Shop of the Day!

We joined the Shop of the Day team on etsy recently, and today we've been selected as on of the shops of the day. To be honest, I seem not to have figured out the rules entirely, yet, but I'm getting there ;-)

Anyway, we're very happy to have been chosen and to receive special attention, and have decided to honour the occasion with a discount. Use SHOPOFTHEDAY as coupon code on checkout to get 10% off your order!

Here are some items of today's other shops of the day:

 

                                   1. Wedding Thank You Cards by SweetandSassyCards

                                   2. Rain by VoiceofColors

                                   3. Hand Crocheted Beanie by CrochetCanada

                                   4. Glorious Earrings by fantasydesign

The Swan and the Ocean

Quite a while ago, when talking about yarns, a customer of ours indicated the trailer of "Black Swan" to me, telling me to watch out for the scarf in about 0:40 min. I did, and though it's very difficult to see it clearly, I instantly liked the filigree look and have wanted to spin an art yarn inspired by this scarf ever since. Finally, I did:

The Swan

 

I spun the yarn from white lambs wool, and added many strips of white silk fabric, many narrow organza ribbons, and pieces of white eyelash yarn. This skein is full of stuff, and it's so gorgeous! Spinning it was very time consuming since I had to stop very frequently to spin in more ribbons, strips or eyelash - but it was well worth the time and effort :-)

***

I also spun another ocean yarn, I just love the colours and I love spinning in sea shells, so this is not the first and it won't be the last, either. Spinning many yarns related to one theme always results in naming difficulties, but I am sure I will find one. Right now, I am thinking of Sparkling Ocean or Sunlight on the Sea, since the golden thread I spun in looks just like that.

Apart from the sea shells, I added grey/peacock freshwater pearls and seafoam calcedony beads, as well as strips of heavy silk fabric. I love the contrasting colours and the summery look.

Have you Played yet?

I'm talking about Angry Birds, which is available for iPhone and Android. I enjoyed playing very much, it's a lot of fun. So I just had to make a treasury ;-)

 

 I love it! :-)

New Project: Yoga Socks

When our good friend and fellow spinner Fibre Piratess visited with us last week, she gave Twisted some hand knitted yoga socks. I was instantly taken with the idea, and I knew I had to knit a pair, too. I wanted to spin the yarn myself, rather than buying sock yarn (I always HAVE to spin the yarn, since I enjoy spinning even more than knitting), though I knew from the start this would be tedious work and I'd probably hate it in the end. The thing is, sock yarn should be far sturdier than any yarn you'd use for a scarf of a hat or things like that. One thing to ensure that is to use synthetic fibre, so I did - but I blended them with wool, silk, and bamboo. The next thing to ensure robustness is to ply the yarn instead of using it as a single. I decided on spinning really, really thin yarn and then trying the Navajo plying technique, which I never tried on the wheel before, though I practiced on the spindle some years ago. It went astonishingly well, I came to enjoy the plying more than the spinning, and I thought it to be quite meditative. The outcome: more than 150 m of threeply yarn, more than 80 g, still about fingering weight (15 wpi). It took me very, very long, but I finished it...

...and I also started knitting

I usually don't like synthetic fibre, but mixed with other fibres they're not so bad, and the yarn does feel quite good, stury yet still soft enough.

I think the first picture shows the colours best, at least on my monitor. I still haven't finished the first sock since I didn't really have much time this past week, but I am in no hurry :-) I modified the pattern I found on FibrePiratess's blog (which was in German, anyway), but I might try to post it when I'm done.

St Patrick's Day Lottery - Win a Set of Knitting Jewels

As another of our anniversary specials, we offer our customers the chance to win a full set of six handmade St. Patrick's Day stitch markers.

They are made of brightly green glass beads, orange and white seed beads, and silver plated wire, and they will fit needles up to 7.5 mm

They will help you keep track and they will adorn your knitting magnificently.


All you have to do is buy one or more yarns from our shop on St. Patrick's Day - 17th of March, Etsy time (EST), and we'll put your name in our lottery pot. If you buy one yarn, you'll be put in once, if you buy two yarns, we'll put your name in twice, and so on.

If you win, the stitch markers will be sent directly with your order.

Good Luck! :-)

Stop!

Actually, I wanted to tell you about some new stuff and a new project today - but I just don't feel like it.
I'm still shocked about the situation in Japan, and I'm switching between a news site and facebook, not being able to concentrate on much else. My heart goes out to all the people affected by recent events, and I hope with all my being that the rest of the world will draw the consequences. The thing is, I doubt it. And the fact that I have reasons to doubt it is just sad.

This Week's Favourites

I've been very busy spinning, and just wanted to show you my personal favourites of this week's work :-)

Scottish Punk

(the name might change before I list it, I am not totally convinced yet)

Flowers of Shadow

(same thing with the name)

I am way too tired for anything else, I had quite an exhausting week with lots of work, and an exhausting day with lots of fun and fresh air :-) We went looking for wild garlic in a nearby forest (and were more than successful), practiced archery in perfect weather, had Cream Tea at the Teahouse in Mannheim (complete with scones and sandwiches), went to the local crafts store, made pesto from the collected wild garlic, and ate far too much of it.. ;-)

Let's Do the Yarn Bomb Again!

I am relieved to say I have finally managed to go yarn bombing again. It's been too long, really, I had nearly forgotten how thrilling and how much fun yarn bombing was.

This is a fountain in the partly beautiful city of Erfurt, Germany. We spent our last weekend there, visiting with my sister-in-law. We had a great time craft store hopping, playing board games, and doing Etsy stuff :-) AND yarn bombing, of course ;-)

Blog Candy - WIN a Skein of Handspun Art Yarn!

It's March, it's 2011 - it's our three year anniversary! We want to celebrate with you and thank you for your support. So we chose to host another blog candy, this time a little more creative even than the last one.

Here is how you can participate:

1. write a post on your blog:

• add a link to this post, so others can find us, too
• add 3 inspirational photos to your post (why? See "The Prize ;-))

2. comment on this post: 

• add the link to your post (the one containing the link to us and the 3 photos)
• add your email adress, Ravelry name or Etsy name.
  If you chose to provide your Etsy or Ravelry name, please tell us where to look for you - we don't want to search all of the places you might be registered ;-)

PLEASE NOTE: this is not an either/or option, you'll have to do both 1. and 2. in order to be eligible for the lottery drawing!  

3. be patient and wait until March 31st, when we will draw the lucky winner

The PRIZE
The lucky winner will get a full skein of art yarn, spun especially for her or him! The colours or theme will be based on the 3 inspirational photos. So choose wisely! :-)
We will pay the shipping costs, of course.

Good luck to you all!

(This post will stay on top of the page until the end of the month, so watch out for new posts below this one ;-))

And All that I Can See...

...is just another lemon tree

(did I mention I received a delivery of new beads yesterday? I think I did *g*)

Busy Sunday

I might have mentioned that I am currently trying to spin one yarn per day, ever since I officially made our Etsy shop my part time job. Last sunday, I managed three! And I noticed how exhausting spinning can be. It's probably just like with everything else you do, even if it's fun, it gets straining after a while. Anyway, after spinning two yarns, I needed a break. My husband, who had been working the whole day, too, suggested a walk to clear our heads. We talked about yarn ideas, and about the difficulty I had with naming two of my yarns. Whenever I ask his advice/ideas about yarn names, he comes up with a bunch of ideas for new yarns, instead of a name for the yarn/s in question. But I don't mind, as I find it very inspiring :-)
On that day, I even had troubles to think of new creations, as my head was fuzzy from all the wool and silk I had spun ;-) My husband, on the other hand, had many ideas, one of which I implemented the instant we got back home:

What about a glacier yarn, in white and blues, and maybe with penguins?
Penguins? Where would I get them?  I'd have to make some and I'm not sure I can...
If you don't have any penguins, why not use black beads?
Hmmm... why not, indeed!

That's about how it went (as I remember it, anyway), and I was thrilled. I liked the idea of a yarn in light colours with solid black beads. And I do kind of like penguins, and ice, so that was perfect. And I had just a little amount of glow in the dark thread left, so I chose to spin a very bulky yarn with short yardage, and it turned out wonderfully, as you can see for yourself. It's now called Antarctic Glow; the yarn on the left is called Easter Egg Hunt, and the middle one is still without a name.

Yesterday, I received a delivery of beads, which gave me a whole lot of new possibilities and ideas, so stay tuned!