Blog | Strickmich! by Martina Behm

The Comment Section

I am such a lucky knitwear designer: I have been able to find two lovely experienced knitters who help me answer all your questions about knitting, Strickmich! and Strickmich! Club. However, for organizational reasons, we are not able to answer questions that you post as comments on my blog. So I have decided to switch off comments on all older posts, but your comments are very welcome and appreciated on my latest posts. Please note: If you have questions about my patterns or need help to knit them, please send an email to mail at strickmich dot de, and we will do our best to answer it quickly.

Class: Toe-up Socks

Ich bin zwar nicht wirklich eine Sockendesignerin, aber ich stricke gerne welche – und weil mich bei meinen Events schon öfter Strickerinnen angesprochen haben, ob ich nicht einen Toe-up-Sockenkurs anbieten kann, findet am 23. Januar mein allererster Kurs zum Thema Socken statt: Wir stricken Socken mal andersherum – von der Spitze aus! Alle wichtigen Techniken werden kurz besprochen und geübt: Judy’s Magic Cast-On, Magic Loop, unsichtbare Zunahmen, verkürzte Reihen, elastisches Abketten mit Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-off.

Ziel ist, eine Mini-Socke von der Spitze aus in diesem Kurs fertig zu stricken.

Level: Fortgeschrittene und fortgeschrittene Anfänger.
Dauer: 3 Stunden
Preis: 30 Euro (enthält 19% Umsatzsteuer)
Teilnehmer: Max. 15

Mit Erlaubnis der Sockendesignerin Yarnissima verwenden wir dafür ihre Anleitung “Spice Man“, die jede Teilnehmerin vor dem Kurs selbst kauft und mitbringt (Preis: 2 Euro, Anleitungssprache Deutsch).

Weiterhin sind mitzubringen:
• Sockenwolle in einer hellen Farbe
• Rundstricknadel 2,00 oder 2,5 mm, 80 cm lang (bitte kein Nadelspiel)

Als Vorbereitung auf den Kurs bitte ich darum, die Anleitung “Spice Man” schon einmal genau durchzulesen und eventuell “Judy’s Magic Cast-on” zu üben wie in diesem Video gezeigt (Vimeo-Link).
Nächster Termin:
Samstag, 23. Januar, 12-15 Uhr
Krug in Damsdorf, Dorfstr. 2g, 23824 Damsdorf.
Anschließend findet ein offener Stricktreff statt.

Die Anmeldung erfolgt hier über den Strickmich! Shop, Bezahlung ist per Paypal oder Überweisung möglich.

On 23rd of January 2016 I will be teaching my very

Strickmich! Club 2016: Rohrspatz & Wollmeise

Yes! She will be joining us at Strickmich! Club again: Claudia Hoell-Wellmann with her fabulous Rohrspatz & Wollmeise yarns. Although it’s the third year in a row that Claudia will provide us with some hand dyed beauty, it’s a premiere nevertheless: For the very first time, Claudia will dye an exclusive multicolor for us! As a Designer, I am especially happy about this, because I love working with Wollmeise Multis. The good thing about them is that the dyer has already put so much of her unusual talent to combine colors into the yarn, so we as knitters can just relax and work a simple stitch pattern, enjoy an unusual construction and achieve great effects.

For more than 10 years (and especially since this blog post), Claudia Hoell-Wellmann has been famous in the world of hand knitters for her intense colors and innovative color combinations. When choosing yarn bases, she’s as big a perfectionist as in the dyeing kitchen: Each base has been developed especially for her. “I love good stitch definition, a pretty shine – and it needs to hold up well in daily wear and must not pill”, Claudia says. Her yarn bases are exclusive to her online store and Shop in Pfaffenhofen, Bavaria. And her brilliant colors as well, of course!

Claudia is always creating new colors, feeling inspired by everything she sees: A tree she sees when visiting Sheri, owner of The Loopy Ewe in Colorado (“Aspentree”), a friend’s dog (“Willi”), or a visit to the theater (“Allegria”). Her latest creation? “I am still working on it! I got the idea when I came across a beautiful piece of fabric at Philadelphia Airport. I am still experimenting…” Claudia says. But don’t worry: The colorway for our Club is already decided and developed – and super-secret, of course!

Both parties are happy that our collaboration continues: “Strickmich! Club is created with so much love, and there are such exciting projects in it. I love that Martina really strives to find the perfect pattern for each color”, Claudia says. At Strickmich! Club, we feel honored and lucky that she feels this way and are looking forward to continue our journey!

P. S.: On the picture above you can see a glimpse of my designs Hitchhiker, Trillian, Valente und zwei verschiedene Matchmaker.

P. P. S.: The patterns I designed for the Club in the past 2 years using Wollmeise yarns were Thousand Tulips and Jasminde.

Strickmich! Club 2016: Manos del Uruguay

Knitting does not only make the world more beautiful, but also a better place: At Manos del Uruguay, local women have been spinning and dyeing the most beautiful yarns for forty years. The project was initiated to give women in rural areas the chance to get jobs in the artisanal field with fair pay and a good working environment. Today 250 of them work in 19 different places in Uruguay to provide knitters worldwide with beautiful colorful yarns, reflecting Latin American Culture and traditions. The yarn bases range from high-quality merino to blends with luxury fibers like silk or cashmere.

Blanca Rodriguez has been working for Manos during the past 25 years at the workshop in Fraile Muerto, close to the Brazilian border. When she applied for a job with the cooperative, she was working as a maid and washing cloth for hire. Now, she has three grown children, will be a grandmother soon and is proud that her employment with Manos enabled her to send her two sons to nursing school.

Blanca currently spins the “Clasica” yarn. “It’s great to see the transition from fleece to beautiful, colorful yarn”, she says. But she also assists in the dyeing process, which she enjoys a lot: “I love bright Magenta, my favorite of all time!” she says.

Sometimes knitters from foreign countries come visit to see where their beloved yarns come from. “We recently had a group of knitters from Canada, and each one of them had Manos yarn on their needles – it was a special treat to see our yarns in action!”, Blanca says. In her free time, she likes to crochet Granny Square Blankets, and her specialty are embroidered little dolls.

Due to our very personal connection to Latin America (our son was born in Chile) we are especially happy to be able to support this great project with Strickmich! Club – and at the same time make your club yarns even more international.
Blanca and her colleagues have agreed to dye a very special, exclusive color just for us on one of their beautiful yarn bases for Strickmich! Club 2016, which we are very excited about.

Strickmich! Club 2016: Zauberwiese

Transparent or bold, freckled or semisolid – Alexandra Abu-Toboul enjoys living her creative side when dyeing her “Zauberwiese” yarns. “I love to let my intuition guide me, especially when I am trying to dye a color combination I have seen in nature”, Alexandra says. Colors have always been her thing. “As a kid I would invest all my pocket money to buy crayons and paint”, she says. Later she went on to study art in Strasbourg: Sculpting, painting, photography, and after that she trained as a typesetter and worked as a graphic designer. Her favorite hobby is still sitting outside, observing nature and drawing and painting. The colors she tries out on paper have good chances to be used in the yarn dyeing pots as well. “When I am drawing I often think: Wow, this is cool, I need to try this on wool!” Colors pretty as painted, colorful as a meadow full of flowers – that’s also how her brand name “Zauberwiese” (“enchanted meadow”) could be interpreted.

Alexandra grew up in the Black Forest in southern Germany (and has kept her lovely accent!), but now totally feels at home in the very very north, close to the Baltic Sea. “I have always enjoyed traveling to the shores, I love being able to see the horizon. Now I live two minutes from the beach – how perfect is that?” Knitting with a view – sounds great! Alexandra likes to knit socks and small shawls, or hats for her kids. “I usually do not have the patience to knit an entire sweater”, she says. When she dyes for herself, she prefers deep dark teal or magenta tones, but her customers’ wishes have inspired her to develop an amazing palette. “I have recently started to experiment with different kinds of gray – and I find it really intriguing!” she says.

She applies her colors in several layers in order to achieve an fascinating depth. “Many of my skeins are unique because it is just impossible to apply the color in exactly the same way twice”, Alexandra says. In her Online-Store you will find unusual yarns such as Corriedale, Donegal or Silk Bouclé. “I love the challenge to dye a color perfectly on a relatively difficult yarn base such as alpaca”, she says. Her speciality are almost transparent colors and beautiful variations of the same tone – as you can see in her fabulous Mini-Skein gradient kits.

At Strickmich! Club we are very glad that Alexandra has agreed to dye one of her very special colorways for us.

Strickmich! Club 2016: Walk Collection

Cathrin Walk‘s yarns are beautiful, but rare and sort of an insider’s secret in the knitting world, because up to now she has been attending only one market or yarn festival per year to present her fine collection of hand-dyed yarns. But she is planning on doing more, because “there’s always such a good vibe, I love that!” Cathrin says. As a dyer, she is super-versatile: creative multicolors, soft semisolids, spectacularly glowing pinks and sophisticated grays are part of her repertoire, as well as a big range of fibers. “I love to use a variety of yarn bases”, she says. She dyes mohair and silk blends, supersoft merinos and bold Bluefaced Leicester yarns.

“When it comes to dyeing, I do not have a favorite technique. Most of the times I have an idea about what the yarn should look like in the end, which effect I would like to create and try to find a way to achieve that.” She takes very detailed notes of the processes, so she will be able to dye the same hue again if desired. Cathrin usually applies the dye such that there will be no pooling. “I want the knitted fabric to look harmonic and pretty, I think it is not that important that the skein itself is beautiful”, she says.

Cathrin trained as a fashion seamstress, but has always been knitting since childhood. In her online store, she started out selling sewn knitting accessories like needle rolls and project bags. When she found she could not find the yarns she desired in her local yarn shop, she began to spin and dye her own, and soon she offered her creations to knitters. Today she has a range of 81 spectacular colors from variegated brown to neon green, and knitters around the globe have come to appreciate her creativity.

Cathrin herself knits quite a bit, but usually does not use her own yarns. “I tend to buy yarn as a souvenir when I am on a vacation, and then I feel it deserves to be knit with instead of just sitting in my stash!” she says. She is a huge fan of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s sweater recipes, but she also finds joy in knitting smaller items like scarves. “I love that you can play with colors on a scarf. And I like to knit on something simple and relaxing after a long day of hard work in the dyeing studio” she says.

At Strickmich! Club, we are proud and very excited that Cathrin will develop a new gorgeous Walk Collection colorway just for us. Very much looking forward to our collaboration!

P. S.: Strickmich! Club 2016 consists of four new knitting designs by Martina Behm plus four skeins of especially chosen, exclusively dyed yarns, carefully selected by Martina for her designs that you will surely enjoy knitting with. Sign-ups start in November on a separate webpage, I will announce the exact date in my newsletter which you can subscribe to using the link in the footer of this page.

Thousand Tulips

The wait is over! The first pattern from Strickmich! Club 2015 is now available to everyone. It is the first shawl that uses this unusual, special construction that I developed – check out Braidsmaid, Match & Move and Mrs Watson, which are all part of this beautiful family!

“Thousand Tulips” will bring feelings of spring and joy, no matter how unpleasant the current season may be:f Unusually constructed, simple graphic lace in a bold color and a heavenly soft cashmere blend yarn (“Blend” by Rohrspatz & Wollmeise, Colorway “Tulpe”). Watch stylized tulip blossoms evolve along the center spine as you knit. Fun, simple, and with a great result!  The pattern is adaptable to the amount of yarn you have.

In this video I talk about the yarn and the pattern in more detail:

Cast-On-Event-Video-1 (Vimeo-Link).