brei 1st pers of D breien v - to knit, knitting. (homophone to brij n mash, pulp, goo, porridge, gruel.)
space n - the unlimited three-dimensional expanse in which all material objects are located, a.k.a. the final frontier.
I wanted to add some fun buttons to the blogroll from stuff I follow, listen to, etc., and I couldn’t get them in there so I prayed to Thor asked Kees. Alas, he told me, this format doesn’t allow for buttons so the blog isn’t going to look like the local ad rag any time soon. In the mean time I’ve got this one for yis, mateys!
Happy pillaging! Aaaarhh!
Summer vacation is finally here for me. Seven weeks of blissful nothingness. Nooooht! There’s the To Do list, for instance:
Speaking of stuff: another potential new hobby has been added to the stack. Two weeks ago it was my dad’s 75th birthday, and apart from a present for him one of my aunts also brought something for me: a four-shaft weaving loom. I’ll try to put a pic up next time, when it’s no longer crowding the bedroom. I was planning to store it in the shed for now but couldn’t get it through my tiny narrow kitchen, so it’ll have to wait until I’ve mucked out the bedroom or workroom. I had borrowed a van for the occasion, and took the opportunity to go by the garden centre to get some willow screens to cover up the fugly fence my neighbour put up years ago from leftover planks (take a breath here). You can still see a bit of it on the right. I’ll have to do some demolition before I can negotiate the second screen behind the invisible tree to the right from there. The little cage doesn’t contain bird food but camel hair, for birds with late nesting aspirations.
Other things in the garden: the rocket is starting to bloom so I’ll have to do some weeding there; also blooming is M’s flax. I hope she lets me know when it’s time to harvest the stuff and what to do with it next.
Knitting-wise I’m in a finishing mood, although I’ve also started a few small new projects (and finished one within two days, so that doesn’t really count, does it?). The 2nd project will have to remain a secret in case the colleague I’m knitting it for reads my blog. It involves light pink Merino, ’s all I’m saying. The in-between project was an orange cabled case for my reading specs, made with a reflective biking arm-band for inner reinforcement and some of my mum’s vintage cotton for the lining.
Also finished: the v-neck pullover (although I’m thinking of adding a few more cms to the sleeves…).
I copied Andy B’s trick (from EZ if I remember correctly?) for disguising the colour changes in the ribbing: worked a treat! It goes like this: if you change the colour in ribbing and you don’t want the little specks of the previous colour to show in the purl stitches, all you have to do is knit the entire 1st row of the new colour and then continue in ribbing. Totally invisible!
A few weeks ago Kees sent me a link to despair.com, a site that sells self-depreciating wares with pessimistic and down-putting slogans. Very funny. He asked if I saw anything I liked and I replied in the affirmative, and the next thing I know he’d ordered it for me. It came in a cheerful little box, with a text on the back warning me in advance that the company had lawyers and was not afraid to use them.
Inside was a new mug for my tea:
On the other side it says “pessimist’s mug”. In fact I seldom fill it above the mark, because it’s heavy and half of my tea would go cold if I did. It’s a good mug, I like using it. Kees gave it to me because the order was sort of an accident. Sweet, eh?
At school, the end of term didn’t go by without a glitch: we couldn’t get into the building on Thursday because the renovators had done something wrong with the asbestos removal and the whole building had to be closed off, air samples had to be taken, the final meetings had to take place in another building about one km away, etc. After all that could be done was done I had about four hours to kill, and I decided to visit the Ethnology Museum to see the departments I had missed the last time I was there. After that I did some window shopping (and bought shoes), until it was time to have a lovely dinner with my English dept. colleagues at Delphi, a very good local Greek restaurant. Good times and food were had by all. When I got home there was an email from the Head, informing me that no asbestos particles had been found in the air and we could all get back in to finish everything we needed to finish before the promotion (or not) ceremonials on Friday.
Yesterday M, Kees and me went to a small Irish music festival in Deventer, organised by the incredible, scuse me legendary Mark Gilligan. Kees has blogged about it extensively, so I won’t bother. All I might add is that I added about a handwidth to a sock during the gigs and worked on my colleague’s present on the train. Good weather, lovely town; I’ll get back there some day I’m sure.
Last lessons have finished; the students have one last week of sweating and testing to get through and I have to mark the things they’ll have wrought. Then there’ll be a week of report meetings, deciding who will pass and who won’t, last-minute resits and tasks, and then all will be finished on July the 11th. In the mean time I still have one essay, one POP (personal development plan) and one evaluation to write, and hopefully then I’ll be finished for this year as well. Just to keep you abreast with other things, here’s a small overview of this last month.
About a month ago I got a call from someone who told me I had won first prize in the Swalmen Ceramics Market buyers’ draw; a flowery vase by a Polish ceramist called Bozena Wislicka. She doesn’t have a website of her own that I know of, so for other work you’ll have to google her name for images. About three weeks later, the prize arrived. I was hoping for one of her pots with red roses, but this one is nice too. The winged legged box on the right is by a German potter whose name I don’t remember, alas.
Today is Summer Solstice, but I’ve had proof of summer for a while: this was the garden a month ago (it looks more lush now) with M’s flax plants at the back and red shallots and rocket in front.
The strawberries and raspberries were ripening nicely (more raspberries to come, lots of yellow ones this year). Also in the picture: pumpkin (back) and tomato (front left) seedlings, to be planted later.
Last Saturday, the 14th, was worldwide Knit In Public day. The Dutch Knitters decided to celebrate by organising a canal boat tour of Amsterdam. M and I wore matching “Yarrrnn” Tshirts.
Knitters from allover the country joined us, including the Guinness record holder for speedknitting, and Dagmar (Ravelry link) from SnB Amsterdam Noord.
Good times were had by all. I decided to mark the occasion by starting a new scarf on a nautical theme; a wavy dropped-stitch pattern (free from Drops) in a suitably watery greenish yarn. This’ll also get me through the boring invigilating to come next week, once my Tucan sock is finished.
Piggy wasn’t doing so well last week: she was licking her fur all the time, a sign of her food allergies playing up, and something seemed to be stuck in/up her throat. So I took her to the vet’s, who gave her a shot for her allergies and concluded that she also had a throat infection and dental difficulties. I may have to get all her remaining teeth pulled. In the mean time she’s on soft food (canned and kibble soaked in water) and doing a lot better again.
Today, apart from Summer Solstice, is also S.O.S.A.D. (Strangely Orange Snack Appreciation Day), in celebration of all snacks orange, sometimes for no good reason. I didn’t feel like having Cheetos or anything with paprika on it, so I decided to have a bowl of orange rice crackers whilst watching Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train.
Happy Solstice everybody! Blessed Be!
From day one (last Tuesday) I have been fully back in the rut, of course. Like me, both students and colleagues are displaying signs of end-of-year fatigue, not helped by the glorious weather we’ve had up ’till Friday last. This weekend I’m spending mostly on planning, prepping and writing, although I saw a chance to sow some very late broad beans (tuinbonen) this morning. They’re one of my favourite kinds of beans; the Ex used to refer to them as “old biddy’s toes”. Not surprising I didn’t get to eat a lot of them at the time. I love beans.
Last Sunday the BF, Marion and me went to the biannual ceramics market in Swalmen, Limburg. I bought a salt-glazed casserole made by Netty Janssens shaped somewhat like a knor, and a couple of rustic goblets and bowls made by Erik du Chatenier that were on sale. Marion got some nice stuff too. She also wrote lots more about the Whitsun Viking market in Eindhoven we visited, after stopping for a few kilos of asparagus and some strawberries on the way.
I got some cheap, undyed, coarse wool (3€ /100 grams) from Bjorn there; perfect for nalebinding bags, felting and such.
I’m going through my new sweater project like hot needles thru butter; already halfway there! I got some pink-&-purple Manos del Uruguay wool at Egg Mercantile for the contrast band, as soon as I got back from Ribe.
Right. back to work. Seeyis when I’ve done me next paper, I hope. Also check out Gerrit’s PussyCam next week: I’ll be taking care of the little darlings for the next two weeks.
