Sinterklaas in spring

Huh? Sinterklaas in spring? That’s right, today I’m celebrating Sinterklaas with a couple of knitting friends! Officially Sinterklaas should be celebrated on December 5th (evening), but that was not possible for everybody, so we decided to postpone it. First we were going to celebrate in February, but due to some cancellations we had to move it even further into spring.

For Sinterklaas the custom is to have a secret partner for whom you will make a “surprise” (usually something fun or silly that acts as the packaging for the real present) and an accompanying poem. We decided not too make it all too big and too long, but fun it was!

I’ve been working on my present for a while. I made a “Buitengewone Breimachine” (Extraordinary Knitting Machine) for my partner. You had to put in the QR code of a knitting pattern, yarn, and a “pepernoot”, then pull the button, and ta-da! an “automatically knitted” piece of knitwear! For another swap I had been knitting wristwarmers for the same person, and I decided to include these as the “demo object” for the machine. It took quite a while to paint and assemble the knitting machine. After each layer I had to wait until it was dry before I could continue.

Kerstballetje and I traveled together, first by train, then a bus, then another bus…

After a short walk in the sunlight (it feels like spring now!) we arrived at the house of Spectre120. Wolop-Lien was already there, and it was so nice to see each other again! Spectre120 had prepared a delicious lunch for us: she had made a gorgeous pumpkin/zucchini/ginger soup with little oven heated buns. Wolop-Lien had brought her home made chutney of mango and onion, which tasted wonderful as well.

With our bellies full, we started reading the poems and unwrapping the surprises. Everybody had been very creative! Spectre120 got a yellow motor helmet (she started riding a motor cycle recently) with beautiful fingerless mitts inside and some other great goodies too. Kerstballetje got a cozy house with tea and knitting stuff inside, things to keep her warm! Guus, Spectre120’s cat, intervened and decided that a good house should also contain a cat. He forced himself onto her lap between her and her present. Good for him and right he is! Wolop-Lien was my swappee, and she got my knitting machine. She was happy! (sigh of relief)

I got a nice present too! Not all of the swap participants could make it to the party, unfortunately, but we did send photos and videos back and forth to keep everybody entertained. Gloryfied, who was not there, had made my package, and it was huge… it had a weird shape…

The poem started with a riddle…

Those posts were something like:

I’ll never understand why people like spinning.

Some time later:

Oh, I really like my spinning wheel. But spindles, meh, I tried one once, and didn’t like it. But it was a cheap one, perhaps I should give it another try?

Some time later:

Wow, I managed to buy a Jenkins spindle, I’m so happy! And it’s gorgeous and great and I love love love spindle spinning! Could this be the beginning of a new hobby/collection?

Well, we all know how that turned out… and inside the fabric I found… an enormous turkish spindle, with presents on it, held together by yarn that was neatly wound onto it!

Let me tell you, it was glorious. I made some pictures at home of the empty spindle to show you the awesomeness. It was inspired by a Jenkins spindle and made out of paper… complete with two ladybugs on one of the arms, and the material, weight and year on the bottom!

The other ladies helped me unwind the spindle (it was quite a lot of work), and the presents were lovely! Gloryfied had sent me different colour merino samples to blend with, some angelina and silk, silk cocoons, a sample of wool soap, purple beads, chocolate mints, some pastel chalk, a tea cozy with sheep on it, and a pair of purple slippers. Perfect! Oh, and of course there was a lot of glitter in there as well (sorry about your floor, Spectre120) – this came from Gloryfied after all!

We had a lot of fun this afternoon! It was just such a good time with lovely ladies. Always a pleasure. After unpacking the presents we had some chique cake as a reward.

We left around five after a wonderful Sinterklaas party. I’m already looking forward to next year!