Stitches and Thrills

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...

Our cat Dita turns out to be an avid plant and flower eater. So we did not have any bouquets in our house for a while now. And as spring is only crawling in with baby steps some floral decoration would be nice to brighten up our home. From a flower guide book I took these beautiful illustrations and gave them a decorative edge. Hello floral bunting! Hello spring! Bring the springtime in your home too! Book & Button Buntings available at AllFairness .

Introduced in 2014 it became quite the trend in 2015: Arm knitting. Here's the most used video tutorial. Things to keep in mind: - The first time you arm knit you might take 1 or 2 hours to make a scarf. Once you get the hang of it, it goes a lot quicker. - Take a bathroom break before you cast on. Not very handy to bring all that knitting to the toilet!

When on vacation in beautiful Florence (Italy) last week, I was inspired of sharing the holiday snaps in a fun way with my friends through Instagram and Facebook. The photos were tied together creatively by making a series of drawings and then cutting out the main shape. That way the background would become the pattern of the drawing. The cat theme popped up because we knew we were going to adopt 2 cats the day after we'd come back from Florence. =^x^= Unprepared as I was, we had to go paper shopping on our first day for some more sturdy paper. The 80grams I had with me was wind swept to easy. As one of the IG-comments suggests: it is also a very nice activity to do with children on vacation. Are you inspired? Share a link to your creative paper cutting holiday snaps in the comments section! #catwithaview from the Boboli Gardens. Een foto die is geplaatst door Ama (@missminoes) op 17 Jul 2015 om 4:55 PDT Not a cloud in the sky. Een foto die is geplaa...

Papieren diamantjes hanger. Hier is de eerste beschrijving van de Etsy #CraftParty 2015 in Leiden. Materiaal:  Papieren stroken . Voor een diamantje heb je een strook nodig waarvan de lengte 8x de breedte is. Dus bv als de strook 2.5 cm breed is, dan is de lengte minstens 20 cm. Of als de lengte 32 cm is (bv een atlas pagina), dan knip je hem op 1/8 dus 4 cm breed. Dun touw en een lange naald . Stokje / takje / grote sateprikker. Je kan ook een mobile maken door bv een oude borduurring te gebruiken. Paper diamond hanging decoration. Here's the first tutorial from the Etsy #Craftparty 2015 workshop Leiden! Material:  Paper strips : For 1 diamond  you need a paper strip of which the length 8 times the width. So if your width is 1 inch, than the length is at least 8 inch. Thin thread and a long needle. A stick or little branch. Or you can go circular with an old embroiderie ring. Draai de strook om en vouw een hoekje van 45 g...

It is Etsy #CraftParty time again! For the first time this year we are hosting a Craft Party in our very own home town of Leiden! Two years ago I had attended a party in Amsterdam hosted by the Ka-Ching Collectief and had enjoyed myself very much. With our growing and active Leiden team we decided to join in with this annual event. During the Etsy Craft Party people are organizing creative events worldwide! Find out if there is a party in your neighbourhood here . The theme for 2015 is: " Kaleidoscope: Paper Taking Shape ". We have translated the theme in 3 small workshops which we are currently preparing. 1: Making a landscape booklet 2: Using discarded books as material 3: 3D folding Go and check our inspiration board on Pinterest . We found some great projects, albeit some way too ambitious for one afternoon. We are taking into account that a lot of non-Dutch speaking people are also very fond of crafting so we are prepared on giving instructions in E...

As European enamelware goes the Cathrineholm factory in Norway is very famous. But The Netherlands has it's own legendary enamel and cast iron producers : DRU (Diepenbrock en Reigers te Ulft). You might know them from the DRU Holland pastel coloured enamelware with the tulip logo, but my favourite series is this one:   When I started going to flee markets about 25 years ago it must have been one of the first items I picked up: a battered black enamel bowl with tiny yellow and red dots. There just was something so adorable about it. In the years following more of these bowls did pop up on my thrift store trips every now and then, and I was always drawn to them. Mostly they were as battered as the first one I picked up, but I started to be more selective: occasionally there was a bowl and lid in very good condition! Research learned that these enamel bowls were actually a Dutch design classic. The Confetti series was designed by Willem Gilles in 1953/1954 for DRU (Diepe...

A must see this summer are the 3 exhibitions at the Textielmuseum in Tilburg. It's where I spend this lovely Sunday afternoon! A major attraction is the overview of 20th-century textile designs from famous artists like Miro, Picasso, Warhol. The historic background is very interesting, the textile designs by painters and other artists were often created to make art more accessible ("Art by the yard"). But the real stars of the exhibit are of course the fabrics themselves. It is a good thing they put a lot of notes around saying: Don't touch! because some fabrics look so inviting.  (3:Estelle Laverne | 4:Nevill Johnson | 5:Eduardo Poalozzi | 6:Steinberg | 7:Andy Warhol) ARTIST TEXTILES, Picasso to Warhol (- till September 14, 2014) - - - x x x - - - On the first floor of the museum I felt like stepping into wonderland. There are 2 intriguing and surprising exhibits. The first one is the 8 fascinating tapestries based on the subconscious hallucin...

Friday November 22nd the  Etsy Pop-Up Winter Pop Up Shop (organized bythe Ka-Ching Collective) was officially opened with a small party. My compliments for Babette , Margriet , Annabel and Barbara : they created a wonderful shop. There is a lot of variation in the items they selected, yet it all works together perfectly. From both my shops items are available in the pop Up Shop ( MissMinoes and AllFairness ): Apart from the familiar Etsian faces I also met some nice new shop owners. I talked to Nelleke of RedCheeksFactory , the girls from the bows at StrictlyAmsterdam , and to Beau from TheHelloShop . Beau is both designer and soap maker. But THE gift idea for this years holiday season is her home made beard oil . It softens the beard and nourishes the skin. Apart from the socializing we also had first choice in doing our shopping. This even created a line at the cash register! A great success on the first day already. I couldn't leave without Muscle Man Paper ...