My Fibreshare Package 01/2019

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This was a very happy mail day! I am still overwhelmed by the contents of this huge package! Let’s take a closer look:

In the centre, there is a picture by my Fibreshare partner’s little-one who also wanted to contribute something. It is an assortment of hearts used as card on the other side. What a beautiful idea!

On top of the painting, there are two packs of super yummy fine green tea from Nordic Tea so good that I am considering ordering some more.

Now to the wrapped packages:

Starting top left and moving counterclockwise, there is a hank of purple Filcolana Genuine Greenland Wool. It is aran weight, so very far from the fine yarns I usually work with, but I love everything about it and will find a suitable project for it. I think it would look fantastic as a hat.

Next, there is a hank of perfect, dark grey Hjelholts Uldspinderi Dansk Pelsuld. Exactly what I love and a perfect match to the dark grey ball of Læsø Uldstue Klitgarn next to it.

I was a bit surprised about the neon pink Grignasco Kid Silk Five, but it actually is a really good cold pop colour for a special project.

Right from it, there is a ball of almost black Wool Addicts Earth, a bulky weight yarn that asks me to be turned into some experimental project using very different yarn weights at once.

Below, you can see two balls of black BC Garn Semilla Fino, one of my favourite yarn brands. It is fingering weight wool, so I will easily find a project for it.

The green yarn cake is handdyed and matches the black Filcolana Indiecita both in composition and yardage, so I probably will knit something using both of them.

Between the two alpaca yarns, there are two balls of black Navia Uno, a yarn I have not heard of before, but urge to swatch. With 700m/100g it is a laceweight yarn consisting of Faroese, Shetland and Australian wool. Already a pleasure to touch and look at it!

The yellow yarn is Hedgehog Fibres Skinny Singles in wiggle, a colour I never would have bought myself but which contrasts black surprisingly well.

The green one is Sysleriget sock in a very difficult colourway for me, but as I really like colourful socks, I probably will turn it into a pair of short socks.

The little extras on top are two eucalan samples (I always wanted to try it but was too lazy to order some), some stitch markers and a beautiful cat-themed enamel pin.

My cat Jimmy, of course, occupied the box as soon as there was enough space for him.

Thank you so much for this extremely generous Fibreshare package! I really appreciate it a lot! And in case anyone still has not participated, you really should give Fibreshare a try. I love it!

2018 Recap and a First Glimpse at 2019

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What a year. There were so many ideas but way too little time to follow all of them. Nonetheless, I have learned from any project I carried out this year.

The first project I want to mention here is the bullet journal I started in February. I have tried to involve monthly and weekly calendars, but changed to monthly and weekly to do’s as I tend to feel stressed by rigid deadlines. I also included mood and habit trackers which I gradually adapted to my needs. In late summer, I quit the concept of an analogue bullet journal and changed to an android app for mood and habit tracking as well as online notes I can share with others for my to do lists. This was the best decision as I did not like to always carry an A5 notebook with me and do not like to illustrate the pages, either. However, the notebook as such now serves as my DIY knitting planner and poetry notebook perfectly.

In March, I joined a WIP bingo which I followed loosely over the year. My lesson learned is, that any pressure does not help me to finish anything. When I am in a bad mood I will rather cry over the project I am forcing myself to finish than actually finish it. Nonetheless, I have finished 7/9 projects, another one requires only finishing and the last one is currently in progress. Not too bad, in my opinion.

I have participated in Fibreshare twice among other, smaller swaps. I was not aware I liked the idea that much, but it makes me happy to surprise other people. I will probably stick with this new approach.

The Inside Schoeller event was an overall highlight. I totally enjoyed the deep insight into the Schoeller company as well as the opportunity to test some of their yarns. I also was completely stunned, when Novita sent me a pattern booklet and some yarn samples for free after I had asked how to get a specific pattern. I meanwhile have ordered and stashed the rest of the yarns needed for the pattern. I actually wanted to knit the sweater as a KAL together with my friend Alice aka Brezelbutter, but this did not happen for several reasons. I hope we will start again in January.

Another development I am totally happy about is that I finally have freed myself from knitting patterns. Of course, I will always buy and knit patterns I like, but with projects like my Black Metal Hoodie and the cropped linen sweater which I have both designed myself, I see myself able to follow more my own ideas of fashion now. Maybe, I finally will publish some of the patterns. Be scared. 😉

Designing my own knits goes hand in hand with sewing my own garments. I have sewn myself an all black Linden Sweatshirt which I will show you in January as well as some party garments and have prepared some pure Merino cloth I am going to turn into a pair of pants, soon. I am dreaming of a 100% handmade wardrobe, but I am not sure how long this will take.

A project I have been working on for years now is my ever-growing stash. I currently hoard about 34 kg of yarn. About 7 kg of it are yarns I have acquired only last year and not used up. At least, I have knit almost 2.4 kg of yarn equivalenting 7670 m. That makes my average yarn weight in 2018 a sport weight. I hope to reduce my yarn stash in 2019, but we will see.

In contrast to my yarn hoarding problem, you will definitely see me at several meet-ups this year, which does not mean I might not show up at others:

29.-31.03.19 H+H Cologne

13./14.04.19 Leipziger Wollefest und Stoffmesse

17./18.08.19 Wollfestival Düsseldorf

September 2019 Berlin Knits

19./20.10.19 German Raveler Meeting Leipzig

02./03.11.19 Yarncamp Frankfurt

Enough for now as the first fireworks start to illuminate Leipzig’s evening sky. Have a fantastic New Year’s Eve and an even better start in 2019! Thank you for following me!

Saturday Surprise

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When I checked my mailbox this morning, there was a small package from Mirjam in it. I had expected it, as we had discussed swapping some yarn leftovers, recently. But when I opened it, I was completely overwhelmed:

I had expected a package of leftovers, not this! Look at how beautifully the yarn is skeined and labelled! The greeting card is handmade, a stitch holder added and everything was nicely stored in a small project bag alongside a lavender sachet. This totally made my day and I can’t wait to try out the Retrosaria and Onion yarns! Thank you so much!

Fibreshare

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I finally have participated in a fibreshare round! In case you never heard of it, it is an organised, Instagram based, international fibre arts swap with one swap every few months. The short sign-up period of one week is announced on Instagram, so you have to check the fibreshare account on a regular basis to make sure you do not miss it.

The procedure is easy. You pay an 8$ sign-up fee, fill in a short questionnaire, and wait for an email with your fibreshare partner details. The questionnaire not only asks the usual colour preferences and allergies, but also your craft preference (knitting, crocheting, weaving, spinning, punch-needling, macrame, felting), your skill level, your fibre preference (natural yarn, vegan, sustainable/ reclaimed, any yarn) and whether you like to ship a domestic or an international package. You then get matched with two partners, one you are receiving from and one you are sending to. This means, you can and shall contact both of them as fibreshare puts an emphasis on building a community. There are two shipping deadlines, one for domestic and one for international packages to have a limited period of time for all packages to arrive.

The only restriction for the package you have to send is that it must contain at least 200g of yarn. You can send some of your stash, some specifically ordered or both. Fibreshare also teams up with a group of indie dyers where you can order discounted yarns for a short period of time. The rest is totally up to you! Find a nice card, sweet treats, crafty accessories, handmade items or whatever you think your fibreshare partner might like. If in doubt, check your partner’s Instagram account or just ask. I did ask and I was asked, both conversations were a win!

However, this is the wonderful package I received from Norway:

300g of gorgeous, untreated Norwegian yarn in colours I adore, tea, accessories, vegan chocolates and a lovely note. I can only recommend Fibreshare! Although it might be stressful to put together the perfect package on time, most people try to make their partners happy. Apart from that, you’ll meet a lot of nice people via Instagram. It was a blast!

Fun fact: I had a lot of problems to take proper pictures of my package as my cat instantly claimed the yarn, laid itself on top of it and started to defend it against me. He obviously shares my yarn preferences.