ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

I recently did a bit of a rave about Grannyg. She, that is Grannyg has a mission to save the world – one craft at a time, and she is doing very well at it, even on her own – she knits, spins, weaves, sews and bakes (I am told gloriously well). Oh, and she drinks coffee. I guess she must also drink tea given that the website is called Crafternoon Tea with Grannyg or maybe the name was a decision born to fill a rhyming need as Crafternoon Coffee with Grannyg does not work at all well.

Well Grannyg and I had a long talk a couple of weeks ago and today the podcast is up and ready so if you are at all curious about podcasts on crafts in, or to do with New Zealand and New Zealanders then do listen to it.

episode 36i – ConnieLene Johnston

Now I am Danish born, but I certainly sound like a New Zealander as you will hear. It is not so surprising as I have lived in New Zealand since December 28th 1948. Of course it is possible that it was the 29th, I just can’t quite recall, it being a wee while ago and at that time I was of an age where dates were not quite so important to me.

We established I have a long history with New Zealand including the craft / art / knitting world and as such am qualified to be interviewed, and what a fun interview that was. It did run on a bit, as it does when you are discussing stuff dear to your heart and it was great fun. Fortunately Grannyg being a very technically au fait granny, she has edited it a bit.

And if you think I laugh and sound like a smoker – believe me I am not and have never been. I spoke to Best Beloved about that and he reminded me that on the day I had a bad air day. What do you think of that – he noticed my bad air day, never ever notices my bad hair days. He was downstairs while Grannyg was interviewing me, or was that while we were talking about stuff we both love. No, it really was an interview.

Isn’t technology great – we spoke across the airwaves, and now I can, and I hope you do as well, we can listen to it over the airwaves – clear as day.

Sorry – I forgot say – we are living in Haarlem, in the Netherlands, In North Holland, which is why this was an interview via the ether. I am calmer about ether today you will note. We have been here in the Netherlands just over 2 years and will return to New Zealand late next year. In the meantime my Best Beloved is working, and I am designing and knitting, just filling in the days with yarn, ideas, colours and even patterns.

I hope these patterns and I probably have several hundred partially written or connie knithand notes that will become patterns. These here patterns are to be sold so I can continue my passion for yarns. I will quietly curl up my toes as the New Zealand pension is unlikely to be sufficient to cover my yarn needs.

Unique Boutique Knits – with my knit patterns

Please go look and then listen. It will help Grannyg with her quest and with luck it will also help me with mine – and please forward the link.

I have been talking, or is that writing, a bit lately about direction on a personal level with various friends, family and colleagues. But I still feel a touch confused.

But I shouldn’t be!

I am communicating like crazy.

Or is that crazily communicating.

Or should it be that I am crazy to communicate

Or what else could it mean?

I am on Facebook and Twitter, and have two etsy shops Unique Boutique Knits where you will find my patterns and some odd knits and bits. Then I have an etsy shop called ConnieLene where you will only find knits and that might be only for a wee while. This one is for the chop as it were.

Then I am on Youtube and as I am sure you have worked out already I am Connieleneknits The videos are of my (our graffiti) knitting exploits as well as bird life and bike travels etc in the Netherlands.

Crazy as it all seems I am also on the Big Idea but there I am ConnieLene Johnston and then there are other places in the world like LinkedIn, Digg as Connieleneknits, Ravelry as ConnieLene, GrownUpsNZ, my mobile for SMS, email, etc – there are too many places that I cannot list for time becomes an issue here.

All these internet connections are so that I can communicate with absolutely anyone who could be interested in me personally, and/or in my work, or in my travels with Best Beloved.

Life goes in full Circles!

Yes it does.

The very first connection I had with the world was with my mother and then with my family and communciation was snail mail, then the telephone other than real live real functional talking. You know that stuff – face to face. Fantastic stuff.

Life, work, marriage, children, illness, death, birth ……..

And we have forgotten to talk.

Oh we do communicate – but talk, what’s that!

Now we communicate via the ether.

I remember ether – it is what I used as a young nurse in an old coackroach ridden hospital ward in Auckland – to stun huge coackroaches into submission to be scooped up and washed down the sluice. I could still hear the scuttling of those other 10 million coackroaches but I did my bit with the ether.

Now I do so much with the ether – that I think everything has come full circle again. I feel like there are another 10 million connections that I am not making in this modern ether.

It is a little scary so.

Right now I just want family and friends and colleagues and fantastic face to face talking for a bit.

Maybe I have been alone here in the Netherlands too long. Maybe it is because I have been recently to New Zealand where we did lots of talking. Maybe it is because my sister has terminal cancer. Maybe it is because my sister is to be married this weekend, maybe it is just that I am not there.

I know, I am not alone – Best Beloved is here. He leaves for his work at around 7.30 in the mornings. I am not sure of the time – he brings me a wonderful coffee up two flights of stairs and then goes to work. He comes home again around 5.30 or 6 generally. I might go to the shops and the rest of the time I am alone.

Gosh I think I am having words with me.

Get up – get out there, only another 12 months and then who knows what we might get up to then – and I have at least enough yarn for another 50 sweaters, not that I will knit sweaters, and I am going to the Knitting and Stitch show in London. Then I will talk, I hope I will be talking a lot.

I am so looking forward to talking.

I will still communicate via the ether, but I am not going to try to make another 10 million ether connections.

Only Thursday evening last I told Best Beloved that the 2 Etsy shops were a little difficult to maintain. That I would now continue creating patterns and sell them from Unique Boutique Knits as I do now, and I would stop trying to create new “One of a Kind” pieces for my other Etsy shop Connie Lene Designer Knits

Funky Fingerless Glove Pattern link

The reason being, I said – that when I create my OOAK (One of a Kind) pieces I really enjoy the challenge of doing that for specific exhibitions, commissions, fashion events and so on. Trying to maintain those connections as well as 2 etsy shops to sell OOAK pieces as well as my patterns – is just too much for me right now. So I want to concentrate better on my OOAK artistic creations.

OK, said Best Beloved, you do what you love.

He is a special man this Best Beloved – having supported me through a number of special creations for various exhibitions and he knows the stresses and lives them with me. That is he, our daughter and son, as well as several very supportive and creative artists in New Zealand.

What happened then?

Well yesterday (Friday) I sold 2 capes from ConnieLene Knits as well as a sweet little poncho and 2 patterns from Unique Boutique Knits. My very very best Etsy day ever.

SO WHAT SHALL I DO NOW??

I am, of course, delighted to hear and to see that in fact my love of capes and cloaks is not out of line with the fashion consensus for the coming Northern Winter.

Capes can be casual and comfortable, easy to throw around the shoulders. They can also be smart and sophisticated; they can be fun and sassy, and then of course they can be seriously sexy, sensuous, and just plain gorgeous. A cape can be punk or funky, and it can be ethnic or modern – a cape be any look you want, and it can compliment any clothing style that you like or can imagine.

SO the cape or cloak is great over an evening dress, a tank and jeans, a negligee, a summer dress, a formal dress, around the shoulders of a business suit – even over a a bikini or your sexy underwear. Capes Rock.

A cape is so easy to wear and you can wear it anywhere. It can be dressed up or down using various pins and brooches or ties – you decide how your cape should appear. It can also define itself by the yarns that are used to create the cloak or cape. Faux fur is a fashion trend for this coming winter and luxury mohairs are okay again.

It is a funny thing the cycling of yarns and garments, isn’t It? Why don’t we ever just say – “This is what I like, this is the colour I like, I am not concerned with trend reports, I am only concerned with what I love. For what it is worth – I love capes and cloaks and I love the earthy colours, the warmth and lightness of wearing a faux fur with a fine mohair or alpaca yarn, I love the purples and then the reds and then the blues and then …. well it seems I just love colour and in no particular order.

There is plenty of time to find the pattern and the yarns for your cape for the winter of 2010. My Etsy shop has the Kiwi Cape available pattern now and I will be adding the multicolour cape that is in the gallery very soon. It is so easy to knit being all garter stitch and it is an easy one to play with the yarns you have in your stash. There are others and I will announce them as I complete them.

The photo gallery is of some of my capes, cloaks and some little capelet, poncho pieces as well. As I locate photographs of others I shall add them to this gallery. I do hope you will find something here that gives you an idea or a plan for your winter wardrobe.

The Cape is perfect for a newer knitter – no sleeves, simple shaping, small enough to not get bored with and frustrated by. They are also ideal for trying new yarns and colours, or to use up yarns from your stash. In these more austere times a cape will not require a huge outlay in monies, and your cape will dress up all of your current wardrobe items.

So don’t allow the winter of 2010 be the winter of your discontent because you do not already have one or two trendy, knitted capes and cloaks ready to wear by the time the weather begins to turn.

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.