Saturday 31 July 2010

Lavendelschaf/Lavender Sheep



No this is not a new, or rare sheep breed, but a German magazine I’ve been reading for many, many years. Its subtitle describes its contents: herbs, textiles, nature.

It is the brain child of Erdmute Marciniak, who I’ve never met, but who lives not too far from where I did before I left Germany. She is the responsible producer, editor and coordinator of Lavendelschaf.

The magazine is published four times a year, and the spring issue contained my first contribution, an article about the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Project, having contributed to the Irish Reef here. Lavendelschaf is indeed similar to this project, as it has contributions from many people with love and enthusiasm for textiles, handicrafts, nature, food and cooking by people who happily share information, their experiences, knowledge and expertise.

Sheep do of course feature in it. Apart from Rita Lüder’s charming cartoons there is in each issue an article about a special fibre, and often that is wool from a specific sheep breed. Each time, when you open these pages, you find a small sample of these fibres in the magazine. I feel this is a great idea, and shows the spirit of the project Lavendelschaf well.

As does the fact that every issue has a theme that guides contributors and collects all sorts of information and projects they come up with in relation to it. So I felt my article about the Coral Reef project was probably fitting, as the theme was “Meeresbriese/ sea breeze”, and Erdmute agreed.
Another characteristics is the front page that unites all contributions in a single picture.

The next issue’s theme is “Bärenstark/ strong as a bear”, and will contain an instruction written by me to make a small bear hand puppet for children. The issue for winter will be about “Sternstunden/ sidereal hours”, and I’ll take part in this as well.

1 comment:

  1. Glad to hear it is out - you will have to bring it along if you are coming to knitting, I'd love to see it!
    x
    c

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