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 :-)

Tentacular Knitting Project(s)

I found an intriguing pattern called Tentaculum. I was in posession of a wonderful skein of art yarn at the time which I really wanted to knit up myself, and the two kind of happened to coincide. Here's the result :-)

I originally intended to make and keep this for myself, but then I decided to give it to my mum for her birthday. It felt right and she likes it :-)

I made another one I didn't really intend to keep, but now I am wondering... I wanted to knit another one because I had so much fun with the pattern, and I decided to spin a white snowflake art yarn since I've always wanted to knit one of those myself. The thing is - I don't like wearing white. I don't think it looks good on me, and I usually prefer black with a splash of either red, green oder dark teal. All I wanted was the bliss of knitting a wonderful mixed-fibre art yarn with snowflake sequins into a fun garment which I could then trade or give as a gift. Then I put it around my neck and was amazed how white actually can look quite good on me - unfamiliar, but not at all bad. So now I am not sure whether I'll keep it or not. I haven't even gotten around to weaving in the ends and blocking the thing, which is why I can only show you a picture from the very beginning:

I am so in love with these snowflake sequins! I always have been, from the first time I saw them :-) I even wondered whether they might look good in a black or teal yarn *g* Maybe I'll try that some day.

Just a quick note...

and picture of my freshly knitted Cupido cowl :-) I found the pattern on Ravelry, but there's also a blog post about it on Please Don't Eat the Daisies if you'd just like to see a few photos. I finished knitting the baby blanket some time ago (but haven't blocked it yet, and time is getting short...) and there were two skeins of yarn left. I had had no idea how much I'd need and decided to be on the safe side. I thought about putting the two remaining skeins in the shop, but when I saw the pattern for the Cupido cowl, I just had to knit it and the yarn seemed perfect. I absolutely loved knitting with the yarn (it's so fluffy and soft!), but since the colours really don't look so good on me I hope to trade the cowl for something I can't make myself. I might put the last remaining skein in the shop, though, which is white, blue and yellow. I'll need to take photos some of these days.

In other respects I'm spending pretty much of my time studying, my first oral exam will be at the end of the month. It's freaking me out and alternately filling me with joy since it will bring me closer to the end of my student days...

The Skull Scarf

I had looked forward to the Tour de Fleece so much - but since I have had some problems with stress and inner pressure lately, I have decided to drop out. I was on sick leave last week and didn't even feel up to spinning, so I took the yarn I spun on day 2 and knitted it up. Sitting on the sofa, watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer (which I somehow missed when I was young, so I felt I had to close that gap in education ;-)) and knitting did me good and I feel much better now :-)

(please click for a larger version!)

I love how the scarf turned out, and I'm looking forward to giving it to a friend as a birthday present. In fact, this wasn't the only thing I knitted last week. I made a hat and a pair of wrist warmers from a skein of beautiful corespun art yarn I had spun for myself quite a long time ago, and I started the Tempest Cowl (using my own handspun lace yarn in teals and a little blue, black and bright turquoise), aaaand I made two dice bags, also intended as presents. Oh - and the reason I was finally able to knit again and to have fun doing it, is that I *finally* finished the Scarf of Horror about two or three weeks ago. Now I am free to knit things for myself, and I am so happy about it! Now the only thing I have to do is take some decent photos to show you what I've done :-)

It really felt good to sit around, watch cheap TV shows, and do nothing "useful" for once. Being self-employed it turns out I have some problems integrating breaks into my daily routine, so this last week was a kind of enforced and very necessary holiday. And you know what? I am now looking forward to working again - but I'll try to reduce the inner pressure. 

I hope you are all well :-)

Divaesque Wellness Dreams

This is one post long overdue! Maybe some of you remeber the Divaesque Scarf I was working on for a trade. Well, I finished it quite a while ago, and I already received a packet full of gorgeous handmade soaps and shower melts from aforementioned soap sorceress Goodgirl (who, in fact, was much quicker to send her part of the bargain than I was). Since part of the parcel is supposed to be a gift to someone who might be reading this blog, the picture shows only some of the delightful items I received:

I've already used up one shower melt, gave two away (one to my dear friend and shop partner TQ/Twisted, and one to my sister-in-law), and just started another one yesterday - and they are pure heaven! I requested pure essential oils instead of perfume oils for all the bars and melts, and I am so happy about the fragrances! Thank you again so much, Goodgirl!

Unfortunately, I was in such a hurry to send the scarf on its way that I completely forgot to take photos once it was finished *ashamed* But here's photo of a part of it, anyway:

 

It's about 2,20 m long, between 20 cm and 25 cm wide, and I knitted up two full skeins (which means I've still got about half a skein of gorgeous yarn left, ha! ;-)). 

WIP - Divaesque Art Yarn Project

I've already blogged about the scarf I wanted to knit for a trade with the talented soap sorceress Goodgirl.
(as I have no idea how all that wellness stuff is made, I am most impressed and it does seem like magic to me - and I do like the alliteration ;-))

I started knitting when we went to Prague (here's the blog post about it), and I also worked on it during the Christmas holidays. Then I was ill, and then I wasn't sure whether the scarf was already long enough. I wanted to take pictures to show to Goodgirl, so she could decide whether she wanted it to be longer - but I never managed. So, this is still a UFO (unfinished object), but I finally wrote a message about it to my patient trade partner and hope to finish it sometime soon. It's been fun knitting so far - I absolutely love knitting with art yarn, as you might have guessed ;-) It's fascinating how even the simplest pattern is transfigured by the yarn. Just a bit like magic, too!

New Art Yarn - and Interim Result of the Year End Spinning Challenge

Finally I found the time for a blog post - I've been quite busy working and writing my thesis, the usual ;-) But luckily, I also found a little time for spinning here and there, and I really needed that for balance...

I've spun a yarn which I will knit into a broad scarf, and which I will then trade for gorgeous bath bombs, shower melts and/or other wellness stuff handmade by the wonderful goodgirl :-)

(The pictures are crappy, but it just isn't possible for me to take good ones, so these will have to do)

 Preparing, getting all the things together:

The first skein of yarn - I love the colours and the texture, and even the flowers although they're light pink ;-) I think the go well with the black. I also added tons of sparkling angelina, as well as the beads and sequins from the picture above.

 

... but there's more: I have spun two and a half skeins of this wonderful yarn, hopefully enough for a scarf measuring 1,75 * 0,25 m

The total of these three skeins is 346 m, 349 g!

I also wanted to take a photo of all the yarns I've spun for the challenge so far - but I forgot two and added one. So, here's the photo, but the third from the right is technically not part of the challenge, and there should be two more. I also calculated the sum of yardage and weight of all the yarns I spun in November:

1208 m,  893 g - not too bad, but I bet there are many people who managed more than that ;-)

My wonderful husband and I will be going to Prague tomorrow, so I won't be able to ship any yarn orders - but you're still welcome to order, and I will ship your yarns after my return :-) Have a wonderful week, I'll be back on the 6th or 7th.

Odds and Ends

There's nothing new, really, I just wanted to let you know we haven't forgotten our blog readers ;-)

I still can't spin on a wheel, but I'm feeling a lot better and can walk again, though not without pain.

We won't be able to participate in the Tour de Fleece this year, because we'll be on vacation. Which reminds me: we will close the shop for about two and a half weeks (starting Thursday morning, our time zone), so if you need some yarn before we leave, be quick ;-)

I'm planning a new knitting project to take with me to Norway (yes, that's where we'll be going :-)) and have decided on the Myrtle Leaf Shawl (ravelry link) from Victorian Lace Today. I'll be using handspun and hand dyed dark greenish/blueish icelandic wool which has been lying around for a few months now. Hopefully I'll make enough progress to show you when I return. But I also need to work on the Scarf of HoRRoR, so we'll see... ;-)

I have taken advantage of my non-spinning situation by creating this beautiful shawl pin from hammered silver wire:

...which I have then bartered for delicious redcurrant and elderflower/orange jelly :-) I had registered for a German trading forum previously, that's where the trade took place. I already have a request for another pin like this and I'll be swapping it for handmade glass beads I can spin into yarn. I hope to show them to you when I get back!

We'll be back at the end of July - take care and be creative! :-)

The Scarf of HoRRoR

I've already mentioned it and been asked to show it - now I will. And I will tell you the story behind it, too ;-)

Once upon a time, there were two best friends who were both going to be married - not to each other, but to the most wonderful men in the universe ;-) The four of them really fancied learning how to dance so they could stun everyone at their respective wedding, and as luck would have it, they were friends with a dancer/dancing teacher. He was willing to teach them and spent many hours with the two happy couples, correcting their every move and suggesting impressive dance patterns.



Instead of payment, the two women - who were very talented at fibre arts - offered a handmade item of the dancing teacher's choice. Being allergic to wool he requested a silk scarf and he also decided on a cable pattern .

One of the fibre artists dyed some wonderful silk, the other one spun it into more than 800 m of very fine yarn - and here's where the horror began. The yarn should have been of sport weight or fingering weight (14-16 wpi), but silk tends to become thinner than you'd like when spun up, even when you're very skilled. So the young and talented artists ended up with very fine lace yarn of about 30 wpi. Extremely beautiful - and very time-consuming to knit, especially when combined with a cable pattern. The knitting artist has managed 46cm of scarf so far.

It's stunningly beautiful and feels gorgeous, but the extrapolation is 75 hours of knitting time. Now, if there's a person who deserves this scarf it is definitely our dancing teacher - we were all magnificent when performing our respective wedding dance. But that doesn't mean the knitter has to love the project, right? She really wants it to be done.



btw, have I mentioned my husband and I chose House of Fire by Alice Cooper as song for our wedding dance? You'd think our guests might have guessed we weren't going to choose a traditional waltz, but they did sound surprised - it was great fun :-D

A Noble Spring Wedding - Pictures of a Prize Yarn Knit Up

It's not been long since our lottery/giveaway - and we already received the first photos of what Kat made from the "Spring Wedding" yarn!



Thank you so much for the pictures, Kat, and for your permission to show them here - this is a beautiful piece, I love the pattern you chose!
More information can be found on Ravelry (since you've posted your Ravelry name in the comments of the giveaway posting, I think it's okay to post the link - if it's not, please tell me and I will remove it at once!)

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! :-) :-) :-)

Must... Knit...

I've made some progress on the scarf for my mother-in-law I wrote about a few days ago - 4,5 mm needles are a lot nicer than, say, 2 mm needles (which I am currently using with another project and it's hell - but more on that some other time, maybe) and I think I am about half done. First, let me show you a photo of the yarn:

At first I thought the yarn was too irregular for the pattern, but I have come to like it a lot. I hope my mother-in-law will like it, too (AND wear it).
It's a razor shell lace pattern which can be found in more than one book, which I have modified only slightly.

I've also spun some plant fibre yarn recently, which I want to knit into a wash cloth/wash glove. If that stands the test and I know how much yardage a project like that will take, I will probably spin some similar yarn for the shop, maybe selling it with a pattern. I am very eager to start knitting that, but I suppose the scarf should come first ;-) Some spinning in between will have to happen, though - but more on that later today, if I find the time, or during the next days :-)

What have our yarns become? Part 2

And here's another lovely item from Max - thank you so much! We can see that our yarns are in very good hands with you :-)

The Dark Ride

Dark Atlantis (Triangular Shawl) - finished!

I promised pictures of the Dark Atlantis triangular shawl - and here they are! :-)
The shawl can also be worn as a scarf which makes this beauty even better and more practical. I am so very happy with it :-)

What do I do with my Art Yarn!?

Yeah - a good question, isn't it? Jinx asked in her (german) podcast what we do with our Art Yarns. Do we just hoard them in dark places, take them out on some holidays to admire them but never do anything with them? Do we just sell our Art Yarns and don't work with them ourselves?

I can tell you, the last answer would be my answer of choice. I'm a lousy knitter and a poor crocheter, I can't read any pattern and have problems with knitting terms in general. But then there are these yarns we spin. Some are so soft to the touch I can't believe it and end up stroking the yarn for minutes (no joke). And some have such a unique look and I put so much effort in spinning just this special yarn I can't part with it.

And so, sometimes I can't help it and I have to try to do something with those yarns. So I'll show you what I, a poor knitter and lousy croecheter, did with my handspun yarns, and perhaps there's some inspiration for you. :)

This is the very first Art Yarn I ever spun. I wanted to try all techniques in one single yarn, so this Art Yarn is full of stuff and looks a little bit "stuffed".
I crocheted this thin scarf from one big skein. The drop stitch look comes from my super creative pattern which I invented: Every now and then I made a whole row with gigantic loops, contrasted by normally crocheted rows. There's nothing more to it, and because I'm such a poor crocheter I don't know if there's a term for this technique or if this can called a technique at all - but well, it did what I wanted it to do: It shows the yarn very nicely.
The look of both yarn and scarf is quite unique, and even though the yarn is that stuffed and full of clutter, I very much like this scarf and wear it often in winter. :)

This is a hat I did for myself. I have always wanted a totally unique hat, one that no one else has, but the patterns and yarns my granny used (and still uses, I guess) for knitting hats just didn't seem right.
So there was this really scrappy yarn, spun from lots of bordeaux red merino wool and bits of woolen left-overs in green, lilac and white. It looked really boring as a skein. But I knew that there was something to this skein... And as I had just raised my confidence in crocheting as I had completed this strange faux drop-stitch scarf, I thought: "I can do that!" and just started off.
It was a piece of cake. The yarn was very easy to work with, quite plain with some thicker parts, and as I wanted the colored pieces to stick out a bit, I varied the stitch from time to time.
I was done in about an hour - the yarn had been about 6-9 WPI or so. And I have to say: I love the hat! It's a completely unique piece of work, it's individual and a bit nerdy, but it's not the classical handspun eye-catcher, nor does it look as if it's a knitted (or crocheted) remainder from the stone ages.
Sadly I can't wear both scarf and hat, the colors don't match...

This is a neck warmer I knit. Yeah, I do indeed knit from time to time, even though I'm a veeeeery slow (and painful... sigh) knitter. I had to knit something from this yarn: It's Happy Alpaca, Yummy Lime, and I really had to try this super soft yarn! I love the colors, they're are so fresh and light! And so I knit this mini-shawl - again without a pattern (because, as I already said: I can't read patterns other than those written in plain words). I don't know how much yarn I used exactly, but it's not very much. This piece of work really taught me that crocheting just eats up your yarn, while if you knit you can easily get twice as far with the same amount of yarn! It must be about 20-30 g or even less, really not more! This mini-shawl made a great gift. :)

And here is another drop stitch scarf. And this time, it's a real one, a knitted one!
The yarn I used was quite similar to my White as Snow, Red as Blood and Black as Ebony yarn. It's of such a soft wool/silk-blend, it doesn't scratch in the slightest!
Again, as I knitted, I became aware of how much less yarn is used up by knitting than by crocheting. From one big fat skein of about 130 g I knitted not one, but two drop stitch scarves, one to keep for myself and one for my mum's birthday.
I really think drop stitch patterns show the structure of Art Yarns very well. And the best thing: Very few yarn is used in a drop stitch pattern and you knit very fast. Being a slow knitter, it took me two evenings for one scarf, but I guess if you're a bit more advanced than I am (which is quite likely!!), you can complete a thin scarf in just one evening!

So these are some of my knitted and crocheted objects. I think, the advice I can give you if you want to knit or crochet something from an Art Yarn is: Don't be intimidated by this yarn. Try something easy at first, just as I did, and choose perhaps a pattern (if you can read them ;) ) which shows the yarn off a bit, like a drop stitch pattern. And: If you don't have a larger amount of yarn, stick to knitting, as you'll get much farther than with crocheting. And: The more extravagant and stuffed with stuff the yarn is, the plainer the pattern - 'cause you won't see the beautiful pattern anyway if you use a highly complex Art Yarn. ;)

Weird posted some of her projects lately, perhaps she'll add her other projects, too. :)

Punk goes Metal - once again

Some time ago, I spun (and sold) an art yarn in black and red with metal discs and screw nuts. Spinning it was fun and I also really liked it - so I did it again. This time, I didn't want to sell the yarn, but to knit a set of scarf and hat/beenie to sell.
I did the scarf in two days, but since I would have to craft a set of double pointed needles in order to knit the hat, I somehow got lost on the way ;-) I really don't like working with wood... But sometime soon I will proceed and make a hat as fabulous as the scarf is :-)
It will be quite hard for me to sell this beauty - but at least I know that I can always make more of this wonderful yarn and knit whatever I like.

We're featured

Wow, that's awesome! We've been featured in Cricket Creations Handknit Scarves! It's a very special honour, as she knits the most beautiful scarves. That's the reason we included one of her gorgeous creations in a treasury we were able to grab a few days ago. :)