On the knitting front: Heilo, Falk, Daletta and Freestyle

Some more news from the knitting front. About two weeks ago I received another ordered big batch of Heilo and some other Norwegian wool for my Nordic balls from the Kidsknits online shop. This is my preparation for the knitted advent calendar balls, which I'm gonna start knitting as soon as I've finished the first 55 balls from Arne & Carlos's book. Now, with my holidays coming in just over a week, the prospect of knitting with some fresh yarn is pretty alluring.

The package included some fresh red and off-white Heilo wool, which is the one I've been knitting with so far plus some other DaleGarn yarns: Falk, Daletta and Freestyle.

Freestyle yarn is chunkier than Heilo, very soft and cosy. It's 100% natural worsted wool.

Falk is similar to Heilo in gauge. Soft and cosy to the touch. It can be used instead. it's sportweight type of yarn.

Daletta is thinner than Heilo and supposedly more economical. Looking forward to seeing what balls made with this wool going to look like. 

Heilo is the yarn I rely on. This time beside the red and off-white shade I ordered some grey colours as I want to knit some (off-)white and grey/graphite balls in addition to the whole red-white collection. Think they will go nicely together on the Christmas tree.

And here are some ball "skins" I've knitted for the past 2-3 weeks. Not stuffed or ironed yet as I'm knitting for the pleasure of knitting :) Poinsettia is the pattern I've currently fallen in love with so I've been knitting more of its colour variations :) So truly Nordic! 

Been recently knitting a ball with a metalic yarn (Anchor) and it turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. Metallic yarn isn't as stretchy and smooth as natural wool and tends to tangle more than a natural yarn. I even spent over an hour trying to untangle some loose layers of yarn! Fed up, I started to use a glass to stop my Anchor yarn from rolling and tangling. It works!

I've also discovered how to nicely weave in the loose strands inside a ball and now it all looks neater. Very pleased with myself.

Hello Heilo

Time to catch up with the blog posts :) Being a great fan of Arne & Carlos' knits especially their Norwegian Julekuler I decided that if something you really enjoy doing is worth doing it well. For that reason I decided to look for some true Norwegian yarn for my knitted Christmas balls. Just imagine - Norwegian woolly balls made from 100% true Norwegian yarn - that is something a real knitter would look forward to! Heilo of Dale Garn is a standard Norwegian wool, 100% natural, 4 ply and recommended in the book by Arne and Carlos.

Generally Heilo is virtually impossible to buy in the UK and I was forced to look in some other web places outside the British Isles. Good, old America has come to help. Not so long ago I ordered my first batch of Heilo wool from Kidsknits and when the parcel had arrived I was delighted with the quality of that wool so now I can finally say "Hello Heilo" :)

By the look it doesn't really look that much different from an acrylic yarn (acrylic yarn is mandmade) however you do feel the difference in the smootheness and quality once you get that wool on your knitting needles. It must be those natural oils preserved in Heilo wool that make knitting so smooth. Making stitches has become a pleasure now :) The texture, the gauge, the weave is so nice and pleasant to work that I have a feeling that from now on I'm gonna be a big Dale Garn fan.

No point in wasting time! Let's get down to knitting with some Heilo! :) Tricoloured balls this time. Madness with all that yarn tangling!

Some new julekuler "skins" have started to show up :) In some I've also used a metalic yarn from Anchor :) it's a bit fiddly job but manageable.

Been working intesively on a bunch of triple coloured woolly balls. The results to be revealed soon!
Time to head over to Hand-made Monday. Check it out guys!