New Stitchmarkers

I always try to have some small giveaways handy, and those of you who have followed my blog for a while probably already know that I make new batches of stitch markers to give away in somewhat regular intervals. Here are the new ones - I've already sewn them into paper pouches, and I even made the one snowflake paper myself :-)

 

I made the first batch for a crafts fair years back, and I quite liked them, so I decided to keep some of them ready to ship as little thank you's.

Christmas Special: Stitch Marker Candies

As Christmas is nearing I thought about some specials I could offer, one of them being the gift set option I already blogged about recently.

And now there is another special - a free gift with every purchase: From now until Christmas Eve, you'll get a free stitch marker (same as in our Stitch Marker Surprise) for every skein of yarn you buy from our shop. I sewed each of them into a cute little candy pack for the occasion, made from decorative paper and sometimes maps (there are a few I made from a map of middle earth, for example).

I only hope they won't be squashed flat when I ship your parcels. This thought came only when I had already finished them, of course ;-)

Craft Fair Preparations

The Lametta Craft Fair in Karlsruhe (Germany) is rapidly approaching - and we're up to our ears in preparations! We will be offering our handspun creations, of course, but also hand painted spindles (the making of which we scheduled for Thursday) and hand made stitch markers. I've been working on a good way of displaying them recently, and I finally finished the whole thing yesterday:

It was extremely frustrating to get the hooks into the display case. Some of the hooks were fairly easy to get in, but some others took ages and my hands ached all over afterwards. I still haven't figured out whether the wood was harder in some places than others or if some of the hooks were better than others (or if I was just clumsy sometimes), but it's done and that is what counts :-) Some of the hooks are askew, but all in all I am quite pleased with the whole thing.

I also spun lots of new yarns lately, and I still have quite a number to finish. The shop was going so well last month (THANK YOU, our wonderful customers! We love you! :-)) that we really have to restock. Here are my latest creations:

The photo is quite bad, but since I am in a hurry and there is not enough light outside for better photos, this will have to do for now. I am still in love with flower yarns and the ones with shells, as you can see :-)

Our shop will be closed on Friday and Saturday, by the way, since we're taking all our yarns with us to the fair. We don't know which ones will make it back into the shop, so if you happen to have your eyes on a particular yarn, now might be a good time to get it ;-)

Good Things Come in Small Packages

Have you ever sewed paper? I hadn't - until today. The possibility had never even crossed my mind before, but yesterday I found a tutorial on how to make colourful little paper gift pouches and I was hooked instantly. Wild imaginations of all the things I could do with this and all the kinds of forms and paper I could use nearly kept me from sleeping. The tutorial (which is in German and English, by the way) suggest printed scrapbooking paper, so I started looking for free downloadable paper as soon as possible. But I think newspaper (maybe Chinese or Arabian) would also look great, as would sheet music or simple brown packaging paper. For a start, I printed a few colourful papers and had a go - I love the results!

I am currently thinking of making enough of the open pouches to put the sets of stitch markers in I made for the "Lametta" market in December, so whenever I sell a set I'll have a pretty envelope handy. I also thought about giving away one free stitch marker per sold skein of yarn on the same market, and that's where the closed pouches (the ones from the tutorial) come in: simply make a few with a little note attached saying "thank you", put them in a basket and throw one in with every sold yarn; it makes the whole thing even more fun and who doesn't love a nice surprise? Now excuse me, I'm off to make more ;-)

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! :-)

St Patrick's Day Lottery - Win a Set of Knitting Jewels

As another of our anniversary specials, we offer our customers the chance to win a full set of six handmade St. Patrick's Day stitch markers.

They are made of brightly green glass beads, orange and white seed beads, and silver plated wire, and they will fit needles up to 7.5 mm

They will help you keep track and they will adorn your knitting magnificently.


All you have to do is buy one or more yarns from our shop on St. Patrick's Day - 17th of March, Etsy time (EST), and we'll put your name in our lottery pot. If you buy one yarn, you'll be put in once, if you buy two yarns, we'll put your name in twice, and so on.

If you win, the stitch markers will be sent directly with your order.

Good Luck! :-)

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 :-)

Need... more... time!

I can hardly keep up with listing, blogging and making new yarns, bags and stitch markers ;-)
Here are some of the latest items:

Laceweight yarn of different fibres, all of them hand dyed (except for the white, of course) and spun as a gradient from dark plum to a slightly greenish, dark blue, a lighter blue and then to white. Over 500 yards, photos are already done, will hopefully be listed soon already sold.
***

Laceweight art yarn spun from hand dyed Bluefaced Leicester wool/silk blend and adorned with tiny stars of antique gold. Some golden angelina adds some more sparkle. Will be listed soon as well (hopefully) Already sold.
***

Another gift set, consisting of the Physalis art yarn (has been listed for a few weeks), magnificent stitch markers of naturally banded carnelian and light green seed beads, and project bag of wonderful, brown, embroidered taffeta.

I do love the fabric, and the overall-look of the bag. I've added a maple leaf and a carnelian bead for tassels and I think I need to make another bag like this for myself :-)
***

Now, I need to be off - more spinning to do, and I hope to get some listing done later, as well. Have a wonderful day, everyone!

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!

It's nearly Christmas! - Special Offer

Christmas shopping is in full swing, preparations are being made and we've been in a pre-Christmas mood for a little while now. What better way to celebrate than to offer something special to our faithful customers?

Buy 2 or more yarns and get 2 free stitch markers for every skein you order!
And these are no left-overs, they have been specially made - for you! :-) If possible, we will give you markers which go well with the yarn you buy.


This offer is valid from Saturday, 28th of November, until Christmas Day!
Please understand that we can't combine this offer with the previous stitch marker offer.

You might also be interested in the fact that we plan to list stitch markers in our art yarn shop as regular items.

Halloween Stitchmarkers

They're monstrously large, monstrously cute and, of course, monstrously halloweeny ;-) They fit needles up to 10 mm, so they're great helpers for knitting art yarns.

They are also a custom product, so you won't find them in the shop (unless many people beg us to make more ;-))