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When Audry released Celestarium I knew I had to knit it.  What an original concept, and what a clever design!

I love the night sky.  I love sitting out under the stars at night, looking for the constellations, allowing my mind to reach into space.  You appreciate a star-spangled sky so much more after years of not being able to see it over the big city lights.

The question of ‘which yarn’ to use for this amazing project quickly arose.  Nothing in my stash quite fit the bill.  In addition to the pattern’s yarn specifications, my requirements were:

  • It had to be night coloured, of the right shade to my mind’s eye.
  • It had to be New Zealand yarn (of course).
  • It had to be suitable for a shawl, which meant drape and softness.

I scoped out my favourite New Zealand yarns, and thought about colour ranges in those yarns.  I really wanted a hand-dye, I decided.  Something semi-solid, but with enough variegation to match the tones of the night sky.

As it happened, I had to opportunity to talk to Doe Arnot, who is Flagstaff Alpacas’ “partner in crime” in the yarn design and colour department.  I thought I’d take the chance to describe what I was looking for and asked if she might have something in stock that fit the bill (Doe often has hand-dyed colours in her store that are not on the Flagstaff Alpacas website).  To my surprise, she very kindly offered to dye the colour for me!

Doe went to quite a lot of care to get the colour just right.  She used several layers of dye, each a different shade of night, to achieve the shading I was after.

It arrived in my mailbox this week.  She’s aptly named it Moontide.

I wanted to see how this yarn compared to the real night sky.  The night was a very warm night, so I sat with the door open watching the sun set, and dusk slowly settle into a star-spangled night sky, while the moon tinged it the deepest velvety purple.

It’s perfect.

Moontide

The base is 100% New Zealand alpaca in fingering weight, from Flagstaff Alpacas.

Doe loved the colour herself too, so she’s decided to make it a repeatable dye lot.  If you want some too, you can order it from her here. Leave her a message about “Moontide” and she’ll get back to you.

So pretty!  I can’t stop looking at it.  It will be on my needles as soon as those jackets are done!

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