Goodbye 2014, Goodbye Blog

What a year 2014 was!

 When I filled out this workbook on 31 December  2013

I couldn't imagine that I was in for some serious magic in 2014.

(you can find the workbook for 2015 here).

Not that my life has changed so much on the outside:

same Hubby, same children

(Carolina liked to nap and I liked to photograph her)

(so thankful that everybody was healthy and happy this year),

same house

(got massively decluttered),

same vegan life

(even though Hubby learned to cook),

same yoga job.

Great travels.

But then,

there was my word for 2014.

*create*

I sewed and knitted only a tiny bit this year.

Mostly I painted.

An avalanche.

One little day at a time,

sometimes only a couple of minutes a day.

And now,

at the end of the year,

I have a portfolio to show on my new website:

www.cathringressieker.com

I painted, got addicted to art e-courses

and also learned some Photoshop and Illustrator skills.

I will have an art exhibition 

at a place where I teach yoga in January.

Some of my paintings will be published

in Alena Hennessy's new book " A Year of Painting".

A word of the year is a very powerful tool.

A direction, a calling.

So I would like to say Goodbye

 to this miraculous year

and I have one more thing to announce:

This is my last post here,

this blog also gets decluttered.

From tomorrow,

1.1.15,

you can find musings from my pink studio over there:

https://cathringressieker.wordpress.com/

Thanks for reading my blog over the last four years. 

I wish you a happy New Year

and really hope to see you again in 2015.

 

Love and Light, 

Cathrin

Carolina's Christmas Cardigan

On the morning of Christmas Eve I finally sewed on the buttons.

What was actually intended as her birthday present, became my Christmas gift for Carolina. But with such a mild winter around nobody cared about knitting deadlines except me. And even though the cardigan's form looks strange when lying out flat, it stretches nicely around her little body.

The pattern is "apple" by Annette Danielsen and has been my favourite from her knitting book for children for a couple of years (since I bought the book in 2011). I am so happy it has now left the back of my knitting brain and became a wearable reality.

All patterns in the book are knitted with Isager yarns, and I substituted with Lana Grossa Superlana wool, which worked out fine. The size is for a 4-year-old. As Carolina is a tall 3-year-old it fits perfectly right now.

And the best part for me is - she likes wearing it.

Merry Christmas!

Pink Moment of the Week

Clara had her birthday this week.

At her party she climbed up to new heights.

We love you.

Buttons before Christmas

We are all so busy these last before Christmas, aren't we?

So I'll give you just a little glimpse 

into my this year's meagre Christmas production:

These buttons will be sewn on

and then I will have at least one handmade Christmas present.

Better than nothing.

Clara Crafts

Clara was very busy last week with the knitting loom.

St. Nicholas' bags for everybody!

Pants, A Year Later

 This is a gift that took a year to come together.

Carolina has a little friend, whose birthday is one day after hers. For the friend's last year's birthday she got a voucher for a pair of pants. It was the time when I made a lot of these kinds of pants for Carolina and the little friend's mama really liked them.

We decided to go to special fabric store and choose some fabric for the little friend. But then winter came and one of the girls or mamas was sick or the shop or was closed and or whatever got into the way and we never made it to the store. Eventually in October this year we bought some fabric (the little friend's mama chose the blue ribbing, guess what I would have taken...). It is still klimperklein's pattern for "baby pants" - but size 92 is so large, it still fits 3-year-olds.

Hello December!

I turned the last page of Clara's Calender of 2014.

December is probably Clara's favourite month of the whole year.

The Advent season, St. Nicholas Day, her birthday and Christmas

all in one month.

Who cares about the cold and dark then?

We celebrate.

Pink Moment of the Week

This week we celebrated Carolina's third birthday.

And how it turned out at the end of this busy party day it also became the birthday of Carolina's and Clara's new cousin. My sister was due with her first baby actually a couple of days later, but how many babys really care about their due date? - statistically about 4 percent. I quickly knit up this little baby hat (it is this pattern here) with wool my mother once gave me for Carolina and finished it right on time (what can be quicker then a newborn baby hat) to send it out to my little niece. Aunts do things like that.

Pink Moment of the Week

Day 365 of my year-long photo project,

see here, if you like.

And also coming to its end, the MATS online course,
in the final week the assignment was to design a hyper-lush zipper pouch,
where I used some photographs from our recent holiday on Gran Canaria.

Agar Agar Prints

Today I would like to share a recent crafty discovery of mine - Gelli Printing or you could also call it monoprinting with a gelli plate. That means that you need a special printing plate for this technique, which you could buy not quite on the same cheap side here or better make your own one. I found this recipe online and being a vegan I find the idea of gelatine very repulsive and substituted it with the same amount of agar agar (which is an algae) which worked out great.

There is so much room for experimentation with gelli printing.

And I have just started - 

there really is an addictive factor in it.

The girls find it fun too and like watching and assisting.

 

These prints will come in very handy soon.

Pink Moment of the Week

A collage for this week's assignment in MATS.

We were supposed to create an abstract collage for a 25-45 year old female, using limited colours (in my case pink, red and neutrals) and collected items. Plus including words, floral and geometrical motifs. Would I buy it?

Winning is Sweet

... for Anja who made the right guess in the Travel Quiz.

Polveróns from Gran Canaria.

Congratulations!

Anja, will you be coming to Oldenburg Knit Night someday soon?

Just let me know,

so I can bring them around

(and maybe some knitting also).

Handmade in Thailand

While we are already on another little holiday, I still owe you Thailand's crafty impressions. So now is a good time to fill that gap.

To be honest, Thailand was the first time for the last years that I didn't bring any knitting with me - knitting with white in the tropics? Not such a good idea. And I didn't feel like knitting anyway. I would have felt like the only person knitting in Thailand, because I didn't see a single person doing it. But I did see quite a bit of crochet.

Crochet also seemed like a popular pastime for some masseuses (that gave us those great massages) while waiting for customers.

I also found one fabric store called PhaiBoon in Hua Hin.

And you could always see some kind of sewing shop.

Pink Moment of the Week

Do you know Suzanis? I didn't before this week's assignment in MATS. They are embroidered patterns from Uzbekistan. They served as inspiration for designing plates. Here are mine:

Wherever I am, pink travels with me.

Hello November!

I turned the calendar before we left for our vacation:

It will be Carolina's third birthday at the end of the month.

Right now November for us is not full of rain, cold and dark,

but more like July.

(and remember you can still win some sweet souvenirs 

in the Travel Quiz)

The cold and rainy moments will come,

but we'll take some warmth home with us

and light three candles later in November.

Travel Quiz

Where am I right now?

To win an original gift from this place, just write a comment and say where I am. The right guess wins! If there are several right answers, I'll pick a winner by chance. The winner will be announced on November 10. Good luck!

Pink Moment of the Week

Actually lots and lots of moments (around midnight),

practicing my newly acquired fabric pattern making skills:

Made in Lilla Rogers e-Course Make Art That Sells,
under the theme "root vegetables and vintage casseroles".

Knitting!

So this, dear readers, is my first yarn purchase of the year

(and it's already October!):

As you might have noticed, I was all about painting, colours and art this year - and I still am. But some night before falling asleep last week I felt like picking up the needles again. My ongoing (or better "onlying") projects couldn't spark my interest, so I thought a little thingie for the little one would be fun. I bought this wool and have already cast on. And it is - fun.

Yarn Graffiti

Spotted near the city centre:

We all start to need knitted woolies again for warmth.

Clara Crafts

This summer's crafting hype has also infected our house:

Clara has been making them since June 

and had a major loom band making outburst last week.

Is that loom-y or loony?

Falling Leaves

The wine leaves turning red are my favourite plants in our garden in autumn. 

There is so much beauty and radience in those colours 

and they captivate me every time I pass by 

(and go to the compost). 

All through September and October I watch this spectacle, 

which is now nearly over.

My latest play with surface pattern design

(I am just taking this incredibly fabulous

e-course Pattern Camp with Jessica Swift at the moment)

made those wine leaves come back to life on the computer screen:

So this is my first-ever pattern design
(it is a straight tossed repeat to use the designer lingo) 

and I couldn't be more proud.
There is still a lot to learn,
but combining drawing, painting and new computer skills couldn't be more fun.

Thank you leaves for your inspiration.

Pink Moment of the Week

Can there ever be a painting without pink?

Pink Moment of the Week

a new painting: