This is a little photo of my train piece - "Of Female Arts" - which is on 32 ct country cream Belfast, with Vicki Clayton premium silk in Fish Pepper. The premium silk only requires one strand to cover 32 ct, so I'm finding it much nicer than the ordinary VC silk.

The little pin and needle box and the tape measure, they are wooden, are from Sajou. I was at Le Bon Marche today, and they have a whole Sajou display, so I picked these up. The Sajou things are not cheap, but these ones are cute.

I am at home this week, and probably next week as well, since I have to wait for a Dutch work permit, which finally will be granted. Such a fuss, they wanted me to go back to New Zealand to get my birth certificate stamped by the Dutch embassy there! And then they told me I would have to return there after three months in the Netherlands and not return to the Schengen area for three months.... um, no, I live in Paris for the past nine years....... So, in the end, I am a European tax payer and get a work permit on that basis.

I'll be happy to be back in Apeldoorn again, it's quite a nice town, although I don't know what they will find me in the way of an apartment. And it is a bit boring here at home trying to work, especially when it is something new for me, and I would like to discuss it with others.

I've been staving off boredom by ordering new Louisa Harding books and yarns, I'm in love with Grace Hand Dyed, and about to start a beret and fingerless mittens in that. At least it is warm here now, about 25 degrees all week, and warmer than that today, I would think 28 or so. You can tell who is a tourist and who is not, as the French have all got out their autumn clothes and are swathed in cashmere (I am quite serious), while the tourists and me are in summer clothes.