ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

We have had visitors from New Zealand.

Best Beloved went with our visitors on a bus tour and that Best Beloved rang from the clog factory – to say would I go out with him if he bought himself some wooden clogs!!!!! What could I say? Nothing, I said nothing.

Maybe silence says something as he didn’t actually buy any.

You may as well know that Best Beloved is probably the most photographed non Dutchman in the Netherlands. All it takes is a beard, cap, pipe and bike. It’s enough.

We were in Zaanse Schans – lots of things Dutch including windmills, clogs, boats, herrings, pancakes, blue and white china, tulips, swans, canals, etc. A very touristy spot, which is why we were there of course. And there they all were – a Japanese tour group, all in a row waiting for Best Beloved to ride by the windmill so they could get that authentic picture with the windmill in the background and the Ngapuhi Dutchman riding by. It seems that someone spotted him (us) coming and they all stood waiting with cameras raised waiting to get that very special picture.

And he was going to add clogs to that picture?

He would end up with writers cramp as they would ask him to sign cards.

Maybe I should create a special postcard to sell of him with his signature already printed. Maybe we could make a fortune and be able to revisit the Netherlands every year? Maybe?

Maybe we could make money out of him walking around all the tourist places? – people posing with a real dutchman?????

That has happened at a number of places already – people have asked to have their picture taken with him. They don’t ask if he is Dutch, just can they have a picture taken with him and his pipe and he always agrees.

They go away smiling at their bravery, and he chuckles like a wicked Ngapuhi from New Zealand.

He really does look the part, he never says I am a Dutchman, but he also never says he is not a Dutchman and if he did that would be rather hard to explain to tourists as he does look quite Dutch and they wouldn’t believe him, and would or could think him rather mean.

Even his boss who asked for a photo for some staff thing said he didn’t like the photo (not these here) because he looked too Dutch.

On that Zaanse Schans day we rode our bikes for a round trip of 42k’s, from our little house in Haarlem.

He was made in New Zealand as was his hat. Everytime we travel north we check at The Cabbage Tree in the Bay of Islands to see if they have any more. And sadly it seems that the supplier has retired and it seems noone makes this particular hat/cap anymore.

And I might just have shouted WHAT@#$$%!%#$#!!! to the question regarding the clogs.

What a nice group of people – sitting in a dark corner of the cafe hunched over their knitting and talking about who knows what – all double dutch to me. But then they are Dutch – so what could I expect.

They were lovely – they all speak English, at one level or another, and one of the group is English and has lived in the Netherlands for 35 years. And they knit the most amazingly beautiful things. They create beautiful fair isle knits -with tiny needles and thin yarns and delicious and beautiful colours. I am so in awe of their skills and patience to knit such beautiful time consuming pieces – shawls, socks, baby garments etc.

And they didn’t laugh at how I knit – which is really great. I thought they might knit the way I do as I understood from my teachers (my mother, and 2 aunts), that my way is the Continental way – or European way or perhaps the Scandinavian way. The group mostly seem to knit more like the English way I saw in New Zealand.

But they really are sitting in a poorly lit corner of the cafe – and there is lots of talking, and it could be bitching, I don’t know. I came away feeling really tired from trying to follow the conversation. I do have some hope because I do understand knitting, but my Dutch language is pretty hopeless.

I will go back – as just maybe this will encourage me into fair isle knitting and to creating socks and gloves etc using double pointed needles. I have only once knitted with DPN’s – my fingerless gloves.

So I may become a more capable knitter because these ladies have set a challenge – their work is fine and beautiful and I should explore the techniques and just maybe I will understand more Dutch before I return to New Zealand and that would be a bonus.