The Weird&Twisted Weblog

Winter Is Coming

2012-01-26T16:22:00.000+01:00

Some of you might be familiar with the fantasy epic A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. If you're not, you might be familiar with its TV adaption Game of Thrones, like me. And if you haven't heard of either, but like fantasy and don't mind a lot of blood and a certain brutality, you might want to follow the links to see whether it's something you'd like to read or watch ;-) It is very good, but it is also very, very intense (and brutal, that was no joke). I don't mind blood and murder too much (on TV!), but I have big problems watching sexualized violence, and it can't be denied that a certain amount is to be seen there. I was able to watch the whole first season, but I think this shouldn't go unmentioned.

But I don't intend to go into all this too deeply now, unless some of you would like to discuss things further. I am introducing all of this because of my new yarn, of course ;-)

One of the concepts of the epic is that "summers span decades and winters can last a lifetime," and now, Winter Is Coming! This is the title of the first episode, and also the motto of House Stark, the rulers of the north. The northern border is fortified by The Wall, a solid barrier of ice, 800 feet tall. Beyond the Wall, the White Walkers dwell: a supposedly mythological race who haven't been seen for thousands of years and are said to be extinct or never to have existed in the first place - but rumor has it they have returned.

Winter Is Coming

My new yarn comprises the coming winter, the terror of the White Walkers, the ice of the wall, and the grey that is prominent with House Stark in the TV show. It's made from a gorgeous blend of white fibres, a small amount of blue linen, and some shiny grey Gotland wool. I spun in white sewing thread to stress the snow/winter theme even more, and bone skull beads as well as round bone beads to represent the threat of the White Walkers and the deadly long winter itself.

257 m / 110 g, to be listed soon :-)

The Fairy Ring Hat

2012-01-18T21:09:00.000+01:00

Sheila of Fun Funky Fibres bought our Fairy Ring art yarn...

...and made this gorgeous hat from it:

She tells me she loved it so much she couldn't give it away, and she wore it all through the holidays. Now, that does make this spinner happy :-)

Music, Yarn, and Pirates

2012-01-17T12:09:00.000+01:00

Yesterday brought me new ideas and old songs: I don't know exactly how events/thoughts took their course, but I was thinking about spinning another pirate-y art yarn (I just love those!), inspired by a delivery of new bone skull beads. Suddenly, I had a nearly forgotten song in my head and the name for the yarn was clear:

Under Jolly Roger

Things fell into place quickly: I wanted ocean colours and white bamboo flakes (waves) as a base, and black silk strips to represent the pirate flag - and the skulls, of course, as they are also part of the flag, and therefore highly associated with pirates.

(sorry for the crappy pictures, I had to take it indoors, with artificial light and the colours are off)

I used more skull beads than I usually do, and I spun a highly textured art yarn from the batt shown above. It contains merino wools of dark blue and deep teal, hand dyed BFL/silk blend of a wonderfully intense dark turquoise, and white bamboo flakes. The black silk fabric strips make a great contrast. Here's a picture of the finished yarn in daylight, but since we don't get much light nowadays, it's still not as brilliant as it could be:

I still don't know whether I'll be able to part with this yarn, I am quite in love!
I also found another version of the song which I like a lot better than the one linked to above: Under Jolly Roger - by Therion.

Spring Has Sprung!

2012-01-14T18:20:00.000+01:00

...at least in the local home deco store. Otherwise, it's cold and somewhat grey and rainy (wish there was snow!), but I am very glad about the premature offer of spring deco, because the store now has some of my favourite ribbons available again:

There was also soft pink and lilac, but no light blue, which I would have liked to buy. Red, green and yellow are wonderful, though, and I do like the dots :-)

Something I also like is what Twisted gave me for Yul: a package of soft, brightly coloured, sparkling puff thingies. I alrady used a lot of them, and this yarn is my favourite:

Alien Frog Pond

The others were also a lot of fun to spin. There are three yarns so far featuring the whimsical puffs:

I have enough red ones for another yarn (at least I think so, I should check) and smaller blue and violet ones for another, so there will probably be two more quite soon.

Introducing: Trashy Tuesday

2012-01-10T13:23:00.000+01:00

Happy new year to you all, our dear readers, customers, and friends! :-)
I'd wanted to post a fireworks picture at the beginning of the new year, but I was too busy watching the fireworks and hugging my friends, so I forgot to take pictures... So, let me start with a regular post then.

Twisted and I have decided we need to spend more time together, which has become more difficult with increasing work. So we agreed on starting a tradition of Trashy Tuesday: each Tuesday (or at least nearly each one) we will meet, have coffee, work on crafty things, and watch a trashy movie together. Sounds good? We think so too :-) Trashy movie? you might ask - well, let me give you an example ;-)

Last week, we watched Robin Hood - Men in Tights. And not for the first time, I might add. In fact, we've got a kind of tradition already with this film, and it's the only one I really like to watch in German because I know the words. Let me show you one of my favourite scenes:

While this film is cheap and trashy, it's also quite witty, actually. There are some clever allusions, and (of course) side blows to the original film, Robin Hood - King of Thieves; like this one ;-)

I am currently thinking about spinning one or even several yarns based on this film. One idea would be Latrine's scrying soup of which, sadly, I found no video I could show you. Another one might be a general Robin Hood yarn, or something to do with Sherwood Forest, but I am still collecting inspiration.

Today it's Trashy Tuesday again - and we will watch Red Sonja, which I haven't seen yet. We also thought about watching King Arthur - with 32% on Rotten Tomatoes it should qualify as trashy enough ;-) Spaceballs and Dracula (Dead and Loving it) could be on the list, too, as well as Splitting Heirs or The Life of Brian - but we've already seen all of them. If you have any other suggestions for trashy movies, please leave a comment!

Advent Calendar made from Art Yarn

2011-12-27T12:27:00.000+01:00

I've seen many beautiful things made from art yarn, but I'd never seen art yarn made into an Advent calendar before one of our customers had the idea, ordered one of our Christmas art yarns and made the most beautiful calender from it :-) Let me show you!

Here is the art yarn Maria used:

Deck the Halls

The yarn was 129 m (141 yards) / 91 g (3,21 oz) / about 9-15 WPI, and Maria combined it with Louisa Harding Grace Silk&Wool #1 (Ecru) and #16 (Cranberry) to knit 24 wonderful little bags:

(it should be possible to click & enlarge - there's lots of detail :-))

Isn't this amazing? And now there's lots of time to plan and make one for next year ;-) (There is even one Christmas art yarn left in our shop, if you're interested)

I think the idea is genius, and Maria tells me her daughter really enjoyed opening the cute little bags each day - who wouldn't, though??

Maria, thank you so much for taking such wonderful pictures, and for allowing us to use them! :-)

Lametta, Soap, and Snickerdoodle Cookies

2011-12-18T21:24:00.000+01:00

I've so wanted to post a few Lametta photos, but I was in bed with a bad cold nearly all week. I don't have many pictures, but I'd like to show them to you anyway :-)

Did I mention we brought the spinning wheel with us? Here you can see Twisted in spinning action.

We didn't spin the whole time, but quite a lot, and there were always lots of children around, watching, and many adults, too. People were very interested in our yarns and asked many questions, and I for one was a little hoarse after two days. It was a wonderful experience, though! :-) We also brought some knitted and crocheted pieces made from art yarn, just to show people, not to sell. This was a really good idea since art yarns seem not to be that well known in Germany and many people couldn't imagine how things would look in the end, or what you can do with art yarn. Which reminds me: I've been working on a post about knitting with art yarn, which is getting rather large, and I hope I'll find the time to complete it soon.

Here is the stitch marker display which I already blogged about, along with some wonderful earrings Twisted made recently. They all contain art yarn or silk fibre, and some of them also feature beads.

This is one of the yarns I spun there, I've already taken photos and hope to list it soon. I'm a little behind with things due to my cold, but I think I might be able to list a few yarns some time next week. I also have a grey one with ribbons, pearls and labradorites, a pink and black one wiht skulls (these were the ones I spun live at the fair), and of course lots which I spun during the weeks before the fair. I am really looking forward to show them and to list them :-)

Here you can imagine rather than see some of the necklaces and neck rings Twisted made for the fair. It also shows the warm light and nice atmosphere of the fair, if just a little.

There are two more things I'd like to share with you: When I was in bed, miserable and sniffing, my day was brightened by the arrival of a parcel: My friend and trade partner Goodgirl sent me two soaps! :-) One was part of a trade from last year, and one she sent because she knew I liked it so much. I was so happy, I still am, as a matter of fact :-) The smell SO good!

The Ice Princess (on the right side) features a piece of yarn I spun for Goodgirl. I promised her two small skeins of scrap yarn and ended up with three because I couldn't decide with one of the themes - and this way I kind of made her invent a new soap, fitting the yarn. I love it :-)

And the last thing I wanted to share is this recipe for Snickerdoodle cookies, which I found on a blog and traced back to where they came from originally. My husband made them yesterday (I helped a little, but since I don't enjoy baking that much and he loves it, it was his project) and they are heavenly!

Lametta Craft Fair - We're SO Excited!

2011-12-09T10:53:00.000+01:00

We've been very busy spinning and labelling yarns these last days, Twisted has been experimenting with art yarn jewelry, and we also put up our booth yesterday. Here are some impressions, but I am afraid my mobile isn't good enough to take good photos in bad light conditions, so there will be some room for imagination ;-)

Nearly all our yarns - labelled, and sorted into price groups. We have 75 skeins - how amazing, we've really been busy these last few weeks!

After setting up our booth we felt there was something missing. Since Twisted is a genius, we now have a hand painted copy of our logo :-) I am glad we brought that paper table cover!

Isn't it amazing? Twisted only had a business card, no auxiliary lines, no preparatory drawing, nothing! I love how it turned out :-)

We only brought our red yarns yesterday since we didn't want to leave all our yarns there over night. We put up some beautiful branches of Chinese Willow so the table won't look so naked - I think it really does the trick.

And here's our still quite empty booth which will be filled with all our wonderful creations later today. The fair starts at 4 pm and we're so excited. Please wish us luck and success! :-)

Craft Fair Preparations

2011-12-05T15:37:00.000+01:00

The Lametta Craft Fair in Karlsruhe (Germany) is rapidly approaching - and we're up to our ears in preparations! We will be offering our handspun creations, of course, but also hand painted spindles (the making of which we scheduled for Thursday) and hand made stitch markers. I've been working on a good way of displaying them recently, and I finally finished the whole thing yesterday:

It was extremely frustrating to get the hooks into the display case. Some of the hooks were fairly easy to get in, but some others took ages and my hands ached all over afterwards. I still haven't figured out whether the wood was harder in some places than others or if some of the hooks were better than others (or if I was just clumsy sometimes), but it's done and that is what counts :-) Some of the hooks are askew, but all in all I am quite pleased with the whole thing.

I also spun lots of new yarns lately, and I still have quite a number to finish. The shop was going so well last month (THANK YOU, our wonderful customers! We love you! :-)) that we really have to restock. Here are my latest creations:

The photo is quite bad, but since I am in a hurry and there is not enough light outside for better photos, this will have to do for now. I am still in love with flower yarns and the ones with shells, as you can see :-)

Our shop will be closed on Friday and Saturday, by the way, since we're taking all our yarns with us to the fair. We don't know which ones will make it back into the shop, so if you happen to have your eyes on a particular yarn, now might be a good time to get it ;-)

What Became of...?

2011-12-04T16:37:00.000+01:00

A few days ago, we received an email which made us very happy: Max, who bought Twisted's Hawaiian Summer Party art yarn, sent us some pictures of what she made from the yarn, and kindly allowed us to share them with you all :-)

Here's a picture of the yarn, a beautiful corespun with 102 m (112 yards) / 106 g (3,74 oz) / 6-8 WPI

Max knitted it into a stunning hat for her daughter, who was actually the one to pick the yarn when she and Max browsed our shop:

Such beauties, both the hat and the girl! :-)

If you're interested, the pattern is the Rikke Hat by HappyKnits, and if you're on Ravelry, you can see more photos and details on the project here.

Max, thank you so much for sharing this, and for allowing us to share the photos with our readers! You made us very happy once again :-) And please do tell your daughter she looks fantastic and has great taste!

SALE! -- Black Friday through Cyber Monday

2011-11-25T09:21:00.003+01:00

Are you looking for special gifts? Or would you like to start a wonderful new project? Whether you're shopping for others or want to indulge yourself, now's the perfect time:

we have marked down all our items!

Either go directly to our shop where you'll see the sale prices (a click on a single item shows how much you'll save), or click on the picture in order to go to our Etsy On Sale page to see an overview of the old and new prices

Happy shopping! :-)

Necromantic Knitting

2011-11-23T15:16:00.000+01:00

A while back, I spun two versions of my Necromancer art yarn (one of which is still available in the shop), a thread-plied art yarn made from different kinds of black fibre, hand dyed wild silk, and bone skull beads, as well as other add-ins, varying with the two versions of the yarn. When I spun the basic yarn I thought this would look gorgeous as an unplied, single yarn as well, without add-ins, for a simple warm shawl. Since it's been a while since I spun anything for myself, I decided to do just that :-)

My husband and I spent our weekend with his family, celebrating his mother's birthday, and family reunions like that are usually a welcome opportunity for me to take out my knitting or my spindle. My sister-in-law has recently learned how to knit, too, so I even had company :-) I wanted a simple project I could take with me, so I decided to knit another shawl from the pattern I used for my Dark Atlantis shawl.

The beauty of this is: if you use stitch markers, you don't even have to count or pay much attention :-)

I made the stitch markers myself, of course. I made quite a lot for our upcoming crafts fair, and I keep thinking I should take photos and list them in the shop, along with our yarns. What do you think, dear customers? Would you be interested? :-)

By the way - there's also an art yarn in the shop which combines a wonderful single yarn like the one I just showed you (made from a very similar fibre blend, and containing the very last of the hand dyed wild silk) and the bone skull beads from the original necromancer art yarn:

Scathach

To be found here :-)

Awesome Art Yarn Cowl

2011-11-05T20:57:00.000+01:00

A while ago, I traded two skeins of custom art yarn for a whole box of wellness goodies, like soaps and bath bombs. Today I found a message from my wonderful trade partner Topaz, linking to the finished piece she knitted from my yarns - and she kindly allowed me to share the photos with you!

If you'd like to pay Topaz a visit, please go to http://vom-sonnenfels.blogspot.com/

And here's what I got - not only are the soaps and bath bombs amazing, but Topaz also made these wonderful wrappings/packages, so they are beautiful, too :-)

(sorry the photo is not so good, the light was bad that day, and I couldn't take another one because I had already started using these goodies ;-))

The Green Lady

2011-11-02T13:38:00.000+01:00

Our good friend and customer Pam of MagdaleneKnits has crocheted a stunning set of beautiful scarf and wrist warmers using the Green Lady art yarn we blogged about some time ago. We'd like to share pictures, of course :-)

This beautiful set is still available in Pam's shop, and you can also find all the details there.

Thank you so much again, Pam!

***

We really love to see what people make from our yarns, so if you have pictures to share, please email them to info at weirdandtwisted dot com!
We'd also like to know which name you'd like us to use (your real one or your nickname), what shop or blog you'd like us to link back to, and any other infos about the project you might want to share with us and our readers :-)

Winter Wedding Art Yarn

2011-10-26T09:58:00.000+02:00

I spun this yesterday, and I love the texture and the mostly-white-with-hints-of-colour :-)

It's a pity I don't have enough of these gorgeous cranberry freshwater pearls left to use in more yarns, they are so beautiful!

Christmas and Winter Art Yarns

2011-10-20T18:52:00.000+02:00

I finally surrendered to the thought that the time for spinning Halloween yarns is nearly over and that it's necessary to plan ahead and put some serious thought into Christmas and winter yarns. It's not been that hard these last few days, since the weather was really ugly and the winter mood started to kick in ;-) I realized this meant I could get out all my nice wite fibres, of which I have many different kinds, so I can take playing with texture to a whole new level. I also had some ideas for some darker yarns, so there will be a nice variety. Oh - and I also have some Halloween batts I MUST spin up, so there will also be a few more of those ;-)

Lametta

This one I made for a special occasion. As I said the other day, we'll be selling our yarns at a local craft fair called Lametta (=tinsel), shortly before Christmas. I thought it would be great to spin a small skein of Lametta yarn, knit it up and put a yarn graffiti up somewhere close to the fair, maybe even in or outside the building. This skein is already dry, so I can knit it up whenever I have some spare time.

Ice Flowers

I discovered an online sequins shop the other day, where I found my beloved snowflakes (see two photos below and some sold yarns from the shop), which I had nearly ran out of. I was so happy! They also had these blue, shimmering flower sequins and I decided to compose a yarn around them. I love all the different kinds of beads I spun into this one. The texture is heavenly, too - I've been playing around with coils and plied-looking parts with my latest creations, and I so love the look and haptics!

Holly Wood

Another art yarn composed around some of the lovely charms I bought from nicoledebruin on Etsy. I wanted a darker one this time, ended up with dark green, thought about the name (I just had to use someting with holly in it), grinned and added some brown and light green ;-) Also, lots of texture here.

Fresh Snow

My husband said I should name this one "Neuschnee" (the german word for fresh-fallen snow), but I haven't decided yet. This is another art yarn spun from a variegated fibre blend, and with lots of texture, too. These are the snowflake sequins I wrote about earlier. What I love about them (apart from their "obvious" beauty ;-p) is that they are thicker than normal sequins, so they are more impassable (hope this is the right word...).

I also spun a Ravenclaw/Harry Potter yarn, and some Strawberry Jam, but I haven't edited photos of these, yet. They will be listed soon, though :-)

The Colour Of Tea - Part II

2011-10-20T18:08:00.000+02:00

Anyone remember my tea dyeing experiment? I've been wanting to post photos ever since the yarns were dry, but the weather has been really bad for photos most of the time. I have decided to take some pictures now, just in case I won't get any good ones before spring - and should I be able to take better ones later on I'll post another set :-)

Lessons I learned from all this:

* tea smells a little weird when you put wool or goat hair in it
* I should have used more tea for more intense colours. When I complained about the wool being too light in colour, my husband asked "didn't you want camel colour?" :-D No, I really did want dark copper (AND he knew ;-)). Well, maybe next time. I like camels, though, maybe I'll name the dye lot after them. And the yarns are beautiful, as I realised once I got over my expectations.
* documenting things like this and blogging about them always takes longer than you might think - though it helps to do it right away and not postpone it to some other time. Thank you, blogger, for enabling me to start and save postings! :-)

New Banners, YAY!

2011-10-12T21:08:00.001+02:00

I'm sorry I still can't post any pictures of the tea-dyed yarns, it was so dark and grey these last days I couldn't take any photos. BUT I do have good news! The wonderful Twisted gave in to my complaints that I wanted a new banner, and we didn't stop after one, but made several :-) That is, she made them and I offered opinions ;-) We thought it would be nice to have banners according to season, so we started with a Halloween one:

I won't show you the others yet, so as not to spoil the surprise, we'll use them when the time is right.
Ahhh, I love the bat charms :-)

Good Things Come in Small Packages

2011-10-09T14:44:00.000+02:00

Have you ever sewed paper? I hadn't - until today. The possibility had never even crossed my mind before, but yesterday I found a tutorial on how to make colourful little paper gift pouches and I was hooked instantly. Wild imaginations of all the things I could do with this and all the kinds of forms and paper I could use nearly kept me from sleeping. The tutorial (which is in German and English, by the way) suggest printed scrapbooking paper, so I started looking for free downloadable paper as soon as possible. But I think newspaper (maybe Chinese or Arabian) would also look great, as would sheet music or simple brown packaging paper. For a start, I printed a few colourful papers and had a go - I love the results!

I am currently thinking of making enough of the open pouches to put the sets of stitch markers in I made for the "Lametta" market in December, so whenever I sell a set I'll have a pretty envelope handy. I also thought about giving away one free stitch marker per sold skein of yarn on the same market, and that's where the closed pouches (the ones from the tutorial) come in: simply make a few with a little note attached saying "thank you", put them in a basket and throw one in with every sold yarn; it makes the whole thing even more fun and who doesn't love a nice surprise? Now excuse me, I'm off to make more ;-)

The Colour Of Tea - Part I

2011-10-08T20:51:00.000+02:00

Quite some time ago, one of our friends from Authentic Fiction blogged about dyeing with black tea. I loved the colours and thought about trying this myself, but somehow I never got around to it. Today I received my copy of "Harvesting Color" by Rebecca Burgess, and I SO felt like trying out some plant dyes! I don't know whether I will keep the book, as some or maybe even many of the plants can't be found where I live (the book is really beautiful, though!), and when I looked at my supplies I returned to a German dyeing book for the recipies. As it turned out, all the leaves I could use would have to be soaked over night, so I desperately thought about what else I could use and the tea came back to mind. I've had a huge package of black tea for ages, and it wasn't that tasty in the first place (I used small amounts for my henna hair dyeing sessions, but 500 g do go a long way), so I decided to have a go.

I had previously (one or two years ago) spun some white fibre into yarns I wanted to dye - so you can see how long it can take me sometimes to actually realize my plans ;-) It took me a while to sort through the yarns and to label them. I put the details on pieces of paper, laminated them, and fixed the info to the yarns with thread, so I won't have difficulties knowing which is which after the dyeing process. I have lambs wool, a gorgeous blend of kid mohair and bluefaced leicester wool, merino/bamboo blend, and bluefaced leicester wool on its own. 7 skeins altogether.

I decided on using the dye bath twice, first with 300 g of yarn, and then again with about 200 g. I googled about dyeing with tea, found this blog entry (and the one by Authentic Fiction already linked to above) and some reference in German. I decided to just experiment with the amount of tea I needed. I took out my sewing machine and made a very simple bag which I filled with about 150 g of black tea.

I stitched it up, and now I had my very own, handmade tea bag ;-)

I put the tea into hot water, and I think I let it boil for about 20-30 minutes. Then I turned off the stove and let the dye bath sit for a while because I had other things to do

After about an hour, I put my first four skeins into the dye bath, without washing or even dampening them first. They didn't need to be washed because the fibres I used were commercially processed and thus without any grease or plant matter or anything.

I plan to simmer the whole lot for about an hour (which is nearly over, since I've taken my time writing all this) and then removing the yarns and putting the second lot in for another hour. I am so curious how the yarns will turn out, I do hope to get some gorgeous copper, though I am afraid they will be just brownish... We'll see :-) I'll take photos of the finished yarns when they are dry and when there is more suitable light.

Christmas is not as far away as you might think

2011-10-05T11:11:00.000+02:00

It's been weeks since I read on Etsy that sellers should already prepare for Christmas, and start making Christmas items. I was somewhat reluctant to start that early, especially since I always have more ideas for Halloween art yarns - but I thought it might be time to start, after all. Sooo - here's my first Christmas yarn for this year:

I love the holly charms (which I purchased from nicoledebruin on Etsy) and was looking forward to using them, anyway ;-) I hope to list this one soon, but I need more light to take better photos.

Creative Chaos

2011-10-02T12:51:00.000+02:00

Are you running out of time, too? A few weeks ago I realized that Halloween wasn't that far away, and Etsy already advised to plan the Christmas stuff. Today, I realized it's already Octobre and I haven't even managed to put all my Halloween plans (yarnwise) into action. Sooo, there's still a lot to do, especially since I didn't do much over the last two weeks. My husband is on leave and we've been enjoying having more time together, and I've also jumped at the opportunity to take some time off, myself - and I got some knitting done :-) Haven't managed to take photos yet, though.

As for the Christmas plans, I thought about offering some gift sets again (of art yarn, project bag, and stitch markers), and I ordered some beautiful brocade fabric over a month ago. I thought it was lost since it take that long to be delivered, but it finally arrived a few days ago - aren't these beautiful?

I've never worked with brocade, and when I found these beautiful pieces I just couldn't resist. I've also got some tafetta left from the last years, so there should be enough for a wider variety in the gift sets - now all I need is time ;-) Speaking of which, yesterday I finally took some time to make stitch markers while watching the last few episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which I didn't watch when I was younger, and when I heard the show was interesting from a feminist/emancipatory point of view I decided to catch up :-))

When I had unpacked all my stuff, I realized there was not that much silver wire left, so I went out to get some - need I say that was a waste of time? What's the use of extreme opening hours when the shops don't have what I need? *gnaaa* ;-) It's not that I didn't have anything left to work with, I just wanted to be on the safe side and prepare for excessive stitch marker making. Not that there was too much time left after my excursion and dinner and all that, but I did make five sets:

I especially love the pumpkin stitch markers, and I don't know if I can part with them. I probably will, though. These were harder to make because they have a loop instead of a hole. This means I have to use a different technique for securing the wire and that's still a challenge - but I am proud to say it worked :-)

Oh, and I have some great news :-) We have been accepted to the "Lametta"(which translates as tinsel), an all handmade bazaar which will take place in Karlsruhe/Germany shortly before Christmas (here's the link, but it's all in German). I heard there were a lot of aplicants, but I understand that we were among the first to get accepted - YAY! We're so looking forward to the event, but this means I really have to spin more yarn and make more stitch markers. So excuse me, I'm off to more creative chaos! :-)

Fighting for every Click?

2011-09-16T18:43:00.000+02:00

As mentioned before, I have been playing around with new descriptive (and very unaesthetic) titles owing to the new search mode on Etsy (relevancy search). I can't say yet how it affects our sales - they've been fewer than before the summer, but then, summer is not exactly knitting time and we were on holiday and didn't put any work into the shop, so there might be several reasons for fewer sales. I have noticed some things, though:

1. The views rate is down, and very much so. I was used to about 15 to 25 views shortly after listing an item and posting it on Facebook and Twitter. Then, after a short leave of absence due to health reasons, that suddenly didn't work anymore. There were only very few clicks and I thought it had something to do with Facebook or Twitter, or maybe our fans and followers felt I posted too much and didn't click anymore. When I read about the new search mode, it slowly dawned on me that it might have something to do with that. I'm not completely sure because I noticed the news quite late and don't know when the search mode was changed, but I think it seems plausible to link the fewer views to exactly that.

2. The hearts/views ratio has definetely gone up! Maybe it's just luck and my latest creations are generally popular - but maybe it's because the new search mode is actually a good thing and the people who click are the people who have looked for something like the item in question. So who needs "empty" clicks when we can get exactly the people who are interested in our creations?

3. I still don't get the new titles. I changed some (not all, yet), but they are not necessarily the ones that pop up first in the search. It's still a mystery to me, but then I haven't read all the info yet because I've been writing on my thesis like mad - about eight hours a day during the last few days, and then some additional work on the shop...

What do you think? How have the changes been affecting you, have you found a good way around the problems yet? I'd really like to hear from others experiencing the same difficulties!

Since my husband will be on leave for the next two weeks I have decided to take some leave, too. Not entirely, but I won'd do anything to stress me. If I feel like writing on my thesis, I will do so, but if I don't I won't feel bad. I will put some work into the shop, though, because I really want to :-) So, hopefully I'll also have some time to read my way through the guides and infos about the relevancy search and maybe I can tweak the titles some more. Oh - and I hope to post some pictures, it's been quiet on the blog lately.

Etsy Search Relevancy

2011-09-02T14:42:00.001+02:00

If you're on Etsy, you've probably heard they changed the search sorting to relevancy rather than listing time. This might seem good and resonable at first sight, and I think it might actually be good and resonable for shoppers, and that's what counts. For shop owners, there are some huge changes to be kept in mind, though.

Titles are more important than they used to be, and I get the feeling that tags are not that important anymore. I've read that you should focus on the first 2-3 words of your title and kind of optimize it for the search. In our case, this means we shouldn't use our title format any longer, since it consisted of
[Name of the yarn] - Handspun Art yarn [with whatever it contains]. The name is irrelevant for the search in many cases, so there should be a description instead.

I am currently trying to play around with the titles, and I've also peeked into the Etsy forums a little, to see what titles are supposed to work best. To be honest, I think they are now absolutely appaling. I like clear format and words, I hate to put the tags in the title, and that's exactly what it seems like. Now, a yarn that I'd usually have listed under "Polyjuice Potion - Handspun Harry Potter Art yarn" looks like this: "Harry Potter Art Yarn POLYJUICE POTION. Handspun, Halloween, Blue, Turquoise, Purple, Dusky Pink, Merino, Hand Dyed Silk, Upcycled Sari Silk". Sorry, but I think that's really very close to disgusting.
Maybe I didn't get it right, I will definitively have to find out more and play around a little more. I will try this because I need to sell my creations, but I will keep an eye on how good this works. If I don't think it makes much difference, I will go back to clear titles without a string of rather incoherent words.

What do you think about the changes? Good or bad? Any strategies? Have I even got it right? Still adjusting, here... Thanks for your input :-)

Batwoman and The Necromancer go Mushroom Hunting ;-)

2011-08-26T19:03:00.000+02:00

I've been very busy and I want to show you some of my latest creations. Since Woollybits wanted to see the Necromancer yarn, I'll oblige :-) I don't want to spam you with all the yarns I've spun recently, so I'll just show you the Necromancer and two of those I haven't taken enough photos of for the shop. The rest will be listed quite soon since I've taken photos today. So, if you want to see more, you know where to look ;-)

The Necromancer

Perfect for Halloween! Black fibre blend with some hand dyed wild silk of an eerie blue, threadply, containing bone skull beads and silver bone charms.

Batwoman

I got Batwoman Elegy for Christmas, and when I saw the bronze-toned bat charms on my last online charms shopping tour I knew I had to spin a batwoman art yarn. If you're a comic book fan and don't know Batwoman Elegy yet - go for it! ;-)

Mushroom Hunting

Twisted is an expert on mushrooms. She always longs for the fall when we can finally go hunting again. I love going with her, although I am mostly clueless. My job is finding any mushrooms/toadstools and then yelling for Twisted to come identify them ;-) Anyway, I love mushrooms, and I just had to spin this yarn in honour of our last hunt when we found some of the most delicious ones I've ever tasted :-)

The Bats are Coming!

2011-08-23T17:19:00.000+02:00

Halloween is approaching, and I turned that fact into an excuse to order many, many charms ;-) Some of them I found on Ebay, and some I ordered from nicoledebruin on Etsy. I can't wait to spin them all into yarns *g* I already started with some bats, as you can see here:

The Batcave

I love the colour combination of the dark and mysterious black, the stone grey and the eerie blue/teal. The silver bats fit right in, and I think this will make a gorgeous piece for any comic fan or bat lover :-)

I also ordered some golden bats, and I plan on making a Batwoman yarn. I already blended the fibres, so I'll start this some time soon.

I have many more ideas, some of which I already started to put into action. I spun a Necromancer yarn with skulls and bones in it, and a Polyjuice Potion yarn. I already carded many batts for more yarns, so keep your eyes open! :-)

Back Home - and Back in Business :-)

2011-08-18T15:36:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone, I hope you have been well.
We're back from our vacation and our shop is open again :-)

We had the most wonderful time with our friends in Bavaria. They have real mountains there! Somehow, that's still worth mentioning for me, coming from the flat north of Germany. We went on walking tours, played board games, went mushroom hunting, made delicious dishes from the edible mushrooms we found, went to a beautiful moor, and to a lake in the mountains. I didn't get as much knitting done as I thought I would, but I started to make a ninja from the Creepy Cute Crochet book. I'm nearly done, I only still having troubles with the throwing star, though. Maybe I'll make one from polymer clay instead of crocheting one from silver thread.

I'm still getting used to being back home and back to work, but I already took photos of my latest art yarns which I spun before our vacation, and I carded some batts today. There will be new yarns in the shop soon :-)

Need Yarn Before We Close?

2011-08-01T19:10:00.000+02:00

We will close the shop for a short vacation, and we're offering a sale for the remaining days before that.

So, if you're in need for some gorgeous yarn, order quickly before the 5th of August and use this coupon code to get 10% off:
QUICKANDDIRRRTY2011

The Weird&Twisted shop will be closed from the 5th until the 17th of August.
Have a wonderful time, everyone, see you when we get back :-)

Crafting Like Mad

2011-08-01T11:05:00.000+02:00

I am now officially addicted. I never thought I'd like crocheting that much, but the book and crazy cute Cthulhu really helped ;-) I made the skeleton bride and groom last week, which was a lot of fun.

We went to my husband's family on Friday, to celebrate the birthday of my father-in-law. The whole family is already used to me crafting, I had brought spindles, my knitting, and even my spinning wheel in the past, so a little crocheting didn't even cause surprised looks ;-) My sisters (in-law) are always interested in what I'm doing, and they really liked my version of Bellatrix Lestrange:

I think it took me two or maybe three hours to make her, but I'm not completely sure. I used bits and pieces from several creatures of the book, and I love the outcome :-) Bella now resides in the place of honour in front of our Harry Potter DVDs.

My husband and I also went to a concert on the weekend - our first after many long years, and one of my birthday presents. It was great :-)

Metal with medieval elements/instruments by the German bands Schandmaul and In Extremo - the former of whom were much more fun and likeable, though I like the music of the latter somewhat more... My muscles ached from dancing yesterday, because I can never stand still when I'm at a concert. So we spent the day on the couch, watching the new episode of Torchwood, and searching for a new game to play on the PS3. We've long wanted something like Diablo, with local multiplayer options - and we found two games: Dungeon Hunter Alliance and Dungeon Siege III. We played a little of the trial version of the latter, but since it wasn't available at the playstation store, we decided on buying Dungeon Hunter Alliance. After some hindrances in the form of a new credit card, a forgotten password and a failing internet connection at the worst possible moment we even played a little, and I think I like it :-) Looking forward to playing again tonight, but first I have to work on my thesis, spin a yarn, take some orders to the post office and so on.

Cthulhu: Done!

2011-07-27T11:52:00.000+02:00

The wings were a challenge, but the videos did help ;-)

My husband liked lil' Cthulhu so much I gave it to him to take with him to work. I am still happy, amused and slightly astonished at how much he loves these creatures and at the fact that we'll indeed have a crazy christmas tree - given that I'll be able to make enough ninjas, cthulhus, vampires, knights, valkyries and whatever else until then. I've already spun some white and some black yarn for the skeleton couple *g*

Cute Lil Cthulhu

2011-07-25T19:09:00.002+02:00

Last week, I ordered "Creepy Cute Crochet", which had been sitting on my Amazon wish list for a long time. I started on crazy cute Cthulhu right away, and quickly realized I really had no idea about crochet. I mean, I have been able to make chain stitches and single crochets ever since school, but everything else was just a vage kind of "oh yeah, I've heard of such a thing". I am so glad there are useful videos on Youtube, teaching me what I had to know :-)
The wings were quite a challenge, but today I discovered the author provided help videos on them, so I'll try again later, hopefully with more success. There are also free expansion patterns on the author's website, and I was delighted to discover a Viking and The Valkyrie. But for now, I'll stick to Cthulhu here, can't have him wandering about without wings or eyes (the arms are now done, at least). The next thing I want to make is the Skeleton Bride and Groom, they are so cute!
My wonderful husband consented to a Christmas tree decoration of skeletons, ninjas, cthulhus and whatever else I'll make from the book. NOW I'm looking forward to Christmas! :-D

Oh, and I also went yarn bombing again, this time in a beautiful little place called Dilsberg. We went there for coffee and a walk with my dad who visited with us for a few days. Installing the graffiti was quite funny since there was a group of little girls coming around the corner who were curious and a little sassy. They asked what it was, if I was allowed to install it and so on - but they consented that no one else asks if they can spray graffitis on the walls, and that a yarn bomb is easily removable should anyone really hate it.

I also found some colourful flowers on our walk. It was a great day :-)

The Skull Scarf

2011-07-10T18:47:00.000+02:00

I had looked forward to the Tour de Fleece so much - but since I have had some problems with stress and inner pressure lately, I have decided to drop out. I was on sick leave last week and didn't even feel up to spinning, so I took the yarn I spun on day 2 and knitted it up. Sitting on the sofa, watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer (which I somehow missed when I was young, so I felt I had to close that gap in education ;-)) and knitting did me good and I feel much better now :-)

(please click for a larger version!)

I love how the scarf turned out, and I'm looking forward to giving it to a friend as a birthday present. In fact, this wasn't the only thing I knitted last week. I made a hat and a pair of wrist warmers from a skein of beautiful corespun art yarn I had spun for myself quite a long time ago, and I started the Tempest Cowl (using my own handspun lace yarn in teals and a little blue, black and bright turquoise), aaaand I made two dice bags, also intended as presents. Oh - and the reason I was finally able to knit again and to have fun doing it, is that I *finally* finished the Scarf of Horror about two or three weeks ago. Now I am free to knit things for myself, and I am so happy about it! Now the only thing I have to do is take some decent photos to show you what I've done :-)

It really felt good to sit around, watch cheap TV shows, and do nothing "useful" for once. Being self-employed it turns out I have some problems integrating breaks into my daily routine, so this last week was a kind of enforced and very necessary holiday. And you know what? I am now looking forward to working again - but I'll try to reduce the inner pressure.

I hope you are all well :-)

Four Cowls made from Art Yarn

2011-07-09T19:28:00.000+02:00

A while ago, a fellow Etsyian purchased some of our yarns, all of which she made into beautiful cowls - see for yourself!

You can find these stunning pieces at iWunder's Etsy shop.

When she purchased the yarns, iWunder told us she remembered us from the Etsy chat - from years ago! This really made us happy :-)

Thank you for the permission to use the photos, iWunder - and for remembering us!

Feature - Tour de Fleece - Halloween

2011-07-03T19:24:00.000+02:00

There's quite a lot of news :-) First of all, we're very proud and happy to have been chosen for a feature on My Day is Friday. We documented one of our days for you, complete with text and photos, which you can read and look at here. Morrgan, thank you so much for the opportunity, we had lots of fun documenting! :-)

Last week, I had a new idea for Halloween ghosts, so I prepared them and spun them into a yarn. There's gorgeous black and violet fibre in it, as well as some glow in the dark fibre, and - of course - the little cloth ghosts. Here's a quick peek until I can take better photos:

Halloween is still a while off, but I just love creating new Halloween yarns, and I think you can never start too early ;-)

Then, there's the Tour de Fleece which started yesterday. Since I've been feeling a little under the weather lately, I didn't spin yesterday and I might not be able to participate every day, but I will try. Today, I spun a yarn which I'll be knitting into a scarf for a good friend:

And now, I'm off to watch the rest of today's game of the Women's World Cup. By the way - do any of you follow the WWC?

Snape and the Pirate

2011-06-30T16:50:00.001+02:00

Hi everyone, it's been quiet here on the blog for a while now. I've had so much to do I was hardly able to keep up with it all (well, *not* able to keep up with it all, as my absence here shows), but I've wanted to show you two finished pieces by one of our customers for so long now, and now I finally can:

Severus Snape

Heather combined our Snape art yarn with mohair and made this stunning hood. She let her daughter wear it for the photoshooting, and she told us

"I can't wait for cold weather to see the silk fluttering in the wind!"

What a wonderful thought! :-)

A Pirate's Life for Me

What a gorgeous piece, and how fitting for the pirate yarn! Here's what Heather says:

"I added a little bit of a gray and black yarn at the top that had long locks spun into it that matched your yarn perfectly! This is the link to the pattern I used: www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hole-y-triangle-scarf
It's a great pattern to use for this type of yarn, I think it really shows the textures and the add ins!"

You can find Heather as ThePinkPirate on Etsy, or visit her blog. Heather, thank you so much again for the pictures!

About Inspiration, Lost Opportunities and Comic Books

2011-06-16T12:08:00.000+02:00

A few days ago, I rediscovered a number of silver bells in one of my yarn add-ins drawers. I had wanted to spin another joker/jester art yarn for a while, so this came at the right moment. My first jester art yarn was among the first art yarns I ever spun, and I liked the idea of coming back to the general concept and creating something completely different this time. I chose red, green, and black fibres, carded them up into a gorgeous batt, and spun it into 220 m of wonderful art yarn, adding the bells and some eyelash yarn, as well as black glittery thread.

Midnight Joker

Shortly afterwards, I suddenly realized the bells would have been great for a Harley Quinn art yarn, as well. As I mentioned before, I love comic books (and graphic novels), and though I am fairly new to the "classic" comic universes (having started my adult comic book life with Hellboy and The Sandman), I have some general knowledge about a few of the characters (and Wikipedia always helps ;-)). I watched the (admittedly rather cheap and predictable) Birds of Prey TV show recently, so that's probably why Harley Quinn popped into my mind. Anyway - I have only six bells left now, and that's not enough for a yarn. But I already carded up some fibres and will search for more bells as soon as possible. I might even have a few more, though different-looking ones, and I will have to think about whether using different bells would be a good thing or not.

Speaking of comics and the "classic" universes, look what arrived today: The DC Comics Encyclopedia.

Just look at the size of this book! My foot (large-ish standard foot, I like to think ;-) German size 40/41) looks tiny beside it. I had no idea this was so huge when I ordered it, and I am so happy :-) Now I have a means to learn about all those characters, maybe choose the next comic book to read, and find some inspirations for new art yarns at the same time. The inspiration part was the main factor for ordering this book, actually. Ahhh, I already love it!

Orc Camp

2011-06-08T16:20:00.000+02:00

Remember my plans for an Orc Camp art yarn? It was complicated and took me quite a while what with all the searching for the right fabric, and the making of wire spirals - but it's done :-)
It's very ragged, which I love, but which I find far more difficult to accomplish than smooth yarn - and it's also got a lot to do with the choice of materials. Locks and highly textured fibre are more suitable than the average fine merino wool.

The batt I carded for this yarn consisted of spanish merino wool of natural dark brown, naturally brown Icelandic wool with locks and lots of texture, some white bluefaced leicester wool, wensleydale locks, light brown alpaca, and merino wool of rusty red. I also added copper angelina, because this kind of glitter seemed fitting even for orcs ;-)
I spun in different kinds of bone beads: smooth whitish ones, dark disks, and white skulls. I also added hand made copper spirals, and strips of cotton fabric.

Pirates or Football?

2011-06-07T23:52:00.000+02:00

Last week, my husband and I spent a few days in Hamburg. I used to live there, and my family still does, so we visited with my mother and went out to lunch with her, my dad and my gran, whom I hadn't seen in two years. She is too old to come to Heidelberg, and last year we didn't manage to go to Hamburg, so that was quite a long time. It was nice to catch up, and we had a good time and good food. My gran is always interested in my spinning and the shop, and I like talking about yarn any time ;-)

On Saturday, my husband and I went into the city, did some shopping, met a colleague of his, spent some time at the Alster, and then went to the Gateway of the World - the port of Hamburg. I brought a graffiti which I had made a long time ago and saved for a special place. This was it! After all, this was a pirate graffiti and the famous pirate Klaus Störtebeker was beheaded in the port of Hamburg, it just seemed to fit.

The thing is, Hamburg's football club FC St. Pauli has a skull and crossbones in their logo, and some people just can't tell the difference between football and pirates :-P When I installed the graffiti, there was a group of people coming past, and I heard them say something like "oh, a St. Pauli fan". I just ignored them, and thought of proper pirates, rum, and lots of treasure ;-)

Poison Ivy

2011-05-30T15:16:00.003+02:00

Are there any knitting comic book fans out there? ;-)
Here's my latest creation, modelled after the well known super villain Poison Ivy from the DC universe:

I used hand carded blend of black and green fibres (the green is hand dyed wool/silk blend of intense colour, my last bit!), added red mohair clouds, some kind of probably textile ivy leaves, glass leaves and glass beads - and bright green glow in the dark thread. Sadly, it's not as bright as the variety I had before, but it will still emit a faint glow after having been charged with light.

Speaking of comic books - what are your favourites? Mine are The Sandman, Hellboy, The Unwritten, The Unknown, House of Mystery, and Courtney Crumrin. I also loved Batwoman Elegy. I'm always looking for new (at least new for me) excellent comic books, so if you have any recommendations, they would certainly be welcome! :-)

... been hunting

2011-05-27T14:48:00.000+02:00

A few days ago, I had an idea. Actually, it might have started even earlier, after spinning the latest skull yarn. I thought it would be great to spin an orc camp art yarn, with skulls, bone beads, maybe some rusty stuff, copper wire things, some kind of rags...
I have the skulls, I still have some gorgeous bone beads, I have no idea where to get rusty stuff right now, but I will certainly be able to play around with copper wire and make some strange things to spin into the yarn.
The rags kept me thinking, though. I'd still want the yarn to be soft enough for usage, so really rough materials are out of the question, I thought maybe linen or cotton would be fine - but where to get it? We are not exactly blessed with places that sell fabric, and there's not much variety there. I remembered to have bought some cotton scarves a few years ago, and I also remembered there was a wide variety of colours then. I also knew the shop I bought these scarves from no longer existed. So, I went hunting. I combed through the whole city (well, nearly), and I am very happy to say I was very lucky - I found a shop that still sells these cotton scarves for a reasonable price, and they had a brown one, too. The orc camp yarn will soon come into existence ;-)

The good thing about having to search nearly the entire city were some other nice things I found and was able to buy ;-) There's a book about mermaids, which is a children's book, but I like the style and I wanted it for yarn inspirations. After all, I've always liked spinning ocean themed art yarns and I am bound to be running out of names and themes, so this book will hopefully prove to be very useful :-)
I also bought some more of the leaves ribbon I have used in several yarns, but I tried to go for some different colours this time. I want to spin thin, light summer art yarns, and I think white, yellow and light blue/turquoise will be perfect for that kind of project :-)

I've been very busy with my other job these past two weeks, but I did manage to get some spinning done, and I was finally able to take photos of my latest creations yesterday. So, there will be some new yarns in the shop quite soon, I hope :-)

Skulls in the Desert

2011-05-19T16:26:00.000+02:00

The other day, I ordered new bone skull beads on ebay, and they arrived fairly quickly.

They are a little more abstract than the ones I used previously (like in this yarn, or this bookmark), but they are also smaller and therefore suitable to use in thinner yarns. Like the one I spun a few days ago:

It also contains small, sparkly seed beads of brown and honey, and I fixed the skulls with coils. I love the colours, I should experiment more with nature/earth tones :-)

Spinning in the skulls was so much fun, I have to stop myself from spinning a lot more skull yarns right away - it would be a little boring if every listing contained the same beads, after all. So, I'll spin some different yarns first, and then return to my beloved skulls ;-)

Head in the Clouds

2011-05-16T15:14:00.000+02:00

Last weekend, I was really in the mood for some sky/cloud related yarns - and here are my latest creations :-)

Head in the Clouds

Softest merino wool of light blue, some yellow linen, and just a hint of turquoise merino are the basis for this beauty, which is rounded off with coils of soft white lambs wool. I love the colours, and I always love coils :-)

Cloud Nine

This soft and highly textured art yarn is another so called corespun yarn: instead of being twisted, the fibre is spun around a core thread, which results in this unique, wonderful, and lofty texture. A cloud if ever I saw one :-) I used naturally white Bluefaced Leicester wool (I LOVE that fibre, so soft and gorgeous!), some white linen, shiny white bamboo flakes, and shiny white tencel - oh, and some white angelina. I thought of keeping this one, but white really isn't my colour, so I'll list it some time next week.

Newgrange Art Yarn

2011-05-08T23:32:00.000+02:00

Newgrange

In September 2009, my husband and I went to Ireland for our honeymoon. Some of you might remember that I study archaeology, so you won't be surprised by my I really wanting to visit some of the archaeological monuments. We went to Boyne Valley in order to visit some of the sites there. There's Dowth, which I knew from a previous visit - it's just a hill with a fenced-off entrance, but still nice and somehow peaceful. Since there's not that much to see, there are not many tourists there, or at least there weren't when I visited the site in 2007. We didn't go there this time, though, but decided to visit only the monuments I hadn't seen yet. There's Knowth and Newgrange. You have to book a tour in order to be able to enter the Newgrange chamber, so we did.

Knowth

We had to use the bus, though we'd much rather walked there, but that was not possible with the tour (strict time table). It was worth it, though. I knew both Knowth and Newgrange from books, pictures and seminars, and I was so eager to finally go and visit them. I loved being there, and the Newgrange chamber is really impressive, as are the Knowth tombs (though they were enforced with concrete after the excavations). The fassade of the Newgrange passage tomb was reconstructed after the excavation, there's no evidence of it ever having looked like this, but it's still impressive - and it's also impressively visible from quite a distance. The vaulted roof of the chamber itself is still intact, which is absolutely stunning - just think about the fact that it's still airtight after about 5000 years!

All of the sites are very important when it comes to megalithic art. There's all sorts of abstract forms, the spiral being quite prominent among other forms.

There's a lot of esoteric interpretation going on about all the sites in Boyne Valley, and I can't really get into all that here - but if you'd like to read up on any of the monuments, just keep in mind that not every "fact" is really a fact, but some of the conclusions and so called evidence could be challenged.

The other day, I thought back on our wonderful honeymoon and the Boyne Valley, and I decided to spin a Newgrange art yarn. I spent over an hour with stubborn brass wire and - with time, effort, and admittedly some swearing - I made 12 beautiful brass spirals to spin into the yarn. My hands ached afterwards (the wire was thicker than the one I previously worked with), but I love the outcome. Each of the spirals is not only hand bent, but also hammered flat.
I also decided on beautiful shell/mother of pearl beads as add-ins, since people in the stone age used (a specific kind of) shells as ornaments and jewelry. The brass spirals are not authentic in any way, the people of the neolithic period (new stone age) didn't have brass or gold, but I thought it would look wonderful with the white and green fibres, and I really wanted the spirals since they are so prominent among the megalithic art :-)

But enough talk now - have a look at the yarn! :-)

I spun the yarn from white lambs wool, merino wool of different shades of green, bamboo flakes, and bright green linen. Then there's the beads and spirals, of course, and green sewing thread to carry them all.
157 m / 99 g, about 9-14 WPI.

Special Feature - Tales of the Firefly

2011-05-05T15:59:00.009+02:00

A few months ago, my husband and I suggested to my sister-in-law that she open her own Etsy shop. She had been making beautiful chains of lights for some time and we thought it would be great for her to spread the beauty around the world :-) It was not that hard to convince her; actually, she was hooked nearly straight away. She and I met in order to set up the shop, to try out how to photograph the items, and to design the banner, avatar and business cards. I was involved a lot (I wouldn't have wanted it any other way), and I love what she does, so I really want to tell you more about it!

Tales of the Firefly

Eisprinzessin - Ice Princess

The Firefly takes ordinary, plain chains of lights and transforms them - almost magically - into stunning works of art. They create a beautiful atmosphere when they are switched on in the dark, but that's not all: they are also beautiful decoration in daylight.

Bride's Pride

Not only are they equipped with flowery-looking lamp shades, but the Firefly also lovingly adorns every chain with beads, bast, ribbons, charms, or anything else that fits the theme. This is hard work, since the wrapping and beading is done by hand, of course. I have seen her beading wire for some of the lights, and she recently counted the beads on one of them - she put well over two thousand (!) seed beads on about 3 m of wire for a single chain. Imagine all the time and effort!

l'aubergine

When she can't find enough decorational items to match a theme, the Firefly doesn't hesitate to create her own: look at these little aubergines made from seed beads!

This chain is wrapped with green bast, making the aubergines and the purple lamp shades stand out even more.

To be perfectly honest, I have wondered recently whether art yarn would make good wrapping material for these chains ;-)

The lamp shades are made of colourful paper. The Firefly carefully lubricates it with oil before cutting it and folding every single lamp shade by hand.
The oil is necessary because otherwise the paper won't really let the light shine through. The firefly has already blogged about this, with pictures and all. Go over there and have a look if you're interested! :-)

The Firefly opened her shop in February and has been working hard ever since in order to fill it with her beautiful creations. You might be able to imagine how long it takes to make even one chain of lights, with all the wrapping, oiling, folding and beading. There is already quite a variety of colours and themes, ranging from fairy tales to garden and nature. And there will be many more, of course! :-)

Maybe you're wondering whether you'll be able to use the chains of lights outside continental Europe? Don't worry - the Firefly has thought about everything and will provide you with a free adaptor for the plug if you're in a different country! Just let her know you need one when you order.

Now, I am sure you'd like to know where you can find the Firefly and her beautiful work?
Visit her shop on Etsy: talesofthefirefly.etsy.com - use coupon code 20117 on checkout for 10% off your order! (Valid until May 22)
Visit her blog: http://talesofthefirefly.blogspot.com
Fan her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tales-of-the-Firefly/182611118455816
Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/fireflytales

Open the Parcel

2011-05-05T14:08:00.000+02:00

This came much, much earlier than expected... I ordered on Sunday and was certain I'd have to wait at least a week, maybe even two. My supplier seems to have improved, the parcel came today :-)

My cat was a little surprised and scared when I kicked the fat parcel into the living room, but he was also tired and lazy, and seemed to decide everything would be all right ;-)

As you can see, I followed your advice to get some purple and lavender :-) Also, many different reds, some blues, a few greens and teals. And one kilogramm of white lambs wool, Bluefaced Leicester and black merino wool each. I even labelled and packed them all, and I am proud to say I've ordered exactly the right amount to be able to squeeze everything into my boxes ;-)

I'd also like to show you what I made from the last bits of blue, dark grey and purple I had left before I received the package:

The Storyteller

Arabian Nights

I have already spun this batt up, too, but I haven't had the chance to take a photo yet. The yarn is full of sparkly beads and some black lace fabric, very beautiful :-)

The Prize Art Yarn Revealed

2011-05-03T18:26:00.000+02:00

It's been quite a while since we announced the winner of our giveaway. We spun the yarn soon after the prize drawing and our lucky winner has already received it. It's high time we showed it to you, too!

We found merino wool of a wonderful light blue that matched the colour of the pictures, and we blended it with some teal merino and shiny white mohair. We added antiqued copper flower beads to match the antique and floral style of the first inspirational picture. We also were lucky enough to find some transparent, silvery seed beads similar to the beads in the second picture. Finally, we added some white flowers to match the floral style of the last picture, though the are more like the background deco than the real objects, but we think this is close enough. We also added some (faux) pearls because we thought it to be a good idea ;-)

Unfortunately, the colours are a little too bright and tealish; I didn't look at the photos before shipping the yarn and wasn't able to take some more. Originally, the blue colour was much closer to the blue in the pictures

Made from Art Yarn - Two Scarflettes

2011-05-02T18:27:00.002+02:00

I just realized we haven't shown you all the pieces made from our yarns that we were recently notified of. Pam of MagdaleneKnits on Etsy has been so kind to share pictures of her latest scarflettes with us, and we'd like to share them with you.

Here's the beautiful Victorian Scarflette she made from our The Ruby in the Smoke art yarn, along with a picture of the yarn itself:

Such a beautiful pattern!

This beauty is still available!

...and here's the Spring Scarflette she made from our Fields of Lavender art yarn:

I love the texture - the pattern seems to really support the texture of the yarn, so beautiful!

This fresh and cheerful piece is also still available!

Thank you so much for sharing, Pam!

Made from Art Yarn - Autumnal Shawl

2011-05-02T18:04:00.001+02:00

Last week, we got a wonderful surprise: One of our customers shared some pictures of a shawl she made from one of our art yarns - AND she kindly allowed us to blog some of them, too. Now I finally got around to doing just that, so have a look at this amazing piece:

I love the way the art yarn and the fine yarn look together. I'd never have thought yarns of such different weight would look so stunning in combination.

...and here's a picture of the original yarn itself, just so you don't have to go looking for it ;-)

Autumnal Subtlety

We asked for some info about about needle size and the yarns Heather combined with our art yarn, and here is what she said:

"It was a pleasure to knit! I used size 10, 29" circular needles, and combined your fabulous yarn with recycled silk sari ribbon from designtalentedone in Butterscotch Lace and kid mohair / silk lace yarn in Fern from walkcollection. One skein of each."

You can find Heather as ThePinkPirate on Etsy, and she also has a blog.
Thank you so much for sharing these pictures, Heather!

Which Colours are Missing?

2011-04-30T18:12:00.000+02:00

It's time for me to order some new fibres, my stash has shrunken rapidly during the last months. Before I place my order, I'd like to ask for your help/opinion. I tend to be a little short-sighted and to order my favourite colours, but I really want to see beyond my own nose. So, here's my question for you, whether you're a (potential) customer, or a reader, or just stopping by. What colours would you like to see in our shop? Are there any colours missing, or colours we should use more often than we do? What colours should I order?

I'd really appreciate you comments, so thank you for posting them :-)

What Have We Been up to?

2011-04-26T00:52:00.000+02:00

It's been quiet here for a while now, but I don't intend to keep it that way. I've done some spinning, but I also had a lot of other work to do, and *whisper* I took a few days off! My husband was on leave and we spent some time outside, both in the local parks and on a day trip to the Felsenmeer ("sea of rock"), which is very impressive.

Also, my sisters-in-law visited with us for a few days and we enjoyed the sun and played some board games - like Clue Harry Potter, Ghost Stories, and The Settlers of Catan. I like all of them, but at the moment I am a huge fan of Ghost Stories. I like cooperative board games, and I think there might be none more cooperative than this one. It's hard and we never won until last weekend, when we played with my dear Twisted and her husband, but it's still great fun, and I do like the challenge. We even got an expansion set from my parents-in-law for Easter, and this makes the game even harder and more complicated, but I already love it ;-)

I really hope to be able to blog more often again, I already collected some pictures I wanted to show you - pictures of the prize yarn, for example, and some teasers of my latest creations. This week my schedule is very tight, but I pin my hopes on next week :-)

Colours of the Things to Come

2011-04-12T00:42:00.000+02:00

Usually when I card batts I make one or two, spin them up as soon as possible, and do some more on a different day. And then there are days like the one last week when I managed to create five beautiful batts in one day. I've already spun up four of them (all but the black/teal one in the middle), and listed one of the resulting art yarns.

I am looking forward to spinning up the last one, though I am not quite sure about the add-ins yet.

The one I already listed in the shop is Dark Red Ridinghood:
I imagined a dark, strong-willed, grown-up version of little Red Ridinghood, prepared to meet the wolf and stand her ground. I added lots of silvery things, standing for the silver bullets she's armed with, and the colour red doesn't only stand for her name, but also for the courage she needs and the strong will and power she has.

I watched the trailer of the new Red Ridinghood movie the other day, and I really hope it will be out soon here in Germany, since I can't wait to see it. Until then, I'll use my speculations and imagination as inspiration for more yarns ;-)

Divaesque Wellness Dreams

2011-04-05T23:41:00.000+02:00

This is one post long overdue! Maybe some of you remeber the Divaesque Scarf I was working on for a trade. Well, I finished it quite a while ago, and I already received a packet full of gorgeous handmade soaps and shower melts from aforementioned soap sorceress Goodgirl (who, in fact, was much quicker to send her part of the bargain than I was). Since part of the parcel is supposed to be a gift to someone who might be reading this blog, the picture shows only some of the delightful items I received:

I've already used up one shower melt, gave two away (one to my dear friend and shop partner TQ/Twisted, and one to my sister-in-law), and just started another one yesterday - and they are pure heaven! I requested pure essential oils instead of perfume oils for all the bars and melts, and I am so happy about the fragrances! Thank you again so much, Goodgirl!

Unfortunately, I was in such a hurry to send the scarf on its way that I completely forgot to take photos once it was finished *ashamed* But here's photo of a part of it, anyway:

It's about 2,20 m long, between 20 cm and 25 cm wide, and I knitted up two full skeins (which means I've still got about half a skein of gorgeous yarn left, ha! ;-)).

And the Lucky Winner iiiiiis...

2011-04-03T19:20:00.000+02:00

At the beginning of March we announced a giveaway, with the deadline for entries set for March 31.

Sooo - it's time for the drawing:

Congratulations, Grace (HomespunHandmaiden)!

We'll also send a convo to your Etsy account, of course.

As was the condition for participating in our giveaway, Grace has linked to our post and then posted three inspirational photos on her blog. You see them here, along with a fourth picture - a teaser showing some of the materials we've already selected for the prize art yarn :-)

We're looking forward to selecting a few more materials, and to spinning this special art yarn. We will ship it some time during April.

Thank you all for participating, it was fun and interesting to see all your inspirational pictures!

Shop of the Day!

2011-03-26T12:56:00.000+01:00

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

2011-03-25T11:42:00.000+01:00

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?

2011-03-22T15:36:00.001+01:00

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

2011-03-18T21:54:00.000+01:00

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

2011-03-15T18:05:00.000+01:00

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!

2011-03-14T16:17:00.001+01:00

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

2011-03-13T00:29:00.000+01:00

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!

2011-03-07T15:02:00.000+01:00

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!

2011-03-03T13:47:00.000+01:00

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...

2011-03-01T14:12:00.001+01:00

...is just another lemon tree

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

Busy Sunday

2011-03-01T12:03:00.003+01:00

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!

The Difficulty of Naming Yarns

2011-02-27T22:53:00.000+01:00

A few days ago, I came across some colourful ribbons with white dots, which I just couldn't pass. They looked perfect for spinning into yarns, and I had to keep myself from buying more than two different colours. I decided on light blue and vivid red, and I had to use them immediately (well, as soon as there was time, anyway). I spun two quite similar yarns, one white and light blue, and one white and bright red, both containing facetted glass beads in matching colours, and, of course, the ribbons. I love them both, but I just can't think of a name for either of them. Usually I come up with names quickly, but these are difficult. My husband has also tried to come up with something, but (as usual when he tries that) he came up with names and ideas for new yarns instead *g* That's why I spun a white and turquoise yarn with black beads today - more on which will hopefull follow soon ;-)
The picture you see here was taken last friday (my photo day), when I piled up all the yarns to be photographed and/or wpi-counted. I like photo day, somehow it feels like getting a lot done when photographing a whole week's worth of my handspun :-)

Bringing Two Hobbies Together

2011-02-26T20:17:00.001+01:00

I'm talking about archery and spinning, of course ;-)
As mentioned before, both Twisted and I took a bow making class last weekend. Though my bow is not yet finished, I'd very much like to make some arrows, and I've already bought most of the materials I'll need. Twisted has even already started cresting her arrow shafts, which looks fantastic. I, on the other hand, have been thinking about yarn for the wrappings I'll need above and below the feathers. I'm still trying to learn the English archery vocabulary, and I don't want to bore you with the details anyway (I don't know how many of you are interested in archery, as this is a spinning and knitting blog), so I'll skip straight to the yarn part of this ;-)

The thing is, I thought about buying waxed linen yarn, but I thought it was way too expensive, so I started thinking. I do have soft beeswax which I got for my bow string last year, and I thought, well, why not give it a try? Twisted and I thought about what fibre types to use, and kind of settled on "black" (carbonized) bamboo, ramie, and linen.
I tried them all!

(click to enlarge, I mean REALLY enlarge ;-))

I spun a small amount of each on a smallish drop spindle, drafting with the right hand and turning the spindle with the left, and waxing thumb, index finger and middle finger of my left hand each time after winding a length of yarn onto the spindle. I think this might not be enough wax, though, I'll have to experiment on that.

Now, I haven't tried wrapping arrow shafts with any of these, I only put them on the cardboard pieces and admired them ;-) I like the bamboo best, the ramie seems also satisfactory, but the linen is kind of bumpy. Usually, I love yarns with texture (who would have guessed?), but in this case I want a smooth and even yarn. I'll let them sit for a while since I still need some equipment and some peoples' help to make the arrows, but I hope it won't be too long until I can try them :-)

Oh - the spindle was a total mess afterwards, by the way. But thankfully the wax came off with alcohol and my spindle is as good as new.

This was real fun!

Just a Quick Peek: The Green Lady and the Yet Unnamed ;-)

2011-02-24T11:20:00.000+01:00

The Green Lady

containing merino wool, bluefaced leicester wool, mulberry silk, freshwater pearls, moss agate and prenite beads, and lace fabric.199 m / 86 g.

The Yarn Which Must Yet Be Named

containing lambs wool, bamboo top, bamboo flakes, merino wool, angelina, seashells and many many facetted glass beads. Oh - and beautiful organza ribbons, too. 116 m / 75 g

...and now for something completely different

2011-02-22T16:21:00.000+01:00

I think I might have mentioned that I took archery lessons last year, and so did Twisted, by the way. We have been practicing since then, though rather irregularly since it got colder, since I for one don't like the sports hall we're using for pratice during the winter. I am really looking forward to taking my bow outside again!

Last weekend we took a bow making class, which was exhausting and absolutely fantastic! I have to admit I always used to hate working with wood. You see, I went to Waldorf school and was forced to do all sorts of crafting and handicrafts - and I just didn't like some of them. It's different when there's the promise of a bow at the end, though *grin* I kind of liked it, though wood working will never be my favourite hobby.
The sad thing is, I didn't manage to finsish my bow. I chose yew wood, which is quite hard and difficult to work with. Don't ask why I chose it - I love yew, but first I settled for hickory because I knew yew would be much more challenging, but then there were no suitable staves for the model I wanted to make (a Viking Bow) and I kind of cracked ;-) So, I will have to finish my now-stick/later-bow in May, when there will be another bow making class with Michel Bombardier of Bombix. Since my husband was ill on the second day of the class, he will come with me and hopefully we'll both finish our bows. Twisted, on the other hand, is done and has made the most beautiful bow from osage orange, a naturally bright yellow wood.

Funky St. Patrick

2011-02-17T13:16:00.000+01:00

Luckily, someone on the Unofficial Etsy Forums reminded me in time that St. Patrick's Day is around the corner. I often think of holidays and themes too late for spinning and listing yarns in time - but not this time! I carded some batts yesterday, and already spun one into a funky green yarn, containing golden glitter (something like tinsel), and shamrock glass beads. I'm looking forward to spinning up the other batts, I already started with a white, green and orange one and then there is a green and white one which will contain white lace strips. And now I am off to uni.

Find your Pirate in the Dark!

2011-02-16T11:38:00.001+01:00

Last year, I spun many glow in the dark art yarns. Then I stopped because there wasn't much of the gorgeous glow in the dark thread left and it was impossible to find more of it. But last week I thought, well, what's the use of keeping the rest on a shelf instead of spinning it in - and I started again. So, here is my latest creation, fresh from the bobbin:

I spun it from a gorgeous, soft and shiny blend of merino wool and tussah silk (black and red), glossy black mulberry silk, a bit of red sari silk which shows here and there, black lace strips, and strips of red tulle with polka dots. I plied it with said glow in the dark thread and added bone skull beads during the process. It was very time-consuming and elaborate work, but so well worth the effort!

As you can see, I have secured the skulls with tight coils, which add extra texture. I am very happy with how this yarn turned out :-) There's 138 m / 96 g of it, and it will be listed sometime next week.

As for the glow in the dark effect, it is just like the effect of the yarn this picture was taken of:

Aaaah, I love glow in the dark stuff :-)

WIP - Divaesque Art Yarn Project

2011-02-14T18:20:00.001+01:00

I've already blogged about the scarf I wanted to knit for a trade with the talented soap sorceress Goodgirl.
(as I have no idea how all that wellness stuff is made, I am most impressed and it does seem like magic to me - and I do like the alliteration ;-))

I started knitting when we went to Prague (here's the blog post about it), and I also worked on it during the Christmas holidays. Then I was ill, and then I wasn't sure whether the scarf was already long enough. I wanted to take pictures to show to Goodgirl, so she could decide whether she wanted it to be longer - but I never managed. So, this is still a UFO (unfinished object), but I finally wrote a message about it to my patient trade partner and hope to finish it sometime soon. It's been fun knitting so far - I absolutely love knitting with art yarn, as you might have guessed ;-) It's fascinating how even the simplest pattern is transfigured by the yarn. Just a bit like magic, too!

Woodland Magic

2011-02-14T16:45:00.000+01:00

Last week I carded some batts, and I was really looking forward to spinning them - so I was happy when I found some spinning time during the weekend :-) Here's the yarn I spun from the first batt:

Woodland Magic

When I carded the batt, I already knew what add-ins I wanted to use: leafy ribbon, copper flower beads, and bohemian glass beads. The yarn is highly textured, as are old, gnarled trees with their structured bark. I also added coppery metallic thread for that hint of magic sparkle.

I love the yarn, and I suddenly realized that I nearly never use brown fibre in my yarns. Just because I don't wear a lot of brown doesn't mean I shouldn't spin yarns containing brown, so I spun another one the day after, because I had a wonderful idea. The new yarn contains lots of lace strips - and it's called Ron's Dressrobes ;-) I haven't taken a picture of that one yet, though. They will both be listed during the next week if all goes well.

I've also listed a stunningly blue art yarn with satin roses - check out My Blue Valentine

Weekend Discounts

2011-02-11T22:03:00.000+01:00

I've been quite busy spinning and listing new yarns, as you might have seen :-) Today was photo day, and I shot all the yarns I spun this week. The new daily routine is going quite well, I am happy to say. I have been trying to spin and list a yarn each workday, besides all my Uni stuff. I didn't always manage, but most of the time it worked fairly well. So, there are new yarns ready to be listed during the coming week, and I've also carded these new batts here, to keep a steady flow. I'm really looking forward to spinning them, I love the colours - and I can't decide which one to spin up first.

We've recently noticed we haven't had a general special offer for quite a while, so we decided to make this weekend a special offer weekend:

Between now and Sunday, 13th of February (midnight, EST)

*buy any 2 yarns and get 5% off your whole order
*buy any 3 or 4 yarns and get 10% off your whole order
*buy any 5 yarns or more and get 15% off your whole order

(please note that shipping cost can't be included in the discount, and that this discount can't be granted in addition to any other special discounts or coupon codes!)

After checkout, either wait for a corrected paypal invoice from us or pay in full and we'll send you a refund.

Have a wonderful weekend!

...a Pirate's Life for Me

2011-02-09T13:58:00.000+01:00

Just a quick preview of my latest creation, featuring pieces of a Captain Jack Sparrow kerchief replica (parts of which I already used here), bone skull beads, sea shells, genuine aquamarine beads, and facetted glass beads. The fibres I used were partly hand dyed by myself.

I'm not quite sure why exactly I've always been fascinated by pirates - probably because they're romanticized and there are great movies about them, but I like to think it has to do with freedom, and my love for the ocean and the wind. So just come along on a fantastic journey aboard a pirates' ship, feeling the planks under our feet and the sun and salty air on our skin, free as birds.
Bring me that horizon!

Special Offer!

2011-02-08T15:06:00.000+01:00

The easiest special offer is granting some kind of discount, of course. But when I think about offering something special to our customers, I try to think about what I would like in their place, and lately I've been wondering about more creative special offers we could set up.
In the case of our newly listed yarn, I found one :-) I've already blogged about the yarn itself, and the inspirational book The Ruby in the Smoke. Since I really enjoyed it and would love others to read it, too, here's the deal:

Buy our Ruby in the Smoke art yarn along with any two other yarns from our shop, and get a free, brand new copy of the inspirational book The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman.

We're not getting any brokerage or discounts, and we're not giving away a leftover book, but we'll order it just for you and send it with the yarns - no additional shipping costs, of course.
(Please allow 2-3 more days than usual for shipping in this case)

The Ruby in the Smoke

2011-02-07T13:48:00.001+01:00

I'd like to present one of my latest art yarns, inspired by a book called The Ruby in the Smoke (by Philip Pullman).

The book is the first of a series called The Sally Lockhart Mysteries, and it's about an emancipated young woman in 1872 who solves the case of her father's murder, and the mysteries surrounding it. Apart from the main plot, the books deal with the difficulties of gender roles in Victorian London. Sally Lockhart, whose mother had died when she was very young, and who learned everything she knows from her father, is good at accounting and at shooting pistols. She is strong-minded and brave. I really like her, and have enjoyed the books very much :-)
There's also a movie, with Billie Piper (who some of you might know from Dr. Who) as Sally Lockhart. I think the book is far better, but I also enjoyed the movie.

The yarn was inspired by the title of the book more than its contents. I spun it from black wool/silk blend, soft merino wool of anthracite and ruby red, grey alpaca fibre, and a bit of sparkling angelina. I added unobtrusively sparkling thread and many jewels: flat garnet discs (rubies would have been too expensive), freshwater pearls of a shimmering grey/peacock colour, and sparkling facetted crystal quartz beads. It is elegant and beautiful, and the jewels glitter mysteriously in the dark fibres.
305 m / 68 g, 17-19 wpi (light fingering weight, nearly laceweight). To be listed in the shop soon :-)

Good News for our U.S. Customers

2011-02-04T16:02:00.001+01:00

We are very happy to let our customers from the U.S. know that we were able to lower the shipping costs from $9 to $5 :-) In fact, shipping anywhere outside Germany will now cost $5 ($1.50 for any yarn shipped with another one) since the German Mail have adjusted prices so international shipping costs the same wherever we send our parcels. There are also many new yarns in the shop, the latest of which you can see here, too. I do hope to be able to blog more in the near future, but during the last few weeks I worked hard on a new daily routine, and I haven't yet managed to squeeze everything in. But spinning, photographing and listing works rather well at the moment, I am happy to say.
We'd love you to check out our new creations :-)

Ladybugs - A Special Art Yarn with Handmade Glass Beads

2011-01-27T10:48:00.000+01:00

It's been quite a while since I wrote about a trade I took part in. I received two sets of handmade glass beads, then, one of which I spun into a yarn very soon. I'd been looking forward to make a yarn with the second set of beads, but it was only last week that I was finally able to decide on colours and fibre types for this special yarn. There was also the question of the spinning technique, since I dind't want to make this yarn the same way I made the other. I decided on the corespinning technique, which always results in a very lofty, highly textured yarn and which is also suitable for beads this size. Here it is.

Ladybugs in the Meadow

It's already listed in the shop :-)
I'd like to thank the maker of the beads again, they are so amazing: Danke, potzblitz!

Egyptian Blessing

2011-01-21T13:04:00.000+01:00

I have different ways of composing yarns. One of them is to think of a story, mood, music piece, character or whatever, and then collect all the colours and add-ins that I think would be apposite. Another way is to just choose some colours and start carding, thinking of a suitable name later. With my latest yarn, the latter was the case - but I didn't have to think of a name, it kind of hit me suddenly.

I started out with different kinds of fibre of blue, yellow, and a little white and black. The colour combination reminded me of the descriptions of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, as blue and gold are closely associated with them. And then something else came to my mind: Captain Sharidan of Babylon 5 (one of my favourite TV shows) cites a supposedly ancient Egyptian blessing: May God stand between you and harm in all the empty places where you must walk.

I've always liked it, and I like the association of this beautiful yarn with this blessing. I've been meaning to find out whether it's really ancient Egyptian, but I've only googled it just now. If we can believe these people, writer Harlan Ellison made it up. I still mean to have a look in our library or ask one of my professors, though. When I googled the blessing, I also stumbled upon some suggestions as to how to change the line to be acceptable to an atheist. I'd like to share the link, just as a side note: here you go :-)

I hope to list the yarn during the next week, so look out for it in our shop :-)

Happy New Year!

2011-01-18T22:05:00.000+01:00

I know the year is already nearly three weeks old, but since I didn't have the chance before, I'd like to wish you all a happy new year anyway :-) Mine started out rather mixed, to put it mildly. First, both our cats were ill and we had to cut our holiday a day short, then I had a touch of the flu, and when I thought I was well again I was overcome with a nasty bronchitis. I used the few days between the flu and bronchitis for spinning, but even that didn't seem to work: I had two custom orders both of which I messed up. Both yarns are far too bulky, and I don't know how I could spin away without noticing that. Something like this has never happened to me before, I am still bewildered *looking sheepish* But as long as there's enough fibre to try again, I won't be stopped. I am happy to say my customer is a patient one :-)

Oh - but I did spin some new yarns which turned out fine ;-) One is an assignment for a wonderful Harry Potter Ravelry Group I found the other day: The Harry Potter Knitting & Crochet House Cup.

Ring of Toadstools

I have used these beads before, as some of you might have noticed, I just love them and bought quite a lot ;-) And I think they are perfect for the Herbology assignment (ravelry link, you have to be logged in to see).

The other yarn is comprised of my favourite winter colours and contains felt balls - handmade, but not by me. I am still happy I found some felt balls I could buy, since I honestly don't like felting much, but I do it if I have to ;-)

Well, I do hope you had a better start into the new year. I may have been delayed but am back in business from now on, and I am determined not to be hindered by anything as mundane as the flu or bronchitis ;-)

10% Off on Boxing Day!

2010-12-23T09:37:00.000+01:00

We're happy to announce that you'll get 10% off your whole order when ordering on Boxing Day (26th of December) and entering this coupon code:

We'd like to thank all our customers for a wonderful Etsy year! We are as happy about our new customers as we are about our faithful, ever returning customers. We are delighted about the pictures of the things you've made from our yarns, we love seeing what you've made, and we love sharing the pictures on our blog. And we'd also like to thank our blog readers for following us, and our fans for supporting us on Facebook - and all the Etsians who featured us in their treasuries for doing exactly that. This was a good year. Thank you all!

Merry Christmas! :-)

More Things Made from Art Yarn

2010-12-23T09:07:00.000+01:00

Two of our customers have made more wonderful things from our yarns and we are very happy to be able to share them with all of you :-)

Our "Paca ate the Flowers" became "Paca's Scarf":

Look how wonderfully the texture with all its bits and coils has turned out in the knitted piece:

The scarf was made by Softailstitches (Ravelry link), and the yarn was spun by me - this was it:

Our "Cashmere Rose" was crocheted into this beauty here:

Isn't the texture beautiful?

This scarf was made by MagdaleneKnits - and is still available in her Etsy shop, by the way ;-)

Here's a picture of the yarn, which was spun by Twisted:

Thank you, both of you, for allowing us to share your pictures and links! :-)

Let the Festivities Begin!

2010-12-13T14:34:00.000+01:00

I've already blogged about some Christmas/Winter yarns I've spun, and I am happy to say they've all made it into the shop now. I've also been busy spinning more yarns and making gift sets, each containing one yarn with matching stitch markers and bag. These items have all been hand made by myself, of course :-)

These gift sets will make a perfect Christmas present for the special knitter in your life - whether that's yourself or someone you love ;-) If you want some of our yarns and/or gift sets in time for Christmas, be quick! Usually, shipping overseas takes about 7 to 10 days, so there's still a good chance of receiving your parcel in time for Christmas if you order right away.

Christmas Opulence

Merino wool of different kinds of blue, stunning facetted bohemian glass beads with silvering, and TINSEL! Knit this into something funky, opulent and elegant!

Winter Star (gift set)

Pure Alpaca fibre, spun into a beautiful, soft yarn of light fingering weight. It drapes wonderfullly and has a lovely halo. The bag is made from commercially embroidered taffeta, the cord is decorated with a handmade pendant of a white freshwater pearl on one end and a silver snowflake charm on the other end. The stitch markers are made from silvery-peacock freshwater pearls and tiny silver seed beads.

The lighting of the first picture is nice, but the colours are not accurate - they are actually silvery-grey (bag) and grey (yarn), as you can see in the second picture.

Red Roses (gift set)

Hand blended merino wool of burgundy red, linen of burgundy and bright red, white bamboo flocks and sparkling red angelina were spun into a wonderfully textured yarn. The bag is made from commercially embroidered tafetta and the cord is decorated with a silver charm on one end, and a handmade pendant of one facetted garnet and two bohemian glass beads on the other end. The stitch markers contain one blood red biconic glass bead and two small black bohemian glass beads each.

I'd really love to spin more winter and Christmas yarns, but I have a lot of stuff to do for University right now, so that has to come first - except for any orders during the next few days, which will be shipped immediately, of course :-) And I do hope to find the time for another blog post soon, as there are two items I'd like to show you - made from our art yarns by our customers :-)

Prague, Loot, and a Foto Tent

2010-12-08T17:02:00.001+01:00

I'm back from a few wonderful days in Prague - very cold, very snowy, and very relaxing because we spent a lot of time in Cafés and Restaurants ;-) I'd like to share my favourites with you:

Coffee Lovers (Kaprova 9)
good coffee, wonderful cake, kind of cozy/stylish/shabby, free wi-fi, nice place to spend an afternoon reading, knitting, surfing, playing games on various modern cell phones and the like ;-)

Pizza Nuovo (Revoluční 1)
fantastic antipasti buffet! And several all you can eat options, great food, fantastic service. We went there twice and would have done so again if we had had more days in Prague.

Taverna Pepino (Jugoslávská 11)
fantastic food, good service, located in a vaulted old cellar.

But apart from all the eating and drinking we did see some parts of the town ;-) We went to Charles Bridge, the Old Town Square, climbed the tower of the Old Town Hall, saw the Municipal House and the Powder Gate from the outside, went to the museum (terrible archaeological collection - they really need to revise that, it looks like it's been like this for eighty years or so and I've only started to talk about the presentation, not yet the "facts" they convey) and walked around the Jewish Quarter. Let me share some pictures with you :-)

On our way from the Jewish Quarter to Charles Bridge which you can already see in the distance

Charles Bridge Gate, and Prague Castle, far far away on the other side

on Charles Bridge

the Spanish Synagogue

looking down at the Christmas market (from the tower of the Old Town Hall)

The Church of our Lady before Tyn, photographed through pillars on the tower

Museum Station - what does it remind you of? Any Dr. Who lovers here? ;-)

I also started knitting the scarf I already blogged about - and I frogged it several times because I am always too lazy for swatching, but I think I got it right now. I had meant to take a photo, but I forgot after photographing all kinds of other things. Such as the Czech glass beads I bought in Prague - aren't they beautiful? :-)

They are not exactly lower in price than when I buy them on Ebay, but I really wanted to take some nice things home with me, and it's always good to be able to touch what you're buying I think.

I've been very frustrated with the absence of light recently, as I might have mentioned. It's just not possible to take good photos - so I ordered a photo tent.

I am still trying it out (and I had to buy sufficient lighting first) but I am not really sure it's such a wonderful thing, really. But let me use it a while and try editing the photos a little, and then I'll tell you if it's the better option compared to putting the yarn out in the rain to catch a little bit of daylight ;-)

As for other news, I've been very busy last night and today - I listed some of the yarns I've already posted here on the blog, I've spun two new ones, and I am currently planning some more things. Keep in touch and find out! :-)

New Art Yarn - and Interim Result of the Year End Spinning Challenge

2010-11-30T18:21:00.001+01:00

Finally I found the time for a blog post - I've been quite busy working and writing my thesis, the usual ;-) But luckily, I also found a little time for spinning here and there, and I really needed that for balance...

I've spun a yarn which I will knit into a broad scarf, and which I will then trade for gorgeous bath bombs, shower melts and/or other wellness stuff handmade by the wonderful goodgirl :-)

(The pictures are crappy, but it just isn't possible for me to take good ones, so these will have to do)

Preparing, getting all the things together:

The first skein of yarn - I love the colours and the texture, and even the flowers although they're light pink ;-) I think the go well with the black. I also added tons of sparkling angelina, as well as the beads and sequins from the picture above.

... but there's more: I have spun two and a half skeins of this wonderful yarn, hopefully enough for a scarf measuring 1,75 * 0,25 m

The total of these three skeins is 346 m, 349 g!

I also wanted to take a photo of all the yarns I've spun for the challenge so far - but I forgot two and added one. So, here's the photo, but the third from the right is technically not part of the challenge, and there should be two more. I also calculated the sum of yardage and weight of all the yarns I spun in November:

1208 m, 893 g - not too bad, but I bet there are many people who managed more than that ;-)

My wonderful husband and I will be going to Prague tomorrow, so I won't be able to ship any yarn orders - but you're still welcome to order, and I will ship your yarns after my return :-) Have a wonderful week, I'll be back on the 6th or 7th.

Snowball Fight

2010-11-16T18:38:00.000+01:00

Here's another challenge art yarn I took great pleasure in spinning :-) My hands felt sore after felting the snow balls, but I still think it was worth it!

There are many snowflakey/flowery sequins, too - and glittery angelina, and silver thread.

I've also spun another yarn today, but it needs to dry before I can take photos. Also, the weather is quite bad at the moment and it's difficult to catch enough light for photos...

Featured!

2010-11-14T00:39:00.000+01:00

Some of our yarns are featured in Crochet Uncut - we're so happy :-)

There should also be another feature in a different magazine, or at least we were promised to be featured and to receive a copy of the magazine itself - but we haven't received it yet and we don't know if we're REALLY featured, so I will postpone telling you about it.I hope it'll be happy news...

We're also very happy to show you what a good customer of ours made from one of our art yarns:

Please click here for more information about the neck piece :-)

Isn't it beautiful?

By the way, this was the yarn it was made from:

Sea-Spray and Ice Flowers

2010-11-12T17:39:00.002+01:00

I've managed to spin two more challenge yarns during the last few days :-) One will go to the shop (hopefully soon...), the other one will become part of my ocean shawl.
I really have to count the weight and yardage of my challenge yarns before there are too many. A counter would be great, maybe there is even a kind of application or plugin for that kind of thing where I can add information as I spin? I'll try to find out.

Ice Flowers

Sea-Spray

I have also participated in another challenge: Today I found a message on our Etsy account informing us one of our yarn was part of a treasury. Well, that's always news we love to hear :-) But this time, the treasury was part of the Non Team Treasury Challenge, which I hadn't heard of before, and which couldn't resist *g* So I made this treasury:

I think the non team challenge is a great idea, it's uncomplicated and so much fun! And whoever wins gets to be the inspiration for the next challenge, since every one of these treasuries is created around one inspiration item. That's thrilling! :-)

Coffee House

2010-11-09T18:09:00.004+01:00

I finished another Year End Spinning Challenge yarn yesterday evening. I thought about naming it "Victorian Coffee Table", but right now I think "Coffee House" is a better option. It might be "The Grand Café" in the end (the building hosting the first coffee house in England - which I've just found out on Wikipedia ;-)), or something completely different. But it's good to know that there ARE so many options, since I like the colour combo and might want to spin some more coffee related yarns ;-)

I have also carded two batts, one of which I will spin into a yarn for my Ocean Shawl. So, hopefully there will be more yarn pictures soon :-)

Year End Spinning Challenge 2010

2010-11-08T14:35:00.004+01:00

A few days ago, I was invited to join a spinning challenge on Ravelry. Let me quote the rules:

From November 1st until the last Day of the Year (December 31st) spin as much yarn as you want to! It’s that easy :-) You’ve got 61 days to put a dent in that multiplying stash of yours!

There will be prize categories and if you want to donate a prize, feel free!

I think that sounds wonderful, thank you for the invite, Kat! :-)

I already spun my first challenge yarn, and I even tried to take a photo of the process:

150m/82 g

I will try to update my process on the blog and the Ravelry forum, but spinning is more important, of course ;-) I also spun about 60 m of test yarn for a potential project I might write about some other time.

That's What I Call Service

2010-11-08T13:48:00.004+01:00

A few weeks ago, my niddynoddy broke. I am ashamed to say it was probably my fault: since I was used to my self-made niddynoddy which I had bound and glued together, and which is therefore flexible, I usually take the yarn right off any niddynoddy I use at the given time. The niddynoddy I ordered on etsy is kind of screwed together, though, and it couldn't hold the tension. It creaked a few times, and then one of the two "arms" broke.

I wrote to The Spinner's Emporium, where I had bought the niddynoddy in question. I explained about what had happened and asked them whether it would be possible for them to make a replacement for the broken part. And guess what? They not only made a replacement, they didn't even charge me! Not even for shipping. I explained it was probably my fault, but they seemed to think it was valuable information, so I didn't have to pay anything. They were so nice and helpful, I am still thrilled. And the replacement piece arrived a few days ago and it fits and I am happy :-)

Now, here is some advice:

1. if you use a niddynoddy, don't take the yarn off right away, but do the following first: push the yarn on one "arm" to the middle of the niddynoddy, and then take off the part of the yarn that's on the opposite arm. That way you'll relax the tension a little before pulling the yarn off.

2. if you want a beautiful, handmade niddynoddy, AND wonderful service, go to The Spinner's Emporium and order one - they are great! Thank you so much, Paul and Dody!

3. don't think there is nothing to be done if one of your beloved tools breaks - just ask whoever might be able to help you (if possible, the person who made the tool)! I say this because what I thought first was: I'll have to send the niddynoddy back so they can make a replacement piece, it will cost lots of shipping fees, and I will have to pay for the replacement, and more shipping fees. For a while, I really thought about throwing it away and pouting ;-) But sometimes, whoever makes the replacement won't need the piece that broke, so getting a replacement piece is easier than you'd think. So asking about your options is always a good choice.

Well, having given out advice without having been asked, I'll shut up now ;-)

Long Time No Write

2010-11-04T13:37:00.004+01:00

The last few weeks have been terribly busy and I haven't spun any yarns since my last blog post. What I did do, however, was trying a new craft - at least new to me. I had previously thought about ordering a mobile cozy for my new phone (if I haven't already told you, it's a Samsung Galaxy S and I am absolutely in love with it ;-)) and then decided I wanted to try embroidering one myself. I bought some wonderful wool fabric which looks and feels a little like felt, and which I stumbled upon by accident while I was looking for something else. So, I also looked for some embroidery thread and some helpful books, of which I ordered two: Judith Baker Montano's Embroidery & Crazy Quilt Stitch Tool and Doodle Stitching: Fresh & Fun Embroidery for Beginners. I like the stitch tool one, it's a kind of dictionary with lots of different stitches and it's already been quite helpful. The doodle stitching one I sent back - it wasn't really after my fancy.

Anyway, I made a simple mobile cozy using my very simple sewing machine, and then I started experimenting with stitches - first on a scrap of the fabric I used for the cozy, but soon I felt bold enough to try it with the real thing. I even finished it ;-)

The good thing about a small project like that - or maybe about embroidery in general - is that you don't have to spend whole hours at once working on it. It's portable and you can put it away after a few stitches without everything falling apart. With spinning, I feel differently: I really don't like working on a yarn for only a few minutes at a time, and that's why I haven't done any spinning during the last few weeks. I do hope I'll find the time for more yarns soon, I really miss spinning. The chances are good, though :-)

Christmas before Halloween?

2010-10-19T13:09:00.006+02:00

Since I was very late with my Halloween yarns this year, I decided to start spinning Christmas yarns a little early - meaning, the first one is done :-) There's also still one Halloween yarn left which I haven't been able to list so far. That's because I haven't been able to take good photos of my latest yarns yet, and I am terribly busy with my other job at the moment, so listing the new yarns in the shop will have to be postponed a while. But I wanted to give you a little preview:

Watch your Back!

Another one with fun zombie heads in it - and quite a large skein it is, too: 216 m / 117 g. It's sparkly, it's fun - and a little creepy, of course :-)

Christmas Art Yarn
(still have to find the right name)This one contains wonderfully soft wool/silk blend, hand dyed tussah silk, lace fabric, faux pearls and red stars. I love the texture, and I always love yarns with fabric strips in them.

Skin of a Basilisk (3)

This was a custom order which I was very happy about :-) I had already spun two similar yarns way back, and I always liked them, and spinning them is fun because of all the coils. Also, as you might know by now, I love spinning Harry Potter related yarns *g*

Red Orange

Another custom order, placed by a lady I know personally :-) She has already received this yarn and likes it very much. It's made of hand dyed wool/silk blend and apparently it will be used as a highlight in a jacket for a child.

HELP! Knitting (Book) Advice Needed!

2010-10-15T10:39:00.009+02:00

Hello fellow knitters :-)

I've written about a special project a while ago: a shawl/scarf made from handspun ocean art yarns. I have been searching for patterns lately, and I am now pretty sure what I want. I had stumbled upon the Dreamcoat on Ravelry before and I think the basic pattern of longish parts and squares would look great as a shawl. Let me show you a very crude drawing of what I roughly imagine the shawl to look like:

(I know - it's a bad drawing and a bad photo, but I hope you get the idea ;-))

Now, if the book containing the pattern (Dazzling Knits) were just a normal printed book, I'd just order it on Amazon, have a look inside and send it back if it was not what I wanted. But the book is out of print, I can't have a look inside and I don't want to spend $15 on a book I am not sure is the one I need. I have to admit I don't really like the other patterns in it, I only want to learn the basics - making the squares and long parts of the Dreamcoat and use them in a different way.

Now, this is where I need you: can any of you tell me anything more about the book? Can you recommend it even to someone who doesn't like most of the patterns? Can you recommend any other book, website, or explain the techniques I need for this project?

I've already had a look at other books on modular knitting, but none of them seemed to explain how to make the longer parts I'd need. One of the books ("Modular Knits: New Techniques for Today's Knitter" by Iris Schreier) looked good, I thought - but there were many bad reviews saying it contained lots of errors, and you had to join the author's discussion group for help. I also thought "Domino Knitting" by Vivian Hoxbro looked good, but I am not sure whether it contains everything I need.

Please help!
Thanks :-)

Zombies, Ghosts, and Pumpkins

2010-10-06T14:28:00.004+02:00

I've spun three sets of the creepy-fun polymer clay things I made the other day into gorgeous Halloween art yarns. There's still one left which I hope to process today or tomorrow. I've already prepared hand dyed red Bluefaced Leicester wool and black wool/silk blend, so I am ready to go :-)
Anyway, here are the freshly spun Halloween art yarns:

Pumpkin Cult

Death Day Party

Zombies on the Road

The zombie heads and ghosts even glow in the dark. I've taken pictures, but I'll have to try again, they're really bad. I'll show them to you anyway, though, to give you an idea of how the things look :-)

The yarns will be listed as soon as possible, so there'll be enough time for you to order them before Halloween arrives.

Need for more Yarn Bombs

2010-10-06T13:20:00.005+02:00

Maybe some of you remember my first yarn bombing mission and the Dragonback graffiti I attached to a pole near our flat. Well, it's been up for about 9 months (I am surprised it's still there!) and it's more than weather-beaten. It has many holes and always slides down the pole - but someone seems to like it enough to regularly pull it up and somehow knot it together!

I have to admit, I am quite touched by that fact. But I think it's time for the graffiti to go, it's so holey and ugly. I hope to find the time to make a new graffiti for that pole soon, maybe an even brighter one, a larger one.
I am really surprised nobody has taken it down yet - there are people from public services who keep the little park in order, and I thought they'd throw it away.

Two Treasuries - Halloween and Dia de los Muertos

2010-10-01T12:24:00.004+02:00

Today, I was really in the mood for creating treasuries. I haven't done so often until now, but with Halloween around the corner I wanted to see what gorgeous items Etsy had to offer, and I wanted to share my finds. I've also stumbled upon some Dia de los Muertos items recently and decided to make another treasury.

Please click on the pictures to get to the treasuries! I'd love you to click the items, comment if you like, and help getting them noticed and maybe even to the front page - that would be thrilling! :-)

When searching for Halloween items, I came upon many beautiful and fun items, but I have to admit that not many were (in my opinion) suited for a good treasury, because of the photos. I have had difficulties with taking good photos in the past, and still find it hard sometimes if the light isn't right. But I can't stress enough how important it is to take really good, clear photos, if possible without a distracting background (that's what I need to work on, too). It's also a good idea to edit photos a little, brighten them up and play around with the colour balance.
Searching for items for the treasuries has taught me something about photos, or rather reminded me of what I already heard in the past. Sometimes it's good to re-evaluate :-)

Small Update

2010-09-30T21:18:00.003+02:00

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!

2010-09-30T12:43:00.004+02:00

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

2010-09-26T13:56:00.006+02:00

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 :-)