I took a field trip to Rotterdam today with my friend Petra. It was another gray rainy day in the Netherlands and we both wore handknit socks.
Petra recently finished her beautiful stranded blue and white socks and I didn’t even make that green guy. My friend Laura from Finland (model in Book Two) knit it and I love her because I don’t like knitting socks or at least I rarely finish a pair. I did make the blue sock on my left foot a few years ago though.
Matching socks are overrated.
Naturally, we knit on the train. Petra worked on some stranded fingerless mitts.
She’s knitting through her stash in alphabetical order. She’s on C, so the socks and mitts use Cascade Sock. She’ll go through her C yarns and then the next letter in her stash like Debbie Bliss, Frog Tree, Koigu, etc…How cool is that?
I’m working on a new sweater design that will be photographed in Reykjavik next week for an upcoming pattern collection with Ragga, style maven and Queen of Icelandic knitting. I was picking out colors from my stash for this sweater and the resulting color trio felt just right. Today, I noticed my Aurora Expanse hat is almost exactly the same color combo.
The gray color is a hem in both pieces too! Oh well, it’s a pretty color combo so now I can have a matching set. 
Wait, what’s that glimpse of purple atop the hat? That would be a pom pom, silly.
I’ve been pom pom’ing everything lately. Hats…
My living room…
Christmas tree…
Anyway, don’t get me started on pom poms. I could go on and on about them. Oh wait, I already did in this informative and equally ridiculous pom pom how-to video.
Anyway, the point of our adventure to Rotterdam was to see the Loes Veenstra sweater exhibit. This is Loes Veenstra and she is crazy…
crazy awesome! She knits…a lot…like maybe more than I do. Now that’s hard to believe, but so is her ridiculous collection of handknit sweaters.
BAM!
YOWZA!
EAT YOUR HEART OUT!
Over 500 of them and get this…they were never worn, just stored in her house in boxes. Then, this awesome video happened.
Here are closer shots of some sweaters that jumped out and slapped me in the face.
These are a couple projections in the exhibit of her knitting on the left and sitting in a red velvet throne on the right.
Ok, I have knitting to do. My 500 sweaters won’t knit themselves.
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Loes Veenstra: TOTAL BADASS!!!
Never worn?! what?
I’m so making a pom pom garland for Christmas 2013, it’s not even funny!!!
Mother effin god-the video made me cry!!!!
p.s love your shoes!!!
Wow, 500 sweaters. I would love to see that exhibition.
I love the bright green/yellow with the grey in your hat and sweater!
What a great video — she must have been thrilled. Never was there a more pure process knitter than this lady… in it for the journey.
PS – I also love your shoes.
Oh MY!! How did you find that wonderful woman…and all those unworn sweaters??!!!
Amazing introductions! Petra makes beautiful things so thanks for the glimpse.
And my mind can not get around 500 sweaters!? And none worn?!? And the display!! Just inspiration oozing every which way.
And mahalo to you for getting me hooked on pom poms! The tutorial was so lighthearted!
You are such a fun spirit! Can’t wait to see what you have in store for us to knit in 2013
The video was totally amazing. I think all knitted items should be celebrated like that, wouldnt it make us knitters so very happy! Have fun with all your pom poms – I quite like the pom pom garland!
Thanks! Those pom poms can be addicting, right? I have many project in the works and almost finished for 2013. It’s going to be another inspiring and wool-filled year!
Stephen! Nice to see you visiting your blog again. I loved your pom-pom video – hilarious! I can’t decide if I’d love or hate to see a parade of all my knitted items. There are some horrors hiding in the shadows, I’m sure.
stephen- i can’t seem to find any info on Loes Veenstra- except the video. did you find out at the exhibit why she knit so many sweaters and just boxed them up unworn? did she ever have a moth problem? does she knit anything besides sweaters? she fascinates me.
What yarn will she use when reaching the L?
I love the blog post and our visit to the gallery Gemaal op Zuid was a great field-trip out of Amsterdam!
Some more info on Loes Veenstra can be found in an art book of her sweaters made by fiber artist Christien Meindertsma http://www.christienmeindertsma.com/. Unfortunately, it is only in Dutch but there is no great mystery to Loes. She grew up in a shipping family but went to work at a young age in a sewing atelier pressing garments. Never having much money in those days knitting was something one just did and she grew up with knitting in her family. In the book’s introduction Loes says she does not knit because she finds it so wonderful but to satisfy her need to keep her hands busy and to keep from smoking so much. She also says if she knits slower she finishes a sweater in about three weeks but if she knits fast then it could be one week. The reason she had so many sweaters stored is that she simply knit faster than she could give them away (and remember there were a lot of years in the late 80s and 90s where no one would be caught dead in a hand knitted anything.) Some of the sweaters were apparently damaged and fibres from these sweaters were added to the paper used to make the dust cover for the book, how wonderful is that!
Thanks for sharing this story with us! 500 sweaters in less than a lifetime. I had to get out my calculator: That’s a sweater knit every month for 42 years!
Thanks! I definitely don’t have photos on the internet of some things I’ve made. It’s not all pretty.
Awesome awesomeness.
Awesome!
Hi Stephen! Do you have any higher res photos of the sweater exhibit? I would selfishly love to have an of them (the one with the varying colors of orange is my favorite!) as a desktop background. The colors are phenomenal!
Thanks for sharing that awesome video! Made my day.
yes, just sent it.
Hi….what yarn did you use for the cap with the pom pom. The colors are wonderful!
I used Freia Ombre Sport.
The video made me choke and cry….happy to be a knitter!!!
Hey… you
I really loved what you say about my granny ( loes veenstra ) so thanks for that !!
Greets -x-
You’re welcome!
I was so inspired by her work. I got the book of her sweaters as well. 
Please ask what is her maiden name. My mom worked in a shop sewing in Rotterdam before 1954.