The Amazing Harry Potter Art Yarn Advent Calendar II - Quiet Preparations

It's been very quiet around here lately, as at first custom orders and my other job kept me busy and then I was working on something I couldn't really talk about. I can't now, either, at least not in detail, but I do have an announcement to make:
there will be another Harry Potter inspired art yarn advent calendar this year. :-)

Last year, I spun scenes / people / phrases from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, a few yards each, and enough for three advent calendars which sold out very quickly. So this time, with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, I decided to make more, as the concept was so popular.

I started planning and spinning nearly a month ago, this time the process took longer as there was more yarn to spin, and I also had to wait for some ordered add-ins to arrive. Today, I spun the last two yarns! So, the calendar is definitely going to be listed, but before I can do that I have to take photos of the yarns, divide each of them into six equal mini skeins, and write a description for every yarn. Also, I decided to order prettier pouches this time, and I am still waiting (desperately).

It's been very hard for me not to post photos of the project, but it has to be a surprise, obviously. I did post one photo on Facebook and Twitter (by the way: if you'd like more regular mini updates and snippets of what I'm working on, those are the place to be!), and I'd like to show it here, too:

Can you guess which scene / place from the second Harry Potter book this might refer to? :-)

As last year, I will do a virtual advent calendar thing here on the blog again, revealing all the yarns via blogpost from December 1 to 24. So if you'd like to see my interpretations, you know where to look :-)

There will be a limited number of six Amazing Harry Potter Inspired Art Yarn Advent Calendars available, and I will post announcements here on the blog, as well as on Facebook and Twitter once they are listed. It will still take a while, as there are things to be done and pretty red and white candy bags to be waited for, but I will do my best to list them soon!

Oh, and if you'd like to the fantastic scarf Max and Iris have made from last year's art yarn advent calender, look here (lower half of the post)! 

Yarns from the Old Kingdom

My latest two art yarn creations come with another book / audio book recommendation. I've been listening to Tim Curry reading the first three books of the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix, which I liked a lot. Tim Curry did a fantastic job, I especially enjoyed his voice acting for a creature called Mogget, but more on that later.

As with the books by Tamora Pierce I recently wrote about, these books are actually for a younger audience, and they feature young people on the verge of adulthood, their coming of age, and lots of adventures. What I love most about them are once again the female protagonists, their male supporters / fellow protagonists, and the not so stereotypical gender roles. And again, there is not only a token woman / token female warrior who is the exception to the rule, but there are several different women who fight, rule, go on adventures, have powers, show courage and so on. Girls are mentioned in passing to have been trained in sword fighting or hunting, so it seems to be common, which is still rare in fantasy.
The books are about a family of so-called Abhorsens, a kind of reverse necromancers: it's their job to make sure the dead stay dead, and to send the undead back into Death. Death is a kind of landscape for the Abhorsen, they can walk in Death, fight the undead or the evil necromancers there, and do so with the use of seven bells: Ranna, the Sleeper. Mosrael, the Waker. Kibeth, the Walker. Dyrim, the Speaker. Belgaer, the Thinker. Saraneth, the Binder. And Astarael, the Weeper.
The books are set in a parallel universe, the Old Kingdom being a place where magic is very much real and alive, and sharing a direct border with an alternate early 20th century England. The first book is about Sabriel:

Sabriel

Sabriel, daughter of the Abhorsen and herself the Abhorsen in waiting, is informed that her father is trapped in Death and needs to be saved. She sets out with the Abhorsen's sword and seven bells, starting in "our" world and crossing the wall to the Old Kingdom. She faces many dangers and has to fight for her life and the life of others, is joined by new friends and allies, and learns to fly a so called Paperwing - a kind of magic plane made from laminated paper (and magic). To use magic she can use so-called charter marks, which can be drawn or whistled, which is why I put musical note charms in the yarn. I also added a sword, seven bells which tinkle ever so softly, a key (which is the symbol of the Abhorsens), a cat (more on that in a minute), skulls, and a crown (can't tell you about that without spoilers). The yarn itself is mostly blue, with some black and white, as the traditional colours of the Abhorsens are blue and silver, and the Abhorsens all seem to have very black hair.

Mogget

When Sabriel arrives at the house of the Abhorsens, she is greeted by a creature which usually takes the form of an arrogant cat. He is called Mogget, and he is lazy, sneering, likes fish, can be dangerous, and it's not really clear where his loyalties lie. Very interesting, and very well performed by Tim Curry - and he appears in the other books of the series, too, which made me very happy. And now you know why I put a cat charm in the Sabriel art yarn.
Mogget appears as a white cat with a read leather collar, with a miniature bell on it. So you can see immediately how I chose colours and add-ins for this yarn - I used red silk because leather wouldn't be flexible enough, and I put in more than one bell because of aesthetical reasons.

These yarns are not yet in the shop, but I hope to list them soon. In the meantime, check out the books ;-) The first is Sabriel, the second Lirael, and the third is Abhorsen. There is also a prequel (Clariel) which I can't tell you too much about, as I am still in the middle of it. I wondered whether it would be any good as the blurb seemed a little disappointing after the other three books, but it's very good so far!

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! :-)

Marvel Heroes in Middle Earth?

It's been quiet around here and the shop, at least it seemed that way - but behind the scenes there was a lot going on! I had a lot of custom orders which made me very happy, especially as my customer let me be creative and make all the choices. Also, she picked themes I like myself ;-) In this case, it was some Marvel Superheroes as well as some characters from Tolkien's Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

(Clicking on the picture should show a larger version)

Starting with the top left corner, we have: Ringwraith, Spring Spirit (the only one which doesn't fit the themes, as it was a previously spun and reserved yarn), Galadriel, Thorin Oakenshield, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Galadriel's Temptation, Loki (second version, I spun one before), Captain America, and Gandalf the White.

I'm in love with all of them, but I think my favourite is Thorin Oakenshield. I used different naturally-colours fibres instead of the ususal dyed merino, and the texture is different from my usual yarns. The spun-in wool locks add to that, and I like the add-ins I used - sword charms, and square beads which I think work well as a representation for armor.

The Age of Swords

My latest art yarn was inspired by one of my current favourite metal bands, Skálmöld from Iceland. I hadn't even heard of them until a little more than a year ago, when I saw them live as supporting act of Finntroll, another one of my favourite metal bands. I liked Skálmöld well enough, but it took me another concert to really appreciate them. I saw them again a few weeks back, this time as supporting act of Eluveitie (whom I didn't enjoy as much as I had thought I would, by the way), together with Arkona (another one of my favourite... ;-))

Anyway, I had a lot of fun at the concert, and enjoyed Skálmöld's performance and music immensely. As I am now in the very comfortable position of having an all access account on Google Music, I was able to listen through all their stuff, and I liked them so much I didn't listen to anyone else for a while.

One of my favourite songs is Gleipnir, and I found a version with lyrics so it's also interesting (and less gruesome than the official video for this song):


As with many things I care about, I just had to spin a yarn ;-)

Skálmöld translates as Age of Swords, and refers to the Sturlung Era and their civil war in 13th century Iceland, and their songs are inspired by mythology and sagas. This all pretty much influenced my colour and add-in choices: I chose to represent Iceland's black lava and white snow, and the age of swords did call for blood red and skulls and swords.

I think it's always a little difficult with themes like this, and with skulls and swords, as I don't condone violence and much less want to glorify it. Please see this strictly in a fantasy/mythology/saga context.

Adorable Sweater from Harry Potter Yarn

I am a bit shocked I haven't posted anything in such a long time... I have taken to using Facebook when I post just a picture and not much text - if you're interested in that sort of thing, please come join us! :-) I hadn't realized how much time had gone by since I last blogged, though.

Today I have something special: I just received pictures of a child's sweater from a dear customer. She has used mostly Hoggy Warty Howarts, as far as I can see, with a border of Dragon's Fire. I meant to check with her, but I have an unexpected opening for blogging in my schedule right now, so guessing will have to do. Without further ado, here are the photos Mel kindly allowed me to share with you:

Isn't that just fantastic? So cute, and so cleverly combined. As some of you may know, I mostly spin and only knit rarely (and slowly), and I am always amazed to see how my yarns look knitted up (or crocheted, or woven, for that matter!). The stripes in house colours have turned out really great, don't you think?

I'll post pictures of the yarns, too, as I think the comparison is interesting, not only for those who have never worked with art yarn and would like to see before and after pictures, so to speak.

Addendum: Mel informed me she also used Merlin's Beard for the sweater - here's a photo:

Thank you for sharing the pictures, Mel - I am still delighted! And I hope to blog a bit more often in the future, though I have mostly pictures to show.

Silence in the Library

Let me introduce one of my latest creations - another Doctor Who yarn, inspired by one of my favourite episodes. Even from one of my favourite favourite episodes, as I like so many of them a lot ;-)

For those of you who don't know Doctor Who or haven't watched a lot of it yet, let me quote the person we are introduced to in this espisode: SPOILERS! (not many, but read on at your own risk)

The colours of the yarn were inspired by the library itself: brown shelves and furniture, with late sunlight falling in (represented by coppery angelina). I spun in silver book charms to represent the actual books (of course), also known as the forests of the Vashta Nerada. I added six strips of white silk fabric to represent the space suits of River Song and her team. Each of the silk strips is accompanied by one or two large green glass beads which stand for the green light of the communicators which are located at the collars of the suits - and which, as we know, tend to Data Ghost, resulting in Ms. Evangelista repeating "Ice cream, ice cream" in the end.

This yarn hasn't made it to the shop yet, but I hope to list it this week, along with some other new ones. Aquamenti (Harry Potter inspired) and Praios (from the RPG system The Dark Eye) are already up for sale, and then there are others, like Nemo, Thank You For The Fish, and Black Widow, which will be listed shortly.

It is good to be back :-)

Winter Is Coming

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 :-)

Join Harry Potter in the Room of Hidden Things

I've been wanting to spin more Harry Potter yarns for quite a while now. And one idea has been sleeping at the back of my mind: I wanted to turn the Room of Requirement/Room of Hidden Things into a spectacular art yarn. I imagined a dark yarn with lots of weird stuff in it, and it took me a while to get everything ready. I used many silver-coloured charms of different shapes: forks, spoons, hats, coat-hangers, umbrellas, teddybears, and more; and I rummaged in the depths of my drawers for some glow-in-the-dark ghosts and a kind of eye (both types I had made from polymer clay previously), some bone skulls, and some shells and bells. I also added lots of facetted glass beads. I chose black merino wool, grey and black alpaca fibre and some sari silk of greens and blues for the project and tried to spin a yarn more wild and irregular than usual. I do like the outcome :-)



It's funny - I've had some sari silk for years now, and I hardly ever used it. Probably because I don't keep it where I keep the rest of my spinning stuff, so I always forget about it - but that's definetly going to change, that stuff is great! I love the texture of yarn with added sari silk :-)
Hopefully, this yarn will be in the shop soon!

I really need to plan more Harry Potter yarns, it's always fun to spin those and the theme is one of my favourites :-)

Dragonback - my first yarn guerilla mission

It's been in my head for a while now, I've seen pictures of others doing it, I've read blog postings and I wanted to do it myself. What am I talking about?

YARN GRAFFITI!

At first I had a hard time getting ideas, so I postponed any action and just found the general idea very appealing. Then I got a smashing book for Christmas: Yarn Bombing by Mandy Moore and Leanne Prain (our German readers will certainly enjoy this blog posting about the book), whose blog can be found here. It is full of ideas, pictures, interviews, instructions/guidelines, it's absolutely fantastic and inspiring. Suddenly, ideas started pouring and I couldn't wait to get home, grab some yarn and knitting needles and start doing it.

I wanted to start with something simple and I wanted to start close to home. I decided on a stylized dragon because the idea was suddenly there and I planned to decorate the public park behind our flat. So, when my sisters in law sat down to read the final chapters of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (the older one, 28, reading to her younger sister, 9), I saw my chance to both knit graffiti and listen to a good story (normally I listen to Jim Dale reading it to me, thanks to my father who gave me the whole audio book series for my last birthday). When we had to leave for the restaurant I took my knitting and made good progress while sitting in the tram, while waiting for dinner and while standing outside waiting for the tram back home, which was slightly uncomfortable/freezing. When we got home I crocheted the spikes and then around midnight my husband and I went outside - I to sew the tag onto a lamp post, he to document it for you ;-) (He did get a tripod for Christmas, so he kind of jumped at the chance).



I know some people think it's about letting go - you should walk away from your graffiti and never look back, but I like the idea of walking past my first one whenever I need to go into town or somewhere else the tram can take me. I'll try to be less sentimental with the next ones ;-) I am curious how long it will last, though - and whether my favourite neighbour will ask me if I did it, since she knows about my spinning and knitting.

(By the way: my hand/wrist warmers are new, too - I hope to take a better picture of them soon)

It might not be the lost diadem of Ravenclaw...

...and it's not a goblin-made tiara or any other masterpiece, either ;-) but it's a start. The bracelet is a lot better, though.

I have to admit there is not too much to see on the picture, I tried to take one of me wearing the tiara, but it just looked stupid. I might need another head to wear something like that ;-) I'd like to wear a diadem for my wedding, to be honest - maybe it would look better with some other kind of hair-do. It's still a while until then, I can both practice making a diadem and finding a suiting kind of hair style. But enough of that, and back to more interesting things.


Apart from the tiara, I made some earrings. For the first pair I used commercially produced hooks, for the second pair I made my own and I just love them :-) All the hooks sterling silver, while the rest of the wire is silver-plated. I will be making some more earrings (with my own hooks) soon, it's a lot of fun :-)



Oh - and I nearly forgot the necklace. It's made of a large agate bead, wrapped with copper wire which has also be wrapped with (thinner) copper wire. It is not very spectacular, but I like it all the same.

Dragon Art Yarn Series coming up

I am currently working on a new series which started with a Green Dragon Art Yarn. This started one day in my favourite café in Heidelberg where some friends and I were talking about yarns and someone came up with the dragon idea. I was into this immediately :-) So I bought some things, including red ricrac, and started my first dragon yarn. I liked it so much that I wanted to do some more. One of my friends (in the café) had mentioned the Hungarian Horntail (from the Harry Potter books) and I knew I wanted to make yarn inspired by the dragons from the Harry Potter World. I really like the books and I have already made some Harry Potter Art Yarns - Slytherin (sold), Skin of a Basilisk (one skein is still for sale) and Gryffindor (not finished yet) - and I wanted to do more, anyway. So I bought some more stuff *g*

I made the Hungarian Horntail yarn a few days ago, but sadly the coppery ricrac is very stiff and it was difficult to spin in - and I was afraid it would fall out at some point, so I couldn't really sell it. I decided to knit it up myself and sell the finished object with the ricrac secured properly.
This project is to be a drawstring purse. I started too big, so I'll probably have to spin some more yarn before the end, but I don't mind ;-)

I might decide to knit all of the dragon yarns instead of selling them as yarns, but either way there will be a new series in our shop soon :-)