It’s been a while…

November 3, 2021November 3, 20214 Comments

…since I last posted here. I am so sorry I have neglected all of you. But there are times when life puts so much weight on your shoulders, you must decide which to carry on and which to drop. I don’t want to make excuses because I don’t like them either but if you are interested in what happened to me, please go ahead and read the story of my last three years… If you prefer not knowing anything about me because you are so angry at me, I totally understand, please just skip this post then, I was struggling writing it anyway because I don’t like to take my family-related stuff out to public. Just know that I feel terrible guilt to neglect you.

If you decided to stay with me for the rest of this post and get to know the reason for my absence, let’s jump into the middle of it… About two years ago my daughter was diagnosed with ASD and it was quite a shock for my family. The thought that something is not right with her wasn’t new to us, life had always been hard with her, she literally never slept, someone (usually me) had to be awake with her through the nights, too and she hadn’t started communicating with humans like other children do (by communicating with humans I mean she didn’t even seem to notice anybody. But she did notice dogs… in fact that is how she finally learnt to speak: with the help of dogs… but let’s not jump that far ahead in the story just yet…). The year prior the diagnosis was extremely hard with more and more frequent meltdowns, therefore I had less and less time and energy to focus on work. We needed to do something about it so we started to investigate the problem. After about a year, at the beginning of 2019 she got the diagnosis. We started to search for educational possibilities immediately and we soon realized that we need to move to the capital city to be able to provide her with the help that she needs. So we packed everything – including my mother 😀 – and sold both our house and my mother’s house to buy one in Budapest. We found a house that had a small apartment attached to it (for my mother – this way she would always be around if we needed help…). They were cheap (by cheap I mean according to other real estates in the capital city. According to our budget it was the only thing we could afford) but they needed renovation badly and the previous owner had a huge amount of bank depth on the houses, so they were in a state before auction. We decided to make a deal with the bank and buy the houses even if that meant that we need to do construction works while we are living in the house.

A few days after we signed the contracts in March 2020, the pandemic reached Hungary and everything was shut down. I don’t know if you have ever tried to sell two houses and buy a third one at the same time with all the stuff being moved from the two houses to the third one. Top that with a pandemic, a renovation (during a pandemic), a child with ASD (who doesn’t like changes, during a renovation, during a pandemic) and the struggle with bureaucracy to clear the depth of the previous owner in the estate records (during a pandemic). This was the worst. There was a misunderstanding between the bank and the land registration office and even though we settled all payments towards the bank, the land registration office didn’t want to delete the mortgage from the papers. Oh, and I shouldn’t forget about the problem that the previous owner had nowhere to live anymore so he tried to stay in the house as long as he could with his daughter, two huge dogs and a huge cat… and we let them live with us in the smaller apartment for months because we couldn’t bear the thought that they haven’t got a home any more because of us (I know. It was not because of us. We payed their depth, and their depth was not our fault… the bank would have taken the house from them anyway… but still. We wanted to move in a house that we payed for – and that meant they have to leave at some point. By now they managed to find a small apartment nearby and took out another loan to pay for that apartment but they are not homeless at least…). All in all, I don’t want to say we have tough two years behind us but WE HAVE TOUGH TWO YEARS BEHIND US…

Some photos of the renovation for you to get a picture of what I was talking about… 🙂 (the last of the works were finished in March 2021, that is when we could finally took over all parts of the house):

With all the above going on, as much as I would have loved to continue working on Gynka Knitwear, I just couldn’t manage. All my yarn, needles and even my computer were in boxes in a garage for months. At first I tried to read and answer all mails and Ravelry messages at least but after a while I had to let go of this too, because I couldn’t keep up and I was tired to excuse myself all the time for being so slow on reacting. If you happen to be someone who hadn’t got an answer to a question, I hereby apologize and please feel free to contact me again via email: gynkaknitwear@gmail.com. I will monitor this email daily from now on and start to catch up.

As to our struggles, we are over the worst part now and everything is settling down. We cleared the depths from the estate records, construction works are finished (inside at least. But before we start the works outside we have to take a deep breath to forget the hell of the last two years…). We were able to find a kindergarten for my daughter which she finally loves and she slowly starts to communicate with us (she is 5 now). She has also learnt the difference between night and day so she started to sleep 6-7 hours at night and we couldn’t be happier because if she sleeps, we can sleep, too.

Now that life is getting back to normal (if life can be called “normal” nowadays…), I would like to slowly get back to work, too. I decided to stop making ready-made items, so I shut my online store down. It is too much work for me right now and I had to choose between knitting and designing. I will continue writing patterns and I am currently working on something totally new to GK… I hope to announce it soon because I am very-very close to being ready.. I also hope you will like it. I am also planning to continue to write new posts to this blog biweekly or so, this way I can keep you updated about what is happening. It is hard to promise anything at this stage because you know… we have good weeks and bad weeks with my daughter… it is hard to tell whether I will or won’t be able to do any work regularly. But I will try my best, as I always do. I know some of you are relying on me, and I won’t let you down.

I also won’t spam you here with my private life anymore but in case you are interested in the end result of our new home, I have an Instagram account dedicated to my hobbies (creating our new home, indoor gardening and knitting) I would be more than happy if you joined me there, too! Please follow my account: @plantaknit on Instagram to see updates.

At last but not least I would like to say a huge thank you for being here, for reading my blog, for knitting my patterns, I can not tell you how much it means to me! You are the best! Hope to welcome you back next time!

Happy Knitting!

Mici

Putting the knitter to sleep mode – here comes the designer!

February 17, 2018February 17, 20183 Comments

Last Sunday I was attending a craft show in Budapest so I’ve had a tense week before it. I’ve sold out quite many beanies and bonnets before Christmas and I was in lack of my most popular hats but was too tired to restock them in January. On the other hand I wanted to destash a huge pile of yarn because I needed space for the newly arrived ones which were lying all around the house in baskets like this:

So I was knitting 24/7 for some days to catch up… The craft show went fantastically well, we sold almost all of the hats that I knitted the week before (only 1 hat and 2 cowls left…) which fully compensated me for my 7 days knitting-marathon with oceans of coffee and without sleep… 🙂 Here’s is our table at the beginning of the show (I’ve rearranged it later as we started to run out of things – but unfortunately I forgot to take photos of it…):

My newborn props debuted at this craft fair and they were surprisingly popular. I was overwhelmed with kind comments, everyone stopped by to admire them at least. I was happy to find out that it had been a good idea to put newborn props on the palette.

Finally I think I can declare that the hat season here in Hungary is officially over. At least from the perspective of a knitter. To tell you the truth (and please don’t share this secret to anyone… 😀 ), I don’t mind it’s over. Knitting is my life but until January I was knitting 12-14 hours a day, often with my wrists in bandage to kill the pain… I was counting the hours until Christmas, I knew I have to hold on and it will end on Christmas Eve… 😀 Anyway, my inner-knitter goes for a well deserved and loooong vacation until August and my designer-self takes her place in the next few months.

I have many designs in progress but the one closest to publication is Tyche (Tike-ee), a textured hoodie for toddlers. The sample is almost ready and I am beyond satisfied, it turned out just the way I imagined:

I will show you sneak peeks soon but I still have to write and edit the pattern and I need a tech editor for this one (since it is not at all a beginner-level, to be honest…) If you are interested in test-knitting this hoodie, please join my Ravelry group here: –> GK Test Knit. I would be very happy to welcome you in there! I will start a thread for Tyche test knitting as soon as the pattern was tech edited.

Until then, here’s a little history of the hoodie: I was knitting Rililie’s Diane cardigan (link to her Ravelry pattern here: –> La Maison Rililie – Diane) for myself at Christmas (it’s so embarrassing but I still haven’t finished it… two words: sleeve island…). I purchased the pattern because I really like Rililie’s designs and I needed to knit something other than hats. Diane was love for the first sight and when I read through the instructions, I found the techniques and implementations so phenomenal, I had to cast it on right away. As I was knitting, the idea of this hoodie struck me, so I started to draw sketches and along with the Diane cardigan on my needles, Tyche was born.

I named it after the greek goddess of good luck and fortune. Tyche has raglan sleeves and it is joined in the round after reaching the armhole. It is knitted mainly in seersucker stitch (which is one of my favourites at the moment) and it has a kangaroo pocket (which is my 3-year-old son’s favourite 😀 ). The top of the hood is grafted with kitchener stitch and has an icord hem, just like the pocket. I used Lang Yarns’ Merino 120 for this project.

More photos and details coming in the next few weeks! Happy knitting!

KNIT. WEAR. SHINE.

Mici

Let bygones be bygones

February 4, 2018Leave a comment

I’ve had a few resolutions for this year, both professional and private. I’m always cautious of these New Year’s resolutions because I think that adding a new habit or getting rid of an old bad ones don’t depend on a date. If you can make something a daily (or weekly) routine, you’ll succeed anytime. But its a good starting point.

My private resolution is to regain my pre-natal strength and shape. It sounds cliche but what you probably don’t know about me is that I used to be quite athletic before I gave birth to two babies in 2 years. And soon after the second child-birth I lost almost 20 kgs (44 lbs). I can only blame myself (I just didn’t have time to eat) but let bygones be bygones… The problem is that I’m all skin and bones now and I really have to regain weight and I have to make it fast. Fortunately my spouse is a kettlebell instructor and we have quite many bells at home so I don’t even have to move outside the house to have an instructed workout. To make workouts a daily routine, I took part in the 10 000 swing challenge, which meant that I had to do 333 swings every day between 1st and 30th January (for those of you who don’t know what a kettlebell swing is, here’s a short video to demonstrate: (link) ). Sometimes I really thought that my whole day consisted of eating and doing swings… there were times when I hated it and wanted to give up but I didn’t. And finally it’s over! I made it! And I’m so proud! It really motivates me to continue (and by the way, managing 1-hour workouts three time per week seems a lot easier then managing 30-minutes 7 times…). So now I’m eating five times a day, doing workouts 3 times a week and keep counting calories to gain muscles and weight…

My most important professional resolution is to improve in designing knitting patterns. I designed a few hats last year but I didn’t find them challenging enough so I purchased a lot sock, shawl and sweater patterns from other designers to learn new techniques and I have already started to design my own pieces. Unfortunately I can’t show you anything yet because they are only existing in my head (and some ideas in my sketchbook) for the time being but as soon as I will have a quiet moment, I will start to write them down. This will come about the second half of February. My Ravelry group for test knitting is already open (it is called GK Test Knit), so if you would like to sign up, I will be more than happy to welcome you! ❤

I will have a really busy week since I am preparing for the last local craft show of the hat-season next Sunday (11 February) and I want to knit a ton of hats and cowls until then (I think it will do good to my yarn stash, too. It really needs refreshing). Plus my newborn props are debuting so I’m quite excited about this, too… 🙂 They are based on the patterns of a very talented designer called 3PLittleKnits, you can find their Etsy shop here: (link ). I just love their designs.

The beautiful pictures were taken by Englert Orsi Photography

Thank you for being with me, I hope to see you next week! And before I forget to mention: my GK Birthday Sale is still live but it ends in a few hours, so please check out my Ravelry Pattern Store today (February 4, 2018) because it will be gone by midnight CET! All patterns of The Enchanted Forest have 20% discount, no coupon codes needed.

KNIT.WEAR.SHINE.

XOXO,

Mici

Apróságok kicsiny gyűjteménye

March 4, 2017March 4, 2017Leave a comment

Eltelt egy kis idő az utolsó bejegyzés óta, de nem ültem tétlenül. Sőt, konkrétan elég sok dolgot csináltam, amik látszólag apróságnak tűnnek, de valójában nagyon is sok időt és energiát emésztenek fel.

Első körben például olyan dolgok, amik kiegészítik majd a termékeket. Ilyenek a címke, a mosási segédlet vagy a felvarró. Nem is gondolná az ember, mennyi idő megy el az ilyen látszólag kis munkákkal, amíg bele nem kezd. Jónéhány óra eltelt szerkesztgetéssel, még több olyan beszállító felkutatással, akik az elképzelést kivitelezni is tudják, de a leghosszabbnak a várakozás tűnik, amíg készhez kapja az ember az elkészült dolgokat… 😊

Amibe teljesen szerelmes vagyok, az a felvarró… imádom az első pillanattól fogva, ahogy kibontottam a csomagot, amiben érkezett. Már akkor is sejtettem, hogy jó lesz, mikor a látványtervet megkaptam, de a valóság minden képzeletet felülmúlt. Amit nem lehet leírni vagy képekkel visszaadni, az az illata 😊. Lézerrel égetik a logót a fába, amitől olyan isteni illata lesz, hogy az leírhatatlan 😊. Ahogy kinyitottam a dobozt, és meglegyintette az orromat, a nagyanyám sparheltja jutott eszembe… amikor téli reggelen odakucorogsz mellé, a belsejében ropog a tűz, beszívod az illatát és közben kortyolod a jó meleg kakaódat… Na ilyen a felvarró 😊.

Sajnos nem minden sikerült azonban elsőre. Például fejben eldöntöttem, milyen lesz a címke, kerestem hozzá beszállítót, megrendeltem, megérkezett, és kiderült, hogy mégsem lesz jó, élőben egyáltalán nem volt szép. Egy pillanatra elkeseredtem, de aztán újra megálmodtam az egészet, és újrakezdtem. A csomagolással hasonlóan jártam, de úgy tűnik, ez most működni fog, és végre ez is véglegesedik. Jövő héten derül ki, amikor megérkezik… nagyon izgulok!!! 😁

Aztán alakul a webshop is… Nos, hát igen. Egy része. Hogy is mondjam szépen? A magyar jogszabályoknak nem könnyű megfelelni 😂. Nem könnyítik meg az egyszeri kézműves dolgát, na 😊. De természetesen, amíg maximálisan eleget nem teszek az előírásoknak, addig a webshop “coming soon” üzemmódban marad: rendelni nem lehet, csak nézelődni.

Nézelődni viszont érdemes lesz majd, mert a webshopba szépen gyűlnek a sapkák, sálak, kesztyűk, illetve dolgozom a nyári kollekción is, remélem hamarosan képet is tudok mutatni. Addig is álljon itt egy kis galéria a téliekről:

Ha szeretnétek naprakész fotókat látni, kövessétek a Gynka Knitweart a Facebookon: @gynkaknitwear, illetve az Instagramon: @gynkaknitwear 😊. Ez utóbbin egyébként márciusban egy kihíváson veszek részt, amelynek folyamán minden nap megmutatok valamit az “Alkotóból”, hogy ne csak a termékeket, hanem engem is jobban megismerjetek, illetve kicsit beláthassatok a műhelybe, a színfalak mögé 😋.

Legközelebb részletesen írok majd a mintákról és a fonalválasztásról, úgyhogy maradjatok velem! Napfényes tavaszi hétvégét mindenkinek! 🌼🌻🌸🌷