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Hi lovelies! You know how much I adore our 100% non-superwash wool color-changing yarn "Zauberwolle", right? I already knit myself a Pressed Flowers Hat and a Pressed Flowers Cardigan in it, and I can't wait to get the next project on the needles.

I thought it would be really cool to combine Zauberwolle with BC Garn's Semilla Melange, a wonderfully woolly GOTS-certified sport-weight yarn. (I knit the Pressed Flowers Cardigan in this exact combo, and it's a good one.) So imagine my delight when I realized how many colors of Semilla Melange actually work perfectly with the color-changing magic of Zauberwolle!

Without further ado, let me introduce you to a whopping 24 perfect color matches!

The joy of spinning your own yarn is that you can design the yarn from the fibre up. In theory this means you can hold the pattern or project you’d like to make in mind, and create the yarn to match. 

However in practice, at least at the beginning, that’s often not how it goes. Perhaps your spinning is either a bit inconsistent, or you find it hard to spin to a specific weight of yarn. Maybe you enjoy spinning from gloriously dyed variegated fibre and the result is very busy-looking yarn. It might be that you have small, precious skeins of practice yarn, or on the other end of the scale, you’re amassing hand-spun yarn faster than you can possibly knit through it.

Spinning yarn can seem a daunting craft, requiring arcane tools and techniques, but the fundamentals are simple. It is about adding twist to fibre, which gives it the strength to not pull apart. Most preparations of fibre will require drafting – that is, continuously pulling the fibre so fewer strands (or staples) are twisted together to make a thinner yarn. Drafting and adding twist are all that are needed to make yarn.

You might hear about woollen and worsted spinning, and the long- and short-draw methods associated with them. While interesting, and good to understand when improving your skills, the beginner spinner doesn’t need to worry overmuch about these terms. 

We’re going to look at the tools and fibre you’ll need before you start spinning yarn.

Learning to spin yarn comes with a huge array of new jargon, and a lot of these terms relate to how the fibre is prepared. Whether animal or plant fibre, there is a variety of ways it can be processed from raw material into something you can spin into yarn.

We’re going to look at some of the common formats available to hand spinners, what their characteristics are and the kind of spinning techniques they’re suitable for.

Hi lovelies! Spring has sprung here in Berlin – as I am typing this (mid March), the buds on the chestnut tree out the window are a few days away from bursting, the forsythias are in full bloom, and our strawberry plants have started their comeback as well (leaves so far, but Aurin checks every day for berries :)).

So it's no surprise at all that today's blog post is very much inspired by the sun and the warmer days to come! I have put together a sweet roundup of 6 joyful spring knitting patterns, all of which I'd love to have on my needles soon. (If someone can get me an extra day or two per week to knit (oh, and to spin), I'd love that!)

The three yarns I've paired them with are my favorite spring / summer yarns: De Rerum Natura's Antigone, a delightful sport-weight linen yarn, Wooldreamers' Saona, a 50% Spanish cotton, 50% Spanish wool blend, and Natissea's Pernelle, our newest spring yarn: A 100% European hemp yarn!

Hi lovelies! As you might know, we are slowly, surely expanding the portfolio of the shop – I am always on the lookout for wonderful sustainable yarns that might fill gaps we still have, and one that was on the list since last summer was an additional spring / summer yarn.

When I learned about Natissea, a French yarn company dedicated to organic plant yarns, from Audrey Borrego last year, I immediately contacted them to order some samples. As soon as I had Pernelle, their 100% European hemp yarn, on the needles, it was love – grippy, but not ropey, with a lovely drape that only got stronger after a good washing and blocking session.

The shade cards had me swooning too – a really comprehensive, well-composed range of colors with something for everyone in it, from neutrals to spring-inspired pastels to deep jewel tones.

So I was so pleased when Natissea accepted us as a stockist – and I am extra excited to introduce Pernelle to you. Our first 100% hemp yarn, perfect for summer tops, T-Shirts, and lightweight sweaters!

I reached out to Mathilde over at Natissea and she graciously agreed to answer a few questions about Pernelle. I loved reading her answers!