Saturday, May 24, 2008

Bamboo Bag & Bamboo Beret: new summer knit kits

Bamboo Bag & Bamboo Beret
Ontwerp: SAS Knits It Again
Easy with a little sass
€ 15,-

These two patterns were named after Bamboo because this grass type grows like crazy. The drop stitch used in these summer patterns makes your knitting grow just as fast! The summer beret and bag also remind me of the structure of the Bamboo stems. The Bamboo set is made especially for summer. The bag is perfect for a day at the beach, in the city, the park, the market, or just use it to go shopping! The beret comes in very handy to tuck away your wet hair after swimming. No sneaking around with a hand mirror to try and make it look at least a bit like it was that morning, no hassle, still very cool. Cool in both senses of the word, the mesh stitching lets the air go through and keep your head cool. It looks just as cool at any other location by the way.

Bamboo Bag & Bamboo Beret
Ontwerp: SAS Knits It Again
Makkelijk met een tikkeltje pit
€ 15,-

De twee patronen in dit pakket zijn vernoemd naar Bamboe omdat deze grassensoort snoeihard groeit. De breisteek die je gebruikt bij het breien van deze zomerse baret en tas, gaat dan ook razendhard. Hij wordt ook wel de ‘Luie Wijven Steek’ genoemd, maar ik vond Bamboo Bag mooier klinken... Ook herken je wat van de struktuur van de bamboestelen in de opengewerkte steek. De patronen zijn speciaal gemaakt voor de zomer, want -ja- je verwacht het misschien niet 1, 2, 3, maar ook in de zomer kan je gewoon doorbreien. Zo is de tas perfect voor een dagje strand, park, markt of gewoon om mee te shoppen. De baret is superhandig om je natte haren in te stoppen na een duik in het water. Niet meer stiekem een spiegeltje erbij en onhandig tutten en geen pluizende weerbarstige lokken (of in ieder geval niet zichtbaar). Verder is de baret natuurlijk minstens net zo tof op elke andere denkbare locatie.

Knit kits are available at / Breipakketten zijn hier verkrijgbaar:
Naaicafé Caroline Vogel
Hoogstraat 57a / Rotterdam / T 010 282 75 70 / E
info@naaicafe.nl


Taboo Trader
Pannekoekstraat 89A / 3011LD Rotterdam / T 010-4142863


Shopper Rotterdam
Meent 119 /
3011 JH Rotterdam / T 010-2400954

If you’re not in the area but interested, just mail me (or wait untill I finally get that webshop going ...;-)

Friday, May 09, 2008

The Strangest Place You've Ever Done It...

....knitting that is...

Inspired by
Tijm's post, I'd like to ask you this question and ask any of you who's interested to answer the it. I'm not tagging anyone, just post if you feel like it.

For me it probably was...
Waiting for the next film at the IFFR (International Film Festival Rotterdam). The artsyfartsy crowd gave me more strange looks than knitting on a train ever got me. I think they didn't think it was intellectual enough for them or the location or something. I felt almost like a performance artist. I didn't get much knitting done either but it was definitely the place I felt the strangest while knitting.



Tuesday, May 06, 2008

ehm, maybe not...

Turns out Wordpress isn't that much better... it just didn't look good. With a little 'pimpin' I decided this blog would do for now. I thought it would be a nice opportunity to change to a nice fresh white scheme, but working on a white blog for the last days really made me miss the black. I know it's not a very friendly 'color' (I was told in art school that it actually isn't a color) but it makes the pictures look good and it's stylish. So I'll stick to my Blogger blog.

While you were blogging and knitting...

I was doing this:
re-organizing my stash...
sewing play blankets for Iep...
and we went on a holiday to Langeland in Denmark. It was great! Quiet, pretty, beautiful weather and this...
Yarn in a supermarket! (a small supermarket)
For those of you who think 'yeah, so what, it's crappy yarn', that's pretty amazing for a Dutchie. I've never éver seen yarn in a supermarket in Holland. There are hardly any yarn stores as it is, let along YARN IN A SUPERMARKET!!

There wasn't much more yarn shopping because, well, there weren't many people on the island, let along yarn stores. But after a failed search on Ravelry (is that even possible...Ravelry Rocks!) I managed to find an amazing shop that sells natural clothing and... fabulous yarn. An add in a tourist guide said bla, bla, bla, GARN. I may not speak Danish very well (or at all...) I must know the word for yarn in about a 100 languages.

The goods in the store were way, way too expensive for a starting entrepreneur, so I did what I always do; buy just two skeins of carefully selected yarn and as a result always having to little yarn to make anything mentionable. I got the softest yarn in my collection so far; petrol blue 100% baby alpaca, recycled silk that looks like peacock vomit (and I mean that in the nicest way), white and a green/grey 90% wool + 10% acrylic mix (good for baby booties) and an actual Danish product; two skeins of mohair mix (75% kid mohair, 25% merino) in two shades of green. I was (and am) a happy camper!
Some pebble and wood gathering was done too...

I finished this baby...
It's a hat that turns into a toy as soon as the wee one grows out of the hat. I'm thinking 'Zilla' or 'Nessie' for a name. More about that one as soon as I figure out how and where I want to sell patterns. I think this one might be my first non-free design, just to see how that goes, a good impulse to finally open my Etsy shop and because, well I'm serious about my knitting empire so I've got to get serious about selling stuff.

I also designed a bag for the new summer kit I'm working on. Still working on an open worked beret (to keep hairs out of the way while sun bathing!) and as soon as that's done, I'll write out patterns, take pictures, make the kits and get them out there in the shops. (I actually have two shops that sell my kits now, yay!)

Furthermore (always loved that word)... I copied an existing bag design for promotional purposes. This bag is designed by Susan Bijl and is a huge success, she sells them all over the world and is able to live from the profits. I always wanted to make this icon into a knitted version and when I ran into her she gave me the extra excuse; she was working on her new folder and in it will be pictures of people from all over the world with her bags. She asked me; 'how fast can you knit, the design is printed in about 6 days.' And I said; 'pretty damn fast if I have to.' So I got the talkon powder, put it on my hands and knitted away, with this as a result and a very probable spot in the new folder which means loads of world wide advertising for SAS Knits It Again.
And now for something completely different...Boyfriend Dear shot this while he was in Malawi (Afrika) about a month ago. Isn't he a sweetie, shooting a wool shop from out of a car window, especially for me. How romantic!

On other news...

Sunday will be my first mothers day éver. I didn't think I'd be so excited about it, but I am. When I was smaller we were always expected to buy my mom gifts. I hated the expectation aspect of it so I want to do it differently. I have no expectations but when Iep gets older and if he wants to do something I hope he'll make stuff himself. The kind of kids creativeness where you go; 'aaah that's lovely dear, whát is it...?' 'An astray mum.' he then says while giving his non smoking mom a bulky thing that looks like a mini mountain of clay.

Aaaah motherhood.... Loving it!

Sunday, May 04, 2008

I'm moving

Hi there!

It's been a while, I know... sorry bout that...
I have an explanation though.
I'm moving.
From blogger to wordpress that is. I don't really want to, I've been very happy about the bloggings, but I need to get myself a good and clear site so that my future students can easily find information about the lessons. Wordpress is closer to an actual website and has more than one page. (do you think Blogger will read this and delete me... ?)

Eventually I'd love to have a 'real' site with webshop and the whole shebang. But first I have to build myself a knitting empire...

I'll let you know when I've moved.

Untill then: KNIT ON!!