ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

WoolOn™ Creative Fashion Event Oct 2010 is the creative fashion event of Central Otago, New Zealand. All the garments or outfits must be there by 15 September 2010. Yikes!

So I must go knit and knit and then knit some more as stuff posted from the Netherlands can take a long time to reach the New Zealand destination.

So you can see how they do Creative Fashion at WoolOn™ and if you are in New Zealand and intend attending then please take some photographs for me.

Do consider celebrating the arrival of spring as they do in the south at the Alexandra Blossom Festival, in Alexandra, Central Otago 24th September to 9th October 2010.

Laurel Judd was Supreme Award winner in 2009 at WoolOn.

For those who do not know just what Twitter is.

Mainly from Wikipedia :

Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service, owned and operated by Twitter Inc., that enables its users to send and read other user’s messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s page. Tweets are publicly visible by default.

From Moi:

I realised that my twitter when used around a specific project such as my “Lake Hawea Skirt / Outfit” actually makes its own story. And because I write my stories here on the website – I thought I could use my twitter for this one – and so I have.

Just in case you thought this – NO – Twitter does not pay me, I am not advertising twitter.

I am saving writing time by using my twitter this way for this project. I need to talk to and hear from people in support of my all round craziness and doubt around this project. Twitter is doing that for me because everyone in New Zealand is asleep when I am awake here in The Netherlands. I am just adding my thoughts as I would if there was someone here for me to talk to, but in 140 characters – and that is hard for me.

Maybe the world would be a better place if we could all restrict our sentences to a coherent (nearly) 140 characters, minus full stops and spaces if necessary.

Hear that all ye politicians and all ye all round nutters. See if you could do that – you might be real and honest. WOW

Life has been rather miserable since I found that the great balls of Haarlem have finally been replaced with a row of boring shiney posts.

Last Saturday, a very grey day indeed, when were feeling very very down having received sad news from home, we decided to go to Rotterdam for the day.

Why? – to see if we could get out to and see the great sea walls there, a wonder of the modern world they say. But we arrived too late in the day (at about 10.30am), and because it is quite a distance to get to the starting place (about 96k’s), and without a car all the more difficult. Yes, there were other options, but they did not really seem to satisfy – so we are going on a Wednesday soon, when we will satisfy Best Beloveds need to know and see on a special all day tour including the sea wall, gates, museum etc. They only run this specific all day tour on a Wednesday.

We must do it soon, so that with a bit of luck the sea itself will not be boiling so hard (It is the ferocious North Sea after all) that I cannot cope with the boat trip. Very soon, like, before the end of summer. Oh and I think we are there already, at the end of summer, I mean. The air has changed, the light has changed, it is dark much earlier, even the birds behaviour is changing.

But as you can see – I found another stretch of water, a safe stretch, a calm stretch – a concrete river with concrete balls – and now I am inspired once more. I have a completed ball cover, and another one 75% done – and now I may have a place to position them.

A concrete river, with round river stones – WOW!

In the heart of Rotterdam.

That is the news from Rotterdam

and the next news might be after a very busy Wednesday, I just might need some help with this.

but I have reviewed all my draft posts, updated them and published them. They have been published as of the date I was writing them so you may find something you have not read before.

I have written the pattern for the Danish Shawl and that is being tried and tested by a dear friend in Auckland, New Zealand. Photos of my Danish Shawl and others from Den Gamle By.

I have nearly finished the English version of the Sleeveless Jacket pattern.

And of course I do have many UFO’s on the needles as well. But I am not going to talk about UFO’s anymore. I will only talk about completed pieces – could slip on that as it is not New Year so is not a New Years resoultion. In one sense it is New Year – this is the beginning (August 1st) of the last year we have here in Europe. Best Beloveds contract ends on July 31st 2011.

That is all the news for now for this website – now I have to do the same for our Travel and living in Europe website.

It has been two months of family time, some fun, some sadness, some reminiscing, and some very good times. Grandson loved having us in New Zealand as I hope did our daughter and other family members.

Son and family visited from Switzerland and Granddaughter of my Danish cousin came from Denmark of course, so here in the Netherlands on our return from New Zealand we had a houseful for nearly 2 weeks, very tiring and busy, but a great deal of fun as well – that is apart from my pizza on the Pizza Cruise on the Amsterdam Canals. My Pizza had so called Salami or some other meat – which was nearly shocking pink – I hate to think what had been done to it. I shall not eat another Domino’s Pizza whilst in Europe, not that I ever have done so before, but I will not do it in the future.

It certainly has been an excellent time for me – but knitting, designing, writing patterns, finishing pieces all went by the board.

I am now in serious catch up mode with peace and quiet in the house, other than my music that is.

Off to knit or maybe to write – not sure.

I also have a date for a bike ride this evening when Best Beloved arrives home.

yes I got caught up in housework – I did the ironing and I didn’t knit – silly woman, I am sure no one noticed or benefited by my efforts.

Vogue Trend report for Autumn – Winter 2010 – 2011

from A-Z my own comments are in italics

A-Line – easy to knit

Beehives – hard to create knitted or crocheted hats for. Me, I remember the Beehive, I will not be going there again.

Camel – Colour, fabric or animal. I love the colour, I love the fabric. Camels spit.

CAPES – okay with you? I design and knit capes and cloaks.

Dryclean only please – knits are embroidered or feature colourful prints. It is good advice, but I think the trend should be

Delicate Knits to be drycleaned only please.

Expensive Simplicity – I like that statement but what does it mean for me – expensive yarn, one colour, great design – okay

Fur – If you don’t say it with fur next season then say it with feathers – knitters can knit both and I like to play with both faux fur and feathered yarns. [according to Vogue - fake or real, it’s too big to be a trend, on and off the catwalk it was more of a deluge]

Grunge Glamour – when you’re not dressing up, dress down in high quality – I not sure I understand this one, maybe it is an age thing, not understanding Grunge and Glamour together

Hairbands – I had a pattern for a knitted plaited headband from my mother-in-law. Perhaps I need to resurrect it especially as I am riding a bike often here in the Netherlands

Intricate details – beading, pleating, twisting, draping, embroidery. For me and my knitting – I love twisting (moebius), plaited (cables), Pleats with colour hidden in them and lots of colour. I have been playing a little with a bit of beading in my knitting and I am not in love yet. I have also knitted silver wire with beads. I really enjoy the challenge of that – but my results are not interesting enough as yet.

Jewellery stories – big necklaces still an outfit make – they could well be knitted or crocheted by other wonderful knitters and crocheters. like the Bloomin Neck Gardens by ScarfitUp.

Knits top-to-toe – the perfect trend for me, although socks have still escaped my needles. I have those IOU’s to complete for red socks. Leg, arm and neck warmers and dresses and even skirts and of course sweaters, jackets, vests you name it I have probably created it somewhere sometime.

I like the letter “K”, what a great trend “Knits top to toe” is

Lace – Forget the cold, it looks beautiful over goose bumps. And if you don’t like lace, buy a leather dress, possibly with pockets. Knitted or crocheted Lace is beautiful – I can, and have created shawls and scarves in lace, in simple lace that is, I do not call myself a lace knitter

Mad Men Secretaries – I do not know what this trend is really

Navy – Wear it with everything. Wear it with black. It is the new black – well all knitters and crocheters and yarn creators and dyers – I hope you are ready for the new black. Navy looks great with purples, turquoises and Red and ……..

Orange – Colour trend – Orange also will go extremely well with the new black – Navy or be bold and knit orange with actual black.

Polo Neck – great knitters style

Quantum Leap (futuristic) – knit futuristic is real

Retro hair – with a net I presume to keep it sitting soo still – great to show off the knitted and crocheted hats see Constance Willems marvellous Hats

Shearling – ……. Just about everywhere – include with your knits if you can afford it or knit loopy to fake it as faking is always an in trend

Teddy Bear fur – Faking it in true style and apparently it was everywhere – WHY?

Understated – supremely good quality but passive in colour and shape. It’s the new way to show off. My trend here would be

Unique Knits and we all understand that.

Victoria’s Secret models – Curves are back, ladies. Where did the curves go? I think this trend should be called

Vogue and Vintage knits, knitted for the real woman or it could be called Vogue Knitting.

Weather – was on display at many of the fashion shows. Me, I think of weather and knitting as

WOW, the Winter Wonderland of Opportunity to create wonderful, sexy, in Vogue, trendy, fitting, colourful and creative knits

X – was a band at the shows – Is that a fashion Trend? I think not, so lets stick with

XRX Books – The Knitting Universe

Yeti – You could knit in the Yeti Look if you wish – not for me.

ZigZags – herringbone tweeds, chevron furs – tesselations to be knitted sometime. It is on my knit radar.

The two Big Trends

1. A celebration of womanliness that will allow us to use traditional wiles and graceful curves to ….. You need to go and read it yourself.

2. Is for absolute, supreme, take-your-breath-away quality…….. I like that.

Cape knitted with mohair and faux fur fibre

Kiwi Cape Pattern is available on etsy at uniqueboutiqueknits

So that is my “in Vogue” trendy news for knitters.

I may change the information as I find new reports or items of interest.

Meantime remember that Capes are in – okay!

I know it is really peculiar.

Well it would be to our mothers; this chatting, writing, blogging, skyping and texting that we do in our world with all the technology that we have at our finger tips.

I am keeping my worldwide family aware of what I am doing using facebook and email, and have sent the link to my first double pointed needle attempt to my Danish cousins who live in America now, and who were in New Zealand as children.

It set me thinking – we need to know about our families, and there may be out there in this wide world many more people from the extended Rohde, Rode and Schrader family in New Zealand, America and Denmark who may not know that in the early years there were an abundance of us in New Zealand, and that we were all taught to cook, bake, knit, sew, garden and embroider by some, or all of the mothers.

The technology now enables us to keep track and to get to know one another again, where we once relied on our mothers to communicate by the hand writing of thousands of letters and sending them to and fro across the world. They are nearly all gone now – those mothers.

I know that all those very very strong women who emigrated to New Zealand, from Denmark, after the war, all had an impact on my interest in various creative forms from cooking, baking and gardening, to embroidery, crochet, and then knitting which has become my big big passion. I never did take to preserving, making jams and pickling cucumbers and there is one other skill that I never did master from those wonderful women and that was the knitting of socks.

All those great women knitted, sewed, embroidered and crocheted everything from dish cloths, hand towels, collars for our dresses, gloves, socks, and all those sweaters and hats and one can just go on and on about what they each did. They baked bread, made yeast buns which had such a delicious warm aroma – that made everyone come in from the fields to eat without even the tiniest call. Children came from everywhere. These mothers made cottage cheese, mayonnaise, pickled everything, bottled everything, and made fruit juice out of the skins of the fruits they had bottled. They stitched and gardened and cooked and still had times to read stories to us and to write letters, thousands of letters – to keep everyone informed. In short they were amazing.

I knit. I knit passsionately as they did, but they were sooo busy everyday that being a little flamboyant with yarns and so on would never ever have happened. Embroidery was the way to colour their lives.

I am so lucky. I am so lucky to have known these amazing women, my mother (mor), my aunts (Tante, Moster, Faster) and all their friends and latterly my mother-in-law. Without them I would not be me.

I am also lucky that I am able to communicate so easily, so readily, with my family using modern technology. What a long way we have come from letter writing to this. We are all so busy, or so we feel. Yet I think those women were really busy and they knew what was important – imparting knowledge, sharing skills, supporting each other and they were full time jobs and were valued and were valuable for the strength and safety of the community.

Anyway – this story all began because of my journey to create “Red Socks” with double pointed needles.

I have put it out there to my family using the technology (facebook), so I do have to add to my TO DO list here again. The RED SOCKS – the Sir Peter Blake Red Socks.

Now Best Beloved and our son requested these for Christmas last. They have an IOU as I haven’t even started these. I have knitted the fingerless gloves using double pointed needles – so I guess the socks will happen sometime, when I have the time to learn a new skill in knitting, if I can stop playing with the technology.

Just now it is not easy to find something to tell you about.

Maybe this is called Writer’s Block
Maybe it is called Designer’s Block
Maybe it is called Knitter’s Block
Maybe it is Ball Withdrawal Block
Maybe it is just called Blockety Block

Whatever it should be called in my case – I do believe I have a big case of whatever it is just now.

I am knitting – slowly.
I am thinking about new designs all the time – but slowly.
I am quietly frustrated trying to slowly complete those creations that I told you I was knitting.

So yet another to do list

1. mohair shell sample
2. 100% wool shell sample
3. finish and photograph the carbon footprint bag
4. publish the carbon footprint shadow knitting graph
5. complete and publish the pattern for the sleeveless jacket in English
6. translate the pattern for the sleeveless jacket into Danish
7. maybe translate the pattern for the sleeveless jacket into Norwegian maybe
8. finish black ball cover
9. decide where and when to install black and white ball covers
10. Intarsia E-book or print book planning
11. I may be thinking about knit kits (thank you Constance for bringing that up)
12. I may also be thinking about cloaks again (thank you Constance for bringing that up as well)
13. I may be thinking about the Alexandra Blossom Festival committee invitation to participate in the WoolOn Creative Fashion Event of the 2010
14. I may be thinking about the Fibre and Fleece Exhibition
15. I am NOT thinking about creating for either event while I am in New Zealand
16. I may be thinking about “King of the Mountain” run/walk in NZ on the first Sunday in July

And I am planning a trip to New Zealand to see our very special small person (grandson), our daughter, my courageous Mother In law, and family and friends – and that seems more important than everything and anything else just now.

Maybe that is the cause of the blockety block.

Because this a state of Blockety block – or is that Blankety Blank – if I have forgotten anything then please please remind me, thanks.

And in case it occurred to you, the Constance mentioned above is not me, myself and I. My name is really Connie Lene and not not Constance.

Oh, and did you pick up that my Norwegian is not as good as my Danish, which is certainly not as good as my English.

I hope that after looking through the site you will choose to be a fan of my Facebook Page or as it is now on facebook I hope you will choose to like ConnieLeneKnits

You can find me in many places on the net –

My Etsy Shop Unique Boutique Knits for patterns and garments

Crazy but this is my other Etsy Shop Connielene Capes and my unique and unrepeatable knits Capes because I adore cloaks and capes, the others because I cannot tell you exactly how I created them other than the pattern for the style but not the intarsia on them.

And because I managed to create and install a Ball Warmer and really enjoyed the experience and the story World Urban Art – a site still in development – Installation art in the urban environment including Knit Art Graffiti or Yarn bombing.

Our travels in Europe – two oldies from New Zealand exploring the Netherlands, Denmark and Europe as time, money and energy allows.

You can find me on Ravelry here and believe it or not I am also on Twitter here as Connieleneknits

I am a Freelance designer, knitter, lover of colour; lots of colour, Intarsia lover, pattern writer, fashion knit trend follower, Colour and yarn trend follower.

They tell me that I am also artist, graffiti knit artist. I know I am a storyteller, writer, blogger, mother, wife, sister, grandmother, teacher, friend, photographer, and speaker.

My loves are colour, texture, shape, flow, drape, drama, magic, passion and yarn and I hope you enjoy the results.

When I can I do participate in fibre exhibitions, and I have curated two exhibitions with a wonderful artist friend. In 2009 I had a felted jacket in WoolOn at the Alexandra Blossom Festival, and a dress with intarsia of course in the Alpaca Festival in New Zealand.

My Mission is to excite and challenge all knitters, designers and wearers of hand created pieces – to experience more colour in their own knitted pieces and to enjoy the freedom and the magic of wearing such a unique piece because it is created with many colours, passion and with magical yarns

My Major Project with delivery in 2011 is My Intarsia Knitting – Book as yet with no name.

I hope you will be a fan of my Facebook Page or as it is now I hope you will choose to like ConnieLeneKnits on Facebook.

I am gobsmacked, my heart is pounding – the news is in: the balls are back. That is the great concrete balls of Haarlem Town Square (Grote Markt) are back. They are not back in their original position as yet, they are sitting and waiting to be repositioned as the road works continue.

So just maybe a yarnbombing, a graffiti art knit installation, urban art piece, yarn storming, street art piece will be able to be installed in Haarlem again.

Did you know that according to Wikipedia yarn bombing is almost exclusively about reclaiming and personalizing sterile or cold public places?

Having said that I do not think that the Haarlem Town Square is a sterile and cold public space. We have had wonderful meals here, fresh mint tea here, greeted Sinter Klaas here, farewelled Sinter Klaas here. We have bought bird food for the birds, partridge for us, and winter truffle, olives, olive oil, flowers, fish and yarn here in this square. We have listened to jazz at the Annual Haarlem Jazz festival as well as at various venues around the square. We have participated in food and wine tastings, been enticed by the idea of the Keukenhof Gardens and so much more.

Can you say that about your town square?

We have crunkled across the snow, taken our bikes through the square (once), welcomed Olympians to the square, participated a couple of times at the local stitch ‘n Bitch at the square. We have eaten kibbeling, frites, stroopwafels, poffertjes but not raw herring in the square. Tried various beers, wines, olives, and breads, in this square. We have spent a couple of days at a medieval village and market in the square.

There is just nothing cold and sterile about this space.

BUT the balls, the great balls of Haarlem, now they were cold.