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!!!

Balfolk!!!:D o.a.

Hey,
hte is al weer een hele tijd geleden dat ik geschreven heb. Het studie jaar is weer begonnen en ik heb het al weer lekker druk met volgende week al 2 tentamens (voortgangstoets en mijn eerste open vragen bloktoets). Maar ik heb ook nog genoeg andere dingen gedaan hoor :).

Zo ben ik nog jarig geweest 31 augustus, ik ben nu officieel geen tiener meer :). Mijn oma (ik ben haar mooiste cadeautje zegt ze altijd:P)was op dezelfde dag jarig daarom heb ik niet echt familieverjaardag gehouden aangezien iedereen het sowieso al druk had. Ik heb wel met een aantal vrienden nog gzzlig mijn verjaardag gevierd en ben met hun naar de film inception geweest. Dit was een erg mooie film vond ik. Ik hevb voor mijn verjaardag trouwens van mijn ouders oa. nog een opblaasbare stoel voor in mijn kamer (makkelijk verhuisbaar, student), breiwol, een breiboek en een knorretje voor mijn verzameling gekregen. En van mijn vrienden een kookboek een dienblad met kaarsjes en een amigurumiboek. Allemaal hele leuke cadeautjes en iedereeen heel erg bedankt.

Verder ben ik nog lekker crea bezig. Het rugpand van sylvi is klaar!!!, de oslosteek (naaldbinden)lukt me nu eindelijk, ik heb nog de dozen met handwerkspulletjes die ik van de buurvrouw heb gekregen weer gevonden, heb een moeder aarde gemaakt en in de planning staat het om kaartweven uit te gaan proberen. Het kaartweven zal denk ik wel na volgende week worden, eerst tentamens leren. Dit weekend komt er als het goed is nog een crealogje met oa. wat foto's van mijn breiwerk aangezien ik het opslagkaartje van mijn camera in sittard heb laten liggen...

Verder heeft het ump (universitair milieu platform) ook weer vergadering gehad. Er zijn een heleboel nieuwe (en aardige) mensen. Het is sowieso fijn odat je met meer mensen meer kunt doen en bereiken (en het natuurlijk ook gezelliger is),zeker als het een goed klikkende groep is. Nieuwe mensen zijn trouwens alijd welkom:P.
De bedoeling is dat ik dit jaar een deel van de coordinator taken ga doen. Ik ga niet alles doen omdat dat vanwege de studie niet halbaar is en een oud-co van afgelopen jaar blijft de groentepakketen doen er is dus ook nog een vacature voor een mede co:P.
Op donderdag 14 oktober organiseren we in het kader van wereldvoedseldag op 16 oktober weer een wereldmaaltijd (een maaltijd die voldoet aan de hoeveelheden dat iedereen op aarde genoeg zou hebben als we zo aten), precieze info is nog niet bekend maar als iemand zin heeft om te komen eten(of helpen koken of alletwee) laat hij het maar horen :).

en zoals de titel van deze blog al zei ik heb nu Balfolkles :D. Ik heb heel lang zitten twijfelen of ik me op zou geven aangezien ik niet echt een super danstalent ben enzo. Maar ik wilde het heel graag leren zodat ik tijden de lessen en op andere momenten gewoon avn het balfolk kan genieten, er even lekker uit ben en ik wat meet aab beweging doe en heb me toen gewoon opgegeven.
Vandaag heb ik mijn eerste les gehad en het was heel leuk! Je krijgt nu rustiger uitleg dan op een castlefest of elffantasyfair maar toch niet te traag en je leert ook vanaf het begin echt goed hoe je danshouding moet zijn, hoe je dingen makkelijker kunt doen en oefent de dansen ook gewoon goed. Vandaag hebben we wat demonstratie gehad en zelf de andro en de jig gedanst:). Ook is er uitgelegd dat de regels die er bij balfolk zijn en de pasjes er zijn om gewon fijn met elkaar te dansen en ongelukken te voorkomen. Er zijn bvb geen regels met welke voet je begint, je mag varieren, je mag qua kleding dragen wat je wil zolang je anderen er niet mee hindert enz.
De mensen die verder in de groep zitten zijn ook heel aardig. Het is echt gewoon heel erg leuk!!! Voor mensen die meer willen weten over balfolk: www.balfolk.nl Hier staat in de wiki onzettend veel informatie over de dansen en staat ook info over de lessen en over bals (balfolkfeesten), waar ik ook best eens heen zou willen.

Verder volg ik nu ook nog vrijwillig het tropenblok. Dit zijn extra colleges op maandagavonden die aan over zaken als HIV, vrouwenbesnijdenis, tbc, gezondheidszorgorganisatie in ontwikkelingslanden waarvoor je met een toetsje een certificaat kan halen. De 2 colleges die ik tot nu toe heb gehad waaren beide erg interessant wat mijn betreft ook het deel wat door een hooglerar interculturele studies gegeven werd over oa. de invloed van de godsdienst in oa. Afrika op de ziekte en gezondbeleving van mensen daar. Dit was wat betreft veel medestudenten niet echt interessant, zei vonden dit erg vaag. bij pedagogische wetenschappen en culturele antropologie en ontwikkelingsstudies zijn dat de normale colleges en benadering. Zo zie je weer het verschillen tussen meer alfa studies en studenten en meer beta gerichte studies en studenten. Mij trekken ze beiden op hun eigen manier:).

Aan het einde van de vakantie ben ik trouwens ook no met mijn oduers gaan wandelen bij Vijlen, wat is ht daar mooi!:). het was de bedoeling dat we 14 km zouden lopen, maar we hadden ons ergens verlopen wardoor we uiteindelijk 16 km ofzo gelopen hebben (mijn vader was daar niet heel blij mee, aangezien voor hem 14 al vrij veel is qua conditie maar de omgeving en gezelligheid maakten het weer goed).

Tot ziens!!
En iedereen heel veel succes en geluk met studies en andere zaken!