Batwoman Returns

Three years ago I spun a beautiful Batwoman art yarn. I had read Batwoman - Elegy shortly before and was smitten with the epicness of the whole thing, and a bit in love with Batwoman herself.

Between then and now I read two more volumes of the series, and I am still smitten and in love ;-) Two more books have arrived recently and I'm waiting for a quiet moment to read them (and I also have a Batwoman wallpaper on my phone which I am very fond of). Anyway, the other I felt it was time for another yarn interpretation, and I decided not to have a look at the photos from the first yarn before getting started.

I did remember debating with myself whether to use black or red silk strips for the cape, but I didn't remember which I chose then. Batwoman's cape contains both, you see - it's red on the inside, and black on the outside. I knew I used bronze bat charms for the first version, but decided on silver ones for the new one. Overall, the new one is darker, but the red parts are more vibrant, it's a bit thinner and less heavily textured. But see for yourself:

Batwoman I

Batwoman II

The first one sold soon after being listed, so it's been gone from the shop for years, but the second one is still available (at least at this very moment ;-)).

Time is running

...and Halloween is only one month away. I love spinning Halloween art yarns, but somehow I always start too late. Also, August and September have been incredibly busy the last few years. This is why I have only a few themed yarns, not all of which are listed yet. I'll try my best to put them in the shop over the next few days so they will arrive in time for a Halloween knitting party - or a Halloween party you just take your knitting to ;-)

Bats and Pumpkins

This one features the traditional colours and also bat charms and pumpkin charms. It's 168 m / 112 g

Gotham Night

 This one is already listed, you can read about the details here.

Also, there are these two - not Halloween yarns as such, but the colours fit the theme somewhat and I'd like to show them because I like them a lot :-)

Gallifrey

This one features hand dyed bluefaced leicester wool and silk as well as merino wool - and semi-precious stones (fiery red agate, carnelian, and citrine) strung onto a shiny orange thread. 251 m / 113 g

Friends of Slytherin

 

 This is one of my recent favourites - I absolutely love the snake charms. I've been meaning to spin another Slytherin yarn for a long time now, but it took me a while to find suitable add-ins. This art yarn is sparkly (silver angelina) and features wild silk, alpaca, linen and merino wool. Also, I spun in silk fabric strips and beads. 112 m / 95 g

Christmas and Winter Art Yarns

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 :-)

New Banners, YAY!

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 :-)

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! :-)

Batwoman and The Necromancer go Mushroom Hunting ;-)

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!

 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! :-)

Feature - Tour de Fleece - Halloween

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?

Christmas before Halloween?

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.

Zombies, Ghosts, and Pumpkins

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.

Two Treasuries - Halloween and Dia de los Muertos

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

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!

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.

Amazing Pumpkins

I've just received word from one of our customers about a beautiful shawl she has made from one of our art yarns. Maybe some of you remember the Wild Pumpkin yarn I spun for myself, and which I've knitted into a gorgeous bag - if not, you can look at it here ;-)

When I posted pictures of the yarn and bag on Ravelry, JumperCables asked me to spin a similar yarn for her and I happily did so. Now she blogged about it and kindly allowed me to use one of her pictures.

Here you can find her blog entry and more photos - I think she'd love you to visit her blog :-)

I am thrilled to see another of our art yarns transformed into something stunning and wearable and I am very happy JumperCables has given me the permission to show it to you, too. Thanks again!

Halloween Special Offer - until November 8th!

*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

This special offer extends to the weekend after halloween (Sunday 8th of November), so be quick! :-)

Halloween Pumpkin Bag

I've already written about the pumpkin yarn I wanted to turn into a bag. Well - I'm done :-) And I want to show you some more photos of different stages of the process, and, of course, of the finished bag.

...the batts...

...the felted pumpkins I spun into the yarn...

...the yarn - one of the most gorgeous I ever spun, I think...

...the bag :-) I put a parcel into it in order to be able to take a better picture. Measurements are 25x18x5 cm

Except for the knot pattern on the flap, I designed the whole thing myself. I am quite proud since I used to be quite a bad knitter and I see I've learned quite a bit by now and getting better all the time :-) I am also very glad I didn't run out of yarn since it was all a lot of guesswork and there isn't much left, indeed.
The knot pattern is from the German version of Viking Patterns for Knitting: Inspiration and Projects for Today's Knitter by Elsebeth Lavold

Maybe it will be necessary to line the bag since it is a little wobbly and it will stretch quite a bit when I put something in it.

Recent Favourites

Some of my recent yarns have dangling beads or other (also dangling) stuff included in them. I didn't even notice at first, but I seem to be partial to that technique right now ;-)



The toadstool yarn is very bright and funky, it glitters and has a lot of texture. It's already in the shop, so be quick if you're interested! ;-)


The pumpkin yarn is for a private project which started with some activity in our german art yarn community (spinnkult.de) and was supposed to be part of a guerilla spinning and knitting event, but then kind of developed a life of its own and wanted to become a bag/purse for myself ;-)
I still want to do the street art/guerilla/public yarn event, though. Hopefully, Twisted and I will be able to on Halloween. As long as there's reasonable weather and enough orange wool I see nothing stopping us. As for the weather, please wish us luck - and as for the wool, there's really no need to be nervous *g*

As for more yarns with dangling bits, I've already posted my Scarecrow yarn and my Stone Age yarn.

We love Halloween!

I, for my part, also love Helloween (the metal band) and always confuse the spelling, but that's not the point here ;-) What I wanted to share were some photos of my latest halloween yarns:


These three are quite typical as to their colours and they are all plied with a glow in the dark thread. The orange/black one has also got some pumpkin and bat sequins in it, the white/orange one contains luxury fibre and seed beads, and the black/orange one contains orange ribbons, screw nuts and metal discs, belonging to my punkrock series.
Then there is also a halloween yarn that lacks the usual colours, but I think it's absolutely gorgeous and it will be very hard to part with that one - meet my Scarecrow yarn:


It is rather less soft than the others, not as squashy, and might be more suitable for a small purse/bag (wich my fingers are really itching to make! But I'll be strong and list it anyway) or some other accessory not worn next to the skin. It contains ribbons with leaves, some other ribbons that resemble rough material as you would imagine for a scarecrow, and handmade heads from polymer clay the lighter parts of which glow in the dark.

I really wanted to list all these yarns (and more) before going to Ireland, but I just didn't manage, what with the wedding preparations and everything. So I'll do my best to list them soon, still in time for Halloween. Even if they won't arrive in time to become finished garments before Halloween, they should arrive in time for potential buyers to take some stylish knitting to any Halloween party ;-)

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! ;-)