Tag Archives: Isabell Kraemer

Barcelona Knits 2019 Part 2

Posted on by

I just had to share this lovely photo Michael took of the four organisers of Barcelona Knits with the popular male model for the festival pattern: Mediterráneo Shawl by Ester Romo Alonso – aka elleplusdesign – he was photographed throughout the day. From left to right is: Anna Chao, Eva Rodríguez, the man of the day, Marta Martínez and Kiara Bonini holding up the photo of him from the festival brochure. Their enthusiasm was non-stop throughout the weekend, I can confirm, as Michael and I met them at breakfast at 7am at our hotel and then again after my second workshop at 8pm.

In my first workshop: Smart Knitting Techniques, I also meet Giovanna Marrese, aka LanaWasi who had travelled all the way from Peru, who brought me a couple of lovely gifts from the company she runs together with her sister-in-law in Peru. I received a handmade doll with a shawl pin and an embroidered notions pouch. Thank you, Giovanna!

The market hall was separated into two halls, and the smaller one also had a coffee shop with a view to the nearby parked yachts. Do watch Grace O’Neil, aka Babbles Travelling Yarns Podcast from Barcelona Knits where she asks knitters where they have parked their yachts, as well as detailed views of the vendors in the Market Hall: www.youtube.com.

Here is a photo I took Monday morning after the festival, where you some of the larger yachts and ferries as well as one part of the World Trade Center buildings, see the round building to the right.

For the first time I could take a look at the yak yarns from Myak. I spoke to Andrea who is a vet and works very closely with the nomadic yak herdsmens. You can see an interview with co-founder Paola and him in the Fruityknitting Podcast Episode 56. Yes, do remember to watch episode 67, while you are at it, that is the interview with me.

Above is a photo inside the market hall taken on the less busy Sunday.

La Bien Aimee was also at Barcelona Knits, and I had the chance to present myself. I was wearing my Yellow Gold Pullover and it seemed to fit straight into her colour scheme.

The last photo I will share with you is from after the closing of the Market Hall and of the packing down of the stalls, the Walk Collection stand in particular, where I had agreed to meet Isabell Kraemer, aka lilalu72, and her husband. Isabell had promised to help pack down their stand before we all went for dinner together. The seven of us had a lovely dinner and a fabulous time close to the Walk Collection team’s Airbnb flat. It was the perfect end to a perfect weekend, really! Thank you to all the designers, vendors and knitters I met at Barcelona Knits!

Share

Report Two: Vienna Wool & Design Festival

Posted on by

It has taken awhile to mentally land after attending Vienna Wool & Design Festival. I look forward to seeing the official photos taken with all of us teaching present on the stage. In the meantime I can show you one with four of us, taken Sunday afternoon before my last workshop: Italian designer Valentina Cosciani, standing next to me, in front of her American designer – living in the Netherlands – Nancy Marchant and Polish designer Hanna Maciejewska. Photographing are Daniel, Hanna’s husband and my husband with extra cameras. Valentina has her own YouTube Channel and she has made an excellent video from the festival where she walks through the workshop rooms and all the 23 stalls in the market hall. Yes, it is in Italian but it does make you feel like you are there: youtube.com.

I also wanted to share my haul from the festival: Gorgeous mini-skeins and a full skein of British Gotland 4ply in addition to their two magazines called Sticka, all given to me by The Little Grey Sheep so I can play with their yarns. Take a look at the previous blog post to see how I am holding onto the skeins as if my life depended on it. 5 lovely balls of Lalland Lambswool by Di Gilpin, I could not decide which colour I wanted to test and when Sheila – Di’s assistant talked about how to work with two or three strands at a time, my mind exploded. I did not really want to let go of any of the colours and Di let me keep them all to test. My friend, test knitter and organiser Uschi, was so kind and ordered the two German magazines “Neu Strick Mode” for me – they are German versions of the two latest American knit.wear magazines. Uschi also gave me the rest of her Doulton Flock Border Leicester Yarn DK she used to knit my design Helka for me to try out. Suncica gave me a copy of the festival magazine: wool 2 go – a large glossy magazine with 12 patterns in English and German from 9 participating designers, including yours truly. The pink flyer at the back is the floor plan of the market hall.

Susanne, aka shannara13 on Ravelry, assisted at Suncica’s first stand, Wollsalon and showed off her test knitted version of my design Idunn sweater, knitted in String Theory Hand Dyed Yarn Merino DK in a pale grey called Pewter. Thank you, Susanne! I was so happy to meet knitters, test knitters and designers, some I had only meet online before, in person!

On Saturday evening there was a Galla Dinner, so I brought a long silk skirt and a silk top. I claimed a large part of Michael’s suitcase in addition to the one I had already filled with workshop materials and my designs to show off before we left. Michael was hoping that the suitcases would be lighter coming back, but he was wrong. Yes, I did give away a lot of workshop papers but with the extra yarn and magazines, we traveled home with even heavier suitcases. But I digress. Seven of us met in the reception and walked to the Italian Restaurant, Trattoria Martinelli at the Palais Harrach: British designer Anna Maltz led the way – assisted by Michael – for German designer Isabell Kraemer, Nancy Marchant, Hanna & Daniel Maciejewska and me. When I realised I was the only one of the designers who had not brought my knitting, everyone stopped abruptly – knowing the scale of this disaster – and offered to go back. I decided that I could manage without it, but loved the shared feeling & laughter as we walked on. Of course we arrived late, but it was a very pleasant stroll through the streets of Vienna.

At the palace we talked and Suncica introduced the team behind the magazine; graphic designer, stylist and photographer. You can spot the top of my head, behind Isabell Kraemer, talking to Di Gilpin. We had champagne and canapés before we went inside and had another 4 amazing courses. I sat next to Di’s husband and across from Hanna at the end of second table. The six of us at the end of the table had not finished talking at 23.00 when most of the party had left and decided to have a last drink in the bar at the hotel. It was a marvellous evening and late one before I went to bed!

On Monday, our last day in Vienna, we said goodbye to Nancy, had a late breakfast with Hanna & Daniel pluss Isabella and her partner. That was yet another highlight from Vienna and all for this time.  Thank you to everyone I met in Vienna!

Share

Report One: Vienna Wool & Design Festival

Posted on by

My first highlight of the Vienna Wool & Design Festival was that I met up with Nancy Marchant at the airport in Vienna on Friday afternoon. She landed half an hour before Michael and I so, Suncica suggested booking a taxi for the three of us, knowing that we would have a lot of luggage with us. It gave me a wonderful chance to get to know the Queen of Brioche Knitting. The festival had already began by the time we arrived; the first set of workshops started in the afternoon. Several of the stands were set-up, ready for the influx of knitters on Saturday, in the Market Hall  (read: the Ballroom) at the Arc Hotel Wimberger. While I was busy looking down at all the yarns on all the 23 stands, Michael looked up and captured the banners with my design Tau, published in the: Vienna Wool & Design Festival Magazine: wool 2 to go 01. Mail order is open from today.

Suncica, one of the two organisers, had three different stands: The first for her current yarnshop: Wollsalon with the wonderful yarns like: Artyarns, Hedgehog Fibres, Lorna’s Laces, Malabrigo and Shibui. The second for her new brands called Pop-Up Store with: The Uncommon Thread, Biscotti Yarns and Doulton Flock. The third for her new yak yarn: Myak. I must admit seeing all those brands made me craving yarn. I am sure that sound familiar to many of you! I was way too busy talking to knitters I had meet in Vienna in 2015, test knitters from my Ravelry group and friends to take photographs, so most of these are taken by my husband!

Uschi, the other organiser, told me that they early figured out that they needed a photo wall, and where better to place it than on the stage. We took advantage of it and asked Susanne, aka shannara13 on Ravelry, to join us. On the Friday we were all wearing the same bluebell shade of blue and all my designs: Uschi, aka Grinsekatz on Ravelry, is wearing Ronette, Susanne is wearing Irina Pullover, both have made adjustments to the pattern to make them their own and  I am wearing Kori.

I was looking forward to seeing Scottish designer Di Gilpin again. I met her first time at the Rowan Yarns’ stand at the Knitting and Stitching Show in London several years ago, while I was still working for Rowan and she was launching her first book with Rowan yarns. Now, she has her own yarn brand: Lalland Lambswool, sell finished garments and designs both for hand knitters and for haute couture. In the photo above you see Sheila, who trains all their sample knitters and assists Di. Her eye for design and especially intricate cable work stand out, just take a look at her website here: digilpin.com. And yes, I have several balls of her yarn to play with now. To be continued.

All the beautiful colours and yarns on the British The Little Grey Sheep stand blew me away. Here I am lost in colours. All you can see of me is the back of my design Helka. I first spoke their shepherdess Susie (you can see her in action in the picture hanging above the mini skeins in the photo below), before I spoke to dyer & manager Emma.

Invited to this festival was also the Polish designer Hanna Maciejewska, aka Hada Knits, who I met up with during the festival. We enjoy each others company a lot! Suncica, aka Sunce5555 on Ravelry, stopped us in our tracks asking for more autographs for the magazines. We obliged, enjoying the lime light for a short period of time.

Hanna’s husband Daniel was walking around with his camera just as Michael was. Another designer who also brought her man was Isabell Kraemer, but due to our workshop schedules I was not able to talk to her until Monday morning when the six of us had a late breakfast. I am very proud of the fact that I did not buy any yarn, but I was given several skeins and balls to play with so I do not feel deprived in any way.

None of my workshops were fully booked and the small groups made them extra enjoyable since it gave us more time to get acquainted! Among the participants I spoke Norwegian to three of them to my surprise; two of them were living in Austria while the third had worked as an au-pair in Norway. The rest of the time, I spoke English and several of the Austrian participants where surprised how quickly they could recall their English vocabulary that not been used for awhile. More photos and stories are coming up next so stay tuned.

Share