ART VS CRAFT - Saturday, November 29 in Milwaukee

Tomorrow, I will be at ART VS CRAFT in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Like the DIY Trunk Show in Chicago, and the Craftacular in Madison - this is a great indie craft show with wonderful artists and crafters who make all sorts of items that would make great gifts!

Please come and check it out!

Saturday, November 29, 2008
10am - 7pm
Humphrey Scottish Rite Masonic Center
790 N. Van Buren Street in downtown Milwaukee

I don't have many pictures to show of my new items, but I will have 4 new hand knit cowls/neckwarmers knit with hand spun art yarn, some new scarves, and lots of yarn - though I wasn't able to get as much spun this week as I had hoped. Here is a mosaic of some of the things I should have there -

New Hand Knits ready for the DIY Trunk Show

Well, I am all done for the night. Last minute yarns have been spun, labels have been made and attached, everything (except for the last minute yarns which are still drying) is packed away and ready to go tomorrow morning.

Here is a quick look at some of the new hand knits items I'll have tomorrow at the DIY Trunk Show in Chicago!

Knitting with Hand Spun Art Yarn

For the past week, I have been wanting to post something about knitting with hand spun art yarns. I know for some they are a little intimidating, but if you can break through that fear or uncertainty of "what do i do with it?", knitting with art yarns can be amazing! This post is a collection of some of the tips and suggestions I give when people ask me questions about knitting with my art yarns, and some examples.

My first advice is always to NOT BE AFRAID of the yarn! Don't let it intimidate you! I do know this feeling - when I first started knitting with hand spun yarns from The Yarn Wench, I was always afraid of "not doing the yarn justice", or not knowing what to do with smaller skeins. This fear would paralyze me and all that pretty yarn just sat there . . . waiting.

But finally I just started knitting with it! For some, it may seem "boring" to "just knit a scarf", but with an art yarn - even a plain scarf becomes an adventure. And, a unique adventure since each yarn is different! Here are some examples of skeins to scarves -

This is an art yarn Called "From RocketMan to Red Hat", a 98-yard, 3.4 oz skein
I took this skein and knit it into this scarf -
I used size 15 needles and cast on maybe 10-12 stitches (I know I should keep better track but each yarn is slightly different). I use a "drop stitch" pattern to help show off the yarn AND get a little more length from the yardage. For the drop stitch pattern this is what I do -
1. Knit 2 rows
2. On the third row, when knitting the stitch, I wrap the yarn around the needle TWICE. This means that you actually have twice as many loops on your needle at the end of the row, but they are coupled together.
3. On the fourth row, when knitting, put your needle only through the first loop of the two-loop stitch and as you pull the stitch off the needle, let that extra loop drop. So, in effect, you are knitting the first loop but the second loop drops. After doing that across the row, you are back to the same amount of loops/stitches on your needle as when you started.
4. Knit 2 rows.

Sometimes, if I want extra length I may wrap the yarn around 3 times! Also, I tried to find a video but wasn't able to come up with anything in a quick search, but did find these instructions, which may be better than mine.

Here is another -
I took a similar skein to this one -

And knit this scarf -

This one was a similarly sized skein at 98 yards, but I cast on fewer stitches, and in the blocking process tried to elongate it even more, so it is a longer, skinnier scarf.

Unblocked -

Blocked -

These pictures show how blocking can help even out your art yarn project. Sometimes, I actually like the look of the unblocked scarf, but have started to block them for a more "professional" look. For this one, I even *hung* it to dry so that it stretched out a little bit more.

There are other small projects you can knit with one skein of art yarn, too! Here is a hat that was knit with only a small 68-yard skein - and I didn't even use it all! I like to use size 10-1/2s or 11s when I knit hats with the art yarns.


And, these wristwarmers were knit with only about 40 yards of art yarn! I used size 11 needles for these, but maybe could have gone down to 10-1/2's
Cowls are another *great* item to knit with art yarns! You don't need that much - one skein should be enough - and you can knit them in the round fairly quickly. Here are a couple of cowls knit by Naomi of Ryono Creations - you can find her on ETSY HERE! These pictures are courtesy of her - you can see all of her pictures on flickr here!


and, one more -

These are just a few examples of the beautiful and unique items you can knit (or crochet!) with hand spun art yarns. Don't be afraid to "think outside the box" or "pattern" and you can create a wonderful, one of a kind piece of fiber art!

Update 5-5-2012 - While I plan on doing a complete update to this post, I am editing it to include some links to some other places you can get ideas of what to make with art yarn!  Here is one of my Pinterest boards that shows things made with Kitty Grrlz Hand Spun yarn , some of them the art yarns.  Here is my Kitty Grrlz Knits shop which includes cowls knit with the handspun yarn as well!

From fiber to yarn to hat!

I love seeing the process of getting to a "finished" item. So, here is a mosaic created with fd'sflickrtoys that shows the fiber, the single ply, the finished yarn, and the hat I knit from it! :)

You can see more pictures at my flickr here, and the hat should be listed on my site tonight! (I'm working on a matching scarf, too!)

Weekend recap . . .

So, this weekend was Harry Potter Weekend, I guess! I didn't get any spinning done, but I DID read Harry Potter AND knit a few things!

Friday, I did some knitting, and this hat was the result:

It is knit by me with Yarn Wench Yarn! Speaking of the Yarn Wench . . . I was a very bad girl on Friday . . . I couldn't resist . . . she is having a sale on her handspun yarn . . . so of course, I had to buy the one I've been wanting since she first posted it . . . Raspberry Floozie! Can't wait to get it and knit it up! (I also bought another one, and ONE fiber, but oh my, I could have easily bought so much more, but I MUST STOP!!! :) )

Anyways, on Saturday morning we did our normal run to Sam's Club . . . and they had the Harry Potter book . . . so even though I was expecting my copy in the mail that day . . . we bought a copy so my boyfriend could read it, too . . . so, we got home and he started reading right away! I said, TELL ME NOTHING!!! :) Even though I've been spoiled for every other book, and usually don't care, for some reason, for this last book I wanted to know nothing before reading, no spoilers, nothing! So, he read, and I knit . . .

My book arrived around 10:30-11am. I started it almost immediately and pretty much read straight through and finished it around 1am! So, that was the reason there was no spinning done on Saturday . . .

Then, on Sunday, I was just . . . drained, I don't know . . . reading the book was sort of . . . draining for some reason. So, I didn't get much done, except for some knitting. I decided I needed to knit some more of MY OWN yarn up, so I took "Galway Spring", two skeins I had spun from handdyed wool from the Yarn Wench, spun in two novelty yarns, and plied with thread . . . and I knit them into a hat and a scarf! Here are pics:


These were my main accomplishments of the day, though I did also get some more promo keychains made up and knit a little on the shawl I started on Friday.

I will do some spinning tonight, though, as I am going to spin up a yarn for a fellow librarian friend. But, I do think I may be doing a lot more knitting for the next couple of weeks as I've got a lot I want to try and get done before my shows in August. (lightweight shawls, light scarves). We'll see, though . . I've got so much beautiful fiber just waiting to be spun!

Neapolitan Crochet Hat!

Look at this wonderful hat my customer Alicia made! She crocheted this out of my Neapolitan boucle yarn! I'm working on spinning her another skein for a matching scarf! It's so cool to see something so great made with my yarn! Thank you for letting me share this picture (and stay-tuned, she'll be selling her cool crochet soon!)

Broken Heart Hat

Just a quick picture of MY hat, one that is also knit with handspun yarn from the Yarn Wench! This one is all mine! :)


This one, i didn't cut the pompom for a different look:

Buried in promos

So I haven't been spinning the last few days because I've been putting together promos to send off for craft show swag bags. I am actually trying to add a 2-yard yarn sample to each business card. I did over 100 of them on Sunday night, along with 25 "Kitty Minis" which are sample skeins of 10-30 yards. I've got *500* more cards to do to mail so they are received by the deadline of June 1! I better get going!

BUT, I couldn't resist doing some spinning last night, and the end result is "Sunset Gold" hand spun novelty art yarn, with flowers! I also knit up a hat last week--it is knit with the YarnWench yarn called "Attitude" but I am calling my hat "Arizona Sunset". Here are some pictures:



Tonight, it is back to the promos, but I will be listing "Sunset Gold with Flowers" and it's flower-less companion on etsy tonight! The hat will be listed on my website.