And the winner is...

At midnight the deadline for entering the ‘raffle’ for a set of hand-dyed threads in the upcoming November-collection-colours ended.

I wrote each name on a piece of paper and put them all together into this siginificant plastic bowl.

And here is a nine-year-old expert shuffling

and in the final stage just before revelation of the lucky winner’s name:

And the winner is: Cristina R. – congratulations!

Thank you to all who participated. I will now go and sit down at my rotary iron to process the fourth of the six colours.

4th anniversary of justcolours.de – win a November thread collection of hand-dyed threads

I announced it on my German blog a while ago: starting this month, subscriptions could be extended to include a hand-dyed threads collection in the same colours as the hand-dyed fabrics of the fabric club. When I started planning this newest product I had absolutely no idea how well it would be received. But I have to say that I am very content with the number of ‘old’ subscribers who ordered this additional feature, and also with the ratio of ‘threads included’ in the new subscriptions since I have been telling people about it since Veldhoven.

Right now I am in the midst of dyeing the November-collection of fabrics, and for the first time a special arrangement for the threads must be included. 

Waiting for dye...

The intellectual challenge, of course, is, to remember to take a little bit of the dye when beginning every colour, and pour it over the prepared threads. Because if I forget that... then it would be difficult to get the same shade of colour again, as they are always different.

This month's collection, of course, marks the 4th anniversary of my little business adventure – it was in the beginning of November 2010 that I started dyeing my „Introductory collection“ for the fabric club. In celebration of this moment in history you can win a set of hand-dyed threads in the colours of this November-collection. This is a rather exclusive prize as these threads are ONLY available in subscription.

Here is what you have to do to enter the draw:

Between now and Tuesday, Nov 25th, 2014, midnight leave a comment (with a recognizable name) on either the German or the English Blog. I will have a neutral person draw a lucky winner, who will be announced on the blog. Limit of one comment per person.

Good luck to all participants.

And thank you very much to all those who have helped make my enterprise be as successful as it is!

High Noon

1 - in the tunnel

2 - famous German children's program, finished for today

3 - Margrit's hazelnuts

4 - after the Spanish lesson

5 - downloading my sat-nav system

6 - on the road, again, thanks to striking train drivers

7 - arrival in Hamburg Wandsbek

8 - the sky over Hamburg from our class room window

9 - class discussion

10 - list of death victims on German-German border
at Marienborn Memorial Site

11 - no picture taken

12 - Baby Oak at High Noon

13

14 - working on new piece in "text messages" series

15 - Lego construction, in the middle of the way

Memorials and War

On my way back from Hamburg I happened to stop at the Memorial for the former German-German border, situated right next to the autobahn between Hannover and Berlin.  

(It was just before twelve o’clock and I was hoping for a High Noon picture other than a traffic-endangering shot through the windshield.) It was the day after the anniversary celebrations of German reunification, 25 years ago.

The German-German border has always been an issue in my family because of my mother’s origin, and an aunt who had stayed ‘behind’ when my grandmother and two of her daughters were allowed to leave the country, because she was already married. And although I did not visit the German Democratic Republic frequently, the few times I did certainly left quite an impression on my memory.

Walking through the memorial site now, twenty-five years after the wall came down, still gave me the creeps.

They were just starting a colloquium for the opening of their new exhibition, pointing to historical facts without which German Reunification would not have been possible, “First gaps in the Iron Curtain”. Specifically, they were going to talk about the Pan-European Breakfast on the Hungarian Border in August 1989.

Unfortunately, I still had almost 600 km ahead of me and needed to get going, otherwise it would have been really interesting to stay and listen to people who had been there and involved.

(Of course, there were nice things to be seen there, too - the famous Trabbi, East German car, and some found art as well.

In our little town in Bavaria, you can find three memorials for soldiers who died in the wars of 1866 and 1871, and the two World Wars in the twentieth century.

And a third one, which I haven’t taken a picture of.

These days we are constantly being reminded of anniversary events with regard to war. And yet we have wars going on all over the world. It makes me wonder – why do we put up memorials all over the place, and yet never learn from them? Because if look at what is going on in the world, it is obvious that all the memorials have not led to reason, and a dedication to stop war. Everywhere.

It makes me very sad.

Technological revolution

I have a good sense of orientation. And I love maps. I still hang on to the set of maps that I used when biking through New Zealand twenty years ago (oh my God, has it really been that long?). 

My husband gave me a wonderful new atlas for Christmas year before last, my son’s huge “My fist World Map” is hanging in the kitchen beside the table where we usually eat, and has given us numerous occasions to talk about contries, places etc.

"Southern Germany" in my atlas - we live to the right
(i.e. East) and just a little bit up
from Munich 

Illustrated World Map in our kitchen

And so far we have refused to get a satellite navigation system for the car, which came without one when we bought it.  I strongly believe that the ability to read maps is an extremely important ‘soft skill’ which I want to use instead of being told where the computer thinks I should be going. Of course, the wild stories from the first days when cars are supposed to have ended up on railroad bridges or driven into lakes when the drivers relied on their sat-nav-system too unquestioningly have become fewer in number. But I do already have the impression that people’s sense of orientation, and ability to give directions towards a certain place is going down. So, no, I don't like them.

Nevertheless, my recent trip to the fair in Veldhoven, which I was well prepared for in that I had looked at the map, had taken notes on which cities I would be passing on the autobahn, and on which I did think I knew where I was going, has finally convinced me that having a nav-system is not that bad an idea. When you are driving by yourself, have to wear glasses that are not exactly suitable for reading, and certainly not while driving at high speed, and you don’t want to have to pull over at virtually every intersection (where there is no place to stop) resistance crumbles. And if you are trying to find your way through approximately six thousand autobahn intersections around Cologne, neither of which indicates the town you have taken down and remembered as ‘pass by on your way’, but only the final endpoints of that particularly numbered section of autobahn (which you did not take down), then even a decent sense of orientation does not get you where you want to go. At least not easily, or without considerable delay.

After Veldhoven I had decided that I would get myself a system. Next year, to put it into next year’s balance/calculations. But I did not reckon with the German train drivers. They are going on strike for four days tomorrow – and I was booked to go to Hamburg for a workshop on the weekend, by train, on Friday. Hectic arrangments resulted from this announcement: finding a keeper for my son late Thursday afternoon, when my husband has an appointment that can’t be altered, putting up the appointment for changing the car’s summer into winter tyres. And buying and installing a sat-nav-system. 

Which is currently downloading – taking forever! But I do hope I will be well prepared for my trip tomorrow. And then find my way easily in the city of Hamburg. That’s really what I need it for, because I do know how to get to Hamburg, even in my sleep!

High Noon

16 - who is the happy bride?

17 - handmade cap for aspiring soccer star

18 - here comes the sun?

19 - few more apples

20 - old man walking the streets

21 - la profesora espagnol

22 - on my way to Netherlands

23 - living on apple sauce during the fair

24 - back view of neighboring stand's offers

25 - stand opposite

26 - selfie on the stand

27 - on the way home

28 - updating the shop on the website

29 - no picture taken at high noon

30 - waiting to become apple cake

31 - on the way to visit my parents,
photography courtesy of a nine year old back seat driver