Dress No. 3

The weddings continue and so does my sewing challenge! There haven't been many updates recently but last weekend I was invited to another friends' wedding which, of course, also merited a new dress. Actually it was a good excuse to put my knitting down for a while and get sewing again, my frist project for 2015.

The result is this simple, 1960s-style dress in my favourite Marimekko fabric that I had been saving since 2012 when I last went to Finland (crikey, that long ago already!!) and paid a visit to the amazing Marimekko factory outlet in Herttonniemi which still haunts me in my dreams. It took me a looong time to decide what to make from this fabric but in the end I settled for a simple pattern that I had already used before. I wanted to be on the safe side before butchering this lovely fabric. 

So, nothing special about this pattern, I just added a lining which was a bit scary - the first time I do this for a dress. It worked out quite well although I had to do some reshaping because the lining ended up being too bulky. But nothing some last-minute cutting with a big pair of scissors couldn't solve.

Et voilà, here is my third "wedding" dress, slightly creased from the car trip - and I have to mention that I DID actually change my shoes later. 

 

 Pattern: Tunic from the Marimekko "Surrur"book

Fabric:Marimekko

Létt-Lopi in Luxembourg

I'm almost ashamed to admit it but together with Malta, Cyprus, Portugal, Bulgaria and Slovenia, LUXEMBOURG is the only out of all EU countries I haven't haven't visited yet. That had to be changed, of course, so we decided to make an express visit for two days of the long Ascension-weekend. My expectations weren't too high after all I had heard from colleagues who assured me that " half a day is more than enough and that includes two hours of drinking coffee". But I was positively surprised! Yes, it is tiny, but coming from Belgium it feels kinda cool to actually go to a country that's even smaller. It's a bit like being the big brother for once.

If I would have to sum up Luxembourg in one sentence it would be: green, friendly, and the best and cleanest public toilets I've ever seen in my life. It also has some good hiking spots which surprised me because I thought it would be so densely populated there's hardly any space for nature. So wrong! The towns are small so there's lots of nature left, for example the lovely Mullerthal trail  in Luxembourg's "Little Switzerland" near the German border. And the best thing is that they have great transport links so you can do everything by bus or leave your car at one place, hike somewhere, and take the bus back. Worked like a charm for me when I gave up after 2 hrs of the trail with some mean blisters of my new hiking boots.... 

We did manage to do quite a lot in two days in the end and we saw Luxembourg city (including a movie at the cinematek), Echternach, Berdorf and Vianden castle. Plenty of opportunity also to show off my not-so-new Lopi cardigan that had to undergo some renovations - here it is in its refurbished glory, finally actually fitting a human being. 

I also started a new Lopi project, this time a "Riddari" for Thomas which I promised to finish before our trip to Iceland in August. Keep checking here for updates!

 Pattern: Design 11 from Létt-Lopi Nr. 16 by Margrét Valdemarsdóttir

Yarn: Istex Létt-Lopi

"Birch" and Serres Royales

After many travelling hours on my trip to Peru I managed to finish the second version of my "Birch" shawl pretty quickly. I had already knitted one a long time ago but the yarn was a kind of fluffy mohair that keeps on losing more fluff so I wanted a plain everyday version. It was a good travelling project because it was very compact and once I worked out the lace pattern I could do it easily on the plane while watching films.

I finished just in time to wear it for the first time on our day out to visit the Serres Royales in Laeken and it was a perfect fit! Looking at the pictures I'm very happy, even though the shawl is a little bit on the small side. I might add a lace border later if I can get hold of an additional ball of that yarn. But for the time being I like it the way it is. 

The Serres were beautiful, actually much nicer than expected. I can't believe it has taken me over four years in Brussels to finally see them! On the downside I'm now more annoyed than ever that the King gets this amazing park all to himself most of the year. High time for a change, I would say.

 

 

 

Pattern: Birch by Sharon Miller

Yarn: Wollgarnspinnerei Ferner, La Doro 2-ply lace yarn

Peru: a yarn enthusiast's guide

When I decided to go to Peru a few months ago I was not actually aware of the fact that this is one of the best countries in the world to visit for textiles. Of course I knew about alpaca yarn but I just didn't make the connection. So, I find myself across the ocean on a different continent and I end up doing exactly what I do back home: buying yarn and knitting.

The trip was great in so many ways but one of the outstanding aspects was definitely to see all the amazing craft work that Peruvians produce and actually use in their daily lives. While most of the knitting, weaving and spinning by hand is done only for recreational purposes in Europe it is still part of the Peruvian culture. You can see people knitting pretty much everywhere and it is definitely not just for the tourists!

Market vendors in Cusco

The popular acrylic yarns for sale at the market

Of course you have even more specific things like the knitting men of the island of Taquile in Lake Titicaca which are (in knitting circles) pretty much world famous but anywhere I went, textiles were present. You just have to look at the ladies that take their produce to market or carry their babies in their colourful "mantas" (blankets) - even though these are most likely machine produced they are a practical, everyday item that is used frequently.

Lady in Puno with the traditional manta

Taquile knitting - the hat in the top middle had incredibly tiny stitches

Weaving demonstration

Funnily the Peruvians seem to actually prefer the acrylic yarn because that's what you get mostly at the markets. I cannot blame them as I LOVE the vibrant colours and I even got a fake alpaca hat in rainbow shades myself but it was actually quite a mission to get real alpaca yarn. I was most successful by sticking to the big brands, mainly Michell Group. They have a factory outlet where you can get alpaca, baby alpaca and acrylic mix yarns at wholesale prices - I paid 100 soles (ca. 35 €) for 1 kg of undyed, 3-ply alpaca yarn which I think is a decent price. That also means minimum quantities of 1 kg but that didn't deter me, of course, in contrary. 

Michell have stores in Arequipa, Lima and Cusco but I think the best place to shop was Arequipa where they have their base and the funny mix between shop, exhibition, zoo and factory outlet called Mundo Alpaca. It's a 5-minute walk from the city centre and very easily accessible. In Cusco I also saw that they had a type of "hole-in-the-wall" shop in Plaza San Francisco but it was much, much smaller and the opening times seemed to be a bit erratic.

The factory outlet at Mundo Alpaca in Arequipa, a yarn lover's dream

The raw material

And the fibre source!

Uncomparable vicuna-softness...

Museum exhibits

If you haven't scheduled a stop in Arequipa I would advise just to approach the knitting grannies on the tourist markets if you can see they have real alpaca garments in their stalls. I did that in Puno because I had a sudden craving for some more grey alpaca yarn that I didn't buy in Arequipa. The lady brought me an extra 500 g the following day, charging me the wholesale price. I'm pretty sure it is from the Michell factory as it used the same cardboard cones but I don't have 100 % proof that it's real - it can be quite tricky to tell if they're blends, even for yarn lovers like me! So if you're unsure it's better to stay on the safe side and use the factory shop as most of the market sellers will stubbornly insist that they sell "real alpaca" yarn which, in most of the cases, it's not.

The lady in Puno that sold me the extra yarn

Sadly I didn't find any handspun varieties and even when I saw people "spinning" with a drop spindle in tourist locations it was mainly fake, just posing for photo opportunities. It probably still exists but that would require some more scouting, preferably with a local who knows what you're looking for and maybe more on the countryside. 

All in all it was a great trip and I came back happy with my 1.5 kg of alpaca yarn and my head filled with lots of other memories - not all textile-related.

The loot!