Tour de Fleece - Day 21

I haven't had much time for spinning lately, as was to be expected with all the stuff that's going on. We spent the past weeks renovating, and I spent the last two days studying for my exams and trying to squeeze in some house time (renovating again, and also getting some bills in order) in the evenings. Today was reserved for shop work, but I watched some documentations about Ancient Egypt while spinning :-) Twisted and some other friends gave them to me years ago, and I had already forgotten a lot, so it was nice to watch them again. It felt reasonable to combine spinning with some kind of learning/revising stuff that might be helpful. But enough about my studies, I'm going to show you the yarns :-)

 I carded some batts first thing in the morning and hoped to be able to spin them all up, which was indeed the case. I love the colours of all of them!

 Snow Daisies

I always love to use white fibres because their quality is somehow different than the dyed variety. Also, I don't have any dyed bluefaced leicester wool the texture of which is heavenly, so I like to use the pure white stuff. I combined it with only a small amount of green and yellow merino, shiny white alpaca and white lambs wool, and I spun in shimmering snowflake sequins and textile daisies. There's also a bit of commercial eyelash yarn in this one, and I used mother of pearl thread for even more of a shimmering, snowy touch.

This one is still without a name. I was thinking of naming it Koi Pond, but I think Twisted had a yarn once with this name, so I might want to use a different one. Maybe Sparkling Koi would be good since there is a lot of heavenly, peacock angelina (glitter) in this one. It's light fingering or even lace weight, though it looks sturdier in the picture.

 Bubble Gum

I'm not entirely satisfied with the name, maybe I'll think of something else. Bubble Bath is already taken, though the Bubble Bath yarn would also make a great Bubble Gum yarn due to its colour *g* Both the bubble yarns glow in the dark and feature these cute little glittery pompoms.

Back in Business - and Starting with a Sale!

Hello everyone :-) I hope my long absence has not induced you to wander off...

I am very happy to announce that I nearly finished my thesis (which means I need to add some pictures, check a few references, wait for correction and add/change the things other people think I should), and work on the shop has begun again!

I thought it would be great to celebrate with a sale, so as of now all the old items (items added before today) are marked down to make room for the new. The sale will be active until Sunday, 3rd of June, 12 am EST. You don't have to enter a coupon code or do anything else to get the discount, it's already included in the prices now shown in the shop.

As for new stuff, I have quite a few ideas :-) I made a really extensive yarn plan a while back, and since I can now take down my thesis plan, I can hang the yarn plan back on my wall - so there are lots of things to come. I have already spun three new yarns which I will add to the shop shortly, and I have also carded a couple of batts, so there will be even more new yarns soon :-) If you're looking for a custom yarn, that's possible, too - just message us on Etsy!

Oh, it's so good to be back!

Creative Chaos

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! :-)

Two Yarns and a Kraken

...is what I brought with me from our spinning event last Saturday. The yarns were spun by me, the kraken was given to me by Mademoiselle Chaos. She made one for everyone of us, and they are so cute! Thanks again :-)

We had a wonderful time, it was great to meet some of the Spinnkult people, and the Unperfekthaus (our location) was fantastic. I'd really like to go there again (to be honest, I'd love to have a spinning studio there) and hopefully next time I won't have to leave as early as this time. Both Twisted and I were invited to a birthday on the same day and since the two locations were more than 4 hours (by car) apart, we had to leave in the early afternoon. Good thing we started early :-)

Spinning Event in Essen/Germany

Next Saturday (17th of April), Twisted and I will be spinning, knitting and hopefully putting up knit graffities in Essen/Germany, along with Mademoiselle Chaos, Granny Weatherwax, Aud and Frau Wo aus Po. Everyone is welcome to visit, watch, participate and/or learn! We'll be at the Unperfekthaus, Room Nr. 304, and we'll be bringing spindles for beginners, too and it will be a wonderful day!


Am kommenden Samstag findet eine subversive Faserveranstaltung im Unperfekthaus in Essen statt. Wir spinnen, stricken, kardieren, bringen Garngraffities an und verbreiten gern Spinnviren an alle, die es lernen wollen ;-) . Mit dabei sind Mademoiselle Chaos, Granny Weatherwax, Aud, Frau Wo aus Po, FrauFledermaus und wir (Weird&Twisted ;-)), geplant haben wir alles im Spinnkult. Ein paar Handspindeln zum Ausprobieren werden vorhanden sein, Fasern ebenfalls. Wer Lust hat, zu spinnen, zu stricken, zu häkeln oder einfach nur zu gucken, ist herzlich eingeladen!

Anniversary Special - Art Yarn Giveaway

We've already mentioned we were planning to host a giveaway in honour of our second shop anniversary - and we've finally finished the art yarn we spun specially for this occasion:

Spring Wedding

127 m/74 g, about 9-12 WPI.

This yarn has been spun from our own hand blended fibre mix containing merino wool and wool/silk blend of light green, naturally white Bluefaced Leicester wool, shiny white mulberry silk and tencel, naturally white merino wool and sparkling angelina. We've spun in a golden metallic thread strung with white (faux) pearls and fabric roses.

Now, this is what you'll have to do in order to win this gorgeous skein of beautiful hand spun art yarn: just comment* on this post during the current month and leave a means to notify you, and you will be entered into our lottery. It's completely free, you don't even have to pay any shipping costs, we'll cover them for you!
We'll do the drawing at the beginning of April, so that gives you lots of time to comment.
Good luck!

*if you feel like it, do tell us what you do in the fibre related area, how you found us, whether you've worked with handspun before or are a spinner yourself, and whatever else you like to tell us about you - we're curious to learn more about fibre/yarn addicts like us ;-)

Anniversary Special - Win this Yarn!

As related, we're celebrating our second shop anniversary this month. As a special for our customers we'll be having a prize drawing with those of you who buy yarn from us during March 2010. And here's what you can win:

Snowy Toadstool

This exceptional art yarn has been spun from our own hand blended fibre mix of naturally white Bluefaced Leicester wool, white merino wool, bright red wool/silk blend, shiny white mulberry silk, a small amount of red and white linen for a more interesting haptic quality, and sparkling red angelina. An iridescent thread strung with red (faux) pearls has been spun in, as well as strips of gorgeous red net lace with sequins. Wooden beads of red with white dots have been added and the yarn has been spun using different techniques, so there's a lot to see and the texture varies in beautiful ways.

If you win, you'll get the full skein of 173 m/144 g! All you have to do is buy yarn from Weird&Twisted during the current month to enter the lottery - and all you need after that is a bit of good luck.