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 :-)

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!

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 ;-)

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 :-)

Snowball Fight

Here's another challenge art yarn I took great pleasure in spinning :-) My hands felt sore after felting the snow balls, but I still think it was worth it!

 

There are many snowflakey/flowery sequins, too - and glittery angelina, and silver thread.

I've also spun another yarn today, but it needs to dry before I can take photos. Also, the weather is quite bad at the moment and it's difficult to catch enough light for photos...

Done - Gorgeous - Sold

Just a quick update before I'm off to the kitchen to cook a late lunch ;-)

1. I am done with the scarf - it took me about a week and I didn't knit every day, so that project was less work than I feared. I will present my mother in law with it on Friday, hope she'll like it.


2. I've made corespun yarn from Bluefaced Leicester wool and kidmohair blend (purchased at Das Wollschaf) and it's a dream of creamy heaven!

I think this blend is even better for this special technique than pure kid mohair fibre, it makes the texture richer and even more interesting - I'm in love and I'll definitely have to order more of that gooorgeous stuff!

3. The Funky Christmas Tree yarn hasn't even made it into the shop, it was requested beforehand. But I have enough fibre and baubles left for one more skein (I just need to find more ribbons since I've used all my red ones for the first skein), so a similar yarn will hopefully appear by next week or so. Thanks for all the hearts on Ravelry btw! :-) :-) :-)

Here's to the other half of the world

You might have noticed that our winter collection has dwindled quite a lot and that we've been busy spinning spring and summer yarns. We've been overjoyed about the weather getting warmer, since we've had enough of cold and rainy days - which is what winter is, here. However, we've remembered that the seasons are not the same all over the world and have therefore decided to expand our winter collection again, for all of you who are still expecting winter, for those of you who just like winter, and, of course, for all of you who just like our winter collection ;-)

The fibre for this yarn has been carded with the help of our wonderful, new drum carder and the yarn itself will be listed in our shop soon :-)