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Actie #Hartverwarmen : little hearts for health care workers

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One of my knitting friends asked our help for giving some ❤️ to healthcare workers. During the first wave of Covid there was applause. Today the people are faced with impatience and verbal and physical abuse. Below I will describe in Dutch our mission to give some love and appreciation to the people working in health care, at homes for the elderly, in public transport and other front lines during the 2nd wave of Covid in the Netherlands. Via Inge : Deze Corona tijd is eenzaam, vervelend, angstig en frustrerend. Samen houden we vol, maar de zwaarste lasten liggen bij de zorgverleners. En juist zij hebben de laatste tijd te maken met agressie en bedreiging. Velen voelen zich in de steek gelaten en ervaren geen waardering meer voor hun grote inzet. In plaats daarvan moeten ze langs bewaking naar hun werk en verzoeken ze hun patiënten via het keuzemenu op de telefoon of met posters om vriendelijkheid en geduld. Laten we de zorgverleners Hartverwarmers sturen, als teken van onze waa
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The politics of knitting

"I am just here for the knitting." "Does everything have to be about politics?" These remarks often pop up in conversations in the yarn and knitting community. I am sure other communities will have the same comments from their members. Maybe you feel the same sometimes. Weary of the news on internet and television. You just want to clock out and relax with your knitting. You can do that. It is good for your mental health to switch off all the information input. But it is also a privilege of able bodied White women to be able to do so. Awareness is key here. Be grateful that you can, and strive for a world where this is an opportunity for everyone. When you step outside that bubble of 'yarn&you' into the community, then you can and should expect politics. Because whether you step into a yarn shop, follow a dyer on Instagram, or comment on a forum: everyone's experience is grounded in politics. The personal is political.  Maybe you think you are non-p
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Sewing project for knitters: an interchangeable needle case.

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I treasure my interchangeable circular needles. They are easy for adding needle length when knitting large shawls. And you always have all needle size/length combinations at hand. My circular needle set is from KnitPro , but there are other brands who carry them, like HiyaHiya. The only size that didn't work for me was 3mm. The wooden tips kept breaking. Steel points are better for me when thin needles are required. But for everything 3.5mm and up I am very content with Knit Pro. Keeping the needles loose in a basket was not an ideal storage solution. I needed to keep them out of reach from our cat Dita as she has been caught stealing wooden crochet hooks and sock needles before. But searching for a pair of the same size in the basket became a bit of a nuisance. Google brought me to the blog Life According to Missus Vonkysmeed . She posted a sewing pattern for a needle case. I read the whole pattern description twice to make sure I understood all the steps to take. For
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Why non-creatives should not be scared of craft workshops.

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As a self-confessed workshopaholic I have often met them. The non-creatives. Or at least that is who they think they are. They usually are at a workshop as a gift or in a group activity (like a baby-shower or a birthday). With slight panic in their eyes they enter the craft studio. Apologising beforehand that they are incapable of making anything nice, because they "are not creative at all". Well here's the news: there is no such thing as a non-creative! "Oh, but I am not creative at all!" The first misconception: "I have no imagination." Really? In childhood you made dozens of drawings, paper planes and clay models. Your imagination does not disappear. You are just using it in a different way now. Maybe you are fantasising about your travel plans, home décor, diner or a revolution. When you cherish and challenge your imagination your ideas will become fresher and bolder. Clear your mind and something will appear in your head. Ask people
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Pretzel Love Crossstitch for Make-A-Wish

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At my place of work (the Dutch branch of Holland and Barrett) we are having a fundraiser for Make-A-Wish . The Make-A-Wish foundation grants wishes of seriously ill children. So that, for one day, the kids and their family can forget about the illness and enjoy themselves. My contribution to raising the money is selling these 6 crossstitch DIY sets I put together. My design is a pretzel with a heart. It was a design I started on for my friend, a big Pretzel lover. But her gift eventually became a bigger pretzel. ;-) I sold already a few, but there are still kits available! You will get black crossstitch fabric, embroidery thread, a needle, a 11cm hoop (that's about 4 1/4"), a design and a tutorial in both Dutch and English. How do you get your hands on a Pretzel Love crossstitch kit? A DIY set costs €12 (is about 13.40 USD or 10.25 GBP). The shipping's on me, so FREE SHIPPING! If you would like to order a kit give me a shout via the comment section, or
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Going Green. Plastic-Free July - Food & Drink - The Easy, the Adaptations and the Struggles

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We are a week into Plastic-Free July: a challenge to deplastify your life. I got into it through The Story Of Stuff on Facebook: So here's my first update on how it goes so far. I'll focus in this post on the food and drinks sections. In the Netherlands we do have a special plastic recycle program ( or actually: downcycling ) , so it is very easy to track how much plastic our household collects as we keep it in a separate bin. I divided my experiences in 3 sections. * Easy life change: the why didn't I do this before? ** Needs some adaptation in lifestyle: doable, but takes more planning. *** The struggles: Hm, difficult: How am I going to make this work? * Easy life change - Shop local Preferably I'd be baking biscuits myself any way, because of the sugar. But in events that I will buy cookies, the ones at the bakery come in a paper sachet or I can bring my own container. While supermarket cookies are wrapped in 2 (sometimes even 3!) layers of plas
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Breien! in Fries Museum - Knitting! Exhibition

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Four knitters on a train. All the way up north to Leeuwarden. The exhibition Breien! / Knitting! in the Fries Museum is all about knitting. Finally I could see my Flamingo hat among the other 14 nominees for the Animal Hat contest 'Beestenboel'. It's really fun to see how each knitter has a different approach to the animal hat theme! In the same room as the 'hat-tree' there were little boxes with miniature knits about the history of knitting. We really enjoyed our museum tour. There was work from knitters we were familiar with and new discoveries. Westknits shawls at @friesmuseum . I wore my own #dottedrays 😊 @westknits #breien #friesmuseum #museum #knitting #exhibit #leeuwarden #shawl #westknits #westknitsshawl #knit Een foto die is geplaatst door Ama (@missminoes) op 21 Mei 2016 om 11:40 PDT Nice surprise was there were knitting patterns available. For instance of the skirt in the top right picture below. If you understand Dutc
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