Knitting

My knitting needles seem to be engaged in every free minute I have these days. I am not sure what I ever did to relax my mind before I started knitting again a few years ago...

I find it so soothing, especially when I don't have to follow complicated patterns and am knitting with a pretty yarn. Like this one! It's a bulky, warm and beautiful wool boucle yarn, meant to be worn on top of your winter coat as it isn't super soft! But oh so warm!

It has wondered into my Etsy shop (as it is rarely cold enough for me to wear this here).

These next few days are going to be super busy here, so you might not see much of me in the blog world. On the 19th, I'll be posting my blog for my friend Vicki's Grow Your Blog Party (the badge is on my sidebar and links to more information), of course with a little giveaway!

I wish you peaceful days with warmth and sunshine!

❧ Silke

Show & Tell

It has been a busy and full week. Daniel started teaching again, which always takes us a week or so to adjust to. And someone close to us passed away last weekend. It wasn't entirely unexpected, but still it occupies my mind a good bit. What soothes me in times of upheaval are my busy knitting needles, my paint brushes, my sewing machine and my kitchen.

Here just a few results of this week's creative outpouring. The oh-so-soft-and-warm pink scarf above is going to Vicki for the Pink Scarf Project she is so kindly organizing. You can click on the Pink Scarf Project image on my sidebar to get more information if you want to participate.

I made another scarf from my new favorite yarn, this time with larger needles, which makes it much more lacy. It's beautiful!

I've been wanting to put some applique free-form flowers on my little clutches, so yesterday I tried it. So cute!! Even if I say so myself... (The last two are in my Etsy shop)

And here's what's currently on the needles ~ and my trusty helper in the background...

Wishing you a wonderfully restful weekend filled with sunshine and happiness!

❧ Silke

After such a long time...

... I am finally working on a portrait again! This image has been in my mind since early December and it won't let me go, so now it is in progress. I'm hoping to finish it next week and show you all. I have to say though, I love how these faces always reflect my very own style. I never thought I'd have a style, but I guess I do!

Also, before the Holiday Season and knitted up a storm and sold most of it. However, here are a few beauties that are still in my Etsy shop along with other pretty things - actually I finished two of them after Christmas. 

This yarn is from Italy and not just beautiful with the silver sparkle, but also incredibly soft! I also made one for myself to keep...of course! After all, that kind of blue is my color.

These little scarflettes were just the most fun to make and they look great! I made a few and have two of them left. 

Here's my absolute favorite for now. Again, Italian yarn that has these wonderful knots all over. And those colors... 

It was a joy to knit and is gorgeous to look at and I'm making one for myself as well!! 

Thanks for all your comments on my last post. I've been feeling much more settled again and have been spending time being creative and just relaxing. I hadn't thought about what Anne said in her comment - the time after the holidays is always a little unsettling as is the beginning of a new year.

I hope you are all having a great weekend!!

❧ Silke

Been busy...

I finally got going with some of my crafts again and am busily stocking my Etsy shop with new fun and elegant lacy scarves and loopy brooches from all kinds of different fibers.

I'm having fun making these things and hope you'll enjoy having a look at them. 

These pins are such fun to make and SUCH a mess. Of course I have to get out all my yarns to see how I want to combine them.

And then the snippets of the eyelash yarn ended up on everything, even on Winslow who was laying at my feet last night while I was making these.

But it's an entirely joyful mess!

And these shiny yarns just make me happy when I see and knit them. I added some furry ends on these scarves for some fun and whimsy.

The one above looks to me like a beautiful autumn afternoon with the sun low in the sky giving you that absolute golden light. And red one was very hard to photograph - somehow my camera doesn't like red. But the true color is deep and rich and gorgeous!

I can't wait to show you the one I am knitting right now - the colors remind me of vacationing in the Caribbean! 

With that I send you creative greetings from a very warm Savannah that obviously didn't hear the news that it is now officially fall... 

Oh, and here's the link to my Etsy Shop. Simply click here! You can see all of these goodies and much, much more! 

❧ Silke

Color Explosion

Remember how in my last post I said I was craving color? Well, it's pouring out of me, but not through the paint brush (yet), but through my crochet hook.

I'm in a flower frenzy and I can't stop!! Nor do I really want to...

All of these flowers laying around, made me think I needed to reopen my Etsy shop, so I started taking pictures of all my knitted and crocheted creations I had made in the last few months.

I couldn't believe how much there was! Working with my hands like that calms me, but strangely enough the things I make are rarely for me.

I love making scarves, yet I hardly ever wear any myself.

I love knitting hats, yet again - I'm not usually a hat person.

And I love crocheting embellishments like the colorful flowers above, yet I wouldn't use them in anything I make - they bring me joy but are just not my style.

Strange, isn't it?

So, because I want to keep making things, I reopened my Etsy shop a couple of days ago and already sold one of my favorite scarves - a deep turquoise one knitted entirely of recycled sari silk yarn. It was stunning, even if I say so myself!

I've been combining fun yarns and trying new patterns - all for the sheer joy of making things.

You can take a look if you'd like. Simply click here!

Hopefully, soon I will get that same color explosion as I get back to my studio and one of my portraits. I have missed them!!

Wishing you all a color- and peaceful Sunday!

A few goodie goodies...

It seems that these days my mind is often a jumble of things! So today, I am passing some of that jumble on to you. All good things...

1. A couple of additions to my knit/crochet Etsy shop (click here to visit). 

Don't you love how springy and cheerful this scarf looks? It's knit with two different kinds of yarn and two patterns, a simple garter stitch to show of the colorful yarn and then a drop-stitch wave pattern for the smooth yarn, complete with a rainbow border. So happy!!

And then something new for me - a crocheted lace necklace. I had gotten this beautiful linen/silk blend yarn and was looking for just the right project. I love how this turned out and will definitely make more and also variations of this. Both of these are now listed.

 2. A few photos of spring inside and of our fireplace mantle, which we decorated before our company arrived. I've been meaning to share photos with you and just hadn't gotten to it yet.

I love bringing flowers into the house, especially right now when it feels more like winter again. We went from 86 (30℃) degrees on Sunday to a high of 51 (10℃) degrees yesterday - crazy!! And super stormy!

Since then, it's been all gray outside ... but not indoors!!

Pretty, isn't it? I love all the white!

Here's something else I've become very fond of - artificial flowers! We have them all over the house and they brighten everything and make me smile all throughout the year.

3. One of my scarves AND one of my prints were included in this beautiful Etsy treasury (click here to visit) by CinLynnBoutique, who makes gorgeous jewelry! Thank you so much!!!

4. A few new print additions to my art Etsy shop (click here to visit). Slowly but surely I am getting my act together and listing a few more things...

(Love the green theme...)

5. My first drawing class was fun, although we didn't do more than go through the syllabus and the materials list. We also introduced ourselves and I can tell already that I'll like the dynamics of this group of students! And I really like my professor, Kebedech Tekleab, an artist and poet from Ethiopia. Tomorrow, we'll actually start drawing!!

6. I started an artist page on Facebook (click here to visit) to show not only my art and crafts, but also your creations - every day something new...

7. That's about it for now. I have quite a few recipes to share with you, but that'll have to happen another day...

I hope that you are all doing well!! You are always on my mind, even if don't have as much time to visit and comment as I'd like to at the moment. But that'll change again...

Ten minutes on the stoop

Well, we decided to put off our Charleston trip because we just have too much going on here at home... Some day we'll get there again. 

So, this morning I took the camera and sat on the front steps for 10 minutes and just snapped photos of what caught my eye, starting with very happy and toasty feet in my felted slippers. 

While I sat there, I was thinking about how my creativity seems to go in waves (which is not a new observation - I think I've even blogged about it). I seem to be very focused for a while and then I get inspired and want to go into more and different directions.

I start doing that and then there's the fine line between being totally inspired and completely overwhelmed. When I get to the overwhelmed part, it's not long before I start to focus again on one or two things. Expansion and contraction - again and again. I find it somewhat frustrating as I am always yearning for continuity.

But then I got this image of us breathing - we breathe in and everything expands, and then we breathe out and everything contracts. It's all part of the same breath, isn't it?

I just need to change my point of view, my focus. Sometimes I want to focus on all the possibilities and then again I want to look at just one thing in more detail.

Maybe if you don't focus with a wide angle, you miss out on what's possible and what might be your next creative endeavor.

And at the same time, if you forget the close-up view, you'll miss the magic that is in the details.

I also find it interesting that when I am in one of these phases of being overwhelmed by all the possibilities, a new area of focus appears.

Maybe those times of expansion and seeming chaos are necessary for moving forward. Even though I sort of pull back again, my focus always has changed slightly and it propels me forward and often into new directions.

I remember when I started painting - that happened after about a year of not knowing what I was doing or what my new purpose was (I had just left a career and we had moved to a different part of the country). Over that year and the next, I sort of learned to lean into that feeling and that's when a new direction emerged and my life became better than it had ever been.

Back to my 10 minutes on the front porch - do you notice something with the birdhouse? It seems that the final lease has not been signed yet. Will it be the bluebirds or the chickadees?

And last but not least, I started knitting the border on my soft lacy scarf and made it into a ruffle - I somehow needed it to have a more feminine look. It came out very nicely and can now be found in my Etsy shop.

That's about all the news from here for today. Now I am going to my studio/office to spend some time with our tax returns. Oh, the fun of it...

I hope you are all having a beautiful weekend!