ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

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.