Blossom Boppers

I have been knitting and felting flowers for a few years now. I have made them into a number of lovely hair accessories, but I hadn't found a a way to make a nice baby toy out of them until this summer. Some of my best ideas come from my customer's suggestions. I had a customer order a baby sweater and request that I invest a toy that could be called a Poppybopper. She was ordering the items for her sister, who she had always called "Poppy-bopper" for reasons forgotten to memory. I imagined a number of different items, until I came up with a teether/rattle made in the shape of a flower and twisty stem with a leaf on the end. (I had always wanted to incorporate a teething ring in a toy!)  After quite a bit of experimental knitting, here is what I made for her:

The flower jingles softly.

I loved it, but decided to make some "daisy" style ones in a range of colors, as well as rosebud (which has been trickier).  I LOVE them.  I ordered some very nice hardwood teething rings from an Etsy seller and I finish them with a beeswax polish. I love knitting these and look forward to selling more of them next month at my Adventsmarkt at Domaine Dahlem here in Berlin.

Longies for Mose

We have had a cold and dreary week here in Berlin, but I have been keeping warm knitting "longies" for my little friend Mose.  He was here with his parents for three weeks and broke all our hearts by heading back to Massachusetts. To keep him feeling close, I have been making him cold weather gear. Longies are long-underwear for babies, with built in feet. Using a pattern by Zimmerman I made one pair, then, I adapted it immediately for the second pair. Made from wool sock yarn, they are machine washable (and dry-able!).  Babies can wear them under regular clothes or as their trousers.

Knitting baby pants has been my "naughty" knitting as I am prepping again for the Berlin Christmas Markets in December. I have plenty of Feltaroo knitting to do to keep me busy from morning to night! More on German baby rattles another day....

This Year's Bestseller: Mushroom Baby Rattle

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The  Classic German "Flying Mushroom".  I enclose a cat toy to make the perfect baby rattle. Knitted in one piece of 100% wool, then felted, it is super safe and all natural.

Baby Gifts

Here I am, in heaven.

I have just returned home from a most amazing vacation. I didn't visit an exotic locale. Instead, I had the amazing privilege of spending three weeks with a dear friend as she awaited and welcomed her first child. It was so hard to leave! Her son was one of four babies born this winter/spring that have been my excuse to knit tiny sweaters, hats, sclaf sacken, and even pants! I failed to take pictures of most of the gifts I made, but here are a few:

Cotton Hoodie in moss stitch

Cotton Pants to match

A "sleep sack" (modeled above) and a baby Gansey

Baby Surprise Jacket, ala Elizabeth Zimmerman

New Name & Baby Knits

My blog hasn't been about our travels and adventures for more than a year now, so I decided it was time for a name change :).  Aidan has been suggesting a new section of my Etsy shop, Feltaroo -- one named "Kanga Knits" where I could sell my hand knit items that aren't felted.  I still feel my knits are more personal somehow, though, and I'm not quite ready to sell them.  Still, the name has been spoken around the house here for months and I realized it is the PERFECT name for the blog, where I share my explorations, trials, tribulations and learning adventures in knitting. I also love the symmetry of one child naming the shop and the other the blog.  They are amazing people, our children.

Since the New Year (and the end of the Holiday insanity/German Christmas Markets), I have been taking it easy with the felting - just filling orders.  But I have been knitting as much as ever. Inspired by friends who are having babies, I have been enjoying knitting all different types of baby sweaters.  I have also begun sweaters for Doug, Aidan and myself and completed one for Maggie.  Poor Aidan, I tried to knit his left-handed, but my tension is so very uneven still while knitting continental that I had to tink the whole thing and start over.  (I persisted for quite a while, telling myself that blocking would even it out.  Luckily, my knitting group talked me out of that.)  Doug's is a very elaborate Aran knit in dk yarn, so it is taking a while.  When I began, I thought I would have it in time for his birthday, but that is simply impossible.  Now, I am thinking Hannukah.

Time Trials for Crafters

I have been estimating.  Over and over, people ask, "How long did it take you to make this?"  And I, being the earthbound, factual person I am, make a wild guess.  It isn't that I haven't tried to recreate how long I have spent on items.  I have.  For example, when I price an item, I like to imagine that the price has something to do with the amount of time it took me to make it.  I even hope that I am charging a few dollars an hour for my time.  But honestly, have no idea, not really.  I pick it up and put it down.  I knit a few rows on the bus, in line, while waiting for an appointment, between helping kids with homework, while the coffee brews.  Knitting is marvelous (as compared with machine sewing) because it can be done while watching tv or listening to a lecture.  So, I really don't know.  Do you know how long it takes you?

Well, I have taken up a challenge.  I am timing my projects.  A good friend that has done development work with small crafting cooperatives in Africa told me that he had crafters make the same thing 10 times and time their work.  Then, they all took the averages of their times for that product and averaged them together.  The final average was the time they used when determining a price.  I am not going quite that far.  After all, this is a cooperative of  only one (with a large support staff of family and friends, of course).  I have made a little chart (on paper) with a list of products and four columns: three trials and the average.  Very systematic!

Now I know why I have resisted doing this. First, it is hard.  I have a little notebook where I jot down elapsed times each time I start and stop.  Imagine, you answer the phone, jot.  You check the food, jot.  "Mom!" jot.  Only, of course, I don't wear a watch, so the process is, find a clock, jot.  Annoyed with this non-system, I have begun to do more of my knitting during the quieter, school hours of the day when I have fewer interruptions.

And, I am discovering the second reason why I have resisted doing this.  It is depressing.  My products take me a long time to knit, a good while to felt, and many have very involved sewing/finishing that they require.  Oh well.  I have only just begun and I am simply "gathering data" as another dear friend would say.

All ye crafters out there in the blog-o-sphere, do you or have you ever done time trials?

Hello Etsy Weekend and Good News

First, above all, I thank you all for being SO supportive!!  You can't know how much it means to me that you all responded so quickly and lovingly.

And, I am doing much better.  It started on Friday when I finally got courageous and called the people who run the Christmas Market I had applied to participate in.  I had been avoiding calling them, hoping they would never discover just how little German I have.  I did it anyway.  At first, it took a while to find someone who speaks some English, then it took a while for that person to understand who I am (she spoke very little English).  Once she understood my name, she clearly knew who I was and remembered my application.  Hooray!  She quickly got me on the phone with someone a great deal more fluent (but from another department).  They wanted to know if I was running a business or a home-crafter.  I'm definitely trying to run a business, but I have been crafting for fun for so long that I sometimes wonder myself!  I looked around my workroom (what my family calls my "Woman Cave") and declared myself "professional".  Then, they wanted proof.  I wasn't really sure if I had any, but I sent them to my etsy shop.

Today (after a very eventful weekend, see below), I got a magical email.  They want me!  Not only do that want me for the Christmas Market, but they'd also like me to participate in their Handmade Textile Market in November.  Oh my goodness.  I immediately began listing all my current inventory and making a list of everything I would need to make to have enough for both markets.  Can I do it?  I'm not sure, but I sure am excited by the possibility!

I am also lit up from attending the Etsy conference here in Berlin this past weekend.  Amazing Doug made me go.  He rocks.  Over 500 small business owners (mostly crafters) were in attendance.  Imagine.  Practical and inspirational talks abounded, almost all in English.  And, I met so many other people living here in Germany, here in Berlin, who are walking a similar path.  Local community -- is that possible for fs expats, really?  I think it might be the holy grail.

Gnomes from a special order gnome mobile for another expat.

So, I am newly inspired.  I'm still scared, but it's that edgy feeling that brings life into focus.  Wish me luck!