Let the Festivities Begin!

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 :-)

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

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

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...

Sea-Spray and Ice Flowers

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

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

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.