On hot summer days, it’s always a few degrees cooler on the coast and there is often a refreshing sea breeze as well. To escape the heat, we sometimes drive northwards to the coast nearest to us, in Friesland. I thought you might like to join us on one of these trips, especially because it involves yarn.
It is not a coast with sandy beaches and breakers, but a coastline surrounded by dykes with the sea or mud flats right behind them, depending on the tides.
Before the dykes, people built terpen (dwelling mounds) to stay safe when the land was flooded during storms and high tides. We used to live in a village on a terp until we moved to our present home, but it is not that village I am taking you to today. Our destination is the tiny village of Eastrum, with about 190 inhabitants – and a yarn shop. The shop, called Seldensa, is housed in the former village café.
My husband drops me off and drives a few miles on to a good bird-watching spot, so that I can browse around Seldensa at leisure. Owner Nynke is a very friendly person, who gives advice if you need it and doesn’t bother you if you just want to look around, which is just how I like it. Apart from many yarn-filled shelves, she also has plenty of samples to provide inspiration.
Let’s zoom in on the sideways-knit top in the centre:
It is Floatside, designed by Wool & Pine, knit in Kremke’s ‘Morning Salutation’ (a lyocell/cotton blend). So lovely and summery.
In the back of the shop, there is a totally un-summery but equally lovely sample:
This is the Agnes Kofta, designed by Kristin Wiola Odegard. It is knit in the nice and woolly Norwegian ‘Finull’ yarn from Rauma that comes in such a huge range of colours:
Another of my favourite yarn brands here is Filcolana. I love their ‘Merci’ and ‘Anina’ yarns for baby’s and children’s knits. I didn’t take any pictures of those, but will tell you more about something I knit with Merci soon. I did take a photo of some of the gorgeous Holst Garn colours, though:
I can’t tell you what pattern or yarn was used for the Norwegian children’s cardigan next to the Holst yarn, I’m afraid. I do try to remember everything, but every now and then something slips my mind.
After a couple of hours of soaking up colours and inspiration, and choosing some yarn, my husband joins me again and we eat our sandwiches strolling around the village.
The Saint Nicholas church on the top of the terp is a patchwork of bricks from different eras. The oldest part, the tower, dates from the 13th century. Cyclists or hikers following long-distance route Het Ziltepad are welcome to stay the night in the church. I’d love to do that sometime.
But for now, we’re just strolling through the quiet village, where hydrangeas are flowering behind the privet hedges.
Where it is as if time has stood still.
And where everyone seems to be snoozing during this warm lunchtime hour.
So peaceful.
During the summer months, Seldensa is one of the stops along the Vlasroute. This 30-kilometre long route tells the story of flax and the products made from it, like linen and linseed oil. Info about the Vlasroute can be found here. And my earlier blogpost about the route here. I hope you enjoyed this little outing and hope to see you again soon. Until then, stay cool!
Thank you for bringing us along on a lovely trip! Selden Sá sells lovely yarns, I have never visited the shop, but hope I’ll be able to do so maybe later this year.
Looking forward to see which yarns you bought!
They certainly do and I hope you’ll be able to visit them. I’ll tell you about the yarn and what I did with it after the birth of our second grandchild. Not very long to wait now…
Thank you for sharing the lovely pics and sweaters, yarns.
Wat een fijn dagje uit zo! Heerlijk om te lezen.