Creativa 2014. Part one.

Have you ever dreamt about being in a place, where you could browse beautiful creative supplies on endless counters, instead of visiting just that one local store or going through several online shops to find the right things? I certainly would have, if I'd known such place existed. But I found myself being there last weekend – at the Creativa fair in Dortmund, a real crafters' paradise.

    Villa Landleben

Didn't quite know what to expect beforehand: handmade products or supplies to make them. Turned out, both were abundantly represented, perhaps with a greater emphasis on the latter. It is an impossible task to list all the things on display, the word everything covers it most accurately. Or all from wool and fabric to paper and wood and the rest that falls in between. And beads, and tools, and paints, and...
Plus all those lovely products made of these materials.




Even just walking through the six vast exhibition halls was an accomplishment in itself. Almost certainly visited all of them. Trying to see everything (about 700 stands) and remember where you'd already been usually proved to be a hopeless attempt. As soon as you start admiring a pretty booth, all sense of direction is lost.

    QuiltersCorner

There are probably two possible strategies to tackle such events.
One could be a super organised visitor equipped with a layout plan, marking down the aisles gone through and taking notes.
The other, and much easier way, is to just go with the flow. And from about noon onwards on Saturday and Sunday, there wasn't much else to do. No wonder, as altogether 85.000 people visited this Europe's largest creative design fair during five days. It's actually very heartwarming to see more and more people get infected with the craft virus.




In addition to passive looking and active shopping opportunities, many workshops took place where visitors were able to try new and old craft techniques: sewing, knitting, scrapbooking, beading, making bobbin lace, spinning wool, to name only a few.




The catwalk events added excitement and fashion show feeling. Here the Sabrina knitting magazine is presenting the playful designs from their latest issue.




I couldn't possibly exclude yarn, so here is a colourful sock wool picture.




The story will continue in the next post.

New outfit for someone from the past

There is a new addition to my growing pincushion collection. This time, I only had to make half the work – a new skirt for this pincushion doll. As far as I know, the hand painted half doll figurine is made in Germany in the 1920s. It's really tiny, only about 6 cm tall.




Of course, it was not just the skirt. Beneath it is the cushion part that makes her stand up, stuffed with synthetic filling. I also had to add some small stones for weight, so the doll wouldn't fall over. This must be the reason why most pincushion dolls have very wide dresses.




The skirt was made of all the bits and pieces I could find in colours matching the blouse and hat. It's not in twenties' style but perhaps, she is a country girl not wearing the latest fashion. More is more, when it comes to romantic ruffles in this case.




Still haven't put any pins into the skirt, she is only adapting to her new environment.

Spring pink

Delicate colour shades are returning to brighten up this extremely early spring.
A neighbour of mine, the starling also returned from holidays in the south and gave a loud concert this morning.

Romantic pincushion in a tin

This is an easy no-sew, no-glue pincushion for keeping needles and pins or displaying a vintage hat pin collection. A simple tin gets a romantic transformation with some lace, tulle and bling jewellery.




Materials and tools needed for the project: scissors, small empty tin, fabric and tulle scraps, ribbons, filling, vintage jewellery pieces or beads, rhinestones, etc.




Making process:

1. Cut a round piece of fabric with a diameter at least twice the size of the tin. (I used lace and a second thicker fabric underneath.)
2. Put some filling in the middle of the fabric, gather the edges and tie with a ribbon or thread. Tuck it into the tin with the tied side downwards.
3. Cut a round piece of tulle and put the tin in the middle of this piece. Gather the edges and put a ribbon around it. Arrange the tulle or cut the edges smoother, if necessary.
4. Stick some bling jewellery pieces into the ribbon knot. Voilà!

Traditional style colourwork mittens

These mittens were made during the coldest time of the winter, which means too late. I was hoping to take some nice snowy pictures of them, but it's raining instead.




The main stitch pattern is from the recently published book of Estonian mittens from the collections of Estonian National Museum. There are more than 300 examples of old mittens in the book, accompanied by colourwork patterns (stitch patterns only, no full instructions).
Mittens with this particular pattern found their way into the museum in 1920.




These thumbs are not traditional, but have a gusset like fingered gloves. I think they are more comfortable and easier to make. I wanted to use these yarns, although the brown and dark grey stripes should have more contrast. Colours from the wider stripes in just a slightly lighter shade would probably work best for this pattern.




This kind of zigzag wrist section is also quite traditional and widely used. The mittens are incredibly warm because of the stranded colourwork. Don't think I've had a pair since childhood, had completely forgotten about that. Next winter, used they will be.

Shades of ice

It's the coldest month of the year, offering a chance to admire breathteaking ice and snow formations. Time to wear warm wool and use crystals to brighten up the slowly lengthening days.

Fireside socks

Since I bought a load of sock yarn last year, I have to make some socks every now and then. Otherwise there will be no new yarn, no matter how pretty the colour.




This is an improvised pair of socks, worked from top down. The heel is a classical one with picked up stitches, the strongest and most comfortable, in my opinion. But I do prefer starting from the toe, as that is so much less stressful - no fear of running out of yarn or having leftovers. The latter is what happened this time.




The socks are made of Admiral Bambus by Schoppel-Wolle, with 75 per cent wool and 25 per cent bamboo content. While working, the yarn seems somewhat like cotton, but becomes much softer after washing. In the end, it has a really nice natural feel, like it should be. Just love this warm colour scheme.




After a long search, I found these lovely sheepish wooden sock blockers on Whorl Drop Spindle, a great place for handmade spindles and other wooden wool tools. (One day I will try spinning.)

Snowless winter

New start with a new blog feature: a monthly mood board to capture the surroundings, ongoing work and favourites of the moment. I'm hoping it will make me go out with the camera more often and notice something new. This is also a kind of investigative experiment to see if such boards actually help to generate new ideas and bring about real projects. And I love playing with colours.
If someone else finds inspiration in these mishmashes, that will be a reward in itself.

Although the first snowflakes have started to fall and this extended autumn is probably coming to an end, January has looked a lot like this so far.