Busy but nice weeks before Christmas!

Hey people,
I finally found the time to write something new on my blog because I've been very busy these weeks. And now I'm enjoying a lovely quiet weekend at home by my parents:)!
Next week will al so busy beacause I've an exam on the day of Christamseve.... till 3o'clock in the afternoon so I hope the NS (dutch railway)hasn't delay that day!

Where have I been busy with, you would ask? I will tell you:
*1 december interview about environment and being vergetarian with a schoolgirl for a paper
*2 december Printing posters for the christmasdinner
*3 december My parents came to visit me and I went to look at an other room.
*4 december annual mass of my grandfather and helping my mother with preparations for "sinterklaas"
*5 december "sinterklaas" with the family of my mothersside. It was a nice day together. It was nice to see them all although my youger nefew doesn't enjoy it really. some of the things I get a fairtrade measurescheep, a knittingbook: modern top-down knitting and a lovely pigbeanie! And I gave also little gifts to erveryone, giving does more enjoy than becoming!, I crochet clovers for everyone and gave them together with a little fair gift.

*6 december a meeting with some high people of the university organisation about making the university fairtrade and a lovely evening with friends where I haven't been for too long because we all are very busy. And ringeling....Sining a contract for an other room with a kitchen for my self and a floor lower so less warmth in the summer in the same building. It is a bit expensive... but I luckily have parents who support me. I actually wait on a room of the official studentshousingdepartment but there are the witingtimes 5 years or so.... In an other post more about it!!!
*7 december UMP meeting at my home with cooking together from 18.00-23.00
*8 december progressexam at the other site of Nimwegen from 9.00 till 13.00... and my bike was broken and ther was snow so I had to take a bus much too early (after 9.00 o'clock you may not go in the hall... even though it is 9.01... ) After that a meeting about a demonstration about a demonstration against the savings on the Dutch students.
*9 december My laptop was broken, the keyboard doesn't react anymore.... I think it gets worn out... Bye Bye sinterklaasmoney to get a cheap netbook. And I get a new secondhand bike because my mother wants to ride a bicke in Nimwegen too and it was very difficult to get my other bike to the cycle repairer because lots of ice on the afterplace at my studenthome... (I saw many people fall or almost fall) I adopted a little piglet from "het goed" a secondhandshop and I had to organize tableware for the UMP christmasdinner but it was more difficult than other times, they don't react on emails I send two weeks ago and reminderemails till tonight with a telefonenumner for someone else and I arranged sponsoring from "de stroom" a eco horticulture who also arranges our vegetablepackets.

*10 december The demonstration against the savings on Dutch students in Nimwegen, I was responsible for the EHBO (luckily they don't need me) and in an orange vest one of the members of the "ordedienst, people who are there for proceed to little disturbances before the police intervenses because the "ordedienst" normally less stimulate agression than policemembers. And I organised the tableware after calling 3 times, at 8.30 he wasn't there he should be there at 11.30, at 11.30 he was upstairs, they should call me back but they haven't (in fact luckily, organising tablewear during a demo...), after the demo I finally organised it in a couple of seconds..., he said: is no problem when would you pick it up?...




*11 december In the morning I've been to the Ikea to look around for a couple of things for my new room, mainly of things would fit in the car.I've eaten pasta with chesnuts there, I think I like chestnuts roasted more then cooked After that I've been to the christmasmarket in Luik with the work of my father (my mother was busy at home), this was very nice, really christmasatmosphere exept that Luik is a carcity, cars can get everywhere in the city... also between the christmasmarket.. We have made a 2 hour walk through the newer parts of Luik, there where also many
many cars... we drunk cofee at a very nice eco fairtrade coffeebar! and I found lovely lights for my new room and moon earrings! At 10.30 we where back in Maastricht (where my father works) and around 11 o'clock we were back at home and I went to sleep.







*12 december. I went to my grandmother, baked 72 vegan cupcakes for the UMP christmasdinner and build up the christmasvillage from my father at my parents home.


*13 december I went to the coop (a supermarket)to ask for sponsering (after an other girl that originally does this emailed that she was in Sweden till tuesday..) but (of course) the manager I had to speak wasn't there... I arranged that I would come back next day at 8 o'clock beacuase there was less time till wednesday... And I've cleaned my room extra good because next day someone comes to look of he would hire my room.
*14 december I went back at 8'o clock to the and whe get sponsoring coop, and we get sponsoring! at 9.30 I arranged with someone of the studentscounsel to speak about fairtrade and at 10.30 I went to get back to the coop with an other girl to get all the things we need for the christmasdinner.
*15 december The christmasdinner! I went to a lecture about alternative medicine and cancer and after that I've stand in the kitchen the whole day except for transporting things from the studentslaborunion to the beta faculty where we organised the dinner. I was responsible for the organisation this day so a little nervous. Luckily the people like it and it was very nice!! I was home around 11 o' clock after clearing up. I also saw on the internet that my old room was hired.




*16 december Taking a rest after dinner,hmmm not many time for. I had many colleges and eat together at the students trade union and played werewolves! This was very nice but I wasn't early in my bed...
*17 december lectures and more lectures till 17.45 on friday:(.... The last was interactive and the most people who should be there already went home so the people who stayed get many questions.... Luckily I had no problems with the train in the snow, at the west side of the country there where many problems....
*18 decmber. Finally time to take some really rest (a lot of things where very niuce but although you need really rest sometimes.. )!! Tomorrow I have to learn for my exam next week again...

In between al my business I also had many lectures and study groups about a heavy subject....: cancer.. Very nice mainly around christmastime and for people who have patients in the close surroundings... About this subject is also my exam at 24 december...
It is although also a very significant and informative subject beacause 1 in 4 people get cancer at sometime in there life (mosttimes luckily older people)...
Actually I ask myself that cell proliferation goes well so many times as you see how many things can go wrong.

And of course I've answered the ump email every day and learning at home. I had not much time to be creative except baking cupcakes and hooking clovers for sinterklaas but found a little time to make two little snowfairies!:

Sylvi :D

Hey people
My Sylvi is finally finished!
Just in time for the snow and the cold weather they have predicted for next week!
It was a lot of work and many different cables but lovely to do and I'm very pleasured with the result!

I've used one yarn cascade eco wool and 6mm needles so my gauge was a little smaller than in the original. I've maked the back and front pieces a couple of stitches less and I've also sized down the sleeves a little more beacause I want them not too loose. As point of origin I used pattern size xs. Now it would be about 30 inch, xxs or childrensize 12 (Europe152-158)

I've self designed matching pockets with a part of the cable and a little flower.
And added a little cable on the cuffs instead of the stripes in the original pattern.

I've asked my father to take a couple of pictures this weekend during my visit at my parentshome.

I've also started something new, the carnabyskirt from the last knitty! I use some of the yarn I original want to use for my sylvi but I couldn't get the gauge with. It is lovely red-purple, very soft and very economical because it is worst weight and 170m in 50g!

And I'm making little "Sinterklaas" presents, hooking little clovekeyrings because a lot of persons in my environment can use more luck!!!

For people who are one ravelry, picture of the projects are here:carnaby skirt, clover
More pictures of these also on my blog will come when I'm back in Nimwegen!

Many Greetz

Kreadoe

Hey,
Last saturday I've been a day out together with my mother. We've been to the kreadoe, a creative fair in Utrecht :)! We've been there with a bus organised by the employee union from my mother for a cheap price. Other wise it had been very difficult to go because the trains were hopeless last weekend. The only way to come in Utrecht then was tot travel from limburg over Rotterdam through Utrecht, that takes about 2 times as long as normal (and there are also leaves on the rails which could arrange more delay...)

On the kreadoe isn't many knitting and embroidery stuff but there are many other lovely things as felt figures! I saved money last weeks and still had some money from my birthday so i could buy some lovely things:) (I've also received some money from my father because he loved a felted snow castle for christmastime, thank you!!)

Two aunts also decided to go to the kreadoe on the last moment. They've been with the train.... but they've arrived and came home! Because they want to look at many scrapbook and cardmaking stuff we haven't ben together the whole day.
(I've once made a scrapbook from my Greece-schooljourney that was nice to do but the materials are so expensive....for example 1.50 euro for the karton, 3 euro for a couple of little stickers so you need a lot for a couple of nice pages, or you should do it with simple materials as normal paper what you for example fold or knitting a little thing for in your album. But than you've to pay attention to acidfree materials to reseve the quality of your foto's.....)

We've also made a little heart at the Kreadoe in a couple of minutes :)! We've pasted very thin paperpieces on a heart wih modpodge (this is very popular by my friends at the moment I believe :P) so you get a patchworkeffect!

Further we've get a lot of ideas and my aunt has already a sinterklaas present for me I believe, but that you will see after 5 december becase it should be a surprise and I should forget it!!!

It was a very nice day!!
Bye, bye!!

My purchases

the little heart I made

Autumn Seasontable

Hey,
Last weekend I finally put the autumn seasonfigures I made this and last year together:). Now stands this lovely little autumn table at my parents home:


The seasontable


Two pumpkingirls (atelier Pippilotta http://www.atelierpippilotta.nl/2010/03/twee-pompoenmeisjes) I made last year

Father and Mother Amanita Muscaria with their baby.... (Pop en Plank http://www.pop-en-plank.nl/index.php?op=pakket_02&naam_groep=Boleten-familie)

....and their Daughter



I've also made many progress with knitting my sylvi! The sleeves are finished and I've sewed them together with the fronts and the back, now I'm busy to make the hood and thinking about a mod...(to put pockets on the front).

Byebye!

Mother Earth doll and other little things

Hey,
I decided to post an other little blog today to show ans tell a couple of other things.

A couple of weeks ago I've made a Mother Earth doll!!!, I love her



I found a box again with craftthings that belongs to a dutch course "het complete handwerken" from the seventies that I get from my neighbour when I was 14 or so. The coursemaps I have also, these I get from my grandmother, you can find al crafts in it from knitting, to needlebinding to sewing to macrame:) Thank to these lovely people! Now I can use these things and i'm looking foreward till i have time to learn new crafts.
In the box I found many lovely things as tabletweavingcards, emroideryfabric, a spindle etcetera




My needlebind try-out project


I've been very busy last weeks...
*This week I've a difficult examination and three weeks ago I had the first that wasn't mutiplechoice so that means learning a lot of definitions....
*My father was 25 years at his work, there was a nice party at his work.
*Last saturday I was in Aachen with my parents, a lovely city in germany with two lovely knitting shops junghans wolle and goerg & goerg
*last week I had 3 meetings, one from the studentunion from 7 till 11 in the evening with chattering till 1.30 in the night, one from the university environment group where where we've cooked together before it:lovely pumpkin pasta and sort of pesto from parlsley, cashwew and walnuts, and one from the national union of university environment group on friday where i get the last train and was home at about 1 o'clock at night.

Greetz

Sylvi:) progress animalabuse for wool and tips for buying environmentfriendly yarns in europe

last year I've started this project but I wasn't satisfied. I couldn't get the gauge I want (it was a lot to small) with the yarn I was using then. Therefore I've frogged it and started again with cascade eco wool wich I accidentally found in a Dutch webshop for an affordable price.

Normally I don't like to use wool because the sheep abuse that happens mainly in Australia where the most wool comes from. Unfortunately that are not the happy sheeps you see on pictures enjoying in a meadow....
The "primalsheep" loses its wools scattered over a lot of time and doesn't need to be sheared by human. We although have breeded the sheep so that they are now depending ons us human. That we can not thurn back and I agree that wool is a very nice material but the abuse isn't a thing to neglect...:

We are clipping the sheeps in a time of the yearwhen it's still to cold for them without there wool coat so that many of them freeze to death..
There are to many sheeps in a farm so the individual needs are neglected
Because they are breed so that they get as much wool as possible from one sheep, the sheep get "fliestrike" Espacially around the back of the sheep flies lay there eggs in the wool. the larves who born out these eggs can eat the sheep alive...
To prevent this condition ranchers perform muleshing. Unasthetized they cut away large strips and skin of the back ans the legs.. Before the wounds are healed a lot of them nevertheless get fliestrike...
Eventually the most of the woolsheeps are slaughtered. Most of the time not in there living country Australia but on the other side of the world in North-Africa and the Middle East!


I would never use silk yarn... for one pound of silk, 3000 wors are steamed o gassed alive... Angorarabbits have a terrible life and often they make the males death after birth because they have less wool and 50-80 percent of the young cashemere goats is murdered because there wool doesn't meet the standards...

When you can stand to see a documentary about this and read more about it, look at:
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-clothing/wool-industry.aspx

For some projects altough it is difficult to get non-wool yarn. The most things I made are made from cotton (When i can afford it also eco and faitrade certificied. You don't want to know how many pesticides are used... and how the workingcircumstances are, but that's or an other blog), acryl (but that is not very environmentfriendly and most times I don't like the look of it)or other plant-based yarns.
Non-wool sock yarn,nice thick warm yarn, soft lace yarn and thick felt is difficult to get here in the Nerthelands or is very expensive...
I feel very guilty when I use wool in this circumstances...

Therefore I was very happy when I found an eco-wool that at least hopefully would be a bit better for the sheep and also more environmentfriendly! I've started again and I have already finished the back, the left side and thothird of the right side een tough I have very less time to knit! It looks very natural and knits very fast despite all the different cables on the back. The gauge with a single thread cascade eco wool and 6mm knitpro needle is a bit smaller as in the original (I knit pretty loose). I've modified the xs pattern also a bit smaller so that the endresult would be about 28'- 30' inch because I want to use it as a long cardigan and don't want it to be oversized.



About environment and animalfriends I've collected a couple of links here for European people who are seeking to get these:

Dutch links:
http://www.houseofyarn.nl/contents/nl/d22_cascade_eco.html where you can get cascade eco wool
www.trikoo.nl where you can get pakucho fairtrade undyed cotton, bio-wools, and other environmentfriendly yarns
www.stormopzolder.nl
www.herbalana.com

European links:
www.wollbox.de/epages/61169902.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61169902/Categories/Conjoined Soysilk, vegan lace yarn
http://www.wollbox.de/epages/61169902.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61169902/Categories/%22Crystal%20Palace%22 vegan sock yarn
www.cucumberpatch.co.uk/sincere_dk.htm affordable organic cotton in levely colours (they offer also a lot of environmentfrienldy rowan yarns but these are expensive)

When you've good places for buying environmentfriendly or vegan yarns in Europe let me know!!! So that I and maybe my blogreaders can use more animalfriendly yarns for new projects.

Till a next blog!

World Food Day and the University Environment Group

Hey,
Here is a new update of my blog after 4 weeks or so.... I will try to write in English from now. I haven't done this before because my English writing skills aren't very great. My apologies when there are big mistakes in my grammar or so.

I was very busy last weeks with my study and the tasks that belong to my voluntary job as one of the two coordinators of the university environment platform. We are group of students who try to make the university and the students more aware of environment issues. We also try to make the university really more green by way of exert influence at for instance the purchase- and the energy-policies of the university in collabaration with other groups, this isn't always very easy but when this succeeds we have done a good yob for the nature. Soon we wil check again for useless lights in university buildings at night.And we are thinking about projects as an climate neutral computerroom and an fairtrade policy at the university
At studentscale we are offering biologic vegetables for an affordable price. We offer at about 100 students and employees in one week! Other things we do for the students are thing as offering recycled collegeblocs,an recycle workshop and environmentfriendly meals!!!

14 oktober we had an Worlmeal what will say that we offer a 3 courses menu that only consist that amount of food that is available for one person on this earth when you should divite al the food honestly over all the people in the world. This is more food dan you would think. This lett us sea that there is enough food at the world. It depends on waht whe eat. The Worldmeal doesn't contain meat and fish, few other animalderived ingredients (with a totally vegan option). The vegetables and as much as possible other ingredeintes are biologic and from the neighbourhood.

It was a very great busy and tiring day for me. I was responsible for organising the cooking and the rest of the day. I was a bit stressed because one of the gashoses was leaky and an part of the cooking was missing till after the lunch but except that everything went well.
We've cooked for at the original plan 30 guests. Some people however make so much advertised that I eventually at 4 o'clock have heard that there came about 10 people more!!! This is very very great especially because nearly all our guests where students what the most years wasnb't the case! It was a bit stressy but we have managed the task and where ready at time.
I've also taken the job on me to speak a word to the guests, because I want to learn to become more confident about myself in these kind of things.

Here are a couple of foto's of this lovely day.
We've eaten:
Colourful cornsoup (with onions,corn,paprika, parlsley vegetablebroth and thickened with flour)
Chili sin carne (Dutch brown beans, with fresh carrots and leek, corn, tomato and garlic) with coucous and a fresh salad with chicory, apple, lettuce and carrots.
And as dessert Biologic yoghurt or yofu with apple, cereals ans thick juice

We had very positive reactions and the question to organize this more often. We ware therefore thinking about organizing A environmentfriendly (and animalfriendly) christmasdinner!

I was very tired after that day(I have been at work for 12,5 hours at the day itself (9.30 till 10 at night), 6 hours at the day before for organizing an authorisation for cooking, printing promo, making placemats with a test to determine your footprint etc...
I haven't organize such events before but I have managed it. I personally get also many complements from the people that I organized it so well. Do I deserve them?

At least I've sleaped very very gooed that night, was happy to see the people enjoying the food and the atmosphere, cooking together and chatter with a girl who was coordinator a couple of years ago!!!

Till my next blog, hopefully very soon from now!!!