Slump

I've hit a major slump. And have totally stopped with all of my crafting projects for almost a day now. But since I just had one blond moment this gives me enough energy to start again.

First, vacation (oh, so long time ago) was perfect in hindsight. Out of six weeks maybe just a day without the sun. And that was important in the end, we didn't get to see much of that stellar body once we got back home.

My nephew came back with us, for a two weeks visit. And what is a favorite pastime of 13 old boys visiting their aunt? Roller coasters! We managed to hit three major parks in the area, this helped to double the number of times I ever sat in a roller coaster. Never my favorite, but have to admit, in the end I did have a good time. But am not asking for more unlike my 5-year old. He was at the time 121 cm high which qualified him for almost all rides. And we skipped only one, Python in Efteling. I thought no safety harness on that ride would keep him in the seat.

And then I tried to recover from it all. Bring house in order, establish routines and get a hang of my projects. Didn't do much during vacation, finished only the back of Schachenmayr micro fino pulli. But it is progressing nicely, eventually I should complete it. Did complete this monkey, gift for a baby, think it turned out cute. Did finish also a scarf and a girls purse, still didn't take photos! Will have to do it soon.

And now to the slump. Approx two months ago I've signed up for patchwork class. And, ambitious me, didn't select beginners class (none available anyway) but for a free-cutting method. It was a lot of fun getting drawn into this new world which I managed so far to admire just from the distance. But, this weekend it finally hit me. My project is turning out quite ambitious and I have spent now almost three days figuring one major point in my design. I believe I'm close to resolution on this big stumbling block, but the energy is not quite back yet.

There is one more project which led me to slump, Berroco's John Stocking. I'm at the foot, was happily going for it and then realized it is just getting way to long. I don't know of any Santa's with such disproportionate foot, so I went back and looked at the photo. And, sure enough I've added extra rows. And, how did that happen, might you ask. In its ultimate wisdom, all lines of different parts of the stocking are mashed into just one or maybe two paragraphs. And, once I read to repeat a section called "Next row", I did just that. Not suspecting that next row actually consists of just that, next row and not all instructions bunched up after it. So, the stocking will still be done before Christmas, but I could have done without all this frogging.

And the blond moment. A few weeks back I visited Veritas store in Lommel, Belgium, recently opened. I own a few of their pattern magazines, but yarn description is not contained in it. So, I bought some yarn and was sitting last few days trying to figure out the composition, gages and needle sizes based on this purchase. Only to realize today, after visiting adriafil.com, that is the yarn used in most of the projects. Now, why is it so difficult to publish this in either the magazine or on the web. It's just one more of the things I'm labeling as customer friendliness on this continent.

And now, back to the patchwork and later to the stocking as well!

Two more complete

Yes, I finished two more projects and am now ready for vacation. Not, of course, from crochet or knitting, but a change of scenery will do me good. So, one more day of packing and we are gone. That is my son and myself. My husband will follow two weeks later.



Oh, it is difficult to wait to leave this terrible weather, windy, wet and colder than 20 celsius. I did wash all jackets so now we are reduced to wearing rain gear as protection from the wind.



So, the first finished project is crocheted giraffe. I didn't know it will turn out that big (115 cm long) but it does look appropriate as a companion to our almost a year old niece. This is her birthday present, her parents like it, I hope she does as well. Of course, it didn't go smooth, the connecting piece turned out to short so I had to extend it and stretch a bit to make it all fit. And I did make the horns but they just didn't fit nicely so I didn't attach them.


The other which I'm proud of is gloves. Pattern name is Progressive Gloves. This was my first knitting project with double pointed needles. I thought I'll just make mittens, but as I progressed I realized I prefer gloves. And so it was. I like the yarn (Schachenmayr Universa Color) and bought it as soon as I noticed snowflakes on the label. I made small adjustment to the pattern by adding two extra stitches for the little finger. And I also did three rows of decreases on the thumb to exactly match mine. And now just to wait for the winter to test the warmth! And it seems I'll not have to wait long, my fingers are getting cold as I'm typing right now!

My latest works

Of course, between various activities I managed to find time to knit and crochet. Most of these projects are small but various in complexity.
This is "Purple Pleasure" from "Crochet Kerchiefs" by Kely Robinson. Fun to make and fun to wear. It was perfect accessorie for my long hair during those hot days in Australia and Singapore. I just couldn't make it purple, thought beige is more coordinate friendly color.

On "Gerbera Doily" from Crochet Home and Holiday magazine of July 2001 I worked for of and on for almost a year. But like the pattern, might soon start on another colorful crochet project.

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''Swirls Doily" (as I call it, made to a torn out schematics page) was also fun but the edge just didn't work out for me. I had to fudge it a bit to make it work.

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"Chunky Monkey Scarf" from "Not your mama's crochet" by Amy Swenson is an easy pattern but with both meaning to the words easy. I constantly had to recount and ripple a few times since I kept making shells in the wrong spaces. But using three strands of yarn together made for a nice colored result. Nice option to the variegated yarn in my opinion.

"Cable Scarf" was my first cabled knit and amazing fun. Am definitely going to pursue this technique further. I had to frog on this a bit since I was not paying attention to the edges and they would end up being just knit instead of ribbed. I also forgot to rib the start of the scarf so had to match the end as well. Gave it to my brother in law as a birthday present but heard from him that it was appropriated by one of his 5-yr old sons. Yes, it is also warm and cuddly and am glad it has found such a nice home.

"Getting Dizzy Scarf" from "Not your mama's crochet" by Amy Swenson turned out a bit exotic due to the fuzzy yarn I applied on the outer edge. Am not sure if it will get mucht wear due to that fact.

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"Crocodile Hat" from Impact Moda "32 Fabulous Colourwork Knits for Kids 4-10 years" was my first venture into multiple colored knits. Instructions suggested to knit in one color and later stitch the crocodile but I definitely didn't fill like it. Knitting with two colors to the schematics was a lot more fun (even thought I made that beginner mistake of wrongly wrapping the yarn at color changes resulting in a big gaping hole). And my son has happly worn it to school while the weather permitted. Now that I've bought him a store made fleece with an emblem of Spiderman, I'm afraid crocodiles will spend a lot of time in the drawer. Oh, well, maybe will feel sorry for his mama and use both interchangeably!

And the last one is "Jilly Scarf" which I made just with fuzzy yarn. I like wearing it, it doesn't itch and is not warm at all. Maybe I've made it just a tad too long (205cm, 81") but that didn't present any major issues so far.

Family day(s)

Family day was the name of my husband's company picnic which took place last Saturday. We arrived there for lunch (cold but big) and after a short program I went to learn how to arrange flowers while my husband stayed with our son.


I expected I will be arranging flowers in a vase or on a foam piece but in the end it turned out to be a lot nicer. We arranged eucalyptus leaves on a styrofoam board, attached them with pins and placed everything into a metal frame. I didn't like the part of instructions of leaving the heads of the pins visible. Instead, I covered pins by laying subsequent leaves over them. I'm quite happy with the result, hope it is visible on the photo. We also did the foam arrangement which turned out quite nice as well since foam is in the ring shape.


My son also had fun exploring all shapes and sizes of slides, swings, jumping and biking facilities. He was seriously sweaty by the time I saw him after two and a half hours of fun.


And last Monday (a week ago) we visited the Hoensbroek castle. It was a holiday so we could all go together with friends and their kids. And this day was also reenactment of the medieval times which meant knights tournament and archery demonstrations. It was all geared mostly towards kids but I did have a lot of fun myself.

We managed to walk through the castle, it is indeed big. Shame, like most of the Dutch castles, it is now used mostly for wedding ceremonies. There is barely any original furniture left and I definitely miss that. There have also been some old games set up in the courtyard but the highlight of the day was fight with the knits. Until they all dropped "dead"! First kids got the chance but after them the mothers! I was sceptical about my contribution in this quest but it turned out to be excellent way to relieve the stress! Are kids also fighting for that reason? I kind of doubt that.

Back

So, where have I been all this time. Not that far away, actually, but somehow these simple activities still managed to keep me away from blogging.

We did spend Christmas and New Year with my family in Zagreb. It was nice, we even managed to play in the snow, real one and not the wet stuff that finally managed to fall in the Netherlands in March. We drove there and back. It is a doable one day trip so my husband is going to repeat it this summer again as we enjoy the sea this summer.

Needles to say, this trip was a bit to close to Australian trip, so I continued to recover from both for the next month. And we couldn't face another trip any more, so no skiing this year. Again! We promised to ourselves a ski vacation for next year, it has to be a good reason to stop us from going.

And then we finally booked our first real dutch vacation in May. Since I didn't trust the weather to stay as nice and warm as it was in April we went south, to the Limburg province. It turned out to be right decision, weather was showery and not to warm. We still managed to see a lot and stay dry. I fell in love with the rolling hills, tranquility, open spaces. Visit to Maastricht was painful. My son (5 at the moment) had not fun whatsoever there. While in Aachen he really enjoyed himself. How can it be that one city has all the fountains, slides, parks and similar places where a kid can recharge battery and the other none? And it is not that Maastricht has no room for this sort of entertainment. There is river Maas flowing through the center of it with nice green banks on the side, how about a small playground? Or have we been so unlucky to miss all of them?

My son and myself are leaving for summer vacation as soon as school is over, June 29th. I can not wait to dip again in Jadran (Adriatic). My husband is joining us two weeks later and will stay with us for the following four weeks. Oh, what a bliss will that be again. That is the only vacation we spend sitting, swimming and eating!

And I see it is necessary my son gets to be exposed to Croatian again. He is trying to talk only dutch to me these days and is starting to complain if I try to stop him. I want him to continue to speak Croatian. There is a small number of Croatians compared to other nations of the world, but still, these are his roots, I can keep at least this small connection. It is a bit difficult with school age kids, but I believe he will be able to appreciate it once he grows older. I did run into enough people that felt sorry for not being able to speak their parents language.

Holidays

I know, it has been a bit since Christmas and New Year, but for me there was also our November trip to Australia to recover from. We are slowly getting into the groove (especially after I delivered souvenirs to my family in Croatia)

But the trip was complete success. We started in Cairns with a day trip to Great Barrier Reef, rainforest and a bit of dry inland. In the last one we stumbled upon a mango winery. No, it is not a typo, there was a huge mango plantation and a real distillery. We tasted all of their products - 3 different types of wine, two liqueurs, port and champagne. Champagne was definitely the best, too bad bottles are too heavy for overseas luggage. We managed to bring to Europe one bottle of wine, one of liqueur and one of port.

Yes, Great Barrier Reef was also great, I just hate the commercial part of all of these arrangements. Since you depend on boats to reach the reef, the hour and a half ride is used to push on you all possible ways of "enjoying" the reef. Snorkeling and the half-submersible was good enough for us.

Next stop was Kakadu National Park, east of Darwin (into which we flew). We have literally been blown off our feet by the amazing animal life. It was the end of dry season at the time of our visit so most of the animals have withdrawn to the few remaining wet spots. And therefore our sunset Yellow River Water Cruise was tremendous success. Our guide was an aboriginal woman, she even managed to spot some tiny tree snakes. Countless numbers of crocodiles and birds are still extremely fresh part of our memory. And the joey of a wallaby whose picture we missed to take! His mother got killed previous night by a car.

From Darwin we flew to Alice Springs, place where we rented camper (RV). Driving was easy since my husband had fun sitting by the steering wheel while I had time to plan our daily stops. So, on this stretch we also saw a lot, starting with Uluru rock, Cobber Paddy (opal mines), Great Ocean Road, Phillip Island (penguins and pelicans), Grampians, Minnamurra Rainforest and ending with Sydney.

Well, in Sydney we did walk around the Opera House, under the Harbor Bridge, through the Rocks and Darling Harbour. Most of the time of the three days we left over for this city we have spent with my father's family. Connection are three sisters, his cousins, whom my father saw only a few times since they emigrated in the 1960s. Contact with them and their family members is relatively good considering the distance.

We skipped all wine growing region (grapes, to be specific), have seen enough of those in California. And concentrated on seeing the unspoiled nature of this unique continent. There is still a lot we didn't get to see, but one month is too short to see it all. We managed to get a glimpse of all different regions (besides west coast) and that we will keep with us for a long time. Flying was arduous: from Dusseldorf (it is closer to us than Amsterdam), via Frankfurt to Singapore. We slept in Singapore both on the way over and back and that turned out to be perfect way of beating the jet-leg and adjusting to the tropical climate from the cold european weather.

We did all of the planning ourselves. I read travel guides, travel brochures and browsed internet, compiled a list of places we need to see, booked the RV. And my husband booked the air flights. It was not easy, actually quite time consuming, but definitely tailor made. We would not have it any other way.

Yeeaah!

Yes, my second knitting project is complete!

I'm so happy with the progress of my knitting skills. This pattern for Summer Yellow Eyelet patternwas a challenge. I undid first 4 rows most likely at least 10 times. But, then I just got it. It also helped to have it with me on my visit to SnB in Tilburg two weeks ago. The advices I got from Jose helped me in figuring out what is the idea.

I don't have Barbie so couldn't take fitted picture. I did measure my dress and, according to the measurements I have, it should fit easily. Once I give it away will find out for sure.

Now I know hot to cast-off for arm holes and wrestle psso. The second is still causing me to move together with needles, sweat, good I can not see my facial expressions while completing this step.

I couldn't join my SnB girls last night. I've decided to finally empty those last few boxes with stuff from USA. There was not much important in them, but I did finally locate the missing Sequence game. This project is happening only now that we have finally received living room furniture and now all the things we have can find their appropriate place. My husband did mention how one of the appropriate places might be our garbage bin as well, but luckily for him, he didn't try to hard to convince me that is indeed so.

So, house is still a mess while all the odd bits and pieces are expecting to find their spot, but it is such a relief to see all the space freed up from that stack of boxes. Off I go to clean some dust now!

Kayaking

Yesterday was still nice weather, considering the time of the year. Clouds decided to let the sun shine through for most of the time and we jumped on the opportunity.

My husband found recently info about possibility of kayaking on our local river, Dommel. So, he checked the weather forecast, called and made reservation. We decided to try the shorter trip of 2 hours ending in Valkenswaard (which was actually the starting point for us since the river flows from Borkel en Schaft towards Valkenswaard). It turned to be good decision, especially considering a 4,5 year old son of ours.

We had fun and it was also boring. Boring when for long stretches we kept seeing just relatively high banks of nettles, reeds, grass and some other plants. Some of those I thought I've seen growing in my garden as weeds! Fun when we had to row hard to avoid hitting the banks (and did we hit them a few times!), when our son decided to help, when we almost missed the ducks (the plumage is indeed suited to the environment), when we scared two pheasants, when we saw glistening of a bird I thought must be kingfisher...

The last stretch was really nice, it was a nice long stretch overshadowed by tall trees. And the sun decided it is perfect time to show up. I was scared a bit we will swim at the point of leaving the kayak, but it all ended well. Just a beautiful day in the nature.

And it is raining now, guess the fall has indeed arrived. And my garden could do with some water, I was already watering a few newly planted roses and bushes by hand. Just perfect timing.

Lichtjesroute and two completed projects

Thursday night we followed for the first time Lichtjesroute. My husband was telling me it might not be so interesting but in the end we both liked it. And even our son, I thought he will be asleep within the first half hour, but no, he made it to the end. And without any tantrums.He asked only once when are we going home, 5 min before we were done! Yes, the whole spectrum of displays is very much geared towards children (lots of animals and the Smurfs land on the lake!) but the difficulty of some of them makes even adults to stop for a bit.

And I'm glad my husband drove. I'm sure I would have ended in a traffic accident. I still have trouble with the rule of the car coming from the right having the right-of-way. And there was no way last night to avoid all those small streets. That is one part of "inburgering" that is just killing me!

I'm finally finishing some projects. So many WIPs, WIMs, have to get a grip on myself. I guess it is a loosing battle.

But, I am happy about this crochet project. It is called Floral Filet, originally published in "Tabletop Elegance" by Annie's Attick. I got it when it was republished as Free-Pattern-A-Day. As soon as my mother spotted it she said she wants it. Being my mother, she immediately corrected herself and retracted. But admitted she really likes the pattern, it is only just to short for her coffee table. Indeed, not that it is finished I agree with her. It turned out to be only 46cm (18") long. Well, I measured her coffee table (without her knowledge) and now it is a.... WIM!

And my first knitting project is also complete. . It can be seen in this photo as well, it took me a bit until my tension settled. But, my worst fear of not being able to knit has now disapeared. The patterns was easy enought for me to follow, real beginners project. It was published in the series "The Weekend Crafter" - "Knitting" by Catherine Ham. I have also Crochet Weekend Crafter and now can recommend both. I was never good at starting a new craft making meaningless gage swatches. I rather have scarf, even of uneven width. Can always give it to my father, I guess, since my husband refused and didn't offer it yet my BIL's. So, final destination is at the moment unknown.

And I jumped into a new knitting project, dress for a Barbie. It is small, am using 3mm needles, made only 4 rows so far, but am having fun.

Busy, busy

No, it is not work aka paying job that got me busy. No, just I'm reaching out and trying to get out and about.

On Tuesday I managed to get to my first meeting of Stitch 'n Bitch. They are getting popular in Netherlands as well. I was member of the Breda branch for a while, but never attended any of their meetings. It is just too far, would probably take me better part of the afternoon and night to travel back and forth.

But three months ago chapter is Tilburg was started. I joined immediatelly and decided to pay a visit to this weeks gathering. It was really fun. Got to meet four fellow knitters (some of them also crochet) and just had loads of fun. And I immediately got advice on the current knitting project, Barbie dress.

It was nice to get info on a local yarn company, Lammy Yarns in Hilvarenbeek, where I can actually once a month buy yarn. Will probably not pay them a visit in October since I'm planning to attend Handwerkbeurs in Den Bosch in two weeks. But will most likely attend next SnB meeting in less than two weeks.

My son did resist this adventure of mine. According to him I'm supposed to stay at home all of the time and only his father is supposed to go to work. My dear 4,5 year old:-)

Normal

On Monday we finally received our living room book case/cabinet and dining room table, chairs and dressoir.
It was hectic, assembly crew just coudln't get it right (maybe because one of the two guys that showed up was capable of only opening boxes without inflicting any damage!?). So, they did stick around from 14:30 till 19:30 at which point we literally pushed them out the door.
The next day, another crew showed up and managed to fix the mistakes of their predecessors and completed the task in 3 hours.
Boy, was I happy. The living room finally looks like some decent folks live here, finally over with the camping (we had folding chair as the best of our dining set).
And now, the reality is setting in, I have to unpack the final boxes and arrange things! It is not easy, but I'm sure I'll get there.
That is unfortunately confliciting with my free time (there is significantly less of it, surprise!) but my scarf is almost done. Knitted! Just have to finish three more yarn ends... One of them is on the CO end which I'm not very proud with. I started very loose in fear of it being too tight and now have a very wavy edge. Keep on thinking I can still do something about it, will have to spend some quality time with it tomorrow.
Last week I was sick. Wish I knew what it was, now I'm a bit uneasy thinking of the simptoms and the lack there-of. For two days I had slight fever (max was 38.4C), but had persistent headache for 4 days. Now, I never have headaches unless I suffer from the lack of sleep. That was not the case last week, so now I'm a bit worried. Will definitely go to the doctor next time this happens again. Glad my son is old enough to go on his own to the two neighbourhood boys to play.

My first yarn splurge (Aug 17, 2006)

Decided I can not wait any longer and have to start knitting. Immediately. So I biked to the marked in the neighbouring village with decision to give the yarn stand a try. It turned out all the yarn was light and nothing in the weight I needed for the men's scarf (for size 8mm needles). The seller mentioned how his yarn is appropriate for the season. I know his answer was honest but from a sales point of view didn't make to much sense.

Not only is August turning to be the wetest for as long as it has been recorded (and among the coldest) but the summer is slowly drifting away. Does he believe winter sweaters will be made only in winter and not a season before?

Anyway, couldn't contain myself so I sat in the car later in the day and drove to a store in another village. They had stock clearance so not only did I buy the scarf yarn but also very nice yarn for what I envision as nice summer tops. I just succumbed just like all my fellow crocheters in the groups I belong. At least I know it is "normal" to have this type of an urge.

And, I just realized, I have found my favorite LYS in Netherlands.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Life is back to a routine. I managed to do my regular biking route of shopping to the neighbouring village. Bigger than mine, so a lot more interesting things to spend my husbands hard earned money on.

I look at it from a different standpoint. This way I get to move out and about which I wouldn't normally do. Am at the moment glued to the computer quite a lot. Trying to catch with the posts of the CAL-yahoo group I belong to. Or sitting on the couch watching all the crime soaps and cooking shows (Tim Maelzer and "The Perfect Dinner"). Hard disk on our satellite receiver is almost full, goed I have so many crochet projects lined up, it's a good combo.

Past weekend was in a sign of USA. First had to take my son to the American Consulate in Amsterdam. If I got to use the public transportation from our village it would take me min 3,5 hours to get there. Knowing they are open only mornings till 11:30 resulted in realization of having to start that day quite early. Now, waking up a 4,5 yo at 6 in the morning would have proven quite a challenge. My husband had a better solution. We slept the night before at my in-laws, in Utrecht, and it was just a measly hour that took us to get to the consulate.

And boy, it is nice to be on your own soil for a bit again. The treatment was great, got to use separate booth set up just for US citizens. Glad I was able to skip that crowded waiting room of the Dutch nationals.

But, there is a but to this day. It was raining so hard, didn't have the heart to drag my son into sightseeing of this beatiful city. I made a mental note of coming soon again. Alone or with a friend but as soon as the weather allows it.

Next day we managed to walk through center of Utrecht. Now, I don't know the countless number of times we did that, but this time I noticed a store with Cheerios in the store front. Had to get closer and realized the store is choke full with american products. Even though I couldn't locate any prices I couldn't resist and buy myself Oreo cookies. Don't think I'll do that soon again it ended up being 8 euros. And it is just a normal size package 1lb1oz (482g). So at the moment I'm wondering which measuring system was used as reference since neithe of these is a round number.

And to top that day, in the local establishment of the national chain of the 2nd hand bookstores I found "The Weekend Crafter - Knitting" (unused) by Catherine Ham for 6eu and "All Stitched Up" by Jane Crowfoot for 5eu. I'm sure the 2nd one will be useful for both knitting and crochet. And the first one I bought since I'm planning to learn how to knit. Best recommendation was the fact that I already own the same in the crochet version.

I'm at the moment looking for yarn for a men's shawl from the Weekend Crafter. Seems like a nice and easy pattern to learn a new craft. Am a bit nervous about this decision. My aunt tried to teach me how to kint when I was a teenager. It was a complete disaster, it was so tight that I couldn't get a needle through the project any more. But I'm consoling myself if I could master crochet (which sometimes gets to be a bit tight as well) I should be able to control myself with needles as well.

The school has started on Monday, so it is back to the old routine. I should be able to catch up with my e-mails (I hope) by the end of next week, and then the projects should be just flying of my hooks and needels!

Entry for August 10, 2006

Managed to work on Gerbera Doily last night. That was a relief, finally back in the grove. I'am not allowing myself to start on any new project until I finish at least this doily and the Floral Filet. On the second I just have to weave in a few more ends and wash and form. Maybe I could then also finish the giraffe which I started before departure for vacation...
And I took care of my house plants today. They have been neglected these two months while I was gone. None of them perished, my husband followed my (simple!) instructions of watering plan those few days he was around and the results are obvious. Should I crochet something for him even though it has been forbidden?!

Entry for August 9, 2006

Not yet a week since my son and myself returned from our holiday to my home-country, Hrvatska (Croatia). We are still very tanned which is starting to look rediculous as the clouds are threatening to stay around for quite a few more days.
Garden was terrible, have weeded a lot in the last few days, but had to stop once I filled our green waste bin. Ridicoulos system in our village, it gets picked up every two weeks, alternating with regular wast pick-up.
Still haven't done any crocheting. Was not able to do much in Hrvatska either. Beginning of June was still cold and rainy but since I spent it in my home city, it was fine. As it turned better we moved to our vacation house on Adriatic and stayed there till the end of July. The only drawback of nice weather was the fact that my crochet time was reduced to nil. But, what a nice vacation it was. Even my husband enjoyed it and managed to keep his hair dry for three weeks. Real dutch men don't get their hair wet in salty water, says he. I'm working on my son to dispute this fact.
Oh, yes, I also managed to buy some fabulous yarn in Hrvatska. There is a local factory, Unitas and of course I got supplies for the next few months. Got wonderful yarn for Garn Studio Drop Design 60-14 and tablecloth named Salt air by DMC. Pattern for the free project is free to be downloaded, for the second I have purchased a flyer in one small YS in Belgium, just over the border. That was a nice excursion.