TdF - Weird's Day 20

Actually, this freshly spun yarn should have been finished yesterday, seeing that this was my challenge yarn. However, I had to work the whole day and didn't manage to finish it. But now here it is - my Athena Yarn, inspired by and named after the greek Goddess.


(please click to enlarge)
161 m, 111 g, about 9-11 wpi.

I had carded the batts on monday (the rest day, but I assumed it meant rest from spinning only ;-)) and was really looking forward to spinning them. They consisted of green and brown merino, light green merino/tussah silk blend, hand dyed silk and golden angelina. My challenge was to create a more interesting yarn, as I think my spinning has become a little too even recently. Nothing wrong with an even yarn, but for one thing I don't want to become lazy and for another thing, I do like coils and other means of creating texture and I very much like interestingly textured yarn. I also wanted to put in lots of stuff: organza ribbons of brown and green, leafy ribbons (also of brown and green), gemstone beads (mossy agate, pyrite, bronze-coloured freshwater pearls) and golden owl charms I got specially for an Athena yarn (which I had planned quite some time ago).

Due to creating so much texture, this yarn took a while longer, but it is worth every minute! There are coiled parts, fatter parts where the accompanying thread winds around the fibre, even a few corespun parts and, of course, the parts where the different ribbons have been spun in. I very much like the outcome, though there is a little problem: the owls have quite sharp egdes and three of them have already fallen off, probably having broken the fine accompanying thread. I won't be able to sell this with a good conscience unless I find a way to secure the charms. I don't mind keeping this yarn, as I really love it, but I have so many art yarn objects already and don't know when to wear them all ;-)

TdF - Weird's Day 18

I have to admit: I don't really like pink and white. I mean, I do like the yarns I make (even the candy flower one ;-)) and I like looking at some yarns I'd never use/wear myself because they're simply gorgeous. I often make a point of spinning something I wouldn't want to wear myself - for one thing, I like to stay flexible and exhaust all the options. For another thing, I think it's great to spin something my customers love. Oh - and it's not as hard to sell the yarns I like but don't desperately love ;-) However, after spinning white and pink stuff I needed a change, so here's my contribution for day 18 of the Tour de Fleece. 94 m/74 g of gorgeous, dark yarn with black ribbons, metal discs and screw nuts. I do love the colours! ;-)

TdF - Weird's Day 16

This was a hell of a week (still re-organizing, cleaning, working, preparing a birthday party, celebrating), so I wasn't able to spin as much as I would have liked. However, I finished one more yarn and I do hope there will be more time during the next week.

TQ's lame excuse for the last days of the Tour de Fleece

Well. At first, there was work. Much work. Really much work. In two days, I managed to work for about 25 hours, not counting the time it took to travel to different locations. And I can tell you, I was quite dead after those two days.

Which brings me to my second excuse: I was working my way through the choreography of "Thriller"!



I always wanted to learn the "Thriller" moves, and now I found the website thrill the world, and there it was! All the steps and moves layed out in front of me, ready to be learned! How could I resist!? Well, I mean, I didn't try too hard. ;-)

It took me two weeks to get all the different moves, poses and stuff, but it's been so much fun! I'm almost done with the choreography, I just need to polish over some parts and get my brain to remembering the right order.

TDF - Weird's excuse for day 12 ;-)

No, I haven't given up ;-) It was a busy week (again) and I still have to finish the yarn I started on day 11. I'll do that today, but I don't know if I'll be able to take photos before tomorrow.
On day 12, however, I had to work the whole day - and afterwards we went to the cinema to see the new Harry Potter movie! :-) Fantastic, it was!



I'd really like to spin another Harry Potter inspired art yarn - or maybe more than one, at that ;-)

TDF - Weird's Day 8

I've finally finished my Silver Wedding yarn:
merino and bamboo, white irisdescent thread, silver fabric roses and strips, freshwater pearls and leafy ribbons.
300 m, 170 g.
It took quite a while, but was worth every minute. I think this has to be the longest art yarn with this kind of stuff in it I've ever spun. I really like it :-)

Please visit my Flickr page for more photos!

The funny thing about it all: I found my own wedding dress today. I haven't bought it yet, but will go back to the shop on monday and buy it then. It's red though, not white! ;-)

TDF - Weird's Day 7

Spun on my new spinning wheel (Kromski Sonata): fluffy yarn that glows in the dark. It's soft, it's lofty, it's kind of weird - and i love it :-D


(please click for a larger version)

77 m
30 g
about 8 wpi (probably about 35 wpi if you don't count the fluff)

TDF - Weird's Day 6

I didn't get any work done yesterday: I had to work at the excavation the whole day and spent a lovely evening with my fiancé afterwards :-) I haven't spun very much today, either, since I am still in the process of rearranging the flat (in order to get more room for my stash *yaay*) and I am also still studying for the exam tomorrow. However, I assembled some material for my Silver Wedding yarn and started spinning.

Oh - and I haven't mentioned my crazy news yet: I have ordered and received a new spinning wheel!!! :-) A foldable Kromski Sonata (with all the flyers available), to take with me to spinning meetings and on vacation. I have long wanted a traveller's wheel and when I found out that there's a jumbo flyer available for the Sonata, nothing could stop me ;-) My mother agreed to pay half of it, as a birthday gift and I generously decided to present myself with the other half *g* Strictly speaking, I am not allowed to use my new wheel until monday, but who can be so strict with themselves? Anyway, this is not the wheel I'll be keeping since it is slightly damaged, so I think I can persuade myself to use the *um* "borrowed" wheel today while I wait for an undamaged one to arrive :-D
I will (hopefully) be able to take some photos soon.

TDF - Weird's Day 4

Merino/silk blend, organza ribbons, textile flowers, shiny sewing thread - 170 m, 106 g, about 12 wpi. Not bad, I think :-)

A twisted second, wait, third day

So, Weird already posted her yarns for the third day of the Tour de Fleece. And now, finally, at ten past ten am CET, here is mine!

I have to say, it was tough work today. I had a busy day at work, and I din't want to miss a day on the Tour, so I spun anyway. And it took soooo long... Well, but here it is!

TDF - Weird's Day 3

As mentioned in the comments to Twisted's announcement of our joining the Tour de Fleece, I have joined the Team Lantern Rouge 2009. Today, I finished a yarn I had started quite a while ago: Morticia, inspired by Morticia of the Addams Family.

It has been spun from a hand carded batt of black alpaca, white bamboo, hand dyed lambs wool of different shades of violet and lots of violet angelina. I've also added some glow fibre, so some of the white parts will glow in the dark :-)


I've also been treasure-hunting, ending up with wonderful stuff: silver fabric roses for a silver wedding yarn, and some yards of a leafy ribbon (white, brown and green) I had wanted to buy for more than a year, now (somehow, they never had the green kind, but today I got lucky!). I also bought some new flowers - roses of pink and red, anemones of white - last saturday. As I mentioned earlier, I buy textile flowers whenever possible ;-)

Tour de Fleece - we're on!

Yes, I know, I know. We're one day late. But well, we had to buy some furniture to better stash our stash, and it had to be yesterday! So, sadly, there was no time for spinning this Saturday.

But: We now joined the Tour de Fleece! "Twisted" from Weird&Twisted aka TrashQueen aka Christine aka me joined three teams on Ravelry: Team Germany, Team Twitter (as I'm a fanatic twitterer), and, of course, Breakaways, the art yarn team!

And today, I tried to make up for missing the first day of the tour. So here are my yarns!






Yes, you've seen correctly: This is another glow-in-the-dark yarn! It's a corespun one, with a fluorescent thread in the center, luxury fibers like cashmere, merino wool and bamboo fluffily wrapped around it! It's so light and soft! :-)

And: There are these big, beautiful vintage lace blossoms, spun right into the yarn. I really like how it turned out!




This is a rather punky one. Black alpaca, combined with merino wool in rosé, dark red, violet and some bamboo in shiny white - and tons of sequins in black and red!

So, that were the first two yarns for the Tour de Fleece. Stay tuned for LOTS more! :-)

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