Amsterdam Streets, Canals and Bikes

This was my first impression of Amsterdam - bikes everywhere! Amsterdam has narrow crowded streets,

and wide thoroughfares. Trolley lines go down the middle.

These buildings and cafe are on the edge of one of the many canals. It was a drizzly day, which is pretty common in this low-lying, oceanside city. Then sudden bursts of heavy rain, followed by brief sunshine.

Old and new buildings side by side. The hooks at the roofline allow furniture, etc., to be hauled up, avoiding the narrow winding stairs.

We took a canal ride, circling and winding through the city. Lots of bridges. Note the bikes.

A view from the canal boat. Houses are built right on the canal with boat access, like Venice.

A visit to one of the world's famous museums, the Rijksmuseum.

No pictures were allowed, but I sneaked this one of the fabulous Delft porcelain. Sorry I couldn't photograph the Rembrandt and Vermeer.

And another famous spot, the Heineken brewery.

Invitation to a European River Cruise

The next few weeks of this blog will take you on the cruise Hubster and I took down several rivers in the heart of Europe the first two weeks of September.
First is an introduction to our ship, the Casanova. It was owned and operated by a German company, and the crew was mostly German and Hungarian, who spoke English much better then I spoke German (which is not at all). We were with an Elderhostel group of 18 other people (all extremely nice, I might add); there were also a large group of Canadians and a few Germans on the cruise.
So here's what the boat looks like, with room for just over 100 passengers and 40 crew members. with a shot from the sundeck, with our bartender Attila bringing us our "wishes", also interior photos of the registration desk, the lounge and bar, and the dining room. And I should add that we had a 4-course meal plus salad bar twice a day, huge buffet breakfast, and snacks in between.

Here's the little cabin where we lived for 14 days. The couches were made into beds while we were at dinner, and back into seating during breakfast. There's a bathroom with shower to the right of the door to the hall which you see below. We had wonderful views through floor-to-ceiling french doors.

And these are the people who made our trip so wonderful - the captain is on the left (I only saw him dressed up like this twice), the restaurant and housekeeping managers, the purser, etc. Not a great photo, but you get the idea.

So if you'd like to continue the tour, please check in every few days for another episode. Next up is Amsterdam, where we started our journey.

Cruise Knitting

Hubster and I are back from our two-week European river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest, and selected pictures will be posted in the next few weeks. I was on the lookout for yarn to buy as souvenirs, and managed to spot only one yarn store - it was actually a guilt shop but she also had a shelf of yarn. I bought two balls of Kaffe Fassett colorway sock yarn, which I could have gotten anywhere locally but this is my souvenir from Germany.I also knitted a few feet on what has become my standard travel knitting, lace weight yarn for a feather-and-fan scarf. I haven't finished this yet, but it will go to Indiana with me in November. This photo is actually last years scarf - the current one is rose red, but I didn't take a photo before I tucked it away in my suitcase for the next trip.

Last Minute Stuff

We're leaving for a long-awaited vacation - cruising down the Rhine and Danube from Amsterdam to Budapest - on Friday. I'm hoping for some time to buy souvenir yarn and/or antiques, but last year they kept us pretty busy, and I had to shop on the fly.

This is my planned knitting project - a lacy mohair scarf (maybe two) on circular plastic needles which are easy to pack. A lot of knitting in a small ball and an easy feather-and-fan pattern. (This was one I made last year.)

I wanted to share this picture before I went - this is GD5 Maisie with a penguin, taken at Mystic Aquarium last weekend. She was thrilled to have these friendly birds come up to her finger underwater.

I'll be back in three weeks, and will share some photos.

Playing Blog Catch-up

I haven't written much knitting content lately, so I'm adding a bunch of stuff today that I've finished in the past month or so, or still have on the needles. First off is bit of ribbon in a lace pattern, which started out as a vest for me. I didn't like the way it was turning out, so I frogged it and started again by added alternating rows of grey mohair to the ribbon in just a simple garter stitch, and now it's becoming a prayer shawl. The mohair softens the ribbon and also adds strength - I'm loving it now. This is my completed letter "C", for the Poetry Society in London. It will join over 7000 other letters and spaces to form a poem. We haven't been told yet what the poem will be - the squares will be stitched together and unveiled in October. This is a huge project - my square measures approximately 12 inches square. I hadn't done intarsia in a long time, but this came out well - actually very smooth.

This is the pair of socks I knitted from the "flat feet" fabric which you unravel as you knit along. I used kitchener stitch on the toe ends - the first one came out just fine the first try, but for some reason I just couldn't do it again on the second sock. I made such a mess of it that I had to rip out the toe end three times and try again.

This is a photo of the final successful kitchener toe. At last! This is a little sweater I'm knitting from acrylic baby yarn in multi-pastel colors. I started it before I knew the sex of the expected baby - now I know it's a boy. This is not a frilly pattern so it will work well for the new babe, due at Christmas-time. I just have to sew it together and add the ribbing at the neck. This was a problem as well, because I had the front, back and half of a sleeve done when I took a close look and thought the front section was brighter than the other pieces, even though the lot number was the same. At first I thought "No one will notice but me", but then I had the semi-brilliant idea to rip back the sleeve raglans on the front, add some shaping, and turn it into a matching baby cap. I gave the prospective mother the baby cap at her shower, with a note that the sweater will be sent on later.

So since I now have two months left to finish this sweater, I started on another project. This is the Valley Log Cabin Blanket from WEBS. The pattern calls for 13 patches in each square, but I'm doing only nine - eight different colors and one used twice. I'm using stash yarn for this project - it's all wool yarns, but some are worsted and some are thinner yarns used doubled. There's a little different in texture, but I think it will work together when it's all sewn together. It's a little tricky to pick up the stitches evenly along the edges of the patches, but once that is done, it's just garter stitch and simple fun to do. Each square will be different by having the colors offset.

Horray for Alpacas

Last week, the Knitting Guild met at the

Shadow Pines Alpaca Farm, and here are

some photos of these cute and friendly critters.
They come in all shades of neutrals - black, white,

grey, and brown.

My favorite seems to have a little bit of all the colors.

Here's a Momma and a few little ones.

I bought a skein of wonderfully soft black alpaca,
from the fleece of an animal called Sharon.

Her picture is on the ball band.

I'm planning a lacy black

scarf, which will go well with my red coat.

Baptism for Lucas

Sunday was the baptism of my 3-month old great-grandson,

Lucas. He was so sweet through the long one-hour ceremony - the Deacon who performed the baptism certainly took his task seriously. He inserted so many special touches - responsive readings, a homily, special things for little brothers and sisters to help out with, you name it. The baptism itself was almost an anticlimax. All of the pictures I took in the church came out fuzzy, but here is a nice one of baby and parents.

This picture looks like Lucas is struggling to get away from me,

but I really think the expression on his face is adorable (and I don't think I'm biased).

This next photo is four generations, with me at the top of the family ladder (does that make me a matriarch now?)

This photo is special to me, as the little lacy dress is the one

my father was baptized in, in 1898. Lucas had another special outfit to wear, so we just put his great-great-grandfather's dress over him for the picture.

The Big Poetry C

I volunteered to knit a letter for the Poetry Society in London. There are over 7076 volunteers each knitting a 12-inch square containing an intarsia letter - mine is C. They're going to sew all the letters together and reveal the finished poem in October. I started mine with two shades or purple, then found out after about an inch and a half that my light purple was stained (it was a ball given to me by someone who found a bunch of yarn at a yard sale). So I had to start over with beige and dark purple. The photo I took shows the original colors.

And I've finished the Johnny Sweater for GGS#1 Lucas. I found little blue buttons for the finishing touch. I think it's pretty big for a 3-month old baby, which is what he'll be when I give the sweater to Mom at his baptism in early August. I have a pair of tiny little blue jeans to go with it. So cute!

It's been raining so much the last two months that I actually haven't had to water the pots on the deck at all. I have coleus and pink petunias - they're looking great right now. No picture, though.

Former Sweater and Bear Shirt

So this is what I did last night - I started with this baby sweater purchased at a yard sale,

and turned it into four skeins of yarn. I think the fiber is acrylic,

but it looks like a bulky wool. I think a lovely bulky scarf would work well for this.

I love this tee-shirt, which I bought a couple of weeks ago at a huge art/craft fair in Minneapolis. It was held in a large park on the shore of the Mississippi, next to the old General Mills and Pillsbury plants. I bought it directly from the artist, Sue Rowe, who specializes in bears - it was hard to make a decision but I knew I wanted one of those shirts, so this was my final choice. Kind of fits my philosphy, or so I like to think.

Minnesota

Here are a few photos from the recent trip to Minneapolis, to visit S3 Randy and his family. We had a little celebration for the Birthday Boy - the girls made the big banner on the way and decorated a cake like a baseball field (Red Sox, of course).

Randy, GD4 Emma and I spent an afternoon at the American Swedish Institute - they have a gorgeous mansion built in the early 1900s by an immigrant who became rich by publishing a Swedish newspaper for the thousands of other immigrants who moved to the area at that time. My souvenir is a silvery pendant with an illustration of a Viking rune meaning Strength.

Randy and GD3 Ally participated in a father-daughter dance recital - he'll kill me but I'm putting the picture in the blog anyway. Bet you can't guess he's a caveman.

And lastly, here's a picture of the University of Minnesota Arboretum's peony garden in full bloom. This is such a spectacular area with acres of different types of plantings - the hosta garden is one of my favorites, but seeing the peonies in full bloom was a very special treat this year.

And I saw my very first soccer game too - Ally is a strong player for her team. And all this in only 3-1/2 days!