Welcome 2018! I’ll start this year like many others on the Me Made Mittwoch Blog with a short review of my handmade year 2017. Let’s start with the hard facts: I sewed 11 dresses, 7 tops, 3 skirts, 3 pairs of pants, 2 jackets, 2 bras, 2 bags and 1 bathrobe. I knitted 5 cardigans, 2 of them from yarn that I spun myself, 1 dress from handspun, 2 wraps (1 from handspun) and 1 top from handspun linen yarn. Continue reading
Now that I spin my own yarn, my yarn drawer only gets more crowded. And I still have some yarn in it that I bought over two years ago. I’m not that much of a stockpiler when it comes to yarn and this is definitely the first time in my life yarn has survived that long. But every time I set my mind to finally make something from that old boring yarn I rather knit something from some much more fun handspun. Continue reading
It is not about what you deserve. It is about what you believe. And I believe in Love.
Yes, I saw the new Wonder Woman Movie. I was able to watch it during my flight to the US. By then I already had my eyes on the Wonder Woman Warp knitting instructions by Carissa Browning because one of my spinning group buddies brought her wrap with her last time, to show it off. And it worked on me ;) And I thought it would be nice to see the movie before knitting the wrap. Continue reading
Usually I am not a fan of citrus fruit colors, especially orange and yellow. And if you have been following my blog for a while you know there now is a big ‘but’ coming up. So, here we go: but my aversions vanished a little in the past 6 months. Having a closet full of blue, red, green and purple sweaters might have had an impact. Having sweaters in every color of the rainbow is a great justification to make another one. Not that I need a justification, I’m past that stage now ;) Continue reading
The story of my latest Cardigan starts at Achern, a small city located in the black forest. All over the year there are Naturparkmärkte (local farmers markets) taking place in several Black Forest cities. And the first one this year was taking place in Achern. Marvin and I went there and had a lot of fun! And I bought some regional raw wool :) The Schwarzwälder Spinnstube had a booth there too. They buy wool from local sheep owners, process it and sell it. You can buy wool in all its forms from them. The sell finished products as well as greasy raw wool. Continue reading
I wrote my first knitting pattern! Not for the cardigan, I’m still planning to do that, but for a pair of socks. I felt like I needed to start a little smaller and less complicated. And so I wrote a pattern for the socks that I made about 2 years ago. I changed a lot and in the end only the pattern stayed the same. Continue reading
Maybe you’ve heard of ‘solar dyeing’, maybe you haven’t. However, let me tell you that ‘solar dyeing’ is just a very fancy word for a a very simple technique. Instead of fixation dye with warmth electrically, you let the sun do the work. Instead of using a microwave or an oven or a hotplate you put your wool and dye into some kind of transparent container and make sure the sun keeps shining on it for some time. The process takes longer but the result is the same. And I personally make much less of a mess and there is almost no chance that the wool will felt (which always happens to me with the other methods). The big disadvantage is that you can only dye small portions, as the water does not get hot enough in too huge containers. Continue reading
Same procedure as every year! I participated in the Outfit Along this year, as I have done the previous three years. During the Outfit along from June til the end of July every participant creates an outfit that has to consist of at least one knitted and one sewed item. The participants can chat and show their finished items in Andi Satterlund’s Ravelry Group. If you post your finished outfit there you can win a price. As in the years before there are two official patterns. The knitted garment is the newest Andi Satterlund pattern, Anaheim, a cropped wrap cardigan with a lace pattern. The sewing pattern is the Kim Dress by ByHandLondon. Andi published tutorials on the cardigan, and Lauren of Lladybird published tutorials on the dress. Continue reading
A year ago I knitted a summer top for the first time. What a revelation! Since then I have been on the look out for an affordable 100 % linen yarn. And I haven’t found it yet. For a time I was eyeballing with Quince and Co. Sparrow. Though the yarn is produced in Italy it is sold from the US, which makes it very expensive here in Europe. And what nonsense to transport a yarn from Europe to the US and than back to Europe, what an unnecessary waste of energy. Continue reading
May is over and it didn’t disappointed. There were some rainy and cold days and some extremely warm and sunny ones. I wore knitted sweaters and summer dresses, a rain coat and a swim suit. For the last time this year I ant to show you what I wore last week. Continue reading
