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!

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.

Etsy front page, but I missed it

There is a website an Etsy seller set up that lets other sellers easily see how many views their shop is getting, as well as how many hearts. When I checked out that site today, my views had jumped up, plus I had a bunch of new hearts. I knew I was featured in a ShowMeEtsy treasury, so I thought maybe it was just related to that. But the item that had a bunch of new hearts wasn't in that treasury. Well, one of the other ShowMeEtsy members found another treasury that I was featured in, called Pink Elephants on Parade, aptly, since my item featured was my pink elephants on parade yarn. I can't view treasuries at work, so I didn't get to take a look at this treasury until just now. Well, from one of the comments, it sounds like the treasury made it to the front page early this morning. I'm so excited but a little bummed. It was my first time making it to the front page, but I totally missed it. But I'm so excited that I was included in a treasury that is getting a lot of views and that made it to the front page. I haven't gotten any sales out of it (yet, fingers crossed), but the new views and hearts may help me get some future sales. Also, it may bring my shop to the attention of other people who could potentially include me in their treasuries. This has been the best month so far for my little shop...my sales doubled plus I was included in three treasuries in the last week, one of which made it to the front page! Yay!