Art Yarns and Other Things

I realized that I haven't posted on here in quite some time. This spring has been very busy with shows and custom orders plus a baby blanket I made as a shower gift for Kiwi.

I have been spinning a lot of yarn, and I'm really happy with some art yarns I've spun. I'm getting so much better at it. I have lots of projects for this summer, so it is good that I don't have another show until August. My summer projects include finally getting some practice spinning on the wheel. (I had some issues with the drive band that I fixed, but then I was too busy to practice.) I have LOTS of art yarns planned to spin, mostly for my big spin-a-CD project. I'll be spinning a skein of yarn inspired by and named after each of the songs on Eddie From Ohio's Looking Out the Fishbowl CD. I'm also planning to make some Pride and sports team color beer cozies, some barrettes, some more coffee cozies, and some herbal moth/insect repellant sachets with my own custom blend of herbs. AND I want to work out a nice, quick bookmark pattern. Whew!

Since I've been super happy with some of my (relatively) recent art yarns, I thought I'd post some pictures.

Here is my first Spontaneous Spinning Batt from Loop:



It came with worry dolls, which I attached to embroidery thread and spun into the yarn.


I also got my first batt from Terra Bella Spun and spun that into a single that I plied with crochet thread strung with satin bows. I have two more batts from Terra Bella Spun waiting to be spun; one will be used for one of the Fishbowl yarns.


Finally, I just finished spinning Uniquely Yours' Spring Flower Ravelry Spin Along batts. I loved spinning this one! I spun one skein of boucle style art yarn plied with lavender sewing thread that had flowers threaded on it. Some of the flowers came with the batts. The purple and yellow velvet flowers I got from the Upcycle Exchange. I had a little bit of the single left over when the flowers ran out, so I have a small single also. Both are self striping, with a color sequence of green, purple, yellow, purple, green, purple, etc. to sort of emulate the colors of the crocus, the flower that was the inspiration for the batts.

Here is a picture of some of the roving balls I made from the batts all lined up in the color sequence.


And here are pictures of the finished yarn.



I really love this yarn, and I want to see how the stripes turn out, so I decided to keep the yarn and knit it myself. I have a cool idea of what I'm going to make and will probably keep the FO (finished object) for myself. Stay tuned for FO pictures!

Noel, Noel

For some reason, I'm not really sure WHAT reason, I have been in the Christmas spirit much earlier than usual this year. I usually put my tree up about 2 weeks before Christmas and take it down New Year's Day. But this year I put my tree up the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Hopefully I won't be sick of it by Christmas.

I'm wondering if part of the reason that I'm in the spirit early this year is that I started perusing Etsy for Christmas cards (and possible gifts) a while ago, knowing that I would need to order things in time for them to get here (and not wanting to pay ridiculous amounts for shipping). I'm really excited because I ordered handmade Christmas cards and gift tags from Etsy this year. One set of cards and the gift tags arrived this weekend...they are so cute! I'm hoping the other set of cards will arrive today. I also bought some cool things from Strung Out & Wired to give as gifts to my work friends. I like to give something handmade, and for the past 3 years I have made ornaments. But this year I knew I wouldn't have time to make something myself since I have been doing more craft shows, plus I have several custom orders that are Christmas presents (and presents to make that I'm giving as well). What I got is really cool though, and I think everyone will like them.

Another (somewhat selfish) reason I'm really excited about Christmas this year is that my parents are getting me a spinning wheel for Christmas. I found one that wasn't ridiculously expensive and is probably a good starter wheel. It would really suck to spend $500 on a wheel and then figure out that I hate spinning with a wheel. I ordered a beautiful fiber batt from Uniquely Yours, which I plan to make my first real wheel project, after I use crappy fiber and scraps to learn with. I can't wait to get the wheel and start spinning with it! It is going to make it so much easier to spin plied yarns.

Craft It Forward

One of the things that I really love about Etsy is that so many of the sellers on there buy from each other. Then people use things they have bought in their own creations to sell. I've been calling it craft-it-forward. It is such a great thing!

Here is an example: I bought lovely fiber from Spincerely. I then spun it into yarn, which was purchased by iWonder. She then crocheted it into a lovely flower that is for sale in her Etsy shop. The flower is perfect for someone to use as an embellishment on a hat or other item. I think it would be so cool if someone bought it from her, used it to embellish a hat, and then posted the hat for sale on Etsy. And then if someone bought the hat for herself or to give someone a gift.

What a great thing! By the time someone has an actual finished product to wear, the parts have lovingly been created by several people. I wrote in another post about the threads of love that connect crafters and people who buy the crafts and how those threads spread across the world. This is another great example of that. I would love to create something to deliberately trace in this way. I have actually been thinking about buying fiber and asking for information on the origins of it (farm where the sheep were raised, etc), spinning it into yarn and listing the yarn in my shop for a low price, asking that the person who buys it uses it to make something else to sell for a low price and sends me information about what they make, asking the person who buys it from them to do the same, and so on until it gets to the finished product. Then everyone who had a part in taking it from the beginning to the finished product would get to see each stage and know who bought it in the end to wear.

This whole process is so much more personal than just walking into a store and buying something. It shows how much care artists and crafter put into their work. I just think that is such an awesome, powerful thing, especially nowadays, when we are so disconnected from each other in so many ways.

Dreams of Knitting

As if it wasn't already clear that knitting has been dominating my life, now I have been having dreams about it. I guess it makes sense though...I have some yarn that I spun myself that wasn't enough to sell that I want to make something out of. It isn't quite enough for a hat though and it is superwash, so I can't make anything felted out of it. So I have really been thinking about what I can make out of this yarn. Obviously this has even filtered into my subconscious since I've been dreaming about this yarn and making something from it. The dreams may actually have helped though. I have been thinking about using it with another yarn, and maybe with lots of scraps to make a hodge-podge sort of scarf. Then, from my dream, I was reminded of a pattern I had seen for fingerless gloves using two different yarns as a way to use up small amounts of yarn. So that has inspired some other ideas, perhaps doing fingerless gloves, but my own pattern, using this yarn and leftovers of some other handspun yarn that I bought from someone. The ideas are swirling around my head. I've also been thinking about trying to figure out a way to make a big flower out of it for a brooch (since the yarn is pink), but again, it can't be a felted flower since this yarn is superwash. Plus it is bulky, so it needs to be something that will work with bulky yarn.

My mind is just brimming with ideas! I am now keeping a list of all of the project ideas I have come up with that I want to make. The problem is that my project ideas don't always match up with the yarns and fibers I have in my stash, so I will get inspired to do something with a stashed yarn, and then not get to all of the projects on my list. And now I'm going to be getting my July batt this week for the monthly fiber club I'm in, so I know I'll want to spin it right away.

Last night I finished up a super cute pumpkin hat. As often happens, I had a pattern for it, but the pattern wasn't quite what I wanted, so I used the pattern as a starting point and then changed it so the hat would be how I wanted. I'm really happy with how it turned out and even tempted to keep it for myself. That is always the dilemma...I rarely keep things for myself, but usually the things that I would want to keep are the things that definitely sell. I guess that means that I should always make things that I'd want to have myself, rather than trying to guess what other people would want. But that also makes it hard to let things go...I hope that they all go to good homes!

Of course the other issue right now is that I'm really trying not to spend too much money and instead am focusing on using up my stash. So, if I don't have the yarn for one of the projects on my list, then that project stays on the list for now. I probably will be buying some fiber soon though because I have a cool idea for some art yarn I want to spin. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will turn out well. I've been looking at fiber for days on Etsy trying to pick out just the right color. Another thing that is helpful is that I do have several deadlines. ShowMeEtsy will have a booth at Cool Art, Hot Jazz in August, so I have some things I want to finish up for that. Actually one is a project that I have been procrastinating on. It is partly done, but I have a few more pieces to make for it to be totally finished. Knowing that I have a deadline will probably help. Also, I'm thinking about attending the World Sheep & Fiber Arts Festival and possibly entering some handspun yarn in the fiber arts competition. That should motivate me to get the art yarn spun so that I can enter it in the competition.

There just isn't enough time for me to finish all of the projects that are floating around in my head. I dream of a day when I can spend as much time as I want on knitting and spinning...perhaps I should start buying lottery tickets. :)