hey 2015

It's 2015 - yay!

I'm excited for a new year with new opportunities. A few things:

There will be some posts showing you the Christmas presents I made but never had a chance to share on here.  I'm talking the 3 S's - socks, shawls & sweaters.

I'm embarking on a new creative journey in 2015 called 4 out 1 in. Basically it means I'm gonna use up(or sell or give away) four items from my stash before I can buy materials for a new one. That way I'll - hopefully - reduce my yarn stash a little and use up some of the lovely fabrics I have. Ideally, I won't have any old WIPs at the end of the year. Feel free to join me. The more the merrier!

Do you have any creative challenges planned for the new year?

ps: The shop reopens 5th of January but there won't be a shop update until January 19.

change is in the air

Oh my, the last weeks have been a whirlwind. In between studying for finals, writing research papers, going to conferences, job interviews and lots of shop orders, there hasn't been as much time to enjoy the Christmas spirit as I would've liked.

The holiday season and the approach of a new year always makes me think about my life and what I'd like to change about it. New ideas for blog content, new designs for my shop, new knitting/spinning/dyeing techniques. But also questions about what I want to do after school. I'm all set to finish my Bachelor's degree next summer. Then what? I'll take a year off because the graduate schools I want to apply to have very inconvenient application deadlines. I want to work for a big company, grow my small business, travel the world and stay home to cuddle my cat and knit everything that's in my revelry queue. Preferably all at the same time.

Change is good. I can't wait to see what life has to offer after school. Also, here are some shop news:

In celebration of the 100th dawanda shop sale, I offer free shipping on all orders (yes, that includes international orders too!) until Sunday, December 21st with the coupon code Blog100 in my online shop. I also added a sale section to the shop to make room for new designs in the next year.

I'll close the shop from Monday, December 22nd until the new year.

an update & questions to you

Here's a general life update. First, I'm sorry I took an involuntary break from blogging. I've had a few technical problems which I finally resolved yesterday by erasing the entire hard drive of my laptop and installing a new operating system. Though I spent too many hours trying to figure out all that computer geek language, there's also a positive side to it: I'm now owner of an incredibly fast and perfectly organized laptop!
I must admit that my laptop used to be a big data mess - my download folder hold more than 2.5k files ( probably half of that knitting patterns that I'm never gonna use) at one point. Ugh. But I've figured out a system to keep everything neat and organized on my newly installed laptop. I'll share my laptop organizing skills in a couple of weeks - if I can manage to stay on top of all the downloads, files and photos.

Also, I used the start of the semester (thus a rather small workload) to declutter my closet and my food supplies. I'm challenging myself to only eat homemade sweets till the end of the year. Which, basically, means lots of baking over the next two months. I made oatmeal cookies to substitute for the pound of candy and store-bought cookies I got rid off last week. They turned out pretty good especially considering it only takes 5 minutes to prepare the dough & cookies and another 10 minutes to bake them. You can expect more recipe posts over the next couple of months :) So feel free to join my in my store-bought candy/cookie/cake free end of the year challenge.

I've also updated my dawanda shop with a couple more drawstring project bags. I'm currently looking into etsy/dawanda alternatives since I'm not a fan of paying 10% commission fee on every single item I made. I'm currently considering big cartel and tictail. If you have any other recommendations or would like to share your experience with one them I'd love to hear them!

Last but not least, I'd love to know what posts you like particularly or if there's anything you'd like me to blog about. I'm currently collecting blog post ideas for the next months. It seems like I have way too many ideas (I might get a little too enthusiastic whenever Christmas approaches...) so I'd love to hear what you'd like to read / see.

So that's it, I'm gonna spend the evening on the couch reading Harry Potter (I'm 2/3 into the 6th book and I'm having a hard time to put the book down in the evening.). I have a nasty cut on my finger (I might be good at baking but I'm not a talented cook...) so I'm taking a break from knitting for a couple of days. Or did anyone figure out a way to knit with a band-aid on? The yarn always seems to stick to mine :(

ps: I updated the header to somewhat freshen up the blog a little. If you're reading this using a reader you might want to click here and have a look at it.

craft fair sign

My mom Patricia made the most awesome craft fair sign for my small business. I wanted something bright and airy yet eye catching and unique. I'm not a fan of vinyl signs or anything with a hard structure. If you're selling textile accessories for knitters it's a logical consequence to have a textile sign, too - right?

My mom started off with a light fray piece of fabric. I think it was a curtain in an earlier life. Next I printed out all the letters necessary on a sheet of papers. I mirrored the letters in Word and printed them on normal office paper so they could be used as patterns.

Next my mom traced the letters onto vliesofix and ironed them onto a collection of 14 different green fabrics - the green one with the tiny sheep is my favorite. After ironing the letters to the background fabric she quilted it on her longarm machine.

Obviously my mom is a true artist and watching her turn a boring, old curtain into a piece of art is amazing. I just love how the letters pop out. My mom recently started a longarm quilting service - so drop her a mail (p.bussemeier AT gmx DOT com) if you'd like her to quilt something for you.

There are several rod pockets and sleeves on the back to hang the quilt. I couldn't be happier about the sign and I'm gonna hang it above my coach when it's not used as a craft fair sign.

upcoming craft fairs

I'm gonna be at three craft fairs within the next two weeks to (hopefully) get to know lots of new knitting friends and convince some more people that knitting can be stylish and fun and is certainly not a hobby for people 80+.

If you're a local I'd love to see you! Say hi if you get a chance to come to any of the craft fairs. Here are the details:

Martinsmarkt in der Freien Waldorfschule Göttingen
Samstag, den 23.11.2013 von 11-17h
Arbecksweg 1, 37077 Göttingen

Adventsmarkt in der Wilhelm-Busch-Mühle in Ebergötzen
Freitag, den 29.11.2013 ab 17h
Mühlengasse 8, 37136 Ebergötzen

Adventsmarkt in den Göttinger Werkstätten
Samstag, den 30.11.2013 von 11-16h
Elliehäuser Weg 20, 37079 Göttingen

Hope to see you there!

craft fair preparations

I'm currently preparing for a craft fair on Sunday. It's been so much fun making cute things out of fabrics I bought this summer!
The sheep fabric is from Sweden. We were at a huuuge thrift store (four stories!!! heaven!!) and my mom found adorable sheep curtains. She let me buy them because she's awesome. The fabric is a mix of cotton, linen and polyester so it's pretty sturdy. Also have I mentioned that the sheep print is adorable? The fabric is by far the best souvenir form the trip!

If you're a local, it would be awesome to see you at the craft fair!
Herbstmarkt in Ebergötzen
Sonntag, 22. September
11:00 - 17:00 Uhr
Sporthalle Ebergötzen

A friend of mine who sells beautiful hand dyed yarn will also be there so it's definitely worth to take a look. Say hi if you're there :)