Stitches and Thrills

I love crafty contests. They challenge me to think out of the box and try new things. In a Dutch magazine Handwerken Zonder Grenzen there is a contest to make a design for a yarn called Hoooked zpagetti . This yarn is a tube of jersey made of rest materials from the fabric and fashion industries. Since I didn't have the yarn at hand I made my own version to get a material with similar properties. I cut up 2 t-shirts in two long bands of jersey yarn. With this I knitted my design in dropped stitches on needles sz 10. And here's the result: a " Stads-Kat " (="City-Kitty") It's a cozy for the small poles you find in a lot of Dutch towns. I did it in red and white because many cities, like my own, have those as their town-colours. And the candy stripe effect makes it an original decoration for the upcoming holidays! If you do like it you can vote for it here !

The lovely Annette of Dragon House Of Yuen interviewed me for her blog . You might remember her of an earlier post , when I won one of her Arabella bags. She's a real star, I love how she weaved in the photo's of the rescue animals waiting at the animal shelter Stevenshage for a new home now. Her questions really challenged me to describe the artistic development as well as the animal charity goal of my project. About the latter I am used to talk, but my creative side is less structured and outlined in my head. So it was a real pleasure to talk to Annette. The whole interview can be found HERE .

Last sunday the fashion designers Victor & Rolf were guests on the Dutch tv programme Zomergasten ("Summerguests"). They were invited to show excerpts from movies/television and explain why they wanted to share these. The first film of their choice was a part of "Cinderella" by Lotte Reiniger. The interesting opening scene with scissors and the strong black silhouettes were a clear connection with the work of V&R. For me this was a first introduction to Lotte Reinigers work. Lotte Reiniger made silhouette movies in the early 20th century. She used shadow puppets and a stop motion technique. Truly amazing! I tried to find a fragment of the same Cinderella on YouTube, but unfortunately I could only find a version from 1954. Apparently the folks in the fifties thought a silent movie was "so 1920s" so they decided to add a narrator. I preferred it with just music. However I did find a part of a documentary, and a beautiful movie "Das Lebende Marmo...

Mad hatters, but this time with an Alice In Wonderland-theme. We have of course the Cheshire Cat, from my own shop, Miss Minoes . The Mad Hatter, this one by GypsyLadyHats is very much in line with the Burtonesque one. Best order them now, to avoid the halloween rush! No Alice without a red queen of hearts. Organic red tophat by Moooi . And then: tea time! I couldn't choose between the gorgeous striped one of littlemisscrow or the cute tiny felt tea cup of thependragonseye .

There is really not an excuse not to wear a hat: winter or summer, party or work: there is some head wear for every occasion. A hat does put the finishing tough to an outfit, but of course you must feel comfortable and selfconfident enough to wear it. But here comes the magic of the hat: it actually does give your selfconfidence an extra boost. Here are a couple of hats by some (mad) hatters on Etsy that would brighten up the street in every day live: BrownBunnyByIris LiDDesignsBoutique getluckydesigns Artforyourframe

I've improved the first bonnet design to a reversible version. Now you can wear it in 4 different ways: Inside out, back to front, all the way around! =^x^= Here are the 3 so far with pointy flaps. I'll make some more with the more 'modest' round flaps. Summer Hats by Miss Minoes I actually made 4, but one I kept for myself. I wore it in Vondelpark in Amsterdam last week and got some great responses. An American woman even approached me to ask where I got it. How nice is that?

Since I was close to a sunstroke 2 weeks ago I decided it was time for another good sunhat. I am currently working on some different designs. Keeping in mind that my head is actually quite large I wanted a shape that would not be so size-related. In mind came Laura Ingalls' yellow bonnet (too many reruns of The Little House On The Prairie =^x^= ), but in a kawaii fabric version. This option will also be explored in the future. But now I got side tracked by the idea of combining it with Dutch traditional folk wear. In Dutch tradional costume the women often have a lace hat or bonnet. And particularly in Zeeland they sometimes wear starch striped, floral or plaid fabric to cover chest and shoulders. This is for instance the case in Spakenburg. I decided to use that starch printed fabric for the hat to emphasis the simple lines. Bonnet The shimmery "mirrors" completed the Dutch influence. Thank you, kraplap : to also be an inspiration to this design with the weekly challen...