Star light, star bright

Tags

alpaca yarn, Audry Nicklin, Celestarium, Doe Arnot, Flagstaff Alpacas, FO, Knitting, shawl

It’s not blocked yet, but it’s raining.  And it has been raining for the past week or more.  I am not complaining (too much) as it’s better that we have rain that the awful drought of the past summer.  However, it means that it’s very bad blocking weather!

By the time the weather is dry enough to block this beautiful baby, I suspect I’ll have moved on to other things to post about, so without further ado, here is my Celestarium:

It’s a fiendishly hard project to photograph I discovered.  I think the camera couldn’t quite decide whether to focus on the beads or the shawl!  Still, you do see the very pleasing star-like twinkle of the beads, so I’m quite happy.

The bind-off took me ALL day.  5,000 stitches, I think?  I wasn’t feeling very well, which was the perfect excuse to sit still and knit.  Hehe.

It’s draped over the back of one of my chairs, and it looks for all the world like I have suddenly found a portal to the Northern sky.  It’s a different view to what I am used to, and now I can’t wait to start on the Southern Companion!

Pattern:  Celestarium by Audry Nicklin

Yarn:  3 skeins of Moontide (dyed by Doe Arnot) in 100% alpaca from Flagstaff Alpaca in 4 ply (fingering) weight.

Knitting notes are Raveled here.

Thanks Audry, for that fabulous pattern!

Knitting Space

Tags

alpaca yarn, Audry Nicklin, Celestarium, Doe Arnot, Flagstaff Alpacas, Knitting, shawl, WIP

I finally got the needles I’ve been waiting for.  You know what this means?

I’ve started Celestarium!!

Audry is a genius knitter.

Celestarium is easy to knit, and so addictive it’s hard to put down!!  She’s done such a good job making the charts easy to follow.

You’ll probably notice I’ve made a modification.  My preference is to only have the beads and not worry about the yarn overs.  I prefer it this way – it looks more ‘spacey’ to me.

Moontide is proving to be the perfect colourway for this.  I truly feel like I’m looking deep into space knitting this shawl.  (The colourway, Moontide is by Doe Arnot, using Flagstaff Alpacas‘ beautifully soft 4 ply 100% alpaca.  Although she dyed this for me by special request, it is available as a repeatable colourway – drop her a line if you’d like some).

Can’t wait to have it around my shoulders!  I know I said I might gift this… given I’m going to knit the Southern companion as well.  Do you think it would be too greedy to have two Celestariums in my possession!?

Delicious yarn

Tags

Alpaca, Flagstaff Alpacas, Knitting, New Zealand yarn, sock yarn, Spinning a Yarn

Just popping in quickly to share some lovely yarn finds of recent weeks.  These yarns had me at the word “go”:

This is a beautiful merino/silk fingering weight from Spinning a Yarn called Invisibility Cloak (ah, the knitting projects that this name inspires!)  My sons tell me it needs to be a shawl.  I don’t think I need convincing!  My only thought is perhaps I need two skeins?

This yarn got me from the moment I saw its luscious colour:

This is Lowburn, another hand-dyed work of art from Doe Arnot, in Flagstaff Alpacas’ beautiful sock blend yarn (merino/alpaca/nylon).  I saw it a couple of weeks back, but resisted, thinking I’d be good… the week ticked by, the colour was like a siren-call in my head… it wouldn’t go away!  I caved.

I got enough to knit a shawl.  I’m not sure what I’ll do with it yet… it might become socks! I just love the colour so much!  It’s the exact shade of New Zealand greenery.

Now, if you are wanting some of this for yourself, I see it’s currently out of stock on the Flagstaff Alpacas’ website.  I know from personal experience though that Doe Arnot (the dyer of this yarn) is great at doing dye-to-order.  Just drop her a line at the email in the link I’ve provided to satisfy your own Lowburn craving!

This yarn came at a very good time today.  I’ve had a bit of a distressing morning dealing with the consequences of petrol thieves who siphoned my car last night.  The yarn has been a nice soother to the nerves!

Celestarium in Moontide

Tags

100% alpaca, Audry Nicklin, Celestarium, Doe Arnot, Flagstaff Alpacas, inspiration, New Zealand yarn, shawl

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.

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!