Creativa 2014. Part two.

The Creativa fair also had special sections dedicated to beads, garden goodness, teddies and dolls. These events took up less space, but were very popular as well.
The garden part of the fair, LandGarten, consisted mainly of plant related home decor, handmade food, and of course, the Dutch flower bulbs.




Both beads and handmade jewellery could be admired at the PerlenExpo. Bead shopping was probably one of the favourite activities of the fair visitors. This was truly an amazing chance to see (and touch!) so many bead and gem strands, as one usually has to rely only on the web shop pictures.

    Orubis

Dolls and teddies on display seemed to be more of the kind that were intended for adult collectors. There were only a few stands with miniatures; had really been hoping to see more of them. Must probably visit a special miniature event for that.




Last but not least, Kenya as the guest country of the fair this year was represented by an exhibition of Kenyan textiles, so colourful, sunny, and exotic.




Went back to the fair on Sunday morning, only one thing in mind: shopping. Of course, I couldn't find everything I had set my eyes on the previous day (for instance, a sewing themed coffee mug I had already taken into daily use in my mind). Nevertheless, my bag was certainly many times heavier when coming back.
This photo shows all the lovely things I managed to bring home. They just look to good to store away, let alone open, cut, use... Some items were gifts from the goodie bag given to bloggers, which was a very nice surprise.




My special thanks and best wishes to BeadsPerlen, BurdaStyle, Christa-Bänder, Creative Beads, DuftHolz, Farbenmix, Feestje-Enzo, Kimya, Rayher Hobby, Van Rooyen Hobby, VBS Hobby Versand, Villa Landleben, Zwanette's Sprookjes Atelier, as well as the Creativa team.

Creativa 2014. Part one.

Have you ever dreamt about being in a place, where you could browse beautiful creative supplies on endless counters, instead of visiting just that one local store or going through several online shops to find the right things? I certainly would have, if I'd known such place existed. But I found myself being there last weekend – at the Creativa fair in Dortmund, a real crafters' paradise.

    Villa Landleben

Didn't quite know what to expect beforehand: handmade products or supplies to make them. Turned out, both were abundantly represented, perhaps with a greater emphasis on the latter. It is an impossible task to list all the things on display, the word everything covers it most accurately. Or all from wool and fabric to paper and wood and the rest that falls in between. And beads, and tools, and paints, and...
Plus all those lovely products made of these materials.




Even just walking through the six vast exhibition halls was an accomplishment in itself. Almost certainly visited all of them. Trying to see everything (about 700 stands) and remember where you'd already been usually proved to be a hopeless attempt. As soon as you start admiring a pretty booth, all sense of direction is lost.

    QuiltersCorner

There are probably two possible strategies to tackle such events.
One could be a super organised visitor equipped with a layout plan, marking down the aisles gone through and taking notes.
The other, and much easier way, is to just go with the flow. And from about noon onwards on Saturday and Sunday, there wasn't much else to do. No wonder, as altogether 85.000 people visited this Europe's largest creative design fair during five days. It's actually very heartwarming to see more and more people get infected with the craft virus.




In addition to passive looking and active shopping opportunities, many workshops took place where visitors were able to try new and old craft techniques: sewing, knitting, scrapbooking, beading, making bobbin lace, spinning wool, to name only a few.




The catwalk events added excitement and fashion show feeling. Here the Sabrina knitting magazine is presenting the playful designs from their latest issue.




I couldn't possibly exclude yarn, so here is a colourful sock wool picture.




The story will continue in the next post.

The new Haapsalu Scarf book is out

The warm and stylish presentation of 'Haapsalu rätt / The Haapsalu scarf' book was held in Haapsalu yesterday. The first books were sold at the event, it will be about a week until they hit the stores.




This post is intended to make your mouths water, because I already have the Pink Bible! And naturally, signed by the authors.
These are just my first impressions, it will take a while to take it all in and fully comprehend all the contents, after all, the book has 272 pages and weighs 1.888 kilos (4.2 lbs)!
This time it is published simultaneously in Estonian and English, that may add somewhat to the volume, but charts still make up most of the contents.




There are 47 patterns for square shaped shawls in the book. A square shawl consists of a centre section and a border section with a special narrow stitch pattern inbetween, plus a sewn-on lace edging. These stitch patterns are already conveniently combined together in the book, but can be used separately to design your own shawl as well.




The triangular shawl pattern count is 26 and there are three different techniques explained: knitted beginning from the upper edge, from the lower point or decreased in the centre. Triangular shawls/scarves also have a sewn-on edging.




Must be my favourite part of the book, because these can be used in so many other types of knitting projects too - the lace edgings. A lot of them, all so gorgeous and more intricate than in the first Haapsalu Shawl book.




Since the charts are given fully with all corners included, making enlarged copies or using a magnifying glass might be necessary for some of them. Of course, there are pattern repeats, so the large chart can be used as an overview.




As a nice little gift for everyone attending, these pocket calendars were handed out at the presentation. The text says: 2012 - the year of knitting a Haapsalu scarf. Everyone could then mark those (few) days they were not knitting. Great as a bookmark and chart marker.




More pictures of the event can be found in a gallery of the local newspaper.

Haapsalu Shawl Day

The picturesque town of Haapsalu celebrated the annual lace knitting day yesterday: woolwhite lacework was to be spotted everywhere, both in finished and work-in-progress status. The seaside resort atmosphere was something well worth envying as always.

The lace knitting contest was not too crowded with its fourteen participants:




Some people just knitted on the street without competing:




Shawl dance presented by a classy local dance group:








And some other highlights of the program:






Shawls and other lacy items made by the local master knitters were also sold at the craft fair. And for a shocking price of 50 Euros - unfortunately, this is what people who value handmade can afford here. (The price for being an economically well-behaving country.) Well, start planning your lace shopping trip for next August!






This is the window of the Dome Church chapel, where the White Lady appears on full moon August nights (she must be hiding in there by day as well):




By the end of the day, all this motivation overdose resulted in a midnight swatch with Karukellakiri pattern. This project cannot be postponed any longer and as soon as I'm done with the hardest part - choosing a stitch pattern - my first Haapalu shawl will be cast on.




There is also a sweet short film about knitting in Haapsalu in 1937 available in the Estonian Film Archives:

Craft fair in Helsinki

Made a day trip to Helsinki last Sunday to visit the craft fair Kädentaitomessut that took place in the lovely Wanha Satama (Old Harbour) fair centre.




There were many exhibitors, selling both crafts and supplies (yarn!), so couple of hours went by very quickly. Most of the handmade items were either sewn, felted, made of leather, wood, wire or ceramics. They were all very unique and kind of modern, not at all what can be seen at the craft fairs in my country - mostly traditional and folk culture based items. I saw some machine knitted knitwear, but actually no handknittings. Must be an unlucrative activity!












Other trip highlights:
* Helsinki Vintage fair that had brought together many people interested in vintage fashion and accessories. The most exceptional were the outfits and hair styles from the past, worn by some sellers and visitors.
* Lunch at the fishing harbour, consisting of a large portion of muikku (vendace) and September sun.
* My fair purchases: Addi bamboo needles, a blackberry Zauberball and Kalahari karakul wool made in Botswana(!):