Stitch and Kvetch

Also ...

No Internet at home for a couple of weeks :-(

*Having* a home is brilliant, though!!

Things are happening!

Socks have been knit, a Clapotis has been knit (and then promptly forgotten at Mam's in Germany ...), we stopped house-hunting and instead found a lovely rental!

We're officially moving today! Our very own place for the first time in 3.5 years!!! No more one-room living, no more sharing, lots of space and privacy! Yaaaaaay! Our new home is a ginormous 2-bed apartment smack in the centre of Hoofddorp - my work commute is reduced by almost 1 hour each way, and DH will be a mere 20-minute drive from his office rather than "45 mins in theory but 2-3 hours in practice". He is self-employed and usually works at home but he drives to the office/research centre several times a week, often at short notice. An afternoon appointment often meant spending a whole day on the road - crazy. But that's all history now.

I will have my very own craft corner/desk, so I can finally pick up my hobbies again, it's going to be lovely! As I also have a new job within the company since 1 Jan which comes with a bit more responsibility/management, I'll see how much time I have the next couple of weeks ... But there's always my long week-ends, I still work 4-day weeks :-)

Life is pretty good these days!

November knitting posted in December

This turned into a little cardigan for Jakob - unfortunately a wee bit too tight. Such is knitting for fast-growing little ones who you don't see too often ...

 

I'm working on a new Clapotis for myself now ... I finished more socks in between but haven't taken any photos yet!

Oh and

That house didn't work out - potential structural damage :-( We now have a bid on another house but it's competitive bidding, so we'll have to see. This is taking so long :-(

What I've been knitting

- another pair of socks from beige/green/brown Regia Jupiter which I *love*

- a little top-down raglan cardigan for my friend's baby. It is unfortunately a bit tight around his belly but otherwise a good fit.

Photos when I'm not in Germany any more and managed to upload photos from my digicam! After a pretty hurried, stressful night knitting until 1am to get the cardie finished I need some restful knitting now ... I haven't knitted any lace for aaaages, and I have this gorgeous Drops Alpaca :-) Hmmmm.

Stash fodder

A big load of sock yarn from Marianne arrived last week!
Ravelry: tafagirl's stash.

Husband socks

P1000052
Originally uploaded by _Tatjana_

Opal yarn with a mistake in the colourway, so the two socks are merely fraternal, not identical ;-)

Little socks and a little hat

Oops, I disappeared again ... Life is pretty Good these days but I'm so glad I didn't know how long settling in would take! DH and I are still renting a room in a shared house, it proved impossible to get a mortgage for most of the year but now we have a good lead and just put a bid on a house :-) I hope, hope, hope this will work out now! DH is getting his business off the ground, it's all working really well, and I'm still working in Amsterdam, commuting quite long stretches, not finding much time for my hobbies ... But things are moving: We started on the adoption process this summer and just finished the first part! Stay tuned (if there are any of you left out there!) for some brain-storming on how to do some fun fundraising which ties in with my hobbies ...

+++++++++++++++++

On 7 Oct I speed-knitted these tiny socks for the early surprise arrival of my friend's first baby:

Luckily, I happened to be in Germany the week-end he was born, so I got to see him at 48 hours old :-)

Once back home in NL I knitted a matching hat and sent it to Germany:

 

The yarn is a leftover Opal yarn, I think it's Marianne's Dackel. I ordered a big bunch of sock yarn again from her last week, I need some serious motivational aid!

Btw, I'm tafagirl on Ravelry if any of you are looking for me there :-)

A FO!

Picture 025
Originally uploaded by _Tatjana_.

These are the socks I knit from Storm op Zolder's hand-dyed all-wool sock yarn! It was a joy to knit with the yarn, I will definitely buy from her again :-))

Not impressed

B and I explored another part of town today, and I spotted a (needle)craft shop :-) Whee, yarn!! I'd just been thinking how another set or two of sock needles would come in useful, so I dashed inside to have a look. Hmm, they had a rather pitiful selection of needles and knitting paraphernalia so I gathered up my courage and asked (in Dutch!) whether they stocked any 15cm knitting needles. The owner grabbed the 20cm ones (they had *one* size, 3mm, I think) and said: "These are the shortest there are."
I said: "Um no, there are 15cm needles as well, they're usually used to knit socks ..."
Reply? "Oh. No, sorry. People don't ask much for that."

Huh?! And here I'd assumed people who open non-chain craft shops were enthusiasts :-(