sewing room tour

Maybe you remember the sewing room post I wrote last year about my biiig basement sewing room. It has plenty of space but very little sunlight and no heating. And let me tell you, it is not very comfortable to sew when you're wearing a winter jacket, fingerless mittens and a scarf.
My roomie moved out last week and I'll have our two-room apartment all to myself until I move to South Carolina in three weeks. Which means I get to use the spare room as a sewing room / guest room.

Luckily, Julia left her furniture when she moved out. I get to use her shelfs and desk to put my sewing stuff. The space is tiny compared to my basement studio but it is warm and sunny. What a luxury! Also, my cat Lina gets to keep me company while I sew. Prepare for lots of cat + sewing pictures if you follow me on instagram (@froggeddesigns)!

Some of the stuff I don't use often is still downstairs but 75% of my sewing stuff fits into this small nook. Yay! Having a clean, fresh and warm sewing space is so inspiring - I want to sew all the things!

I already made some small things that I'll share in the new year because it is a rainy and gray day - not ideal for taking pictures.

And here's an awkward selfie. Because that's what hip bloggers do, right?

Oh and if you're like me and wonder how people manage to keep a clean sewing space - here is what it looked like 10 minutes prior to taking the pictures. #honestcraftroom

Bedford the Second

The first post after a long break from blogging is always awkward so let's just pretend the 3-month break didn't happen.

I was on a one-week vacation in Washington, DC last week to visit my good friend Sam of Fluffyland  (you probably remember the cute alpaca plush she made for me?!) where I finally had time to finish a sweater that has been on my needles since August.

I knitted another 'Bedford' sweater, designed by Michele Wang and published in the Brooklyn Tweed Fall 11 collection. I finished my first Bedford in autumn 2013 and it's one of my favorite sweaters, thus I wanted a second one. So when I saw this gorgeous yarn ("ultra alpaca" by Berroco, colorway "grapefruit mix") in a cute yarn store in Montana last year I couldn't resist and bought a sweater lot.

The majority of the sweater was knitted when Sam visited me in Munich in the summer (yes, I have awesome friends who fly across half the globe to see me - and drink German beer, of course) so it only seemed logical to finish it in her present.

It is very cozy and soft - the alpaca / wool blend is very comfortable and warm to wear; ideal for cold winter days. Another perk of finishing the sweater during my vacation: I had someone who took photos of me wearing it right away! All these pictures were taken by Sam. Being in front of the camera is always uncomfortable for me but Sam made taking these pictures fun - as in I almost enjoyed it ;)

Wollfestival Cologne 2015

Life has been a whirlwind of wonderful experiences lately. My parents came to visit me in Munich for almost a week before we headed to Wollfestival Cologne together. When I came back from Wollfestival my wonderful friend Sam of Fluffyland came to visit me but that deserves its own post.
Right now I'm sitting in between boxes as I'm packing up my sweet little apartment in Munich to move back to my hometown Göttingen. So in between craft show prep and vacationing I didn't get a chance to share my photos with you.

Wollfestival Cologne is an annual knitting meeting / market where people from all over Germany (and the Netherlands.... and I even had French customers!) meet to knit and enhance their stash a little. I had a sweet little booth where I sold project bags, notion pouches, and other cute tidbits and knitters enjoy such as sheep coasters.

It was my first craft show this year so I had lots of time to think about how I wanted to set it up. I invested in some furniture (e.g. the coat stand and the Ivar shelves from IKEA) because just one table clearly would not have been enough to display all my products.

I feel like craft shows are always about trial and error - there is no single rule how to set up a booth to sell successfully. Each craft fair is very different depending on the location, customers, weather, etc.

After a wonderful first day at Wollfestival my awesome mom - who helped me throughout the craft fair and contributed wonderful bags to my product line - and I treated ourselves to some ice cream. Yum!

On day two we rearranged a little bit because we were running low on some products whereas others didn't get much attention because they were hidden behind other products.

On the second day I arranged some products by color - which was a lot of fun to do but did not make a difference in sales. The only thing that did make a difference was the cute plush alpaca Sam made for me; I sat it on a shelf and everything that I put next to it sold immediately. It definitely emanates positive energies :)

And since it would be impossible for me to go to a craft show without buying anything, here is what I brought home: 6 beautiful rovings of spinning fibers. They are mostly merino or merino/silk blends. I can't wait for the weather to cool down so I can finally spin again!

wiwo wednesday vol. 22

Dang I can't believe summer is halfway over - already! Time is just passing too quickly.
There's a personal update at the end of the post. If you're just interested in crafts - great! Enjoy the short projects update and see you next time. If you're wondering what I've been up to scroll down and I'll tell you :)

A new sweater is on my needles! It's the 'gable' sweater by Hannah Fettig and it's a joy to knit. I'm knitting it out of Wollmeise Lace yarn. Knitting a sweater out of lace weight is a tiny bit crazy but I'm enjoying it. It's a great travel knit because it's lightweight and takes up very little space.

And there's another sweater on the needles. This one is pretty tiny though. It's gonna be either a Christmas ornament or a key fob. Because the world obviously needs tiny sweater, duh!

And last but not least (knitting-wise) is a pair of vanilla socks out of Wollmeise Twin. I'm using up all the leftovers from my exploration station shawl (no worries, I'll share it soon! I just have to find someone in Munich who knows how to operate a DSLR) so this is a 'scrap project', although 90 grams of fingering weight might not qualify as scraps...

On my wheel there is a gorgeous hand-painted combed top by raven ridge. I bought the top in Missoula, MT last summer and it was hand dyed in Montana. Yarn and fiber are the best souvenirs, right? It's 85% polwarth and 15% tussah. It feels very fluffy and luxurious, I can't wait to knit it into something beautiful. I'm halfway through spinning the top and I'm still debating whether to make a two ply yarn for a hat or a single for a shawl...

I'm vending at two big craft fairs this year - the Wollfestival Cologne (August 15-16) and Wollfest Regensburg (September 5-6) so looots of project bags, knitting needle cases, etc. are in the making.
I can't wait to share pictures of my craft fair booth with you - it's gonna be amazing if I may say so :)

That's all that I'm currently working on. I'm reading the first book of the outlander series - it is really addictive! I watched the first season in just two weeks and bought the first book just before I finished watching the last episode.

What are you working on?

So on a more personal level, here's why I've been rather quiet around the internet:
I'm working full time. Well, I should rather say I'm internshipping full time. But working sounds more mature. I'm doing an HRM internship at the global assignments department at BMW Munich. It is amazing, to put it in one sentence. I can't believe I only have one more week (and two weeks of paid vacation) left. At the end of the month I'll be moving back to my hometown to write my Bachelor's thesis and then I'll be done with my undergraduate studies in February. Please don't ask what I'll be doing after graduating because I can't answer that question - yet.

Also, craft fair preparations have kept me quite busy. I've been designing, sewing and packing products and building a proper craft fair booth. A big THANK YOU to my parents who always support me no matter what crazy ideas I come up with. If you're in Germany and looking to buy a new project bag or two (or three... nobody's judging here), I'd love to meet you at Cologne or Regensburg! If you can't make that's a shame, but you can still shop my stuff online. The online shop will be restocked properly in September.

one big capsule wardrobe // summer 2015

Do you remember the winter capsule wardrobe I posted at the beginning of the year?
It was working really great until I got an internship, moved to Munich and my wardrobe needs changed completely.
I went from a very casual student wardrobe to a 'OMG I'm working for a big company and everyone looks so fancy' wardrobe within a matter of weeks. Which meant I traded comfy yoga pants and dresses for blouses and dress pants. My HR department is fairly casual compared to other departments but it's defintiely a different dress code than on campus.

Some notes:

• for this capsule I chose 60 (OMG!) pieces. That sounds like a lot (and it is!) but it covers all my clothing needs. I have fancy pieces for job interviews and business meetings, semi-casual office clothes and casual clothes for the weekends. I should also note that my outfits depend on whether I ride my bike to work or whether I take the subway (which makes wearing maxi skirts manageable). 
• some of these pieces are pretty worn out and I'm looking to replace them. When I find a replacement I'll donate the old piece. There are also a couple classic pieces I'm looking for, like a high-quality trench coat and a white blouse that is not see-through (impossible to find in Germany!). These will be added to the wardrobe if I ever find them.
• some of the basic tops are just for layering and my shirts double as sleep shirts because I usually just but PJ bottoms. If I didn't count them I'd only have about 50 pieces. Doesn't sound as bad anymore, right?
• not pictured: clothes worn exclusively at home like PJ bottoms, rain gear, sportswear and two fancy dresses for special occasions. Oh and I also wear underwear like all normal people ;)
• I marked all the items I wear exclusively at the office with one * and all the pieces that are for job interviews/formal client meetings with two **

TOPS: lightweight gray pullover, 3/4 striped top, striped baseball tee, navy v neck, Roots sweater, sheep t-shirt, Lululemon scuba hoodie, navy 3/4 top*, Life is Good "summer starter kit" tee, loose navy tanktop, navy v neck, loose striped top,  navy tank, purple tank, striped neutral tank.
 
MORE TOPS classic fit blue blouse*, charcoal-gray blazer*/**, gray waterfall neck top*/**, light blue striped shirt*, cable sweater (similar style, different color), 3/4 sleeves top*, plaid shirt, light pink waterfall neck**, gray top*, striped tee, jeans jacket, gray tee, navy striped tee, striped linen shirt, 3/4 sleeves cardigan, lacy cotton pullover*, 3/4 striped blouse, lightweight coral pullover.

There are lots of neutral colors in my wardrobe. It makes matching clothes and getting dressed in the morning super quick. You might also notice that there are lots of stripes in my closet. Having lots of tops makes layering very easy. Although it gets pretty warm during the day it is usually rather cold in the morning (around 11°C/in the low 50's F) when I go to work. Thus my sweaters get lots of wear.

TOPS & BOTTOMS gray merino cardigan*, white tank*, beige maxi skirt, red maxi skirt

These two maxi skirts are kind of my wildcards. I love maxi skirts but I usually just wear them on holidays when I don't need to drive, ride my bike or walk many stairs. I've worn the red one in the office a couple of times and got many compliments for it. And there are so many people out there wearing maxi skirts while driving, chasing toddlers, etc. Maybe I just haven't figured out how to handle long skirts correctly?

BOTTOMS skinny jeans, navy linen pants*, well-loved jeans, natural chinos*, red chinos, navy dress pants**, floral dress, coral skirt, jeans shorts, beige shorts, navy shorts*, gray shorts.

My bottoms are the pieces of my wardrobe that I'm least content about. My favorite pair of jeans is falling apart and I haven't found a worthy pair to replace them yet. The linen pants are super comfy but I can only wear them with high heels - which is the opposite of comfy. So they don't get as much wear as I had hoped they would.
My jeans shorts also need to be replaced by a pair that is more flattering. I bought them right before a vacation 5 (6?) years ago because I was in desperate need of a pair of shorts. But I have failed to replace them with a more flattering pair although I've been looking for several years. Finding affordable jeans shorts that aren't destroyed, faded, high-waisted or having pockets poke out are impossible to find. If you have a recommendation on where to find wearable shorts, please let me know!

SHOES suede pumps*/**, black pumps**, gray suede oxfords*, brown leather flats*, sandals, birkenstock arizona(my slippers that I end up wearing more outside than at home, thus I listed them here), gizeh birks, gray sneakers, toms, minnetonka moccasins, Timberland boat shoes.

I have a confession to make. I love shoes. Especially leather shoes. It's a rather expensive addiction (though I don't remember the last time I bought a pair of shoes that was not on sale) but I just can't help it. When it comes to pretty handbags and shoes I'm a typical woman ;)

Oh speaking of handbags, I'm planning to share my accessories with you once I find the time to take pictures of them.

PS: Please excuse the not-so-perfect photos. I live in a tiny apartment and the only possibility to hang the pieces was in the rather dark hallway, thus the limited amount of daylight and the lack of a wide-angle lens made taking these pictures rather difficult.

life according to instagram

Life has been wonderful and busy lately. If you look at my instagram feed you'll mainly see fiber arts related stuff. But don't be fooled, 95% of my life consists of working, studying and sleeping these days. But that's okay because I'm taking an exam on corporate accounting this Saturday, which means I'll have lots of free time to enjoy the beautiful summer we're having afterwards.

In the meantime, I have started a tacky knitting themed sock collection. Julia found these when she was in South Korea a couple weeks ago and they inspired me to start looking for similar socks. There are so many awesome sheep and alpaca socks out there, I want all of them! It's a perfect timing to start this collection because most of my store-bought cotton socks are falling apart. Don't get me wrong, I love hand knitted wool socks, but they're not very practical in the summer.

If you know of a good place to buy knitting / sheep / alpaca / fiber themed socks, please let me know!

I took a week off to spend time Göttingen with my study buddies. All my friends / acquaintances in Munich work full time and seeing everybody enjoy the beautiful weather while you're spending the weekends at the library is a litt bit frustrating. So I'm enjoying spending the evening on my parents' couch with Lina and knitting on my exploration station shawl.

So this is my life right now according to instagram. What have you been up to?

wiwo wednesday vol. 21

I've been busy these past two weeks with a super secret project that I'm gonna share soon - hopefully. But in the meantime, I have a couple of in-progress shots for you of the major craft projects I have on/under the needle.

Last weekend I finished sewing the quilt top of a triangle quilt. I bought the fabrics in Canada last August so it's been on my to-do list for quite a while. Last Thursday was a public holiday in Germany so I had a four-day weekend to work on this. I finished the entire quilt top - including cutting all the triangles, going to a local quilt shop to buy more fabrics because I needed like 60 more triangles, sewing everything together (quite a challenge in a tiny apartment!) and flooding my IG feed (@froggeddesigns) with pretty pictures of it. Sunday evening I rearranged the furniture in my boyfriend's apartment to baste it. After I was done I realised the backing looked terrible - wrinkles all over! - so I undid everything and I'm sending it off to my mom so she can baste it on her longarm machine.

Over the past 4 years I have accumulated quite a lot of pants that I need to shorten (#shortpeopleproblems). My mom helped me pin them to the correct length three weeks ago when my parents were in town and they've been occupying one of my chairs since then. I'm determined to shorten ALL of them next weekend (another three-day weekend - yay!). Wish me luck.

Good thing I discovered the serial podcast to keep me company. If you haven't listened to the first season yet you totally should; it's been accompanying me on my daily walks and it's so addictive. I can't wait for season two to launch in the fall :)

This wouldn't be a wiwo post if I didn't share my progress on at least one knitting project, right?
Here's the current state of the pair of socks that's on my needles. I'm knitting them using Wollmeise twin yarn and 2.5mm needles. It's hilarious that the second sock looks SO DIFFERENT from the first although I'm using the same skein of yarn and I'm knitting from the same end. I might actually knit another pair after this using the same skeins of yarn so I can match up the two socks that look alike the most. I'm sure my mom won't mind taking a pair off my hands :)
I'm not gonna finish them until the beginning of stash dash though - which is in only two days! I'm so excited. There are lots of WIPs in my project bags that are begging for attention which they shell get.

So what have you been working on? Are you participating in stash dash this year?