Alice Jean

Chester is a very nice county town to visit. For us it is the nearest 'big' town to do our shopping. Today D. and me went to Chester by bus. There was a bit of arguing about that before... she likes to go by train. Going by bus has some advantages however, the bus stop is at ten minutes walk from our home and the bus stops in the town centre of Chester. For the rail stop we have to walk at least 20 minutes presuming Doortje would go on. And the bus is half the price of the train. So, this time, the bus prevailed. We had a nice day, bit clouded, but dry. Of course we walked part of the Castle Walls , as she loves to climb up and down the stairs. And we did some shopping. She kind of talked me into making your own stitch markers. And as it happens there is a small Bead Shop in Frodsham Street. What I did not know until today: D. loves beads! She insisted on filling her own bowl with all kind of beads. It took me ten minutes or so to put the beads (and buttons and flowers) back...

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How did I ever manage without a yarn swift? I got the Glimakra umbrella swift only yesterday and already considering a second swift. So easy to wind dyed large skeins into smaller skeins :). It took me quite a long time to decide what type would be best. I read many opinions about several types and of course the experiences where all different. So why did I choose the umbrella model in the end? Because I think I would loose or break a peg of this model pretty easily. Besides that the price of this swift was reasonable and available within the UK. We tried out the swift his morning with the some of new Blue Faced Leicester that just had arrived. D. dived into the box straight away. This BFL is even softer than the BFL we had before!

Looking for addresses where to buy Buckwheat flour I tried Google. This is one of the results: Discount Buckwheat Flour New & used Buckwheat Flour. aff Check out the huge selection now! www.eBay.com For some reason it is not very attractive to me to bake pancakes with used flour this evening....

My friend Darcy sent me this cute -and appropriate for its purpose- fabric to make two of those little knitting bags with just enough room to hold a small knitting project, such as a pair of socks or a soaker. One bag is hers already and this weekend I sewed the other bag for myself. The bag is fully lined for sturdiness and closes with a cord and cord locker. And, as showed, already in use. On the needles the beginning of a pair toe up socks. I am using Opal sock wool, but don't ask what type this is, the label is missing. Those socks will be for DS-15. He loves it when the socks are not striping equal and he loves blue.

It is raining cats and dogs for days now and the sun seems to be far away. Maybe a bit silly to show a Tank Top, LOL! It is made with Jo Silkroad Tweed , superb wool to knit and amazing soft. I got this wool as a Christmas present, one ball of each colour, so knitting a Tank Top out of it was an interesting project. The top is knitted in the round on a circular needle.

This is a birthday gift for my dear friend 's daughter. At the age of eleven I knitted my first animal toy and since then many of them. All with straight needles. This is the first stuffed animal knitted in the round on circular needles, based on that old pattern in my head. For the shaping of the head and ears I could use some help from this pattern . Doortje helped me to stuff the bunny with the 'clouds'.

Do you remember the earlier posting about the organic wool? I did dye the natural skein in yellow and pink, however the pink mixed too much with the yellow and turned out to be more orange. In fact there is very little pink left in the skein. Nevertheless I used this for the bottom part of the cardigan and because this wool is thicker than the pink wool, the cardigan widens at the bottom, a detail I like with this pattern. I was inspired by this cardigan but used buttons instead of ties. Buttons work better for us.

I could never imagine the weather would be so warm during our holiday in the Netherlands. Temperatures above 25 degrees all days and very sunny. We don't have to seek the sun in the Mediterranean anymore (I must admit we never do sun holidays, LOL), the end of April in the Netherlands will do the trick ;-). We had a good time anyway. Of course we had too little summer clothing, forgot all about the sun lotion and a sun cap for Doortje, but we managed to live with that :-). With the family we celebrated Doortjes third birthday. She is spoiled rotten that day. Here is Doortje showing her ice cream. The thing she loved most about the buffet arrangement was the free ice cream every evening... or two (or even three). Healthy food? She has lived on a diet of chips, peas and ice cream this holiday. A family photo of her birthday with brothers and cousins. In the parc a lot of animals like ducks, squirrels and deers. And because of the ponds also many mosquito's, yuck! Regardless where...