Alice Jean

First of all the Jayne Hat for Dorrit. Just beautiful! Dory loves the pompom. My friend Darcy spoiled us again! Her parcel arrived days ago, my sincere apologies for posting about these wonderful gifts this late. Needless to say how happy Dory was with all the sweets. :-) The sheepy dish cloths are so cute! There was another Jayne Hat in the parcel, knitted by Tom for me. I think he did a brilliant job! And there was more. Knitting magazines, buttons and pins and a book of the Yarn Harlot. Kool Aid, a crocheted dish cloth, delicious coffee and Malabrigo Stonechat, so soft and beautiful! Darcy, thanks so much for these thoughtful gifts!

First of all: my sincere apologies to Darcy , Tessa and Olga for the delay in posting about your thoughtful gifts. Because of moving home, Darcy sent me this beautiful cable needle, including necklace (well thinking Darcy!) and a cute yellow pouch to hold it And also because of the move, Tessa sent a complete parcel. Hand dyed cotton in the back, shower gel and shampoo, chocolate biscuits, a yarn guage and tea. This photo shows the cotton more clear: knitting it up to dish cloths. The colouring is just amazing! All the gifts were packed in this colourful bag Very much to my surprise I also found a gift from Olga in the post. Meant as a 'thank you' to my hubby for buying loads of Kool Aid when he was in Orlando and to me for distributing it. A set of very Dutch recipe note cards. The harmonica is obviously for Dory Thank you ladies for these special gifts!

It seems like ages ago I showed some serious knitting on this blog. Not that I did quit knitting, but there are a few projects I'm not allowed to share with the world outside yet. I was, I am knitting 2 lace shawls. I joined the Mystic Light KAL, did clue-1 and decided the shawl is not turning out as I'd like. The yarn is to blame for it, I am using the same yarn as for the Mystic Waters shawl. Is that one becoming lovely, the combination of the lace and cables in ML does not work with this Sheer Delight. So no photo's of that disaster. And then the Mystic Waters. I've written about it before and was pretty positive. Until my counting and the shawl in progress did not get along with each other anymore. Very frustrating, each row I was missing stitches or had to many. So, I put it aside instead of frogging it. Well, I was very near to ripping, throwing it away, bury it, burn it... Usually I am a very patient person, really! I left it for three weeks beside the sofa and...

Today a mix of sunshine and showers. When we were walking back from pre-school, it was raining, so we were pretty soaked when we came home. A package was waiting for us though. We did not expect it at all, so it was a very welcome surprise! And look what my little princess got Look at the lovely flowers and ribbons, so very princesslike. And there was also something for me. Maia knows from my blog I use hand knitted dish cloths and she gave me a Chinese Waves one. Right now we are enjoying the 'Winter Cure' tea she included. The sweets did not make it to the picture ;-) Thanks so much Maia! You are the best!

And some of my stash. In fact there is some (December) addition to my stash since the last picture of it, but I don't want to talk about that now ;-). I am using that stash, far more important. From Riggwelter I got some yarn in the caffeine addicts swap . The caffeine (coffee) is long gone (delicious) and half of the yarn is knit into a dolls outfit. Modelling here is Dory's dolly, the clothes are meant for Alora's doll. The yarn used is Rowan Holiday, one ball for the top and one for the pants. No scrap yarn left. The edgings are done with that fluffy how-is-it-called plastic yarn that Dory loves so much. And I made some dish cloths using the Bernat Handicrafter cotton . I'm pretty content with this cotton, it is a nice cotton to knit. As well finished some more serious knitting.