a day in the life

I really hope I stumble on a good luck charm soon. Some days are such a mix bag of meh. Today seemed to exemplify my life here more than other days. So many things in one day! And more importantly, I had a camera to document all of them!

Here is the blanket I brought with me. It fell apart in the washing machine. Literally. I had to vacuum up the pieces (see picture below). I brought this one with because it is for a twin size bed. I guess that it's age is apparent. I think its over 10 years old, I dont remember when it was bought....












Pieces of blanket EVERYWHERE.
You know its a bad day when you have to vacuum up 1/4 your blanket off the floor. My never-ending Netherlands bad luck continues.









Chickens walking along the bike path!! This is so "Dutch" to me. These are the things that I love about this country (yes, there Are some). I really enjoy the little bits of nature I get when I bike around the Uithof.








Love the tree lined bike paths! And there are many. This was the one I biked down today.












I've Never seen birds sitting on sheep!!! Haha. So Cute! They even switched sheep every couple mins. Hopping off and hopping back onto another. Maybe they were eating something the grazing sheep turned up?





I felt really slow and out of shape when hundreds of bike racers passed by me. Luckily, they were on the real road with the cars so I didnt get swarmed or anything.

Shortly after this I pinched my sciatic nerve when I made a sharp turn on my bike. The ride home was not very pleasant. I stretched a Lot when I got home and so far it's calmed down.

This evening I cooked another recipe from the "Eating for Sustained Energy" book my coworker lent to me. I had high hopes but it suffered the fate of most of the dishes I make: lack of taste. Either I'm not using enough spices, or I'm not using the ones I like. Sigh. Keep calm and carry on.

decisions, decisions

I've decided where it will go. But, I'm torn between the two depictions. And i dont have the money. Yet. And I havent chosen the studio. Yet. But I have an itch. And it musts needs to be scratched.

I adore the ribbon structure, but I think it might be a bit too complicated for a small tattoo. Plus, it might cost me a bajillion dollars to get something so intricate. Sigh.

I better decide soon though. I finished my masters in May and this was supposed to be my congrats present
to myself.






















*In case you are a non-science type, these are molecular representations of Immunoglobulin M, IgM, a pentamer antibody.

beautiful yarn problem

I'm having a very serious problem. I brought only my most beautiful yarn and yarn i wanted to start projects with soon to the Netherlands. Except, for the beautiful yarn I'm having trouble committing to any one project. I really love the yarn, and I want to knit something with it so that I can wear the beautiful colors, but I'm afraid. I'm afraid of picking the wrong pattern and "ruining" the yarn. I'm afraid to commit to a pattern in case something better comes along. But then it will sit on my shelf forever. And that's not good either. sigh. I should just dive in really.

thoughts

I am totally supposed to be learning Dutch right now. But it makes my brain hurt! So of course I procrastinate by writing a quick post since I'm usually procrastinating blogging.

I am pretty much through all the difficulties of "settling in." I think. My permanent residence card should be arriving any week now.... But everything else is taken care of and that is a relief. All I have to do now to fit in is learn to speak the language. Sure... Well, it's slow going but I am trying. I've never been very good at languages. Sigh.

I also want to say to anyone thinking of moving to a new country: it's a giant pain in the ass. No really, it is. Since I didnt know any Americans who had done this before me (I know they are out there, I just didnt know any personally) I didnt really have anyone to ask advice. But just so that everyone is aware: countries do not want you to move. No matter where you are from, no matter where you are going, I'm convinced its a shit fest. Everything is difficult. Everything will give you headaches. Just know this and take comfort in the fact that you are not alone.

Once you get through all the initial paperwork crap though, it gets better. It's still not "easy" but hey, life never is. I am starting to actually enjoy my life here. Having a bike really helps. the fact that I love to ride helps too. Here, a bike = freedom. At some point I'll sit down and type out the specifics of the insanity I went through as an ex-pat/immigrant from the US to the Netherlands, in case anyone in the future is curious. But it will have to wait. I should really go learn the question words. And conjugate some verbs and such.

Tot ziens

Potato chips

About 3 years ago I began an unnatural love affair with potato chips after having not eaten them for over 10 years (not out of dietary concerns, i just wasnt interested). So of course when I moved here the potato chip selection was one of the first things I checked in the supermarkets.
They do of course have Pringles and Lays and Doritos here, but they are really expensive, so I've been sticking to local brands. And they are a bit odd. In flavor choice that is.

Common potato chip flavors here:
Paprika (really? that stuff doesnt really have a flavor....)
Bolognese (A potato chip flavored like a pasta sauce? Weird, but not bad tasting)
Cheddar Onion, or Onion Cheese (again, weird, but not bad tasting)
and finally...
BBQ Ham
wait, what?
BBQ ham???? Sure, real BBQ ham is great if you get it from the right place that knows what they are doing.... but a potato chip flavor? In the Netherlands no less, not exactly a place renouned for their BBQ.... Yeah, I'm going to stay far away from that one. I cant imagine anything less palatable than a potato chip fake flavored like ham. blech.

Sorta FO

I keep meaning to post about my moving adventures, and I just never get around to it. Soon, I promise. Maybe. But anyway, here is a finished sock. It's not exactly a proper FO as it is only one sock of the pair, however it is my third sock ever, so I'm excited. Even more excited that it actually fits! Even better.
The pattern is Jaywalker by Grumperina and details of course are on my Ravelry page.

weekend away

After a hellish homestretch, my thesis was printed and submitted on Friday morning. I am so beyond relieved that it is done. Then I packed and took the train down to southern Maryland to visit Amanda and Jason.


I knit them a beer cozy as a thanks for having me over for the weekend. Do you recognize this yarn? (: It's ChOrG! My Kool-Aid hand dyed! I love this yarn. It's so soft and smooshy. It's very pretty all knit up.


On Friday night the three of us went out to dinner, Amanda got her 3rd tattoo (some stars on her wrist), and then we went back to the restaurant (next door to the tattoo parlor) and had celebratory drinks.








On Saturday Amanda and I went to Maryland Sheep and Wool. It was dreary, chilly, and pouring rain when we got there which was a giant bummer. But luckily around noon the skies cleared and it got sunny. I didnt get any pictures of the yarn because the festival was jam packed. I could barely get in some of the stalls to look at the goods!!
Sadly I did not find yarn for specific projects, or a shawl pin that I liked, but I did get some beautiful yarn. I tired to take pictures of it, but it was so bleak today that I couldnt get good ones.






Here are some sheeps for you to enjoy. I didnt see a whole lot of alpacas. There were some bunnies too but all the little kids were crowding around them so, no pictures.











After the festival Amanda, Jason and I went out for yummy Thai food. Here is the appetizer platter - it's a party on a plate! Notice the random party explosion coming out of the shrimp thingy. It was very nom nom.














Today brought more rainy, depressing weather so Amanda and I decided to spend some quality time crafting. Here is Sydney claiming the ironing board as his own while Amanda quilts. I sewed up a new WIP bag.








For the WIP bag, I used this tutorial that I had used before..... But... either we read it wrong the first time or Amanda and I were doing something wrong today, b/c the pattern as written didnt work. The 21 inches of the big rectangle doesnt fit all the way around the 6x6 inch bottom square. Both Amanda and I tried. I ended up having to cut the bottom squares down to 5.5 x 5.5 inches.

It's a beautiful bag though. Muchas gracias to Amanda who let me dig through her fabric stash for this!








And here is the inside fabric.


It's definatly not fabric I would normally buy for myself, but when I saw it today I really liked it. I dont know what's up with me and red lately. But whatevs, I'll run with it.









Here it is next to the first bag I made. I think my sewing today was not the best quality, but I think non-crafters would have a hard time finding fault with it. I really like that it's taller. Now I just need a cord to cinch it up. I thought I had a light blue shoelace but I dont, it's purple. So I might knit a brown I-cord.


All-in-all, a lovely weekend! And as soon as the sun comes back I will post some pictures of the crazy awesome yarn I bought at MDSW!

I also finished one shawl, and made serious progress on the never ending stole of grey. But the damn thing still isnt close to being done and I have 4 days! Yikes! - I gotta run now and go knit some more!

Happy colors

My thesis pretty much imploded on Friday. I had a reader tear it apart at the very last minute and of course, instead of being productive, I've wallowed in depression this weekend. And a little bit of anger too. I've worked on my thesis yes, just not on her corrections, yet. So on Saturday when I noticed that the grocery store had a big stand with all sorts of Kool Aid flavors (previous weeks it had only 4, yes kids, 4 flavors), I knew it was time to scratch the Kool Aid dying itch.


First I washed the Knit Picks Bare Superwash merino/nylon yarn in gentle shampoo and left it soaking in water.











Then I mixed the Kool Aid packets (black cherry, orange, grape) into cups of water and "painted" the yarn. I found out that my brand new baster does not have a seal (grrr) and had to spoon the dye onto the yarn. Also, I used waaayyy too much liquid and had to sponge it up repeatedly.







But the end result was a beautiful skein of happy colored yummy smelling (and still a bit sticky) yarn. Red and orange are not my usual colors but I just adore this yarn. It produced the desired result and has indeed given me happiness.

Sure, there are some white spots, but I actually dont mind, I think it gives the yarn character. And it reminds me that it's "hand-painted."

I named it ChOrG. Ugly name for a beautiful yarn.




















In fact, I just started knitting with the yarn and I adore the colorway even more! None of the pictures really captures the brightness and saturation of the yarn. It's very pretty and complex and somehow manages to self-stripe very nicely, without much pooling.


Happiness all around.


Well, except for the fact that I still have the never-ending stole of gray to finish in TWO WEEKS. Ugh. Cross your fingers! (I'm halfway done).

In other news - the BRUINS swept the Canadiens to make it to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs!!!!