Helygen Celli

This yarn I spun from a superwash BFL roving I have hand-dyed myself a few months ago. I didn’t like at all, as it was so dark and messy. Blots and spots of deep purple, aubergine and indigo, a bit of hotpink and heavenly blue.

I found the roving back in one of my boxes…
it was just the right color for me, representing my moods – merely depressed with a bit of faith, knowing it is all temporary – though these periods can last a few months.

The skein has a weight of 95 gram and has 320 meters.
So let’s browse Ravelry for project to make with this yarn.
Suggestions for  a pattern are welcome :-)

Love wearing wristers.
This pair I made of handspun with silk and catfur in it.
Soft, warm and cozy, love, love love.

The Wristers

The Yarn

The catfur

Catfur looks like, feels like, knits and spin like angora – at least to me :-)
Getting the catfur took me some time. I have been combing Vlekje every night for about a year, keeping the fur far away from moths in a shoebox with cedarwood and patchouli leaves.

Sorted out all the hair, tossed away the felted parts and really short hairs (< 1 cm) I only used the soft white hair. The black hair is just a bit more coarse. Some gray hairs slipped in the blend so it became a light grey blend.

I have blended 30% catfur, 30% tussah silk and 40% mixed falkland top with my drumcarder. Just an ordinary one I use for my sheep fleeces to. I spun the batts  with my Louet Julia into a nice two-ply yarn. The skein before fulling weight about 60 gram and measured about 163 meters.

I did a swatch!
Needlesize 3.25 mm and 24 stitches & 32 rows in stockinette stitches give a nice firm fabric

My improvised “pattern” is this:
CO: 45 stitches with long tail cast on.
Knitted about 10 cm in a k2/p1 ribbing
Increased 6 stitched, divided evenly over the stitches, in the middle of a k2.
Knitted another 2 cm of ribbing in a k2/p1/k3/p1 like pattern.
Knitted stockinette for 3 cm
Knitted 2 rows of moss stitch and bind off in pattern

Met trots kondig ik aan: MoonWise,
mijn webshop voor handgeverfde (sokken)wol, handgeverfde lontwol en handgesponnen garens.

In de lijn van Helygen Celli, vind je er vooral veel groenen en paarsen …  werkend vanuit de inspiratie van het druidisme, mijn liefde voor bomen en het bos, de jaarfeesten, het verloop van de seizoenen en keltische mythen en verhalen.

Ook voor lont & vezels om te spinnen, of ongeverfde garens kun je in mijn webshop terecht.

Breng regelmatig een bezoekje aan de shop, wekelijks worden nieuwe garens en materialen toegevoegd. Heb je wensen voor een specifieke kleur, materiaal of garen, neem gerust contact met mij op.

Just in time for the early cold hours in the springtime;
a handwoven scarf in green and blue for my hubbie and a scarf of handspun and hand dyed yarn for me

Geblokt

Project #2 of my lessons in weaving. Playing with green and blue, studying the effect of color in warp and weft, using different combinations of the two colors.  The size before fulling is 29 cm x 178 cm.

'n steekje los

“‘n steekje los” is a dye-, spin- and knit along of my spinning group. Each member dyed 200 grams of fibers in purple, lila or turquoise. We collected the fibers and divided them equally among all members. The last few months we spun the fibers the way we liked best.  All colors separated, equally or loosely carded, thick or thin yarn. With the yarn we created we all knitted the same pattern to make our group scarf.

This scarf is about 16 cm wide and 165 cm long, knitted in a drop stitch pattern. I loved knitting this scarf – simply couldn’t stop working on it… All these lovely shades of purple and sensations of different kinds of hand spun fibers.

Currently on the needles is the Whisper Cardigan from IK Spring 2009. Cast on March 20, it is another project I love knitting. I use a green sock yarn from my stash. That’s the only thing I did with sock yarn for over two weeks – I haven’t knit socks for this time.  Something very unusual  for a sock knitting  junkie :-)

Just a pair of comfy house socks made of hand spun yarn. 
And Vlekje likes them too, he loves hugging them :-)

This summer I got some fleece of a “German Milksheep”. The fleece had spots of two shades of light gray, a dark gray and white. I spun the colors seperate into yarn – about DK weight.

Knitted toe-up with my Knitpicks Harmony dpn at 3.25 mm with 42 stitches it was a quick knit. I used the helical stripes technique from the Knitters Handbook. Looking for a stretchy bind-off this time I tried the tubular bind off, which I also found in the Knitters Handbook.

I really like that book by the way. It’s the only reference book I gets out of my shelf very often.