handpainted – Garngalleriet Mikrofarveri

Udgivet i 01/08/2014 af Birthe P — Skriv en kommentar

Månedens Farve / Colourway of the Month

Hele august måned kan man købe eller bestille månedens farveholdning “Indian Summer” til reduceret pris. Jeg har farvet denne palette på 3 forskellige fibertyper: shetlandsuld, merino/soya og luksusblandingen FalkSilkPaca. Og farven ser sådan her ud:

Shetlandsuld / shatland wool — Shetlandsuld / shetland wool

Er det ikke fint? Jeg synes selv at det er lykkedes mig at lave en super-flot farveholdning denne gang! Fibrene kan købes her, i webshoppen.

“Månedens Farve på Fiber” erstatter Fiberklubben, og det har åbenlyse den fordel for kunderne at det er muligt at se farven før man køber … Til gengæld mister man så overraskelsesmomentet, men man kan jo ikke få alt! 😉
Desuden er der hele måneden lavere pris på den aktuelle farve, lige godt 10% lavere end tilsvarende produkter. Slet ikke tosset, vel?

In English:
The Colourway of August is called “Indian Summer” and will be available with a >10 % discount for the entire month. Get it while it’s hot! Here in the webshop 😉

Udgivet i 01/07/2014 af Birthe P — 2 kommentarer

Håndkæmmet / Hand combed

Lækkert, lækkert er det at spinde! Som en blød ulden drøm, en sommersky, en fuglerede af fiber..

Håndkæmmede BFL/polwarth fibre spindes på Aaes-ten / hand combed BFL/polwarth on an Aaes spindle

Jeg overvejer at lancere de håndkæmmede fibre som et luksus-produkt i webshoppen. Det bliver ikke et billigt produkt, for det tager lang tid at kæmme. Men resultatet er så lækkert og delikat, at jeg tror på at de mange spinde-feinsmeckere derude vil kunne li’ det!
Til projektet som ses på disse fotos har jeg valgt to forskellige håndmalede tops: en BFL i røde/orange/pink/mørke farver og en polwarth i temmelig lyse rødlige og grønlige nuancer. De to kæmmer jeg sammen på mine gode gamle enkelt-radede Viking uldkamme:

Efter kæmningen trækkes fibrene af kammen i et langt, tyndt fiberbånd (top) gennem en diz. En diz er en skive med et hul i, simpelthen. Min her er af træ, men man kan også bruge andet, f.eks knapper eller en 1-krone.

Det kæmmede bånd er trukket af kammen gennem en diz / the top is pulled off the comb through a diz

– Og så er fibrene klar til spinding! Jeg vikler dem omkring min arm og så går det derudaf, her på min dejlige håndten fra Aaes, med ægte kamgarnsspinding.
Det går som en leg.

Summary in English:
Hand-combing and blending of fibers and colours, using my good old Viking Wool Combs. The combed preparation is a delight to spin – so soft and lovely. Like spinning a cloud!
For this project I have combed together two different colourways and fibers: BFL in red, pink, dark, purple colours and polwarth wool in much lighter shades of reds and greens. I spin on an Aaes spindle. Such a joy!
Maybe the hand-combed fibres will show up in the webshop soon …

Udgivet i 06/05/2014 af Birthe P — 2 kommentarer

Næsten færdig – Almost done!

Jeg lukkede masker af her til morgen – endelig! Selvom perlegrus er en meget smuk og enkel strikketeknik er den også lidt langsommelig at strikke, og jeg nåede at blive en smule træt af det her til sidst. Men nu er blusen omsider klar til sammensyning, og så skal der kanter på. Hvilken slags har jeg ikke besluttet endnu, men jeg hælder til en enkel hæklet kant rundt i halsen og på ærmerne. Måske også rundt forneden.

Jeg elsker farverne! — Jeg elsker farverne i det håndmalede Opus-garn!

Jeg glæder mig til at flashe blusen til Saltum Uldfestival her i weekenden! 🙂

English summary:
I have just cast off the last stitches of my linen-stitch sweater this morning. Now all that remains is sewing up the seams and making some kind of edge at the neckline and the sleeves.
Looking forward to wear this garment at Saltum Uldfestival this weekend!

Udgivet i 25/03/2014 af Birthe P — Skriv en kommentar

Alma Ella Shawl

"Alma Ella" in Serenade, colorway "Turmeric" — “Alma Ella” in Serenade, colorway “Turmeric”

The Alma Ella Shawl is a free pattern over on Ravelry. Designed by Robin Lynn and generously made available for all lovers of simple, but beautiful shawls.
Here is a linkie to the original pattern on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/alma-ella-shawl

My friend Mariann, who is a skilled knitter (and now also a spinner with a serious spindle collecting issue, but that is a whole different story..) has created an Alma Ella in my handpainted lace merino yarn, “Serenade”.

Is it not beautiful? I think so!
I have translated the pattern into Danish and placed it in the “patterns” section of this blog. Go ahead and download, if you please.

Alma Ella-sjalet er en gratisopskrift ovre på Ravelry. Jeg har oversat det til dansk og det kan nu downloades her på bloggen, under “patterns”.

Udgivet i 13/11/2013 af Birthe P — 2 kommentarer

Unique colors

Lately I have been dyeing some one-of-a-kind colorways on my sock yarn BFL-Steps.
For socks you only need 1 skein and it’s always fun to knit – and wear! – a pair that is completely unique.

Take a look at my two latest OOAK- sock yarns here. You can find more in the webshop. Now, I’ll go and knit some special socks for myself.. 🙂

Yellow/red/green/blue/purple — Yellow/red/green/blue in the top photo, blue/green/purple in the bottom pic.

bluish/greenish/purple — Yellow/red/green/blue in the top photo, blue/green/purple in the bottom pic.

Udgivet i 17/06/201317/06/2013 af Birthe P — 2 kommentarer

Spinning and knitting heavy singles

I needed a quick-and-easy, but still good-looking, project. So I picked out five of my handpainted wool tops, combined the colours in a most complicated (not!) way and began the spinning..

The final yarn is wonderful! Heavy, multicolour, and ten different skeins.

For the knitting project I decided on a short jacket or cardi, to be held together with one or maybe two buttons. Negative ease, tight fit. The fabric is very stretchy, so I think my idea will work fine!

Right now I am working on the first sleeve, so hopefully I’ll soon be finished. The yarn knits up quickly on needles 6 mm. Love it so far!

I also dug deep in the pile of unfinished projects today.. Surfaced with something that is meant to become a blanket for my son. A stash-busting throw for his bed. In mitered square modules. Sat down and knitted a bit. Decided that I really need more blue yarns, so now I have fired up this little Cascade spindle and some royal blue fiber..

The weather is fantastic, so I’m working out in the back yard today.. 🙂

Udgivet i 19/02/2013 af Birthe P — 2 kommentarer

The beginning..

..of a shawl:

The Brande Shawl in making — The Brande Shawl in the making

The Brande Shawl was designed by the very talented knitter and designer Bente Hein for the knit-event that took place in the fall last year: Brande Strikkefestival.
Now I have persuaded Bente to let me sell her pattern (as a loose pattern as well as a kit) in the webshop. But first I need to knit the beautiful shawl in some of my own yarns, and then I need to put together some kits.. So: back to knitting! 🙂

Udgivet i 24/11/2012 af Birthe P — 8 kommentarer

Finished project!

Ta-daaa!!
I am so pleased with this sweater! My handspun Swirl (designed by very talented Sandra McIver) is done and almost dry. Dry enough to do some photos while it’s still daylight outside.

This has been a very pleasant knitting adventure. The pattern (“Strata Sphere” from McIvers book “Knit Swirl”) is well written, has very usefull schematics and was easy to follow. It was especially nice and thrilling to work with my own handspun.
I had dyed up a big bunch of different fibers (wool, alpaca, silk, bamboo, mohair) in the colourway “Icarus”. First I separated the fibers into different piles of colours, carded it together and spun a singles yarn.
I aimed at getting the same grist, look, hand and colour-magic that we see in Noro Silk Garden, which was the yarn called for in the pattern. I think I got it pretty well! Only problem was that I had underestimated the amount og fiber to spin, so in the middle of the project I had to dye, card and spin some more..
The second lot of course came out a little bit different than the first, but it’s not to be seen at all in the finished Swirl.

swirldetalje — A closer look at the yarn and knitting structure.

I predict that this sweater is going to be worn a lot this winter!

Udgivet i 07/11/2012 af Birthe P — 1 kommentar

“Summer Garden” yarn

I dyed up a batch of Opus-yarn (and some spinning fiber too) in one of my favorite colourways last week: “Summer Garden”:

“Summer Garden”. Warm reds, golden, greens and earthy browns.

I dyed 12 hanks of Opus (it’s a 100% BFL-wool yarn, about fingering/light worsted weight, soft and lustrous) using a special procedure so that all hanks are different, but of course will go perfectly together in a project! 🙂

The yarn is now available in my webshop. More photos there as well!

Udgivet i 22/10/2012 af Birthe P — Skriv en kommentar

Knitting with my freshly dyed sock yarn!

The sock yarn I painted in colourway “Bright Mountain” is all dry and a few days ago I started knitting a sock while my family and I were going on a short vacation to Lübeck, Germany.
The yarn looks like this:

Fresh sock yarn!

And the first half of my sock (classic style, cuff-down, actually the pattern my Mother taught me when I was a teenager..) looks like this:

Lovely vacation in Lübeck: nice weather, family time, enjoying the town and relaxing with knitting and good beer 🙂

The rest of the sock yarn that I painted in the “Bright Mountain”-colourway is now available at my webshop, and in a few days I’ll add a few more colours.
BTW, have I mentioned that I think Lübeck is absolutely wunderbar?..

How can you not love such a beautiful city?..