Last swaps and next month

The last days I was working on three last swaps for January, which has been waiting for some time now. Sorry for those, who had to wait to receive their swap mail!

Those are the mails I've prepared. :)

I'm going to be away a lot in February. Sadly no (real) vacation, mainly work. :( A lot of work! :( But still, I'll enjoy this month anyway! :)

So in February I won't have the time for a project, but since I don't want to stop blogging for an entire month, I thought about showing you the three swap mails during the next weeks. :) One by one. :)

Wish you a wonderful new month and hope you'll stop by! ♥

Two swaps are on their way :)

I finally finished the textile letters swap for dear Karina, who had to be so patient with me. I hope she likes the little things I prepared for her.

I added some things of the nature: pretty stones and shells I've found during different vacations and a pretty leaf. :)

I also included a couple of selfmade things, like the buttons I've already shown you, a macrame pattern with different reddish yarns (DIY for this pattern coming soon!) and a crocheted doily with a mini hook! When I showed it to my boyfriend, he asked me, if I could iron it, because it wasn't flat. ;)

I also included two pieces of fabric I bought on a trip to Kenya two years ago, a letter, a little origami box with a crane and some mini tags. :)

This is the entire content of the package:

While the first letter included little things to inspire its recipient, the second swap was more "conventional". :) I prepared this one for dear Whitney, who writes a lovely blog!

As she told me her favourite colour was mustard yellow, I bought yarn in this colour and knitted her wrist warmers. :) For this, I tried out knitting braids for the first time and it was quite easy and a lot of fun to make!

I also included some German sweets, some tags and stickers with self-carved stamps, a pretty shell from one of our vacations and a little gingerbread cutter for cute cookies. :)

I hope my swap partners like the swap packages I've prepared for them! :)

A snail mail surprise

I'm so sorry, I've neglected my blog so much in the last weeks. But I'm just so busy in personal life AND work! The worst combination. ;)

I got a wonderful snail mail surprise from dear Isthar at the end of last week, which I would love to show you! :D If you don't know her blog, you have to check it out! It's one of my favourites!

I didn't expect the snail mail, because she didn't inform me that she dropped it in the mail. So the surprise was even bigger. :)

Look at all the wonderful little treasures she's sent me! I love the pretty envelope by the way! :)

I'm a huge fan of her beautiful illustrations and was so happy to receive those cards!!! In the corner you see a small little red book she made for me! Isn't it cute? :D

If you open the book, the first page shows a little girl saying "Hello!". Haha, I just love that! :D So cute! She's also sent me tags with wonderful stamps she's made this year! Look at the beautiful china inspired carvings!

Thanks so much, Ishtar! I enjoyed your mail so much! I already have some ideas, what to send you!

So, it's already the end of the month (it's kind of scary how fast the time has flown again)! I still have a lot of snail mail to do this month! But I've prepared two swaps during the last weeks and I'm looking forward to showing them to you! :) :)
Wish you all a wonderful start into the week! :) :)

Happy new year everyone! :) :)

At the end of every year I'm amazed at how fast the time has flown, but also very excited what the next year is going to bring. :D

I normally like to make resolutions in the beginning of a new year. You just get into the feeling of "being reborn". ;) It's like a new chance to change your life in some kind of way....

But this year I won't make any resolutions! I just want to take everything as it comes. Make the best of everything, do what I love and enjoy every day! :) :)

The new year's first project is going to be something I really love but have neglected for the last months: Taking care of my correspondences. :)

There are couple of swaps waiting to be sent out and I'm looking forward to prepare them and also excited to blog about it.

Hope you had wonderful holidays and wish you all a wonderful start into the new year 2013!

Happy holidays!

I'm sorry for the long blog absence. But my life has been so busy lately: Christmas partys, several meetings with friends, shopping for christmas presents, baking cookies and making christmas gifts!

At least I managed to get all the presents for christmas. :) Some of them were already exchanged, some of them got shipped to different locations.

I unfortunatelly didn't had the time to carve special christmas stamps. :( So I used simple forms and stamps I already own to embellish the wrapping paper and gift tags.

I also worked on different christmas presents, like this dodo bookend... :D I just crocheted a round big body and for the beak, wings and feet I used this lovely dodo amigurumi pattern.

...and this hat... :) I used this pattern for it.

I also got some christmas mail. :D

Especially the one from dear Celine made me so happy. She's prepared such a beautiful and lovely snail mail, thank you so much! Look at all the wonderful things she's sent me. :D

I wish you all wonderful and joyful holidays! I hope you cheerish every moment with your beloved family and friends and make great memories to remember. :)
I'm going to take a blog pause and I'm looking forward to seeing you again after the holidays!

The last days of November and the start of December

I have to admit it.
I almost got nothing done in November...
At least not for my November project. ;)

What I did instead was giving a small knitting class and preparing a korean multi-course dinner for 12 people. This took that much time that I just didn't had the time to start anything for christmas. At least I did some brainstorming. :) And I sent out a bunch of advent calendars, even though a little late! But hopefully they've arrived at their destinations in time!

I also did some yarn crafting. :) As always. ;)
Another macrame bracelet as a birthday present for a good friend of mine:

And as you already know, I finally finished my loop scarf:

My December project won't differ much from the one in November. :) Now I REALLY have to start making and buying gifts, prepare wrapping material and christmas cards/tags. As you see in my project plan, I have a "topic" every week. That doesn't mean I'm not going to do other things in the week too, but it's easier for me to focus on one thing like this.

And I'm very much looking forward to baking cookies and drinking "Glühwein" at the Christmas market. :) :)
How are your christmas preparations going on?

Ending a loop scarf - tutorial

I finally finished my loop scarf. :)

I've already told you in the last post about the ending, but today I would like to give you a detailed description of step 5 with images. Hopefully it helps you to finish your loop scarf. :)

After carefully ripping the first row (those stitches you've casted on with a separate yarn in the beginning of the scarf) and slipping the stitches back to a needle, you get two open ends. The upper stitches in the picture are those, which you get after ripping the first row:

Holding both needles pointing to the right, start binding-off the stitches. For this, always knit the first stitches of both left needles (I'll just call them double-stitches) together:

Next, pass the first (right) stitch over the second (left) stitch on the working needle. (In the beginning you have to bind-off a double-stitch two times, so you get two stitches on the working needle. After this, you are able to do this step.)

If you continue like this, binding-off a double-stitch and slipping the first stitch over the second stitch on the working needle, the resulting scarf looks like this, a clear nice seam:

I hope this tutorial makes the process of finishing a scarf clearer to you. If you still have a question, please let me know! :)