th birthday today and gives everybody the chance to win a price. I haven't had any luck sofar, but maybe you have?

Dawanda feiert heute ihren 5. Geburtstag und lädt ein zu einem Gewinnspiel. Ich hatte leider noch kein Glück, aber vielleicht klappts ja bei Euch?

donderdag 1 december 2011

Hij is er weer... de Drops Kerstkalender


Het is weer december, de feestdagen naderen, en met al die drukte moeten we niet vergeten om in kerststemming te komen. Tel de dagen af met de Drops Kerstkalender! Achter elk deurtje zit een handenarbeids-verrassing.

Wir schreiben wieder Dezember, und nähern uns mit grossen Schritten den Feiertagen. Vor Stress müssen wir nicht vergessen um in Weihnachtsstimmung zu kommen. Zähl die Tage bis Weihnachten ab mit dem Drops Adventskalender! Hinter jedem Türchen verbirgt sich eine weihnachtliche Handarbeits-Ueberraschung!

It's december, and the jingle bells are closing in. Let's not forget to bring ourselves in christmas-mood, in all this hustle and bustle. Count the days till christmas with the Drops Christmascalendar! There's a little crafting surprise behind every little door.