For two and a half years now, Franziska Markmann – who looks after Consumer Goods Fairs Content for Creativeworld – hasn’t even considered buying a ready-made pullover. Since then, whenever she has a spare minute, she has been knitting one pullover after another. Last year she made 15 in total: “I knit like crazy – even in my garden in summer.”
The eye-catching, vibrant colours are what make her pullovers so special: “I like vivid, rich colours – dull ones don’t suit me.” The first time she ever picked up a pair of knitting needles was back in school, but she didn’t warm to it at the time. She felt that knitting had too much of an eco-hippy image and you couldn’t get the colourful wool you can today. She was inspired to knit her own first pullover by a friend, after admiring the self-knit pullover she was wearing. “I was sure that I could do that too”, recalls Franziska, and she set to work right away. The pullover turned out great and she has been an avid knitter ever since.
Franziska only knits pullovers for herself and her daughter. She has only ever knit one pullover from a pattern, but the wool felt so scratchy that she ended up selling it on online platform Vinted. Other than that, she can’t bear to part with her designs. “They’re like my babies”, she says.
Another reason she can’t imagine selling them is that they would simply be too expensive: “I only ever knit with 100% pure wool.” Which means that one of her pullovers – depending on the quality of the wool – has a material value of anything between 150 and 180 euros. And if you factor in the 40 to 60 hours it takes her to make it, the price tag would be between 400 and 500 euros. Of course, she could also knit with synthetic yarn for half the cost, but that’s out of the question for Franziska, who constantly has the material in her hands when she’s knitting – and pure wool feels much better than a wool blend or synthetic fibre.
But Franziska doesn’t just make pullovers for the colder months and she proudly presents an intricately knit, almost-sheer sleeveless pullover with ten different colours. Wool also has the advantage of being breathable and adapting to temperatures.
Where does she get her inspiration from? She follows a few knitwear designers on Instagram. And sometimes she also finds inspiration in stores – for example, she once came across a synthetic pullover she liked in a shop, so she took a quick photo of it and used that to create a pattern at home. She then knit her own version of the pullover using 100% pure wool. But most of her pullovers are knit without a pattern.
At Creativeworld, Franziska is responsible for the special showcases, where she also finds inspiration for colours and patterns that she can draw on in her hobby. The list of wool exhibitors there includes De Bondt and Gründl. You can find an overview of all exhibitors showcasing their products in the Handiwork & Textile Design area here.
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If you’re also interested in handiwork and textile design, you can visit the product area of the same name in Hall 1 at Creativeworld from 6 to 9 February 2026. The other areas of the international trade fair for the hobby, craft and artists’ supplies industry, which also has a wide range of accompanying events, are Graphic & Artists’ Supplies, Hobby & Handicrafts and Graffiti & Street Art.