Featured Shop: Bonnie’s Cinematheque

My name is Lora, and I live in Berlin, Germany. I make shawls, sweaters, scarves and other knits. My shop is called Bonnie’s Cinematheque.

I love harmony, beauty and creating. For a long time, it seemed that my destiny was to knit simple scarves and sweaters. But then a happy coincidence happened: I washed one of my sweaters in the washing machine, and it shrunk. “Well,” I thought to myself, “the sweater is ruined anyway. Let’s see, what I can do…” So, I took a pair of scissors and proceeded to cut it to shreds, adding new rows, textures, and fabrics. When I finished sewing it all together, I had a very original-looking sweater. This inspired me to continue experimenting.

I don’t use any ready-made patterns to create my pieces. I prefer to improvise; my work is more jazz than classics. I have a lot of yarn in my atelier, and when I have free time I like to play with it. I combine different shades to invent new colors, wash fabrics in hot water to create new textures, and cut ready-made things into pieces to create new styles.

Besides creating, I can’t imagine my life without travel. Exploring new places helps me look at the most common things from a different angle and gives me tons of new ideas. There are so many creative people in the world. Etsy gives us all the opportunity to interact, talk to each other, show our work and get inspired. This is a gorgeous gift.

In the future (after many, many years), I would like to be a lovely old lady in pearls, sitting in a vintage chair with rosewood knitting needles in my hands. I’d like to have helpers to buy yarns, take photos, answer messages, and go to the post office so I can do what I love most of all: create new, beautiful things.

Follow Bonnie’s Cinematheque on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

All photographs by Alena Wilhelm.