little update

Just wanted to say hi to you all! I am alive haha. I want to share a special trip with you, we went to Germany. We drove for three hours and we arrived at our destination: Piesberg near Osnabrugge. That's the beauty of living in Holland. Just drive a few hours and you are in another country with another language and different habits. I totally love it. 

But why would we go there? Well, we went on a mission. 

We went on fossil hunting in a quarry. Another hobby of me and my family we are doing once in a while. We have collected quite some nice pieces already, including some tiny fish! This time the hunt was for plants and insects and also crystals. They have being lying around here for over 300 million years, time for them to be found! 

Of course you need some protection when going to a quarry. Don't we look a cute with our little helmets and all the smudges on our cheeks? Do you see how tall my baby brother is? He is a giant! And Mr. L. who also joined the trip is so tiny like me, I think our kids will be midgets. 

Splitting and checking every stone for treasure.

You feel pretty small when sitting in such a massive pit, surrounded by an ancient world. What a teeny weeny lifespan humans have if you look at the time scale of our lovely planet. I find it hard to imagen and it makes me so curious!

Here is an example of some treasure we brought home: 

I won't go on rambling about fossils and stones, this is a yarny blog after all. And yarn is getting higher on the agenda right now, since it is WEEKEND. Weeehooooee. Let's check some of the boxes on my waaaaaaaaaay to long to-make list. Many of them involve Christmas projects and it is going so fast! I also have some more soft stones to make (it seems I am still rambling on about stones haha :p) for my rug and I am working on a very cute tea cozy if I can say so myself. Can't wait to share!

Have a nice and hopefully yarny weekend. 

xxx Suzanne

mitten madness

It's been awefully quiet here at Crea in the City. I have been away some time from blogland and I missed it very  much! Life has been passing by so fast. But, I have decided to make some time for a little post on my mittens.

I am not really a knitter, I find it complicated and I always manage to let my stitches slip of the needles. But I have practiced a lot and seen a lot of youtube clips and know I do see the beauty and the fun in knitting. I have tackled my fear for double pointed needles and my first mitten is done! 

I love the lace effect it has on the bottom and the top.

There are a lot of mistakes in this project, I tend to make the second one much neater. But overall I am pretty pleased with it. I never thought I could work on DPN's or make a thump gusset! I didn't know some things that were written in the pattern. 

How to get the circle started for example? I found the answer here in this clear video. Don't forget to put a stitch marker on your first knitted stitch to keep track of the rounds. 

With the thump gusset I got a little scared, make 1? What is make 1? Placing the stitches on waste yarn? I found a lot of help in this clip. It's a clip about making mittens and this part is all about making a thump gusset. I found it very useful. 

The pattern is really well written and if you just follow it, you should be fine. There was some confusion at the beginning though about how to get the edge of the mitten with a sort of picot edge. I just start following the pattern. You turn the hem at the end of the project at the top and bottom of the project. So you "fold" the first and last part of your project to the inside and attached by sewing. So you make 4 of the lace rounds with the little holes, but you will see only 2. I should have made some pictures to make it more clear, I will try to do so with the second mitten. 

I plan to make some more mittens, because once you get the idea it is really easy. So let's get busy with my second mitten! 

Tuesday's Tallies: a knitty distraction

It’s Tuesday already! The pebble has increased in numbers to 17 pebbles. Yep, I only did 4 this week Shame on me! But I have a very good reason.

A lot of distraction this past week, we had a holiday here in Holland! What better way to celebrate autumn than with having some free days. Free days is great, but it didn’t provide us with a lot of ‘free’ time. I had a little mom and me time (which was very necessary, I see her so little since I starting living together with my B-friend). We had a little baby-sitting day with my cute nephew (he is now 10 months) and it went well! *Mr. L. and I are not really baby persons yet*. Next to these nice events we had one very special day, we went to the forest with my parents, brother, uncle, aunt and kin. We went to Putten, a cute little town with a lot of nature surrounding it. We go there every year. 

The wooden cottage looks like it comes straight from a fairytale.

We made some pumpkin soup on the fire.

We walked through the trees and stopped sometimes to spot any hiding wild life and to make some pictures. Strike a pose little bro! *yep, the giant is my little brother*

Do you see the Viking hat? I made that one with a combination of patterns. I will try to find some time to put it on paper.  In the second picture I sort of attacked my bro with the intension of knocking him over...I failed....miserable haha. I look a little like a horse, but I thought it was a good picture to show the spirit of the day! We had great fun. 

So a lot of activities going on, but there was still time to snuggle on my sofa with a little project. But it wasn’t crochet I was most busy with, I started knitting again! I went browsing on Ravelry and I knew I wanted to make something with cables. They have such a sophisticated feel to them. So I started to make a pillow cover based on this pattern. I only make a front with yarn and use fabric for the back. I haven’t found the right fabricyet, so not really a tada. But it won’t be long!

Since this went pretty well (I never worked with cabels before, so I was a bit proud), I tackled another ‘scary’ knitting project….Double pointed needles! Aaaaaah, they are so scary! Working with two needles is already double the amount I used to work with and now working with FOUR?! But I really, really, really have wanties for warm mittens like these…and they can only be made with circular or dpn’s.

I'm not sure if this will work out, but I’ll keep you posted on the progress of this project. 

Sigh, I think I will continue my stripy granny blanket tonight. So easy, so fast! 

Thank you for all your lovely comments and support! Check here for more inspiring One a day projects. 

xxx Suzanne