Episode 17: One Year of Dunkelgrün!

This episode we celebrate the first year anniversary of the dunkelgrün podcast with a variety of creative projects and of course: a giveaway! A huge Thank you to everybody who has been with me this year, I made so many new friends and learned so many wonderful things from you.

#SELFdyedKAL

This KAL is cohosted by the amazing MarinaToys and myself!
Check out Marina’s Podcast here.

In this KAL we are going to work on projects for which we dyed the yarn ourselves.

No matter whether you’re an experienced indie dyer or very new with the whole dyeing adventure – just knit something out of your own handdyed yarn (or your own handdyed and handspun fiber).
You are free to use any kind of dyes: acid dyes, natural dyes, food coloring, easter egg color, kool aid… any dye that works!

Time Frame
October 1st 2017 — TBD (sometime in spring 2018)
All further information on this KAL can be found here in the ravelry thread!

Finished Projects

Selbu Mittens

Pattern: Selbu Mittens by Skeindeer Knits
Yarn: Jamieson’s of Shetland Shetland Heather, colorways North Sea and Ivory
Needles: US 6 – 4.0 mm (colorwork), US 2½ – 3.0 mm (ribbing)

Aviatrix

Pattern: Aviatrix hat by Justine Turner
Yarn: dunkelgrun organic merino dk – self dyed with acid dyes
Needles: 3.0 mm (US 2 ½) and 3.5 mm (US 4)
I knit this hat before for a friend’s baby. She said that it was the most worn garment during the first 6 months of her boy’s life and now she asked me to make another one that she would like to gift to a friend of hers.

Knitting in Progress

Ribbed Hat for my Brother

Pattern: Limestone by DROPS design
Yarn: Garnstudio DROPS Alpaca (colorway 0506m) and

Garnstudio DROPS Fabel (colorway 547p)
Needles: 3.5 mm (US 4) Lykke needles
I knit the exact same hat for my brother five years ago and now I am replicating it because he loved it so much. The two yarns are held together to create a DK weight and the alpaca and sock yarn compliment each other very nicely. Here is my old project on ravelry.
Project bag: by @sewcosyknits, needle felted heart by Behind the Sheep

Radioactive Socks

Pattern: Basic stockinette socks knit toe up, two at a time, magic loop – following the etcetera sock pattern by Verena Cohrs for the construction of the heel.
Yarn: dunkelgrün classic sock – speckle dyeing experiment
Needles: started with Chiaogoo Lace 2.5 mm (1 ½ US) circular needle doing magic loop and two at a time, but now changed to knitting the socks separately on DPNs (KnitPro Naturals 2.5 mm / 1 ½ US).

Lettlopi Arboreal

Pattern: Arboreal by Jennifer Steingass
Yarn: Ístex Léttlopi, colorways 9427 Rust Heather and 0086 Light Beige Heather purchased from islandwolle.ch
Needles: 4.0 mm (US 6) for the main body (and colorwork). 3.5 mm (US 4) for the garter stitch collar
My first colorwork yoke, my first Léttlopi – And I just love everything about this project! I did end up with a larger gauge than the pattern calls for, so I am knitting a size smaller (according to my calculations I should end up with 3-4 inches positive ease on my bust).
Project bag by Lamiprojects

Colorwork Swatch

Steeked Swatch in an improvised colorwork pattern
Yarn: Lana Rara Rare Swiss Wool

Spindles and Yarn Bowl

The spindles and yarn bowl I have shown you in this episode were made by my old school friend @elisteel. He doesn’t have an online shop, but I think he is taking some custom orders once in a while 😉

edit in March 2018: Elias has now a website! www.elisteel.at – at the moment all in German, but you can find a link to contact him there (message symbol at the very bottom of the page).

Spinning

I am spinning 100% Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) in a natural color on my Ashford traditional spinning wheel. My goal is to achieve a DK to worsted weight in order to knit the Telja sweater by Jennifer Steingass out of the yarn.

New podcaster mentioned: Nina from The Fox and the Sheep Podcast, her etsy shop with naturally dyed yarns and handcarved nostepinnes is here, and her beautiful instagram profile is here.

Questions about Natural Yarns

In this episode I am addressing two questions which came up after I talked about the science of the superwash process in the previous episode:

Where can we buy eco-friendly yarns?
I have created a page in my ravelry group to collect sources of non-superwash and eco-superwash yarns. There is also a thread in which you can enter the shops / mills / brands of yarns you know of and I will enter them on the page.
What influences the softness of yarns and fibers?
It is the thickness of the fibers which influences how soft they feel to our skin. The diameter of the fibers is typically given in microns (micrometers). Fibers with <22 microns are considered soft, while fibers with >30 microns feel quite rough on our skin. The finest wool breeds will go as low as 14 microns. A human hair is around 50 microns.
How fine the fibers of an individual sheep are depends on the following parameters: the breed (we can expect a kind of micron range for each breed), the individual genetics of the sheep’s family, the age (lambs have softer wool), and the environment it lives in (warmer climates give softer fleeces).

Socks 2018 by Making Stories

Find the wonderful sock pattern collection featuring seven sock designs out of non-superwash, no-nylon sock yarns here: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/socks-2018/patterns
In this collection you don’t only get seven beautiful modern sock designs, but also interesting profiles of the designers and yarn brands and an awesome guide on how to knit socks that fit you (and how to read a sock pattern).