Small Update

I did manage to make some ghosts - and zombie heads and pumpkins, too :-) It took me nearly three hours, but now I have enough supplies for a few more Halloween yarns.

Halloween, here we come!

A few days ago I suddenly realized that Halloween is around the corner and I hadn't spun any Halloween-related yarns yet - oh my! It kind of sneaked up to me, my sense of time seems to be a little chaotic at the moment ;-)

Well, there was only one thing to be done - ah, no, two, actually:
1. buy orange beads and sequins
2. spin as many yarns as possible

As for 1., I didn't only buy orange beads and sequins, but some gorgeous other glittery items:


I am absolutely in love with the beads - they're facetted glass beads and they really glitter :-) Some of the black ones have already made it into a yarn, the silver ones would be awesome in sparkly christmas yarns :-) I also plan on using some of them on wire bookmarks in the near future.

As for 2., I managed to spin three Halloween yarns so far. Not bad for two days, but I need to spin moooore - I love Halloween :-) I plan on making some ghosts and zombie heads again, too - hopefully I'll be able to do so today or tomorrow, and spin them into yarns on the weekend.

But now, let me show you what I've done so far:



The black/orange yarn contains many of the freshly-bought orange beads and sequins, the other black one contains hand dyed curls, and the green/orange contains some of the sparkly black beads. I've already taken photos of them all, so it shouldn't take me too long to list them.

The Strange and the Divine

I promised photos of my latest yarns which you have already seen on the bobbin, during the spinning process - and here they are :-)

Luna Lovegood


108 m / 97 g
I used fine merino wool of yellow, peach and light blue, as well as white mohair for a fine halo and white Bluefaced Leicester wool for extra softness. I spun in sunflowers and wonderful handmade glass radishes Potzblitz made for me:

Aren't the amazing?

And here's the other yarn:

Athena

191 m / 90 g
I used a wonderful merino/bamboo blend I had dyed quite a while ago. It was sitting in my dyed fibre box and for a long time, I couldn't decide what to make from it. Sometimes, when I like some supplies a lot, I don't want to use them too quickly, I usually wait for the perfect project. Now that I found it I am very happy that it turned out as beautifully as I wanted it to be :-)
I spun in two types of a kind of leaf garland, the green one clearly alluding to the olive branches associated with the Goddess Athena, and some silver-coloured owls - Athenas associated birds.
Athena is - besides other things - considered the Goddess of spinners and weavers.

Both yarns are to be listed in our shop very soon :-)

Busy Day

I've been busy dyeing today, and now I'm spinning another yarn. Luna is still drying, so pictures will have to wait a few more days. But I'm seizing the opportunities my new mobile phone- a Galaxy S- provides: taking pictures and blogging them directly :-) So here's another quick peek.


Ah well - to be honest, I had to edit the post on the computer, after all. I haven't figured out yet how to copy/paste text to the parts where it should be (above the pictures). There is a "mark text" function which usually works somehow, but not on blogspot. Or maybe my fingers are not agile enough. Anyway - I hope to finish the yarn today, so I'll be able to list it soon.

Luna Lovegood

Just a quick peek :-) I'll post more pictures in a few days.

Mysterious Project Revealed

A short while ago, I hinted at a secret project I was planning for myself. Well, now - here it is, or at least, here is the plan and part of what I'll need :-)

When I saw some beautiful, drilled sea glass on Etsy, I started day-dreaming about an ocean-themed shawl. I don't like spinning lots of the same yarn (it gets boring far too quickly ;-)), so I thought about spinning a variety of ocean-themed yarns, spun in different styles, textures and colours. I thought a shawl made from them would be marvellous - but then I looked at the prices for drilled sea glass and postponed further thoughts about the shawl.

It came to mind again when the wonderful potzblitz, with whom I had already traded cute toadstool glass beads, offered to make some more glass beads in exchange for a skein of art yarn. I requested glass beads looking like sea glass. I wanted them to be irregular, colourful and frosted - and here they are:

Aren't they wonderful?

After I learned I would get them, I started spinning the first yarns for my project. Before I can spin a yarn containing the beautiful glass beads, however, I'll need time to dye some fibre. I'm thinking dark, stormy grey-greenish-turquoisish, and I won't add much else than the beads, so they will stand out.


So far, I've spun four yarns for the shawl: two small skeins and two regular ones.

The small ones are corespun yarns, the core of which consists of glow-in-the-dark-thread. One is of light turquoise and contains dark sea shells and large peacock freshwater pearls; the other is of dark grey and dark teal, and contains lots of angelina and shimmering sequins.
I spun one of the larger skeins from hand dyed wool/silk blend, adding lots of freshwater pearls, frosted seed beads and sequins. For the last one, I carded and spun up a batt from merino wool of many different shades of teal and turquoise, orange highlights and sparkling angelina. It also contains lots of seed beads, some white sea shells, and commercial eyelash yarn.

Playing Around with a Tweedy Look

I had a little time for carding last week, and I decided to try carding batts for yarns with a tweedy look. Now, strictly speaking, a tweed yarn is a two-ply, but I usually prefer singles. I looked up what else defines a tweed yarn, but that seems to differ (depending on the source of the information), so I just went for what I think of as a tweedy look and I carded and spun up two batts:

Autumn Tweed

Midnight Tweed

I forgot to take a photo of the batt :-/

I really like the texture of the yarns. I chose very soft, grey alpaca and black, rather more rough Icelandic wool, as well as merino wool to provide colour. I love the mixture of rough and soft wool/fibre and the mottled look. Both yarns contain sparkly fibre as well.

Trading Wire Bending Art

A while ago, I signed up at kreativtausch.de, a German community where people trade handmade items. I've already shown you a shawl pin I made and some of the glass beads I traded it for. Last week I saw some gorgeous-looking soaps I really wanted, and I was asked to make two bookmarks for the trade:



I really like the one with the skull ;-) I've been wanting to make a pair of earrings for myself using the bone skulls, and I hope I will find the time soon.

Today, my soaps arrived, and they don't only look gorgeous, they also smell wonderful!


I also agreed to a trade of two shawl pins for a lot of jam quite some time ago, and I finally managed to make the second pin:


The design was requested by my trading partner and I am glad I managed to accommodate her :-) I am really looking forward to the jams, they will fill a hole in our pantry ;-)

I also listed some yarns for trade, and I found some people who were willing to make some wonderful things for me - but I haven't received any of them yet, so I'll tell you about them some other time. Just let me say that I'm waiting for some handmade glass beads I'll need for a big project I'm planning for myself and which I'll tell you about soon.

Captain Jack Sparrow - the One and Only

I have spun a few yarns during the last two weeks or so, but somehow it took me ages to take photos (rainy days equal bad photo light) and I couldn't make time for blogging until now. I hope to post a few more photos soon, but for now let me show you one of my latest favourites.

It startet with a friend presenting me with a cloth-thingy. When I looked at it closely, I saw it was some Pirates of the Carribean merchandise, which - my friend told me - was given to the cinema where she used to work. Since nobody wanted it, she gave it to me to tear it apart and spin it into yarn! It's a copy of the kerchief (is this the right word?! Help, anyone!) Captain Jack Sparrow wears in one or more of the movies.


I spun strips of it into this yarn of handdyed alpaca fibre:

Sail with Captain Sparrow

I spun in black obsidian beads and dark peacock freshwater pearls as allusions to the Black Pearl.

I used an accompanying thread to create lots of texture, the coils representing the swirling ocean as well as the twisted personality of our dear Captain Sparrow.

The yarn is 97 m / 133 g and will hopefully be listed in the shop soon :-)