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Spring 2025

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Hello! Today, spring has officially sprung and it really feels like spring here, too. Our crocuses that have done so well this year have finished flowering. Now the scillas and miniature irises are in bloom, and the grape hyacinths are poking their heads above the ground as well. The daffodils in our garden are still in bud, but I saw some blaring their trumpets in Zwolle the other day.

They literally brightened up a dark and cloudy day.

The daffodils grew next door to the bookshop I was visiting for some gifts. In the fantasy novel section, I leafed through a fantastic knitting book – The Fellowship of the Knits: The Unofficial Lord of the Rings Knitting Book. It contains 27 amazing patterns by many different designers. I would not particularly want to knit a Gollum softie or a pair of mittens with Sauron’s scary watchful eye on them, but I find the Elven Armor Pullover absolutely stunning.

After that dark day in Zwolle, the sun began to break through the clouds.

And now it is gloriously warm and sunshiny weather. Perfect for some gardening. I’ve been pruning and weeding, and have sown some edible flower seeds.

I have also started on a fresh springtime knitting project – another sweater for our grandson. It is a bit like a blue sky with puffs of white cloud.

The pattern is Nordsjøgenser from Sandnes Collection 73 Norwegian Icons for Kids.

There isn’t a single sweater in this pattern collection that I wouldn’t like to knit. Besides looking adorable on the models, the pullovers and cardigans also look interesting to make – some with round colourwork yokes, some with all-over patterning and some steeked.

The yarn I’m using is Babyull Lanett, a 100% wool yarn, but so fine and lightweight that it’s ideal for springtime knits. Ah, spring, lovely spring. I’m fine with winter and don’t mind dark and cloudy days, but basking in the light and warmth of springtime sunshine is truly wonderful and relaxing.

Wishing you a wonderful and relaxing weekend, whether spring has sprung where you live, too, or not.

Large Copper

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Hello, hello, it’s good to see you! You’ve arrived right on time to join me for a walk. I’d also like to thank you, but we’re coming to that later. We’re in de Wieden again, part of the wetland nature reserve I’ve taken you to before. The path is a bit muddy but still walkable.

The landscape here has a limited colour palette at this time of year. There is the green of the grass and the blue of the sky (at least today).

But mainly it is, uhm, well, what would you call the colour of reed in winter? Tan, buff, sand, wheaten?

Yellow, golden, camel or brown? It depends very much on the light.

Here and there a spot of white is floating by…

… or standing still. It’s very quiet and peaceful, with just the honking of geese in the distance.

The only bright pops of colour come from the mosses and lichens.

And from the large copper.

Not a real one, obviously. It’s a felt large copper butterfly that travelled here in my inside jacket pocket. There are no real butterflies here in winter. Unfortunately, the large copper can’t be seen here in summer anymore either. It is still fluttering around in two nearby nature reserves, though, and my husband was able to take a few photos of it there last summer. It’s a vivid red-orange on top,

with white on the underside of its wings.

Beautiful, isn’t it? This particular species (Lycaena dispar batavus) doesn’t live anywhere else in the world anymore but in these two nature reserves. A precarious existence. It would be great if its habitat could be extended to the Wieden. Nature conservation organisation Natuurmonumenten is working hard to create the right circumstances for that to happen, protecting host plants and creating corridors for the large copper to fly along towards de Wieden.

By purchasing my Seventh Heaven scarf pattern, many of you have become supporters of their good work. I have now donated all of the proceeds from the pattern so far to Natuurmonumenten. On behalf of the large copper and Natuurmonumenten thank you so, so much for your contribution!

Links:

Does It Itch?

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The weather has been a mixed bag here lately – something in between autumn and winter, with quite a bit of rain and wind, but some sunnier days as well. On a chilly day with rain showers interspersed with sunny spells we went for a walk in the nearby wetland area.

It’s quiet at this time of year, and the colours are subtly beautiful.

I never really noticed before that water lily leaves have autumn colours, too, just like the leaves on trees.

Small metal windmills are used for managing the water levels. The land needs to be wet enough for reed and other plants to grow, but not too wet for reed mowing and haymaking.

During these walks the exercise keeps me warm. But at home, working at my computer, I often get chilled to the bone. In other words, I could do with a warmer sweater than the ones I usually knit, like Sundborn – the cardigan on the front cover of the Swedish cardigan book I brought home from the Handwerkbeurs:

It is knit from Léttlopi, just like several other cardigans in the book. Léttlopi is an Aran-weight Icelandic yarn I’ve had my eye on for ages. It is warm, affordable and comes in a large range of beautiful colours. But it feels so rough and scratchy on the skein that I thought I’d never be able to wear it.

I’m very sensitive to itchy yarn. Clothing labels can drive me crazy, synthetic fibres bring out patches of eczema, and I’ve had to part with several hand-knit sweaters because they itched so much I just couldn’t wear them.

I’ve heard good stories about Léttlopi, though, and oh, those gorgeous heathered colours! So, I prudently bought one skein and knit a few swatches to get to know it better.

The swatches felt a little softer after a Eucalan bath, but still pretty rustic (can you see the hairs?). I decided to ‘wear’ one of them for a day and first pinned it to the inside neck of my red cardigan.

No itching in my neck or between my shoulder blades after an entire morning. Then I wore it on the inside of my elbow (a very sensitive spot), between my cardi and my shirt sleeve for several hours. Still no itching. Finally I wore it inside my shirt sleeve, on my bare(!) skin, for several more hours. And strangely it didn’t itch at all! Yay! Now, what colours to choose? Subtle ones, like those of our countryside in autumn and winter? Or brighter ones reminiscent of summer skies and flowers?

I’d also love to make a cardigan from Maja Karlsson’s cardigan book for my daughter, knit from the same yarn – this one:

I’ve given her a Léttlopi swatch, so that she can try it out and for herself answer the ultimate question about knitting yarn – does it itch?

Unsettled

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Hello! After many weeks of warm summer days, the weather is unsettled now and I love it! Wind, fresh air, alternately rain and sunshine, and wild skies.

It’s not just the weather that’s unsettled, though, but me, too. I think it has something to do with my birthday last Monday. I celebrated it during the weekend with my nearest and dearest. There were gifts, phone calls, letters, cards and other messages, and a lovely walk on the day itself. The walk partly followed an old, old road hollowed out by people, cattle and carts passing along it during many centuries.

I feel truly grateful and blessed. And yet…

I am 62 now. My mum died at 66. Although there is no reason whatsoever to assume that I will not live longer, there is an inner voice that says, ‘You’d better get a move on!’ Oh, okay, but… with what and how? I think I need to have a chat with this voice someday soon to get clarity.

In one area of my life I do know exactly how to get a move on. At present, I have 6 projects on the go that are almost finished: a child’s pullover, a cardigan, a scarf, a shawl, a big spinning project and a small felt project.

Usually, I’m fine with working on multiple projects simultaneously and taking a long time over them, but now I feel the urge to finish them. More about them (in as far as they are interesting enough) over the coming weeks, I hope.

For now, there is one more thing I’d like to share with you. I was given the sweetest little box as a birthday present. It contains 36 ‘Trust Cards’ with illustrations and affirmations by Dutch artist Esther Bennink.

Technology isn’t advanced enough yet to let you pick one for yourself, so let me pick one for you – this is the picture on the front:

On the back it says:

I choose
to enjoy
the little things

I wish you a week with many little things to enjoy. To start with, here is one from our garden.

Slow August – Heather Cycling Tour

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Hello! The heather is in bloom. It is cloudy, but with no rain forecast and just a light breeze it’s an ideal day for a cycling tour. Would you like to come along?

Ah, I see you’ve brought your own lunch, thermos and snacks. Perfect! I have a bicycle exactly the right size for you so hop on! I hope you don’t mind that I’m not very talkative today.

Lunchtime!

Rested? Let’s get back on our bikes for the second half.

Back home!

Wel, it isn’t my home or yours, but it’s somebody’s home. Wouldn’t you love to be able to time-travel back to 1813 and spend a day here when the house was new?

We covered 35 kilometres today. I hope you enjoyed the ride and hope to see you again soon!

Slow August – Welly Path

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Hello! Come and walk the Welly Path with me today. For most of the year wellies are essential, but in high summer other sturdy shoes are fine, too. As I promised last week, I’ll keep quiet so that you can hear the wind whispering in the reeds, the reed warblers warbling and the insects humming. Be prepared to ferry yourself across several waterways and enjoy the walk!

The Welly Path starts and ends at this visitor centre:

What Insect are You?

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We have been photographing lots of insects lately. Well, let’s be honest, ‘we’ mainly means my husband – he is much better at it. But sometimes I’m lucky and get a good shot, too.

Let’s zoom in – bzzzz – and wow, look at that huge eye!

Because of the size and shape of its eyes alone, it must see the world totally differently from us. Looking at insects through the lens of my camera made me stop and think. We share our world with so many creatures we don’t even know exist. Of course I know that there are bees and bugs, midges and mosquitoes, but when you begin looking at them properly a whole new universe opens up. These creatures also have (love) lives…

They are busy gathering food, caring for their offspring, developing and going through different stages in their lives.

Different life stages of a six-spot burnet (above)

I wonder, if I were and insect, what insect would I be? To find the answer, I took a test. Turns out I’m a bee. Hmmm, yes, I’m always busy as a bee. But living in a big colony? Everything in the service of the Queen Bee? That’s not really me.

But wait, not all bees are honey bees. There are also bumblebees. Me, bumbling around? Not really. No, come to think of it, I’m more like a wild solitary bee. And then my husband came up with the answer: I’m a wool carder bee! (Thank you for the wool carder bee photos and info, sweetheart.)

In our garden they visit the hairy lamb’s ear plants…

… to scrape ‘wool’ from the leaves, roll it up and use it for making their nests. Here is a close-up of a wool carder bee with a ball of ‘wool’:

A wool carder bee, that’s me to a tee. How about you? What insect are you? Are you a grasshopper?

Or a butterfly? (Are butterflies even insects? There is so much I don’t know yet.)

A bee like me, or a different insect altogether? The British Natural History Museum has developed a fun quiz to help you find out.

Well, I’m buzzing off to add some woolly things to our nest. I’d love to hear what insect you are!

Between the Showers

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Hello! While some of you have been melting in a heatwave, we have had extremely variable weather with strong winds, sunshine, rain, thunderstorms. One moment the sky was bright blue…

… and the next dark clouds gathered and the rain pelted down.

In other parts of the country, the storms uprooted trees and caused other havoc. Here, the wind only tore off some pears in our back garden.

On the whole, it’s been great knitting weather. Between the showers I’ve taken my knitting outside for some pictures. I’ve started on a Norwegian cardigan.

The pattern is in Kofteboken 2, by Lene Holme Samsøe and Liv Sandvik Jakobsen. This beautiful and inspiring, partly linen-bound book contains patterns for 27 sweaters, mostly cardigans with a few pullovers thrown in. There are patterns for adults and children as well as some background stories about designers, motifs, yarns and history. One of the great things about the book is that many of the sweaters are shown in several sizes, colours and different yarns.

It is in Norwegian, but as a knitter you’ll probably understand most terms and the photography is so clear that the sweaters can almost be knit by looking at the pictures alone. The authors’ website can be visited here, and the book can be found here on Ravelry.

The cardigan I’m making is called Lang Yndlingskofte, it is knit from the top down and has a yoke with bands of motifs in two colours. This is what it looks like in the book:

Question marks:

  • Knit a 5-stitch or a 7-stitch steek? – Answer: 5-stitch steek as per pattern
  • Shorten cardigan (considerably)?
  • Add pockets?
  • Buttons on entire front as in pattern or just on yoke?
  • Knit on facing to cover steek stitches or cover them with ribbon?

The yarn I’m using is CaMaRose ‘Økologisk Hverdagsuld’ (100% organic wool, 150m/164yds/50g).

The pattern gauge for the Yndlingskofte is 22 sts to 10cm/4”. My swatches gave: 22 sts on 3mm/US 2,5 needles and 20 sts on 3,5mm/US 4 needles. The 22-stitch swatch was spot-on, but it felt stiff and I decided to go with the looser 20-stitch gauge. This means that I’ll knit a smaller size that will hopefully turn out the right size for me at this gauge.

I’ve also washed and blocked the socks I wrote about in last week’s post. The yarn used for them is Lana Grossa ‘Landlust Die Sockenwolle’ (420m/460yds/100g) in shade 119, neutrals with bands in the rosy red of our ‘Lipstick’ roses.

The yarn doesn’t have a special starter thread to ensure that both socks turn out the same. Getting them exactly the same is a fun game.

The soundtrack to today’s post is Between the Showers – Irish harp music played by Gráinne Hambley. You can listen to some fragments here. I once attended a workshop led by her, and she told us her name is pronounced something like Gron-yuh (stress on first syllable).

Well, that’s all for today. I hope the weather (and life in general) is kind to you, and hope to see you again next week.

Halfway

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Hello! I hope this finds you all well. Here, after a very wet spring, we’re suddenly having a week of hot and dry weather. Personally, I prefer cool and rainy days, but it is summer after all. We’re halfway through the year, and I’m halfway through my current take-along project – my third Polka Dot Scarf.

I’ve given the other two away. This time I’ve chosen a colour nobody I know likes, so that I can keep it for myself.

I’m also halfway through a simple pair of socks and halfway through a bee-themed embroidery kit.

All enjoyable and relaxing projects, but I’m beginning to feel restless. I really need something more interesting and challenging alongside, but what? My problem is never a lack of ideas. I often have so many ideas that I feel overwhelmed and paralysed. Where do I go from here? Do you know that feeling?

So I do what I always do when I don’t know what to do – write about it. My thinking process is also helped by tea.

After making a long list of the things I’d like to make and considering the pros and cons of each, I have a lightbulb moment. Didn’t I have some kind of plan for 2024? Of course! Halfway through January I made a short list that was meant as a kind of map for the year.

One of the things on it that I haven’t done much about yet is Norwegian knitting. How could I forget about that? Some of you even gave me great ideas for Norwegian books to read, too! Never mind the hot weather, that’s just what I need. It feels good to know where I’m going again.

Last week I wrote that I’m trying to make my posts shorter, and I really won’t ramble on any longer, but I just have to show you where the pictures of the Polka Dot Scarf were taken. It was in a lovely out-of-the-way place, with a hidden, disused lock from the time peat was extracted here and transported to other parts of the country by boat.

Just follow the grassy path below and enjoy a moment of calm in this special place. Xxx

A Woolly Outing

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Hello! Today, I’m inviting you to join me on a little outing to do with Drenthe Heath sheep and their wool. Our destination is the Dwingelderveld National Park, a little over an hour’s cycling from our home. Below, you can see a felted(!) aerial view of the park, with purple heathland, green forest and paler felt for the surrounding open fields. The red arrow points to our destination – the visitor centre.

This is the little wooden yurt-shaped model of the building in its felt landscape:

And here it is in real life:

On this special day, the green-roofed visitor centre is surrounded by a small market. As the first visitor to arrive, I’m given the honour of starting the Wild Weaving project, using wool from the flock as well as twigs, grasses and other plant materials.

It’s a start, and I’m sure many hands big and small will add to the tapestry during the day.

Now, let’s take look round the market. There are several stalls with hand-knit items…

… and hand-spun yarn.

One stall with refurbished spinning wheels, and several with items made from felt, like these beautiful felt wall panels by Viltpracht.

And a stall showcasing all the natural colours of the Drenthe Heath sheep fleeces.

This stall holder (sorry, I don’t know her name or website) has an antique carding machine. It probably dates from around 1850. It is basically a wooden trough studded with big tines. Some of the tines can be seen at the front (red arrow).

The wool is fed in from where the person operating it sits. Holding the wooden handle, she rocks the wooden ‘swing’ back and forth over the trough, and the wool is untangled by the tines. It comes out of the carder as fluffy flakes.

The fibres can then be more finely carded and aligned in an ordinary drum carder. Very interesting.

Listen, can you hear them? The sheep are calling us with their baa-ing. Let’s go and pay them a visit – it’s just a short walk from here. Ah, there they are in the distance.

Instead of being out on the heath, doing their jobs as conservation grazers, they’re staying closer to home at this time of year because they have lambs. The longer we stand here quietly, not moving or talking, the closer they come. The ewes of this breed also have horns, only smaller ones than the rams.

Mmmm, sunshine, total quiet apart from the bleating, that special sheepy woolly smell, a soft breeze – bliss.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little outing. To close off, here are a few links:

  • The wool market was a one-day event only, but the visitor centre is open all year round.
  • Throughout 2024 there is an exhibition about the flock of Drenthe Heath sheep, and the felt aerial view of the Dwingelderveld National Park is always there, too.
  • Information about the 4 sheep folds in the area can be found here.
  • For those of you unable to visit in person, some of my older posts about this sheep breed can be read here, here and here.
  • And a short video by a cyclist unexpectedly finding herself surrounded by the flock can be watched here on YouTube.