Dada totally celebrates: Petra Perle!

Munich is always worth a visit

but for us crocheters & knitters out there

there's another reason to travel to Bavaria's capital:

Petra Perle has her own yarn store in the city center now!

"Die Wolle" ("The Yarn")!

Actually I was on my way to visit my parents

but when my bus arrived in Munich

I thought I have to take the chance

& make a surprise visit to see a dear online friend!

 

Actually Petra Perle isn't just a crocheter

- she is pretty famous in Bavaria:

She is also a singer, writing articles for newspapers,

 writing books, is a natural born comedian

& is also having art exhibitions!

Just an incredible allround artist!

 When I arrived in Müllerstraße 50

I got a heartwarming welcome -

Petra Perle's yarn store 

is just an amazing place!

It's kind of a museum for crochet art  

& filled with all the creations

she has made in the past 3 years!

Lovely friends of Petra Perle

were coming around as well:

Helmi (Strickspass mit Helmi),

his lovely husband Manfred

& Sabine!

(They are all wearing handmade creations

of Petra Perle for this photo!)

Beautiful yarn & amazing crochet fashion!

...and in between:

Petra Perle's Freeform Crochet Art!

...more yarn & fashion...

...and have a look at the ceiling!

EVERYTHING is crocheted -

even the lampshades

& some umbrellas!

But the best thing about this

yarn store is Petra Perle!

She is a wonderful crochet teacher

& always up for giving tips!

(While having a glass of wine!)

I just love this bag!

...and it's overwhelming to see her

freeform crochet face in real life!

It's much bigger than I thought:

It fits perfectly in a big hula hoop!

...and of course the chairs

are all covered in yarn as well!

What a wonderful coat!

Totaqlly my style!

Love the yarn presentation

outside of "Die Wolle"!

...Petra Perle's 3 wheel bike! :-)

And if I ever need a rollator

I will definitely

need such a walker in neon!

(Proudly wearing my new

Petra Perle hat on this pic!)

I got so many of these 

business postcards

from Petra!

Haha, I will just give every crocheter

I will meet one of them!

I'm unpatiently waiting for

Petra Perle's first crochet book -

it will get published in April!

And no worries:

It's written in german

but there are crochet charts included

for all hilarious creations!

So no need to learn german, haha!

Here a link to her coming book!

(My plan for 2016:

Crocheting all the patterns!)

It was so lovely meeting Petra Perle

& having a beer with her while crocheting!

If you ever come to Munich

don't forget to visit her!

(Opening times to find here!)

Hugs to Helmi of Strickspass mit Helmi,

Manfred & Sabine!

It's been a real pleasure

meeting you!

And of course:

Much love to all my princesses

& princes!

Merry christmas:

Your friend Dada

My Mini Rings Of Change Jacket!

Today I've completed this jacket!

More details how I made it

in this blogpost

but first some other words...

This year is coming to an end

& I guess I won't have the time

to write another blogpost in 2015...

Tomorrow I'm travelling

to Bavaria to visit my parents

& a couple of days later

I'm already sitting on a plane to London!

I will spend Christmas & New Year's Eve

with my prince Alex

& his lovely family!

And I will meet a real special friend again:

Lin of Crochet in Colour!

Exciting!

It's been another productive year

and I had great fun with a lot of

Finished Objects -

& also with my works in progress

I've been playing around!

On the other hand there were

loads of less bright happenings

in world politics.

Times are changing

& this planet has become more insecure.

Europe can't close it's eyes anymore

because of the wars going on.

Millions of people had to leave their countries

to look for shelter

& to save their lives.

Terrorism has caused

lots of tears & sadness

in Europe & the USA.

I'm living in Germany at the moment

& it's becoming more radical.

The refugee crisis

has split this nation into

2 different positions

& it's causing more & more violence.

Refugee shelters were

set on fire hundreds of times this year,

protests are ending in riots.

I've spent the weekend in Berlin

visiting friends

& someone said to me:

"You are from Leipzig, aren't you?

Do you know what's going on

there at the moment?"

I watched what has happened in my city

straight next to the place I'm working:

It was the worst idea ever

to organize an anti-refugee-protest

walking through a left-wing district of Leipzig...

69 police officers & probably

a much higher number of people got hurt,

destruction all over.

There's nothing I'd wish more for 2016

that there could be a change to a more peaceful world.

Noa, a friend from Berlin, showed me this 

beautiful video last weekend,

so much truth & so much hope.

It's in french with english subtitles

& is presented

by the wonderful strong Lady Keny Arkana.

In the end we are all

brothers & sisters

on a weird planet,

let's stand together

& let's keep our humanity & our hearts

in all this chaos.

If everyone on this planet would

be a crocheter this world could be so much better!

People would have problems like:

"No!!! I'm running out of the yarn 

I need to finish this blanket!"

or

"Damn! I made a mistake 3 rows ago!"

Just a dream...

***

Sooo... But now something about my new jacket!

I always wanted to crochet

Frank O'Randle's

"Rings Of Change" blanket

but actually I have enough blankets!

His Mini Rings Of Change

is a free pattern

& you can make a glorious baby blanket 

- or a circle jacket!

I followed the pattern until round 27.

Round 27 was perfect for making the armholes:

Instead of just scs around

I started this way:

ch 25, skipped 25 stitches,

30 stitches

ch 25, skipped 25 stitches

scs all around

ended with a slipstitch in first chain

(This worked perfectly for my size

if your arms need more space

try it with 30 chains

& skipping 30 stitches...

Try it on!

Not enough?

Increase the chains & skipped stitches

& also the number of stitches

between the arms!)

Then I just worked the pattern till the end!

Sleeves:

a round of 50 stitches all around

*2 dc, 1 ch, skip 2 scs* around

complete first round with slipstitch

in top of first dc

slipstitch in next dc & the following chain

3 chain (= first dc)

dc & ch

work in all 1ch bridges:

2 dc, 1ch

after dcs/chs round number 9

I increased the stitches in round 10 -

in ONE of the 1ch bridges

I worked: 2 dc, 1ch, 2 dc, 1 ch

round 11-15 as usual

round 16: increase like in round 10

round 17-25 as usual 

I ended with a row of shell stitches,

*7dc in a stitch

skip 2 stitches

stitch

skip 2 stitches*

You don't need button holes -

they are already there!

I've put on 5 buttons

but do as you please!

Yay, that's it!

(If it's not big enough for you at this point

get yourself the actual Rings Of Change pattern

for some more rows

OR

just improvise & play around with stitches

for some more rounds!)

Some more pics

(Thank you to my flatmate Fabi

for taking the photos!)

Sooo...

I will pack my stuff for the next weeks now

(& all the christmas presents!)

& I wish you wonderful

christmas days

with your family!

:-)

So much love:

Your friend Dada

♥♥♥

My new psychedelic crochet coat!

I haven't blogged in a while,

just so much going on & so I needed a social media break!

I'm working in a shelter for homeless Ladies now

& it's a real touching work experience.

Your own problems are becoming so tiny

compared to the situation of these brave women.

They all had a home once.

Normal family lifes.

Depression, divorce, depts -

many different reasons

can cause homelessness.

Homelessness,

what a sad sad word

for something

that can happen to anyone of us.

Winter is coming,

it's getting cold out there.

There will be little notes

in the newspapers again

about homeless persons frozen to death.

And there's little we can do against it.

But there's something important

we all can give:

Respect, some warm words & a smile. 

Some people give a little

bit of money to a homeless person

but only a few really talk to them.

Look them in the eyes.

Invite them for having some food

or a hot drink in a warm place.

Treat them like a human being.

Let's make a difference!

♥♥♥

I don't have much time

& my crochet life is producing less stitches

these weeks...

 ...and I still have to spin some kilos of the sheep wool

I have cleaned months ago

but I'm on my way! ;-)

I've already dyed a kilo or so,

so exciting to create your own personal yarn!

I'm experimenting with crepe paper as a dye

& I'm really in awe about this

cheap, easy & effective option!

Crepe paper is fantastic,

I even dyed my flatmate Marie's hair green! :-)

I will blog about this method soon!

My WIPs are growing slowly

but today I managed to complete

this colourful coat!

Actually I wanted to crochet

this beautiful Lion Brand pattern:

While crocheting some squares for it 

I thought it would become too huge for me...

I've already crocheted 27 of the 79 motifs 

of this pattern to this point -

& just used them to turn them

into this funny neon coat!

I really love it,

so much fun to grow

something without any plan

how it will look in the end. 

Just some stripes here,

some granny stitches there

& now I have a new

unique coat!

Sooo happy!

:-)

Haha, some more photos! :-)

My beloved flatmates

Fabi & Marie took so many

good & funny pictures outside in the garden before

that it's hard to choose the best shots!

...crazy moves!

I'm a psychedelic princess!!!

Neon!

Just my favourite "colour"! :-)

What else to write?

I FINALLY MANAGED TO QUIT SMOKING!
For the first time without suffering
& being nervous all the time...

My method was quite easy:
I just said:
"I'm a non-smoker now!"
& got rid of my smoking stuff.

Crocheting is the best addiction anyway! :-)

Sending much love to my princesses
& princes,

your friend
Dada
♥♥♥

Pricing your precious unique handmade items - Part 1

 I'm happy to publish another guest post here on my blog!

My friend Monique (Yemanja) has started an exciting experiment 

concerning pricing handmade items 

& she will share her experiences here with us!

♥♥♥

How to go about pricing your precious handmade items?

How to balance the very thin line between under- and over-pricing

in a world where many people struggle to make ends meet?

Two months ago I have started an experiment:

I let my customers price the item they are interested in!

They have to take my material-costs into account

(plus the 21% VAT I have to charge in the country I live.)

And that's it! Then my customers decide on the price.

In a way it fits perfectly in what I think of as (ideas of) a New Economy.

Besides, I really want my Crazy Creations to go out into the world,

not stay hidden in my atelier.

It makes for great conversation with my customers!

I feel more appreciated in my work,

people really think about the value of handmade,

the hours you put into it, your craftmanship.

I never hear anymore that it is too expensive ;)

Not one customer has not bought because of this policy.

Yes, sometimes it makes them feel uncomfortable.

They'd prefer me to put a price.

In that way they don't have to think about the value of handmade

and what it is worth to them.

They only have to "look inside their wallet":

can I afford this, does my budget allow it?

I found it is important to let them lovingly know

that it is not possible for them to disappoint me in any way,

that one's € 10 is not the same as the other's € 10,

that they can pay me what they can afford to pay for the value of the item.

I just did an exhibition/ fair in a small village on 'my' island in Greece.

A country in a deep crisis also on personal and family level.

I gave it some serious thought, if I should continue my experiment in Greece,

knowing that people are really low on money

and are looking for cheap-above-all or not buy at all.

Then I thought "well if I truly believe that the Universe will balance things out,

then I must do this, especially in Greece!"

I will keep this experiment till the end of 2015.

Then I 'll decide how to go on.

I 'd love to hear your thoughts on this subject!

Love, Monique

♥♥♥

A huge

"THANK YOU" to Monique,

Pricing is one of the most difficult things

& I hope her experiment

will become a real success!

We will read more about

Monique's experiences

with this unusual pricing method

in future guest posts,

can't wait!

Please get in touch with Monique

on her fabulous page Yemanja!

Hugs & Love:

Dada

A yarnpainting - with buttons!

My flatmate & good friend 

has celebrated his birthday yesterday!

Actually I wanted to create a crochet-only-painting

as a present but time was working against me

(as always)!

Instead of crocheting

I used a less time consuming technique

to fill the missing parts with colours:

Buttons!

I have thousands of buttons,

a few hundreds less

don't make a real difference! ;-)

A pretty fast technique -

I just put some glue on the canvas

& pressed the buttons on it!

Completed it just in time, yay! :-)

I see the head of a psychedelic bird in this yarnpainting

by the way!

Funny how things just appear while creating dadaistic art!

Sending much love:

Dada

♥♥♥

My first experience with a hand spindle!

I wanted to try spinning since years!

Last year I got me a spinning wheel

& I washed & prepared 3 kg of fluffy sheep wool

a while ago...

...first I read a lot about spinning.

Some experienced bloggers

wrote that it's best to start with a hand spindle first.

I got me one & tried it with video tutorials.

To be honest: I don't like watching videos

to learn something new...

I'm not very patient

& it's just so much easier to learn

it from someone else!

I googled & really!

I found someone who teaches spinning in Leipzig!

Sister Gudrun is such a lovely Lady

& the Kreativstube is just a wonderful place!

Creative people meet here

to felt, knit, crochet, craft or spin!

Some other Ladies wanted to learn to spin

with a hand spindle as well

& it was really nice to have company

while spinning my first "pregnant worms"! :-)

The sister's order of sister Gudrun

owns own sheep

& so their nice soft yarn turned into

my first irregular wool!

I don't mind my yarn isn't perfect,

it takes some training to spin & to get the right feeling.

At home I went on spinning

(so addictive!)

with some colourful merino wool

& that's how it looks like:

Spinning with colourful wool

is so much fun!

Another photo to show my imperfection

a little bit closer:

I'm excited to improve my skills on the hand spindle

& next week I can learn to spin

with a spinning wheel!

And here a last photo of my first handspun yarn

with Nana Sheila:

Sending love:

Dada & the Nanas!

♥♥♥

My cute little mermaid!

I shouldn't start new projects

as there are already uncountable 

works in progress...

But when I saw this

cute little mermaid in "Simply Crochet" issue 32

I just HAD to crochet this mermaid!

♥♥♥

(Crocheters from Germany

can also find the german pattern in

"Simply Häkeln" 04/2015!)

This was my progress yesterday...

I've used a 4,5 mm hook instead of 3 mm,

more to cuddle! ;-)

...and now she is completed! :-)

I got her some eyes today

& some sequins for her tail!

Actually I also wanted to make a braid

in the end as you can see on the photo

of the original mermaid...

But I just made my little mermaid

too many hairs!

It looked strange & so she is

wearing her hair wild!

So happy to have a new family member!

Only a strange selfie

but to give you an impression

of her size... 

The pattern by Ilaria Caliri

is easy to follow

& fast to crochet!

I can totally recommend it!

Sooo, back to my other WIPs! ;-)

Hugs from Dada

(and the Nanas! And the mermaid!)

♥♥♥