Dutch Fishermen's Sweater To Be

A little before Christmas, Rowan gave me a book of patterns for Traditions Dutch Fishermen's Sweaters.  Then for Christmas, Serena gifted me yarn to make just such a sweater.  Needless to say, I am very excited by the prospect of making just such a sweater.  I've made some inquiries to the elder Vissers, as I would prefer to choose a sweater that has motifs from a fishing harbour where Vissers once sailed from.  I don't expect this to be a quick project, but I can't wait for the finished product.

Here's a photo of the raw materials (+16 more balls of yarn):

Did I mention that the yarn's colourway is Delft Heather? :D

Mind-bending genius

Changing up the pace a bit from hiking and the Alps, I'm going to post someone from our time in the Netherlands. One of the days, we were granted the use of a car to do with as we pleased for the day. We had some grand plans of going to visit the Delta works and so, but by this point in the journey we were pretty burned out and just wanted a short, relaxing trip. Driving to the Delta works probably would have been amazing, but it was still hours of driving away. So, instead we headed off to "The Hague" (sounds funny to me, as it is Den Haag in Dutch) and visited "Escher in the Palace" AKA the Escher Museum. The building itself was quite beautiful, as is called a palace because during the 18th and 19th centuries it was a palace, and Queen Emma stayed there until 1891.

The museum itself was very thought out, with the progression of rooms following Escher's work through his life chronologically, which also is the same thing as from normal to mind-bending. Much of his earlier work was quite mundane, though perhaps showing bits and pieces of what would show up in his later works.

By the end, it was just rooms filled with tessellations, impossible perspectives, and all of the other work that Escher is so well known for.

I thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience and gained a new appreciation for Escher's genius and unique his mind was.

Rotterdam by Ferry

So our adventures in the Netherlands continued today with a trip to Rotterdam by the fast-ferry. We had coffee at the Hotel New York. It was a quick afternoon trip, but it really gave me a good feel for what the city is like. The architecture of the buildings and bridges was very unique, almost nothing is built perfectly vertical... many buildings are slanted without perpendicular walls.

Kinderdijk... guess where we are!

Yup, that's right, Rowan and I are now in the Netherlands visiting with the Vissers that were just visiting in North American. Not to lose a minute of precious sight-seeing time, we headed off to see the Kinderdijk after supper on the first day here. We took a ICE train from Düsseldorf to Utrecht, and from there took stop-trains to Rotterdam and then finally to Barendrecht. Anyways, back to the Kinderdijk: it was very impressive and quite a wonder, especially when you are up close and the HUGE blades are whizzing past just a few feet away. The windmills at the Kinderdijk are illuminated by LED lights for just a few weeks each year, which made for a spectacular view in the evening. We also took a tour through one of the Windmills, walking all through and up to the top of it. Definitely a very impressive feat of construction and engineering.