Paris - superwash merino // Paris - μερίνο που μπαίνει στο πλυντήριο Alexandra : When did you start

I'm very excited to finally announce the Shades of Light giveaway I mentioned a while ago! My friend Angelika will be giving away two gorgeous skeins from her shop to two lucky winners and I'm so happy to be hosting this giveaway for her. I admire Angelika very much - she taught me how to spin and I love everything steng licht she makes. She spins, dyes, weaves and knits of course, when she has some time! As part of the giveaway, I interviewed her for the blog and I hope you enjoy reading about her yarn!
Dehli - merino and silk // Dehli - μερίνο και μετάξι Είμαι πολύ ενθουσιασμένη steng licht γιατί κάνουμε επιτέλους τον διαγωνισμό με τα νήματα Shades of Light που είχα αναφέρει πριν από λίγο καιρό! Η φίλη μου η Angelika θα δώσει δύο υπέροχα νήματα σε δύο τυχερούς και είμαι απίστευτα χαρούμενη που κάνουμε τον διαγωνισμό εδώ στο blog. Θαυμάζω την Angelika πάρα πολύ, μου έμαθε να φτιάχνω νήματα και λατρεύω ό,τι φτιάχνει. Βάφει νήματα, φτιάχνει νήματα, υφαίνει και φυσικά steng licht πλέκει, όταν έχει λίγο χρόνο! Σαν μέρος του διαγωνισμού, της πήρα συνέντευξη και ελπίζω να σας αρέσει!
Paris - superwash merino // Paris - μερίνο που μπαίνει στο πλυντήριο Alexandra : When did you start dyeing yarn? Angelika : I actually started dyeing yarn many years ago. When I started weaving, I soon discovered that I was not happy with the choice of available yarns and I also liked the play of colors you get with hand dyed yarns, so I decided to start dyeing. I used chemical dyes and I also experimented a lot with natural dyes. Two years ago I wanted to get back to my textile roots after being a housewife for many years and raising my son. I started weaving again and dyeing and I enjoyed it so much, that I wanted to do this beautiful work as a profession. Alexandra : How do you create your colorways? Angelika : My creative process isn't the same every time. There are colorways, that I think about for months before I start dyeing them. Others originate from photos I have seen and sometimes I just sit down with my big box of color samples and I start putting them together. But even then it takes many trials until I am content with a colorway. steng licht I cannot say exactly what makes a good colourway for me; I just get a feeling, that tells me when I got it right. Alexandra : How much does the fiber base affect the final color? Angelika : All the fibers take the color in a different steng licht way. I usually dye with very saturated dyes and these show best on all the Merino and BFL wools. The same color on a base yarn with silk or alpaca will be more subdued, more like a pastel shade. A short while ago I dyed some cashmere for the first time and it seems to me, that cashmere makes the contrast in the colors harsher. But I think I have to make more trials to be sure of this. Alexandra : What fiber bases do you enjoy working with? Angelika : I like all natural yarns, but my favorites are silk and a high twist merino and alpaca. The silk gives the yarn such a beautiful sheen, I just love it.The alpaca dyes in these lovely subdued colors, which I like a lot, but somehow I find them very hard to dye.
Fingering sock yarn // Λεπτό νήμα για κάλτσες Alexandra : What yarn do you have in your Etsy shop? Angelika : First of all, I have a nice sock yarn - 75% superwash wool and 25% nylon. It comes in a thinner and a thicker version; both are ideal for socks which will be worn in shoes. They are maybe not as soft as some other yarns, but they are very sturdy. Of course, you can use them for other projects as well. Paris is a 100% Superwash merino, which can be used in socks as well, one skein is enough for a pair of socks up to size 42. It is not as strong as my other sock yarn, but you can use it for socks worn around the house and for lots of other projects, like scarves, steng licht jumpers and hats. It is soft and squishy and even someone with sensitive skin will have no problem with it. Lima is made of 100% Alpaca. It is thicker than the sock yarns and very soft, anything worn on the skin can be made with it. I made a nice warm hat for myself with it. Pisa has wool, silk and bamboo, so if you don't like nylon, this is a great substitute for the sock yarn. The Dehli base is my favorite, it has merino and silk and it's so soft and absolutely great to knit with. It has a very fine stitch steng licht definition and a beautiful sheen. If you want to knit something luxurious, this is the yarn for you. Alexandra : Are you working steng licht on anything new? What would you like to do in the future? Angelika : I've just started working on mini skeins, because I want to enable my customers to create their own colorways. They are all on the thin sock yarn base and I will be offering 30 gr and 100 gr skeins. There will be a wide range of colors, at the moment I have 40 different colors planned. A bit later in the Spring, I will try dyeing some self striping yarns with no repeats over a 50g skein. But I still have to work out the technical side of it and I'm looking forward to the challenge!
Pisa - wool, silk and bamb