Why oh Why is Blogging so Difficult!?

Hey Everyone,

Once again I am back - the percistantly unregular blogger. Once again I have an amazing excuse. My Brother is back for Vacation and has decided to take the room over that was mine and all my things are in there - no more access. I have also been ill for a whole WEEK with the stupid stomach-flu this year. I hope no one gets it, because I was so weak that I wasn't able to do anything other than sleep and experience strange bodily functions for 7 days. Then it took another 7 days just to get over the not eating and needing more rest.

Exciting Christmas News (ooh: Merry Christmas. I was planning on doing a blogg-extrance for Christmas) - I send out a Christmas-wishlist to the 3 important men in my life (boy-friend, father and brother). They can choose from the list and buy it - no more excuses that they didn't know what to get me! I am so happy, because my daddy got it right and he got me a Golding-spindle in the butterfly design!!! So the days after Christmas were packed with ordering awesome roving to play with. I calculated the amount at the end of the week and decided that for a beginner, 500g should keep me pretty busy for a while. Maybe they'll get together and get me an electric-spinner for my birthday! That in itself is a little too much to ask for though.

I finished the first sweater for Sytze just in time for Christmas. This was a bad idea - Christmas and the sweater have put alot of pressure on us. Plus he's leaving back for Holland this Saturday and that makes me really sad. I would get to see him until the third week of Febuary, which means I have to wait another month and two weeks. This will be passed quickly though thanks to many awesome shop owners on Ebay and Etsy. As well as friends that have just recently come back to Switzerland.

Etsy is my new disovery. I have never ordered from etsy, because I prefer to get my wool locally. I have been unsuccessful in finding someone that makes ready to spin/ beautifully dyed roving here in Switzerland though. I will eventually. There are so many awesome batts and plaits of roving on Etsy though! I am totally hooked. There is so much and there are so many people that can accomidate the budget of a starving student looking to cut costs with the shipping! I love it. I promise to let you know how the roving turns out as well as my spinning adventures!

"From Sheep-back to Human-back".
Much love and Merry Christmas,
Samantha

New Store: Beadies!

Hi Everyone!

This post is about a new store that I found here in Utrecht (I didn't find it really... Danja found it and told me about it). I went there for the first time with Sytze on Friday. I saw all these cool beads and the idea is that you can make your own jewlery. Anything from earings, bracelete or necklaces. I decided to try it all out and found some cute things to remind me of Holland (so a bracalete filled with a lot of blue and white).

Usually there are people in the store that help you put your jelwary together. It was close to closing for them though, so they were not so friendly towards me... thirty minutes before closing I packed my things together, payed and left. I did not have my bacelete finished by then - It's a good idea to take an entire afternoon the first time.

When I went back yesterday, I saw all the pretty already made jelwary that they have for sale. The necklaces and the braceletes are all very cute and pretty cheap (ranging form 10 - 30 Euros). I thought this was a very affordable price.

I was so excited yesterday, that we went there early (it's a Saturday so we were there by 1 p.m.). Sytze made me some earings to go with my bracelete and I made myself a necklace to remind me of the ocean when I am not there... it still turned out pink and pictures are to follow.

From the range of beads they sell at Beadies and the help you recieve putting your jelwary together is great. It's even better if you already know what you are doing, because spending more than an hour in that store is horrible. It took me and hour and 15 minutes to get all the beads for my necklace and by then all I wanted to do was go home. I didn't even want to put my jelwary together there.

I will be going back to pick out some other nice things that I like. I hope to also get the beads there for the girls' braceletes/ necklaces for Christmas. I will not get the wiring there, since all they offer is metal and not silver.

Love,
Sam

The trouble with the Swallow Tail Shawl

Hi Everyone!

This is just a quick update on how far I have gotten and what I have been up to (I know it's insane that I have managed to update twice this month!)

So far I have gotten through the body of the swallow tail shawl. Now I am working on the edging and noticing that something has gone terribly wrong. I am on the second row of the shawl and I have way too little stitches. I am missing four on one side and three on the other. I'm going to have to rip back (too bad I didn't throw myself a lifeline...

I am stuck on my fawks socks, because I am obsessed with the shawl. I think it's a good idea to keep them on the needles for now, because the shawl can sometimes need a break (like now).

I've been busy with the moving thing. I have no idea how I am going to transport my stash, since I have used the moving containers for the kitchen stuff. I think I'll have to go out and buy some new boxes for my stash :-( That of course cuts into my budget. We'll see how far I get.

Anyways, once I get the pictures takes for the furniture that I am going to sell, I'll try to get the pictures up from my knitting!

Much love,
Sam

A Fresh Start in All Senses

Once again I have been neglecting my blogg. Not for the normal reasons of being super busy with other things of course :-S

As of the 26th of October, I will be moving back to Switzerland in the hopes of persuing a medical carreer. After getting fed up with the style here in Utrecht, I heard that there might be a chance for me to start medicine in Zurich. This is awesome! The only reason that I had set aside medicine was because I thought that I did not fullfill all of the requirements. This seems to have changed the last year. If I do not happen to get into a medical carreer right from the start, I will start training as a nurse and then go into medicine. This is difficult but not impossible. Thanks to the training in Switzerland, I will be allowed to give vacinations (not often practiced in other countries) as well as doing the first inspections of the pacient and things like stitches. This I am super excited about. Either which direction I go (either as a Doctor or as a Nurse) I am considering working with disabled children or in the emergency room.

So as to accompany my change in life style (if you haven't done the math yet, a Swiss Franc can buy a lot of pretty pretty yarn) I have started my first shawl. I think I have already doomed my success, because I have chosen a very large shawl. Today I cast on 110 starting stitches of the "Rose Trellis Shawl". I love the look of it and I am excited about using up some of the pink lace-weight yarn that I had gotten over Ebay in order to make my "biggest wrap ever" - which took me 2 years to finish.

In just over two weeks I will be leaving the beautiful city of Utrecht and I am having mixed feelings about it. There is a REAL appartment set up and waiting for me in Switzerland (once I get a job and some money that is) which I am excited about, since my last appartment alone has been over a year ago. But I am looking forward to being on my own, persuing a carreer that I am despiratly excited about but at the same time, I am sorry that it will not be possible in a city that I love to live in. I am also sad that I will be doing monthly visits with my now boyfriend but I am certain that we will be able to get over this bump in the road and make it work (even though I have no faith in long distance due to previous relationships).

I'm thinking this is going to be my last blogg from the Netherlands and for that then my last words in Dutch from Holland!

Ik heb het echt genoten hier in Utrecht te wonen and ik wens me dat die mensen en die Stadt het zelfte blijven als ik hier op bezoek ben! Ik hoop erg snell wier in Utrecht te zijn en de Nederlanden het een plek in mij hart gevonden. Misschien ben ik hier ook heel snell wie voor en Medicine-praktika!

Liefs,
Sam

When being young has it's disadvantages

Lately, knitting has come to a slight halt due to the many important decisions you have to make at the age of 20. I've decided that I don't want to study business and economics. At least not at the school that I was attending. So now I've got about 6 months to make up my mind whether I want to do Pre-med, Nursing or go back to Business but at a different school. I'm thinking about setteling with Nursing, because I am really bad at chem and math but as a nurse I could also decrease the time I spend in med-school if I want to AND there will be no problem getting a job part-time that will fit my schedule.

The other reason that I havn't been knitting much is that I just recently covered the back of my right arm in second degree burns. Luckily only a small portion of my skin is open and the rest is content with slight blistering. Thanks to lots of pain killers and bandages I am able to type and work a little but not enough to finish anything I want. Next to the pain of the burn, I never realized that the healing takes so much energy! I've been taking a 3 hour nap every day!

But before my burn accident, I managed to start a pair of crochet lace gloves for Sytze's Beppe. I liked the so much that I have started my own now. They remind me of the gloves my mother bought me for my first communion. I actually think that it's the same pattern but I remember that they were starched to no extent!

In the mean while, the doctor says that I should be back to normal in 2-3 weeks. In that time, I think I'm going to look into felting thanks to Kat from "Lets Knit2gether"! Btw: I'm a big fan and love watching. I think it's mainly because living in Europe I've had issues finding things like sheep and wool festivals. I've got all kinds of patterns lined up on Ravelry and am going to figure out how to felt in my side loading washing machine (the pirks of Europe). But today I have to day off, so I'm off to the LYS here in Wageningen to see what I can find.

Much love and I promise to be back soon (with pictures)!
Sam

Students, saving costs and how this affects the internet

I know that I have been off the net despite the goal of keeping my knitting on the web once a week. It is and it isn't my fault: my computer is broken (the wireless) and I have been saving up for it and every time I get close... I give in to the call of wool. So I am sorry that I have been unable to keep this up.

The past week I have been home in Switzerland to visit my parents and the weekend right after that (which was the maximum stress that I will ever be able to tollerate) followed Sytze's Grandfather's 80th birthday. Big deal right? I'm making him a pair of last-minute socks. The girls did love the hats though which makes me very happy (to have made hats that all the older people liked and the girls as well). Many pictures were taken to capture the moment, because the girls didn't take them off!

Baby Brothers take up all my time!

This week my mother decided to send my little brother my way. When I say little brother I actually mean my 17 year-old brother that is still in highschool that is visiting to have a look at european universities. Of course thanks to him and the entertainment that has been demanded from me, knitting has halted to small projects. Smaller than small actually.

Baby socks are what I am making for my mother's church project. The baby socks are made from the ugly yarn that was dedicated to the "ugliest socks in the world". When you see the finished baby socks though the yarn looks quite adorable. It might also have to do with the size of the socks but because the stripes become a lot wider, it makes the socks look cute. So far I've completed 2 pair and am finishing the final socks for the last two pair.

The ugliest socks in the world for Sytze have been finished. He loves the yarn but he hates the colors. He swore never to show them in public but he really loves that they feel so nice on his feet here in the humid climate.

So that's all I've got for this week. I'll check back next week when my brother will no longer be here. I will crawl back into my knitting shell when I am not busy studying for my last finals of the year!

Much love,
Sam

Just pictures of Sytze

Showing off his broken hand. It's not really broken - he just wont go to the doctors to let them figure out what is wrong! That's my fancy bandage work right there!




















In the city on Neude drinking coffee and beer. There's something similar to a music festival happening at the moment in utrecht and they've taken over the square where the cafes usually extend out into.




















At KFC. I love my dead, fried bird!




















Being pretty. This was before we went out.















Goofing off in my very old kitchen. It actually looks like my grandmother's kitchen!

Sock blockers and socks

I have no excuse for being so lazy this week but I have been. I am almost done with the "ugliest sock in the world" for Sytze. This is the first sock. I've also started unraveling a scarf that I made ages ago to salvage some of the amazingly soft and expensive wool that a giant month attached last year.

I feel so bad that I have left this to the very last minute. There is no deadline on the scard BUT because it's been out so long and has holes in it from the giant moth, I am starting to see smaller holes where I think that other month may have been feasting as well. :-( Very sad but possibly salvigable. I'm thinking that I am going to make it into a sead-stitch scarf. Just keeping it simple and I want to use the yarn that is left to the maximum. It would be super sad if nothing would come out of this.

So other than knitting, many other fun things have been happening. Of course Sytze came over and spend the weekend at my place (I don't live in a student-house, so we have more space and alone time when he's here. While I was getting ready for dinner, he was sitting on the balcony when he saw a tiny little bird in a nest right in front of our balcony.

I'm still trying to find the time to finally go to my local s'nB on Tuesdays or Thursdays but next to university and work I find that I have just enough time to get in a little knitting and about 7 hours of sleep. I wish I could go but I'm just not sure.

My baby brother is coming to visit me in a few days (ok. like Saturday). With him here I am probably going to have to not blog for a week but because the child sleeps so much anyways (I should add that he's 17), I may just find the time next to school and work to sit down for 30 minutes next week. But I am excited that he is visiting. He's another man in my life that does not enjoy anything that is knitted. But the rest of my family likes it. Since my parents are all alone at home now, they have decided to take up golfing so I have been asked to make golf-club covers. A zoo for my father (looking forward to that) and something girly for my mother. I have yet to look at wool for it but I will once I get the time and I go to amsterdam to have a look at some new Yarn-shops!

The stash is going insane. It's tiny, since I have cut down on spending for a whole year! I am extremely proud of myself but at the same time, I am wondering why on earch I didn't by a little each month, because now when I want to knit something that I really enjoy, I actually have to go shopping and hunting for. Also it's just a big mess, because it's in plastic bags and in between little bags of dried lavender. I would love to put it some where nice but with the little room that I have in my room and in the rest of the house I fear that there is little room else to put it. So my student dilema grows. I keep thinking that I need to get rid of some things, so maybe I can expand my stash into where the other things were ;-)

I found an awesome site for sock-blockers! I am so excited, because I have pleanty of these wire hangers that I can't use because they damage the clothes, so why not take one and a pair of plires from the garage and make a perfect fitting sock-blocker?

http://theknittingzone.com/blockers.htm

I found them at the knitting zone but I suggest that you use plastic covered metal hangers, because they are less likely to stain your damp socks. It is still an awesome idea, expecially if you are a student with no money for fun things :-(

Sometimes I wonder: would a really addicted knitter be willing to spend less on money instead of giving up buying yarn on a regular basis or would you start knitting with nasty acrylic? I would definatly eat less or just Ramen. Then again I have just not bought any new wool in a LONG time!

Working and working and working

There has not been much happening this week due to a very stressful, work fulled week. I just sat my first mid-term and have one more to go all together with being sick and pulling 30 hours at work. ugh. Other than being super tired, knitting has been posponed to due to the fact that our old student house, we found out that our downstairs neighbours have a mouse problem and my flatmate swore she saw a mouse in the bathroom... So we've been busy with mouse traps and peanut butter.

Danja's (flatmate) birthday party is this friday. She's the youngest (turning 19) and I was thinking about giving her something fun for her birthday. Sytze's going to pay for the wool and I'm going to knit it up. I'm thinking a silk bikini bottom for topless tanning OR the something blue thong that is circuling ravelry.

I GOT ACCEPTED TO RAVELRY! YAY! My invite finally came this week, so besides being busy with getting that all set up, I am scoping the groups and the patterns that are EVERY WHERE! It's like a new heaven.

I've also been listening to a lot of podcasts. I was thinking about doing that as well but... I can't even find enough time to go to my SNB here in Utrecht. Right now I am in love with "Let's knit together" and "Stash and burn".

I am loving europe right now! I have never heard of Wollmeise but once her website is up and running again, I am going to take a good part of my pay-check and buy as much as I can! Sytze and I are both in love with the colors and I think the yarns should hold up well. I haven't heard any bad reviews yet!

Finished: One pair of the ankle socks in the Mexico colors. I have started the second pair and then I am going to start the red and green full socks for Dieter and Sytze. I'm just about to go shopping for Danja so fingers crossed that I can find something at ny LYS!

Much love,
Sam

Just Starting Out!

So... This is defiantly my first time blogging but I've had my own website for a while now that I have been able to keep up and running, so I'm thinking that this is not a far-fetched goal to now dedicate myself to my knitting on the web as much as I have dedicated to my personal life (keeping my family informed of what I'm up to at the moment).

I've been knitting since I was 14 actively (of course you learn it when you're younger). I am an incredibly addicted sock knitter. I love to knit these socks and even for the impossibly large feet of my boyfriend - my father has smaller feet than he does. I love socks but occasionally I will crochet or knit a scarf/ wrap and I'll get around to making a sweater maybe every other year (really not liking the sweater knitting but have discovered lots of nice fashion tops).

To start this out, the title was decided on, because I actually am a European knitter. I lived in the U.S. for a while as well as a child but most of it I have spent in Europe and this is also where I got into the "final stages" of becoming a knitter with a K. I find it had to associate my knitting with a lot of the American knitting, because the yarns are not as organized as in the U.S. (i.e. The Loopy Ewe) but instead I spend a lot of my time looking for new Yarn Stores - although I have recently discovered that no matter what city I am in, I always have an LYS where I know the people! - Because you will always find the usual Regia but I'm looking to try new things as well.

Current knitting projects are actually two and I am going to leave the first one. The first one I have decided to call "the ugliest sock in the world". That is exactly what it is. The yarn was a gift for my birthday from my best friend Dieter and my boyfriend. I have two balls of the green and two of a bright multicolored. They're both self stripping and the composition of it is great. I just really, really hate the bright multi-colored one, because even though the color way is called "Mexican Color", I was not expecting the color scheme of a Tex-Mex restaurant on a sock. Enough said there, now I am moving on the green ball and looking forward to get something nice out of it, because the other one was so ugly yet the base yarn is really nice - pictures to follow!
That's all for now, so I'll check in next week again! Pictures to follow soon!