Maschenfein on the road

We started off the road trip with a visit to Cologne. Of course, the cathedral next to the main train station immediately caught our eye. And although the industry trade fair h+h took place so early this year, the cathedral city spoiled us with the finest spring weather.

Unfortunately, there is always little time for sightseeing on trade fair days, but there was enough time for a visit to an authentic brewery - Kölner Köbes included. All readers from the Rhineland know that the service staff in a local pub are very special and can be considered an experience.

The absolute highlight of the weekend (only just before the Köbes, of course) was something else - namely our event at our wholesaler's stand, which we organized together with EMF-Verlag. The occasion was our new book Mini Tücher - Maxi Chic, which was published at the end of February and has generated so much enthusiasm that the second edition is already in print.

We also met so many great people from the knitting world while walking around the trade fair or at our event itself. In addition to our manufacturers, especially many designers. Among them was ChrisBerlin, whose latest design I'm bringing you today - it's the perfect knit for spring!

If you already want to knit sleeveless, fancy cables and like a tweed effect - the Lucky Vest is your next project! The vest is knitted from the top down (the cables can be worked without a cable needle) from Tweed Recycled by Sandnes. The facing is worked at the same time, only the neck and sleeve cuffs are worked later. I love my cozy knits, but I have to admit that I'm already looking forward to knitting fewer sleeves ... 😉

The yarn also has an exciting composition: it consists of 80% recycled virgin wool, which is either waste from yarn processing or comes from garments that have been reused. The rest is made up of recycled cashmere - wonderful!

In addition to all the new products that we were able to marvel at in terms of yarn and accessories, one thing remains the best: the personal encounters. For example, the short but very nice meeting with Aneta alias knitting.adventures at the ITO Yarn stand has stayed with me.

Even if we haven't been talking for that long, such encounters are always very valuable for me. Having a face and a voice for a design is always something else. So thank you, Aneta, for approaching us!

I brought along one of her summer designs for this little coffee: the Australis Tee is a striped shirt with short sleeves. The exciting thing here: It has garter stitch stripes that differ in texture. The main part of the shirt is knitted with two strands of Kinu and Shio from Ito, while the stripes are knitted with just one skein of Shio. I can only recommend both yarns to you - they are perfect for summer knitting!

I also rediscovered the yarn Suave at the fair. I've only knitted it once so far - and that was with a single yarn. The knitting was great, but in the end I wasn't really convinced by the knitted fabric itself. Since the weekend, I know why!

The pure cotton yarn Suave, which looks like a little cloud in the truest sense of the word, needs - in my eyes - a companion. Either another Suave or, for example, the new Pascuali yarn Arctic Pearl. I tried this combination at the trade fair stand and was blown away (it's even vegan)! We will send you the swatch as soon as possible.

For this little coffee, however, I have brought another combination with me: Suave meets the silk-mohair yarn Mohair Bliss in the Pascualicardigan Diamond Breeze - and I think that's not only exciting, but also very pleasant.

The cardigan is started at the lower back, from where you knit across the shoulders before working both front pieces from the top down. The facings for the slits and the front edge are knitted at the same time.

This design requires a little bit of sewing: Before you knit the sleeves on directly and knit them in rounds to the cuffs, close the side seams between the side slits. I love seamless knitting, but I have to admit that I also like to do some sewing now and then. It's all in the mix!

As always, it was also very worthwhile for us to visit the stand of our manufacturer Lamana. Kerstin not only showed us the new Torino yarn there (I told you about the bouclé yarn last week), but also new designs that will be released in the course of the year.

So not only can you look forward to a subtle Christmas sweater (mistletoe!), but also to the sweater with a slit that you can see in the picture. I.was.shockingly.in.love. Really! So, so beautiful! The model is knitted from Torino and Premia, has side slits and a wide ribbed collar. The finished knit is soft to the touch and although it still has no name, it's already on the knitting list for fall. It's that quick! I will of course let you know as soon as the design has seen the light of day.

Another highlight took place shortly after the trade fair: For the first time, there was an event just for women in the run-up to K5 - an event specifically for networking and further training in online retail. The idea behind the Female Circle was to network, exchange ideas and learn from each other.

Marisa took the opportunity to register Maschenfein as a sponsor of the event. She was also a speaker on a panel and told us about you! Because if there's one thing that makes Maschenfein so special, it's our knitting community, which connects virtually and sometimes even makes its way into "real life". Building such a community can be a role model for others. We also had our own stand where visitors could look at sample designs, try out knitting wool and talk to us. It was a completely different round than in Cologne, but it was exciting! I'm not lying when I say that by this point our heads were full and our feet were definitely flat.