Mobius made from the Harry Potter Advent Calendar Art Yarns

I was very happy to chat with Katie yesterday, who purchased one of last year's Harry Potter Art Yarn Advent Calendars, and who told me she had crocheted a mobius from all these mini skeins. She sent photos and kindly allowed me to post them here, so here we go:

At first I thought to post only a selection, but I loved to see the details in all of them, and I thought you might, too :-) I absolutely love the finished piece, and as I said to her yesterday, I think it's amazing how different things made from the same yarns can be. So exciting to see!

Katie also told me she took a photo of each day's yarn in front of a Pottermore picture showing the respective scene. I thought this was such a fantastic idea! She put these photos on her Ravelry page and gave me permission to post some of them here, as well - if you'd like to see them all, have a look at Katie's mobius on Ravelry!

Diagon Alley

Hogwarts Express

Severus Snape

You can find Katie on Ravelry, and she also has an Etsy shop where she sells really beautiful crocheted pieces - like the Saoirse The Selkie mobius, or the Robot Friends mobius (made from one of my yarns! :-))

Thank you for sharing all these lovely pictures, Katie! <3 br="">

Creatures from the Sea (and a Dalek)

Oh, it's been ages since I wrote the last post... I've been very busy working freelance for a market research firm who needed me for several overlapping projects at once, so there was absolutely no time for spinning. It has been quite a stressful time, but it was also very empowering because I realized I could indeed cope with that amount of work and stress, and because my work was much appreciated. So, yay! :-)

I spent my free time knitting and crocheting, as it really helped me to calm down and relax. I will become something like an aunt in October ("something like" because we're not related exactly, I'm talking about a kind of family by choice) and I started knitting lots of amigurumi. It all started with a Kraken, then I made a Seahorse, and I stuck with ocean creatures and made a rainbow jellyfish mobile and some narwhales. Oh, and I also made some jellyfish poi for myself, and I knit a scarf for my sister in law and started a scarf for my dad. I don't want to overload this post, so I'll show you the amigurumi today and might post the scarves some other time - if you're curious you can look on my Ravelry project page before then ;-)

The Fiercely Cute Kraken

When a family with two kids visited us in March, they brought rattling, crocheted octopus toys. I asked my friends whether I should make one for their child in progress, and when I did I even put a rattling device in, too. There is no pattern for this Kraken, as I made it up as I went.

The Seahorse Friend

 I had the pattern for this seahorse in my Ravelry favourites for months, and now I finally got around to making one! It was a fun knit, though a little fiddly at the beginning and end, and I learned new things. I love how I can do so with each new knitting pattern.

The Jellyfish Mobile

A full rainbow of cute jellyfish! For the photo I hung them from a simple stick from the garden, but I want to buy a circlet thing to hang them from. I wanted to use a specific pattern, but it was no longer available when I decided to buy it, and then someone sent me a link to a YouTube video on Twitter from which I took some basics - and then I made the rest up, and did some variations. If I find the time I might write up a pattern, but if I do, it will take a while.

The Narwhales 

 

I looked for more ocean creatures on Ravelry and found this cute pattern. I made two because I didn't have yarn in the colour of choice when I started, but I desperately wanted to try the pattern. For the second one, I decided on smaller needles, and here I also did the wings from the pattern, which I chose not to make for the first one. Again, it was fun to knit, again a little fiddly (the wings took ages! But it got better after the first two feathers), and again I learned a lot.


I also meant to show you a Dalek I made ages ago, but then forgot all about it - it's not from the ocean, but it has the right colour to fit in this post ;-) So here it is!

The Blue Dalek

Easier than I thought! I improvised with the attachments, the rest is from this pattern. This is not for the baby, of course, but I gave it to my sister in law who is a huge Doctor Who fan.

I also worked on some new yarns for the past few days, and will continue to do so until the next market research project. I often post work in progress photos on Facebook and sometimes Twitter, so if you're curious you're very welcome to follow! :-)
I will probably show some of the new yarns here on the blog, too. Especially the ones which come with a book recommendation - stay tuned! :-)

Two-Faced Sorceress

The knitting frenzy is still going on and I finished something else - the Sorceress hood I already mentioned. Is is worked in two flat pieces which are sewn together in the end. The pattern was easy to follow, but I must have made a mistake at some point because I ended up with two identical pieces instead of them mirroring each other. I wondered whether to frog part of the second half, but I had no idea where I had made a mistake (and thus, how to fix it), and I didn't feel like unravelling so much work. So I was very frustrated until my husband suggested for me to finish the thing and call it Twoface. Somehow that made it better and I decided to go with it.

As I'm writing this I suddenly think I know where I must have made the mistake (I must have increased for the hood part on the wrong side), but now it's done and finished, and I like it. I think it's not even visible in this photo, but the rib pattern on one side differs a little from the one on the other side. Well, it's still a beautiful piece :-)

In other news, my days have been busy with writing several job applications, some of which are more important to me, and much more difficult to write than others. There hasn't been much time for spinning and tending the shop, but I hope I will be able to offer some new yarns next week. Until then, please wish me luck with my applications, there are two fantastic, interesting jobs I'd love to get (well, one of them, anyway).

I Kept the Pirate!

A few months ago I wrote about an art yarn I had spun, inspired by a black female badass pirate captain - Zamira Drakasha. I prepared to list it in the shop: I took photos, I calculated the price, as usual - and then thought the price seemed too low. In fact, every price seemed too low. And at that point I realized I just couldn't part with this yarn.

Shortly after, when I received yet another letter of refusal (from a job I really wanted) and was sad and frustrated, I finally decided to indeed keep the yarn - as a kind of consolation gift to myself.

It took me a few months to decide what to make from it, though - until then I kept looking at it and petting it. First I tried out the Bandana Cowl pattern by Purlbee, but I didn't like the broad stripes and I also realized it was too much yarn for the pattern and it seemed a waste not to use the whole skein for one project.

So I frogged it, but I'm keeping the pattern in mind as it was fun to knit and I'm sure it would be fantastic with another yarn. I then went looking for a pattern with longer rows or rounds, to make the stripes longer and narrower. I decided on the Purl Ridge Scarf by Stephen West in the end, and I love the outcome very much.

I really hoped my yardage would be enough, as the pattern called for around 300 and I only had 228 yards (and different yarn weight), but it worked out fine. The cowl could be a little broader still, but it's also great as it is. And I love how the stripes turned out, and all the add-ins and the red silk strips <3 br="">

Knitting Frenzy

So, I've been knitting. A lot. Somehow, after months of barely touching a needle, I kind of went into a knitting frenzy and haven't really stopped yet. It started with my wanting to finally finish my Delirious Diva shawl and starting two other projects (see here), and then there were Christmas presents and more projects. I took some time off in December, and I hadn't had this much free time in a long while - and I spent nearly all of it knitting, or so it feels :-D

Now, brace yourself, here come a lot of photos! ;-)

I finished the Sea Dragon Shawl within six weeks or so. Once I got the hang of it I really enjoyed the pattern, but weaving in all the ends was a challenge! (I hate weaving in ends - and there were so many...) I'm glad I decided to do it one night and then didn't pause until I was finished - or I might have never looked at it again ;-)
The shawl is not only nice when draped around the shoulders, but makes a really gorgeous scarf which fits twice around my neck, then looks like some elaborate layered piece and covers the top of my shoulders for extra warmth.

I did indeed start Verdant after that, as I said I might, and have made quite some progress, but it seems the yarn won't be enough. For spinning more, I need to order some fibre first, so I put the project on hold. I like how it turned out so far, though.

Then I started (and finished) a quick project in between which I called Modern Stoneage, after the yarn. I had this skein lying around for quite some time, I remember casting on several times in the summer, but somehow no pattern seemed right. When I tried out the Asymmetric Rib Scarf, I was very pleased and I really like the outcome.

I also made three pairs of wrist warmers kind of in between - my husband seemed to have lost a pair (which turned up after I finished the new ones, which are now his favourites), and his sisters both wanted new ones for Christmas, so I spun some yarns and made some gifts :-)

Somewhere in between I decided to make a pair of yoga socks as a quick gift for a friend. I turned out not to be quick enough, though, and didn't finish them before meeting her. But I decided I wanted some for myself, and while I made the ones for my friend from commercial sock yarn I dyed myself, I made my own yoga socks from handspun as I realized once more how much more fun knitting is when the yarn is interesting.
I absolutely love these yoga socks! They keep my feet and ankles warm without hindering me, and the pattern is also very simple.

As my husband has lost a scarf I made for him years ago and has been quite sad about this, I decided to make him another one. He loved the Diagon Alley yarns I had spun, so I used the same colours for the yarn, though I added dark grey and black and called it Night Over Diagon Alley. This was a very spontaneous thing, I spun the yarn when he was out of town for a few days, started knitting on the train when I went to visit my sister in law, where I could only work on this project for one evening as my husband then joined me there, and then had to try and knit secretly when we were back home. It worked, though, I finished on the morning of December 21st, just before our traditional Jul with friends celebration where I then presented the scarf :-)

Just before Christmas I decided to spin a yarn suitable for the Unleaving pattern which I had fallen in love with, and I spun it shortly after Christmas, started knitting shortly after that and finished it within a week, which is enormously fast by my standards. I did knit through our new years party ;-)

Oh, and I nearly forgot I started knitting Sorceress - another pattern I'd been eyeing for a while.

Omi's Aubergine is also finished, but I don't have any new photos. And I still haven't given the scarf to her, I really have to go to Hamburg one of these days... I started even more new projects, but I will present them here some other time :-)


I also had a look around the google store for some helpful knitting apps. I discovered the knitting help app which seems fantastic, but haven't bought it yet (I don't think there's space for that on my phone at the time), I found a German Ravelry app which works well enough, but which isn't that nice to look at, and I found a simple row counting app called Knit Tink which I liked.

Are there any knitting apps you use and would recommend?

Harry Potter Art Yarn Advent Calendar!

I did it! I really spun a whole Harry Potter art yarn advent calendar, or more precisely, enough yardage for three of them (one of which already sold). I already wrote about the project here, and I started spinning immediately after writing the blog post. It took me over a week to finish all the 24 mini skeins of delicious Harry Potter themed art yarn, and it was so worth the time - and also a lot of fun.

I decided on spinning scenes / people / places / phrases in chronological order from the book, so the finished object will tell the story from beginning to end, starting on Privet Drive and ending with Gryffindor winning the house cup. The mini skeins are as complex as my regular skeins, and as much careful planning and working out the details (and, of course, spinning skills) went into each of them.

The calendar is already listed on Etsy - without pictures, so as not to spoil any surprises. I decided to do the revealment as a virtual advent calendar, so from December 1 to December 24 there will be a blog post each day, taking you through the story of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone again, and showing off all the yarns :-)

Delirious Diva, Done.

After my exams last year I wrote this blog post, describing my new knitting project and the yarn I spun for it. I worked on it here and there, was distracted by renovating the house, a yarn bombing project, and work, so it took me a very, very long time to finish it. But now it's done, and I already wore it to a wedding. I also wear it regularly at home, as it's so warm and cozy.

The photos were taken after the wedding of our friends in Dublin, Ireland. By the way, should you ever need an apartment in Dublin, I highly recommend this one - it's not only pretty, cozy and located in walking distance to the city centre, but Wayne, the owner, is a fantastic host. He made sure we had a fridge full of tasty things (which I wouldn't expect when renting a holiday flat), tea, coffee, and cupboards full of supplies, he even bought us a small loaf of bread and provided fresh flowers.

But let me get back to the knitting stuff ;-) The pattern I used is Line Break by Veera Välimäki, which was well written and easy to follow once I got the hang of it. The wraps and turns were a bit difficult at first, and I think I ended up doing them differently after searching on youtube. I also made a few mistakes with the yarn overs, making them on the wrong side of the stitch marker on occasion. So it's a bit crooked, but I love it :-) There are more photos on Ravelry, if you'd like to have a look.

I'm currently knitting quite a lot after many months of not knitting at all. When I was still knitting the Diva shawl, I started on a small project of mindless knitting to carry around, a scarf for my grandmother which I called Omis Aubergine (Grandma's eggplant). It's nearly done, and I can't wait to give it to her - but as she lives 600 km away, it might be a while.

 
After finishing the Diva shawl, and while still knitting the scarf for my grandmother, I was already looking for something else to knit, and was very happy when I found the Sea Dragon shawl pattern. This was shortly before we went to Dublin for the wedding, and I decided to look for suitable yarn on our trip. I usually don't buy yarn (except for some colourful cotton yarn for yarn bombing projects), but I didn't feel like spinning so much of the same yarn for this, and I wanted to start knitting. This gave me the perfect opportunity to check out This is Knit in Dublin and to buy some souvenir yarn for myself ;-) (By the way: lovely shop, friendly and helpful staff!). I bought two skeins of hand dyed Vivacious 4ply by Fyberspates in wonderful greens, and a skein of Rialto 4ply by Debbie Bliss, and started knitting the very same evening. I love the Viviacious, it's beautiful and fun to knit, but I don't really like the Debbie Bliss one (too little twist, no "life"). I've made a lot of progress since then, but didn't get around to taking a new photo, so here's one from about two weeks ago:

I am halfway through the pattern now and will start the decreases as soon as I have some quiet knitting time. I've already planned the next two projects - so I can't wait to finish this one and start working on the next! It will be either Verdant, which I have already spun two skeins of yarn for, or Sorceress, which I plan to knit from a beautiful and slightly sparkly black yarn I originally spun for Wa na na na na na na na Bat Shawl! years ago. I started knitting (also years ago), made a mistake, didn't like it anymore and put it in a box - so now I figured I could use the yarn for something else. I think it's a bit too thin for the 5,5 mm needles called for in the Sorceress pattern, but as the shawl is very large and wide, maybe slightly smaller needles will also be okay to use, and I think the yarn might work after all.

I have no idea how long my knitting frenzy will last, it usually comes in phases. As winter is coming, however, and there are more knitting people in the house, I might actually finish some projects this time, without long pauses in between ;-)

What are you knitting at the moment? I'd love to chat about projects, if you'd like to leave a comment :-)

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.

Eleven. Doctor Who Inspired Yarns and Mitts

I wrote about shrinking TARDISes a while back, and the plan to spin an art yarn inspired by Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor. My customer decided against a yarn full of TARDISes and asked me to incorporate charms relating to the eleventh Doctor and London/England in general, and only one TARDIS.

I did both, as I was so curious myself how the yarn would turn out and how the TARDISes would look in it that I spun an all-TARDIS yarn before all the charms arrived for the custom order. Here are both of them:

Raggedy Doctor

Eleven

This one contains one shrinky dink TARDIS, and one of each of the following charms: Cowboy hat, cup of tea, teabag, apple, Union Jack, double decker bus, Big Ben, vampire teeth, soccer bead, snowflake, whale, angel wing.

Now look what my customer Jane made from the second yarn: Eleventh Doctor Mitts!

Aren't they wonderful? Thank you for sharing these pictures, Jane! :-)

How to make a wearable TARDIS real quick

As Whovians around the world know, Saturday is the big day - the day the Doctor turns 50, although he is technically nearly a thounsand years old, of course. Depending on which incarnation, which current time and which wibbly wobbly stuff you're adding to the sum, or something like that. Anyway - my beloved husband secured us some tickets for the big show in the local cinema and I have been wondering what to wear. I thought of spinning and knitting something wearable for the occasion, but there is not enough time. Also, alas, TARDIS blue is not really my colour. This morning I had a sudden inspiration, though, and I am going to show you what I did.

Here's a list of what I used

• one (piece of) elder branch or any other wood with a soft core
• a saw
• a knife
• fine sandpaper
• acrylic paint in blue and white
• brushes
• a very thin metal knitting needle or something similar
• something you can stick the knitting needle in (a flower pot filled with soil will work)
• wire - silver plated or what you like
• a white glass bead
• wire bending equipment

I took an elder branch and sawed off a piece of about 4 cm in length. You can use any other wood with a soft core, which will be essential later on.I removed the bark with a carving knife and I sandpapered the whole thing, wiped it with a wet cloth, and let it dry.
I stuck it onto the knitting needle to make a hole and to be able to paint the whole thing in one go.

I painted the TARDIS-to-be with blue acrylic paint and stuck the knitting needle into my incense holder / fragrance lamp thingy. A flower pot should  also work, or just stick the knitting needle in the grass outside if the weather is good.

I waited about 50 minutes for the paint to dry, but I guess that depends on paint brand, room temperature and other things, so just make sure the paint is completely dry. You don't want the white paint to merge with the blue.

When the blue paint had dried completely, I painted the windows and the sign on the door with white acrylic paint. My only good and fine brush was sticky and disgusting, so I had to use a fat one which was also not the best choice overall, so the windows are a bit blotchy. It looks okay from a distance, but a little raw when you look too closely.



Then you can also mess the whole thing up by spraying on clear coat, not shaking the can for long enough and ending up with some kind of snowy surface... I don't recommend this! I'll go through with the plan, though.



Now for the wire stuff - the thing needs a hook or something, so it can be worn around the neck, dangled from a purse or displayed otherwise.

I chose a white glass bead with a silver core to go on top, as the TARDIS light. The wire I used was 0.8 mm and I tried to make the bottom piece nice and flat, so the TARDIS can even stand on her own.

I think the whole process took only about half an hour of active time, plus some time to let the paint dry. Maybe I'll make another TARDIS charm as this one really is kind of snowy on the surface due to the clear coat incident... I'd probably make the next one a little less tall, as the proportions don't seem ideal.

If you try this, please drop me a line and a link, I'd love to see yours! :-)

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 ;-)

Shopping for Christmas? The Gift Sets are Back

I have been busy participating in the Etsy Holiday Boot Camp and preparing the shop for Christmas. That's the strange part about owning a shop of any kind - you have to think about Christmas before the leaves even turn red. 

The past few years, I offered gift sets - each containing one art yarn, one handsewn project bag in a matching colour, and a set of stitch markers, usually also in matching colours.
This year, after consulting with Twisted, I decided on a different approach: there will still be beautiful, handsewn project bags and equally beautiful (equally handmade) stitch markers, but they won't be tied to a specific art yarn. I will list gift options containing a project bag and a matching set of stitch markers instead, so you can choose which yarn you'd like to pair with which set.

I have made eight sets in different colours, and there is no doubling - so be quick if you want a specific one ;-)
As always, each bag is adorned with two charms attached to the cord. I tried to decide on favourites, but it's hard. I love the black one with the raven charm and the black faceted bead, but also the turquoise one with the silvery bead and the seahorse. Oh, and the white one with the silvery bead and the snowflake charm, I really love snowflakes... I will list these beauties as soon as I can :-)