Kyprioth Art Yarn - Inspired by Fantasy Novels by Tamora Pierce

I love listening to audio books while spinning. I used to watch TV series, but I always miss something when I'm concentrating on the yarn, so I can only watch things I already know or have to accept that some things will escape me. After finishing the Gentlemen Bastards series (which I wrote about here) I returned to books I enjoyed reading years back - the Alanna the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce. These books are for teenagers, strictly speaking, but I love them and will read them or listen to them over and over! I decided to stay with the author and listen to some of the books I hadn't read before, among them the Trickster's series. As always, new yarn ideas formed in my head, but first let me tell you a little about Tamora Pierce's books and why I love them so much. Photos of the yarn and spinning process will follow below!

The books feature strong female protagonists, on the verge of coming of age. They are diverse, they have believable flaws and problems one can relate to, they have their special skills and strengths, they often have to fight hard for their right to do what they want (something many of us can relate to, too), and they are essentially feminist. There are also many more (different!) female characters in the books, all with their own strengths, and all complex characters - not the single, simple token woman we find in many other fantasy books. There are non binary and gay people (in the Beka Cooper series), the books are sex positive without being in your face, they cover racism (up to a point) and sexism. And the stories are interesting (and sometimes really enthralling) and well written.


I wish I had had these books when I was a teenager! I could have identified so much better with Alanna or Beka Cooper than with the protagonists from so many other books. I only got to know them when I was in my twenties, when I met Twisted and she recommended them - thank you, over and over! ❤️‍
Alanna is still my favourite, and I warmly recommend the series to anyone who doesn't mind it's meant for teenagers (hello, Harry Potter fans! ;-)) and to people who need a gift for a fantasy loving teenager.

But now for the yarn! As I said, I was listening to the Trickster series (the books are Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen), which is about Alanna's daughter Alianne who is captured by pirates, shipped off to the so called Copper Isles as a slave and tries to find her way home. She meets the Trickster, the god of the Raka people of the Copper Isles, who are people of colour enslaved by the white-skinned Luarin and their gods. Alianne, who is called Aly throughout the books, makes a bargain with the Trickster to keep the children of a certain family safe until the winter and he promises to return her to her home after that. I really don't want to reveal too much, so let me just say there is a greater scheme and cunning plans, lots of witty dialogues, and many strong female characters (also interesting and diverse male ones).

The yarn I spun was inspired by the Trickster god Kyprioth and the Copper Isles. It fits in my corroding copper yarn experiments (like this one and that one), is also reminscent of the ocean aroung the Copper Isles, and features beautiful copper spirals, handmade by myself of course. And now for the photos!

 Handmade wire spirals, hammered flat and later spun in.

I chose blueish teal for the ocean and resembling corroding copper, and coppery rusty red, and lots of copper sparkle for the fibre blend, and faceted glass beads to match. 

 I didn't thread the spirals onto the sewing thread with the beads, but chose another method instead, fixating them with a kind of knot to make them more secure.

Finished! :-) I have to admit, being in my favourite colours, this one is hard to part from. My camera had slight problems with the teals, as always, but I edited the photos and they look right on my monitor. I love the colour contrast, and the add-ins and sparkle!

I hope to list this yarn very soon - maybe later today, or tomorrow. Thank you for being patient and reading this very long thing! :-)

New Knitting Project: Line Break

I have to admit: when I was still studying for my exams, I spent quite some time on Ravelry, having to procrastinate every so often ;-) I used to look for new patterns (especially asymmetric ones), but also browse my favourites and imagine how glorious it would be to have some time for spinning art yarn for myself and starting a larger project.

I decided on the Line Break shawl which calls for about 800 m of fingering yarn. I wanted a simple art yarn - no ribbons or charms, but tiny beads and sequins for a glittery yet elegant effect - and I wanted to spin in from a black fibre blend. I recently got my hands on some (commercially dyed) black Bluefaced Leicester fibre which I blended with glossy black alpaca, luxurious merino/silk blend and black merino wool. I spun in black sewing thread strung with black and silver mini sequins and tiny silver seed beads. I love the yarn, and spinning the first skein was a lot of fun, but I tend to find spinning lots of the same yarn quite tedious... I managed about 1000m nonetheless and now I can knit a really large version of the shawl, yay!

I named the yarn and the shawl "Delirious Diva", still being under the influence of the "Sing-Along Songs for the Damned and Delirious" album by The Diablo Swing Orchestra :-D

I started a few days ago, while being entertained by my husband playing The Walking Dead on the PS3. It's quite disgusting, but fun to watch while knitting (also enthralling), and I'm looking forward to more :-)

I always find it hard to take photos of black fibre and yarn - these could be better, but I hope you enjoy this post anyway :-)

Music, Yarn, and Pirates

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.

Skulls in the Desert

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 ;-)

And All that I Can See...

...is just another lemon tree

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

Busy Sunday

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

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

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

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

Ladybugs - A Special Art Yarn with Handmade Glass Beads

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!

Happy New Year!

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 ;-)

Prague, Loot, and a Foto Tent

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! :-)

Halloween, here we come!

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

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

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


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

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

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



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

Just a quick peek

After finally managing to shoot some better photos of "Welcome to Divination", the yarn is now listed. I'm also done spinning "Trelawney", focusing on Harry's impression of her as "a large, glittering insect". It's always the same, though: I am not able to capture all of the glitter in a picture. I've used quite a lot of angelina and many, many facetted glass beads of various colours. I've also spun in some lace fabric and some sparkly black thread. The yarn is mostly black, but with hints of teal/dark aqua and dark violet.

So Many Ideas

I've not even spun up all the batts I carded the other day and I have already got so many ideas for new yarns, I can hardly keep up ;-)

I've been wanting to spin some more Harry Potter inspired yarns (I must have listened to the audio books about 20 to 30 times so far, I always start from the beginning when I'm through with book 7 - do feel free to call me crazy ;-)) and I like my new ideas: I plan to spin a Trelawny yarn and since the descriptions of the first divination lesson offer so much I will also spin a "Welcome to Divination" yarn, the materials for which I've just assembled:


The room is described as lit with a crimson light, the lamps draped with red scarves (hence the colours I chose), the students sit in chintz arm chairs and on fat poufs which I imagine as somewhat furry or fuzzy (so I chose eyelash yarn and mohair curls as add-ins), and the shelves are filled with feathers and crystal balls, among other things (I found some real feathers and rock crystal beads). I don't have any tea cup charms, but I chose some metal leave charms alluding to the tea leaves we can read quite a lot about.

And now excuse me, I have to start spinning ;-)

Looking for the perfect gift?

We've tirelessly worked to finish something very special in time for Christmas: our fabulous gift sets! My dear friend and shop partner Twisted/TrashQueen had the idea and I had the sewing mashine - and now we'll be able to offer sets of art yarn, matching bag and matching stitch markers, all handmade by us :-)

For example: A pirate's Treasure. Our "Hair of a Pirate" art yarn, a cotton bag with printed white skulls on black background and with fake coins for tassels, and a set of 4 luxury stitch markers, containing genuine facetted garnet beads.



And: Winter Sky. Our "Winter Sky" art yarn, a white velvet bag with tibetian silver snowflake pendants for tassels, and a set of 6 stitch markers, containing biconical crystal glass beads (I do hope to take a better photo...)


The light was not ideal for a photo session, but that's winter, I suppose. Here's some of the sets together, anyway:

Soon to be listed in our shop!

Let me introduce...

...one of my favourite online comics and a new art yarn that was inspired by it.
I am talking about the Unspeakable Vault (of Doom), where you can find very cute strips about Cthulhu and the other Great Old Ones. I have always liked the Shoggies, all wobbly and with many eyes, and have wanted to spin a yarn inspired by them for quite a while. Well, I finally managed:





I have used fluffy, squashy Blue Faced Leicester wool which I have died with easter egg food colours. I plied it with glow in the dark sewing thread, strung with eyed made from glow in the dark polymer clay, and made lots of coils. I didn't manage to take a better glow in the dark photo, here you can only see the eyes, but the plying thread glows, too.


My friend and shop partner suggested for me to knit a brain-eating hat ;-) But since pink is really not my colour, however cool the yarn, I'll put it into our shop soon.

Curious about more Shoggy strips? Shoggies and Cthulhu, Bowling, Shoggies go Battlestar Galactica. There are more, of course - just browse The Vault! ;-)

Ocean of Zombies - Creepy? Fun!

As I mentioned a short while ago, I was quite tempted to spin a very different ocean yarn, wich I did. It's for a monthly challenge on our new (German) community over at www.spinnkult.de, as well as the second yarn I'm also about to show you. But first, let me introduce the zombies ;-)

I do like very textured yarns, as I've probably also mentioned before. For this one, I used a wonderful, hand dyed merino/bamboo blend, some glow in the dark thread, some snail-shells, mother of pearls discs, angelina and, of course, the zombie heads made from glow in the dark polymer clay. It's 146 m, 138 g and about 10 wpi.

Here's a glow photo, but since I've taken it with my mobile you can't really see how nice the thread glows, only the zombie heads:

(More pictures on my flickr page)

And then, there's a very nice (and not so strange) corespun yarn, also with snail-shells and angelina, made from kid mohair fibre (also hand dyed) that has been spun around some glow in the dark sewing thread:

I don't have a glow photo, though, since my mobile is not good enough for that. I really need my shop partner (or my fiancé) to show me how to use the real camera with glow in the dark stuff. My last attempts were not as good as they could have been, though passable ;-)

A Pirate's Treasure

I needed a small and quick project the other day and came up with a simple little pouch for jewelry or other small items.
It's really not a big deal, but I do love what I added to make it more interesting ;-)
That's a tiny skull of real bone, a facetted red glass bead and a blue variety of (synthetic) goldstone I don't know the english name for.

My next pouch will feature a more interesting fibre mix and some glittering angelina - I've already carded some batts and started spindling ;-)

TdF - Weird's Day 16

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

More Flowers - Yarn in Progress

As I've already told you, I've come to enjoy spinning in flowers again. Here's a peek of what goes into the next flowery yarn: a hand carded batt of partly hand dyed fibre, green onyx, fresh water pearls of a stunning bronze colour, carnelian in different shapes, onyx and flat sequins - and, of course, flowers :-)

What have our yarns become? Part 3

Guess what? Max has sent us even more photos of beautiful hats :-) We are delighted to see even more of our handspun as finished objects.

Icelandic Spring

Invisibility Cloak

Max told me she had to knit a strand of Rowan Kidsilk haze together with this yarn - and I think it looks lovely! I like the fuzzy look and I can imagine it feels very soft and cuddly.

Thank you so much again, Max!

To all our other customers: please note that our current promotion is running until the end of this month! We'd be very happy to get even more photos of things made from our yarn :-)