Hello! With Christmas less than a fortnight away, there is something utterly un-Christmassy I’d like to share with you today – a butterfly story.
It all started with the scarf version of my Seventh Heaven pattern. For this version, I used two different colourways of Schoppel Zauberball Crazy. One of them was inspired by and named after a butterfly called Kleiner Fuchs in German (EN small tortoiseshell; NL kleine vos).
While I was photographing the rolled-up scarf, look who was coming for a visit:
A small tortoiseshell landed on our picnic table for a spot of sunbathing!
I love these beautiful creatures, and I know someone else who does, too. Her studio isn’t far from here. Would you like to join me for a visit? Following cycle tracks through the wood, country lanes through farmland, crossing a busy road, more country lanes… there we are.
Marianne dyes yarn in gorgeous glowing colours.
Her studio, called Lindelicht, is a Scandinavian-style wooden building with a welcoming atmosphere. Hello kitty-cat!
Tea, biscuits, bowls filled with mini-skeins – so very cosy.
Besides the yarn shelves, there is also a shelf filled with felt. I don’t know the English word for this type of felt. It is a mottled wool felt that is called sprookjesvilt (fairytale felt) in Dutch.
Marianne uses it to make figures for the seasonal table and her flower-inspired lamps.
She also uses it for her butterfly kits. To date, she has designed 16 different ones. I started with the fairly simple cabbage white before making the fiddlier small tortoiseshell. Instead of pins, I used Scotch tape for the smallest elements.
I made it over the course of a week – an hour here, 30 minutes there. It’s a lovely little project to sew, embroider and embellish with beads. With a wingspan of 11.5 cm/4.5” the felt small tortoiseshell is about twice the size of a real-life one, but otherwise I think it’s an excellent likeness.
What I love about this project is how it made me look at the small tortoiseshell more closely than I’ve ever done before. For the first time, I noticed the long hairs along the sides of its body, the stripes on it’s antennae and the blue spots all along the edges of the wings. I feel I’ve got to know this butterfly that I’ve known all my life even better.
Thinking that some of you outside the Netherlands might like to make a felt butterfly, too, I asked Marianne if she also sends her kits abroad. Her answer was, ‘Yes, no problem. But do tell them that the instructions are in Dutch!’
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Wat een leuke verrassing in mijn mailbox. Mooie blog hoor, dank je wel! Fijne Kerstdagen 🎄♥️
Dankjewel! Ik heb veel plezier gehad aan de kleine vos. De volgende vlinder ligt te wachten voor de kerstvakantie.
Wat een super leuk borduurwerk , Marijke!
Ja, echt heel leuk om te maken.
What a wonderful blog post! My Seventh Heaven yarns are prepped and ready to be cast on. Your design will be a perfect knit to have on my needles this holiday season. Wishing you a healthy, peaceful and joyful Christmas.
Thank you! I hope you’ll enjoy knitting your Seventh Heaven scarf, and if you ever have any questions, do let me know!