Apart from my knitting projects this episode involves a lot of colorful segments: spinning, sewing (patchwork curtains and art quilting) as well as natural dyeing with birch leaves and cochineal.

If you are interested in only watching parts of the episode, check out the infobox on YouTube, where you will find shortcut links to the different segments!

#summergarmentKAL Knitalong:

Come on over to the dunkelgrün ravelry group and join the #summergarmentKAL! This KAL is cohosted with Célèste from the Yarn to Table podcast, so hop on over to her ravelry group as well for a double chance to win a prize!

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Knitting the Stash Podcast with Melissa

Finished Project

Nako Wave Shawl

This yarn was a gift from the lovely Marina @marinatoys and host of the Strawberry Patches Podcast.

  • Nako Calico Jakar: 50% cotton, 50% premium acrylic, DK weight. Color No: 31545
  • Nako Venüs Heaven: 55% cotton, 45% premium acrylic, 5% polyamide, spiral ply yarn. color no: 80959
  • Nako Lady: 5% paillette, 10% metallic polyester, 10% polyester, and 75% premium acrylic
  • Needles: 4.5 mm (US 7) Knitpro Natural Interchangeables

 

Knitting in Progress

Glowstone Socks

  • Main yarn: 75% Merino wool 24 mic, 25% polyamide; dyed by dunkelgrün 🙂colorway glowstone
  • contrasting yarn: Lang Jawoll superwash 75% virgin wool, 25% polyamide. color: 615
  • With reinforcement thread: I held the reinforcement thread together with the yarn while knitting.
  • Needles 2.5 mm (US 1 1/2) Knitpro Natural DPNs.

The Great Unravelled Summer Top

  • Bottom up improvised summer top
  • Planned as my entry for both #thegreatunravel2017 and our #summergarmentKAL
  • check out Episode 5 to find out the whole story about this recycled yarn!
  • The yarn was so splitty and annoying to work with that I decided to abandon this project. I might turn the yarn into something else in the future!

Morning Mist

  • my new try at a summer top!
  • pattern: Morning Mist by Annie Rowden
  • yarn: dyed by myself especially for this project
    dunkelgrün organic merino dk in “peppermint mouse” and “silvretta”
  • needles: still TBD

Spinning

Recently I have seen the spinforall2017 spinalong hosted by Tayler (WNH podcast), Katie (Arrow Knits Podcast) and Joy (The Anxious Knitter Podcast) and even though that is aimed at beginner spindle spinners it motivated me very much to dust off my drop spindle…

In the spinning world there is an important event coming up: the Tour de Fleece which runs every year in parallel to the cycling event Tour de France during the month of July. For me it is a great opportunity every year to get a little extra motivation to get some spinning done. Also this year I will try to spin at least 5 minutes every day!
Click here to find the ravelry group of the Tour de Fleece.

Sewing

I made a patchwork curtain as well as some quilted coasters out of my own handdyed fabrics.
The person who inspired me to try myself at free-cut art quilting is @butzeria, a Swiss knitwear designer and art quilter.

Dyeing

Birch Leaves:

  • 15 % mordant (alum), that means 15g for 100g of yarn, simmered for 1h
  • 25% fresh dyestuff, that means 25g of fresh birch leaves for 100g of yarn, simmered for 1h together with the leaves in the post, let cool overnight.

Cochineal:

  • mordant: either 15% alum, or 10% cream of tartar or no mordant
  • 8% dyestuff (powdered cochineal bugs) – were boiled for 1h and then filtered through a nylon sock. The dark red yarns were immersed into the resulting dye solution for about 30 min and simmered carefully.
  • after the first extraction, several other extraction runs were carried out, each giving a lighter color than before.

New in Stash

Magdalena from the Wolff und Schafe Podcast and wolffundschafe.com gifted me one of her beautiful skeins of handdyed yarn:

  • Sigmund: Superfine Australian merino, 19.5 Microns! Incredibly soft and squishy, comes from sustainable farming. 4-ply Fingering weight. 400m/100g (437 yards/3.5 oz)
  • colorway: Toadstool’s Fantasy