Yarn FEST is TODAY!

I'm off to the Beverly Hills Yarn Fest today where I'll be selling my hand spun yarns! More information -

Beverly Hills Yarn Fest 2010
Beverly Art Center
2407 W. 111th St Chicago, IL
Time: 11am - 5pm
Admission: $2

Now, I'm off to get ready . . .

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!

Catching up again . . .

So, I guess it's been a few days since posting . . . I went to the wedding last weekend in Minnesota and ended up getting back later on Sunday than I thought which kind of threw me off and I've been remiss in updating here . . .

The wedding was very nice! She had absolutely *perfect* weather, seriously. (It was indoors, but still.) An absolutely beautiful day! The ceremony was short, sweet, to the point! The dinner was fabulous--you know how wedding food, well, may tend to be kind of bland? Well, not this one! It was a chicken dish, but wow, it definitely had a zip to it! Very good! The reception was fun, as receptions always are! Lots of dancing . . . and of course a little drinking . . . and lots of silliness. Unfortunately, the only picture I took was of the wedding cake!?! I'm just not used to having a camera so I didn't really take it out! Here's the cake, though:

As you can see, they had a Mickey/Minnie theme going (the invitations were also Mickey & Minnie!) and the color scheme of black and red, as well. The cake was also very yummy!

Had a little time on Saturday before the wedding to finish knitting this hat:
It is knit from handspun yarn from mistressbatty at battysboutique.etsy.com! It was spun on a spindle, which is very impressive! I love the colors and while I do really like it, I did list it on etsy here.

Then on Sunday the ride home was getting long so I pulled out some of my handspun yarn and knit up a scarf! This is Midnight Valentine and matches the hat I did previously. The yarn was spun by me from handdyed domestic wool from the Yarn Wench, and I also spun in several novelty yarns and plied it with thread . . .here is the scarf, though the pictures are a little lighter than the actual color:


Also, last week before leaving, I did finish up some yarns. I posted about the single ply yarns which are now all on etsy, but didn't post a picture of the "Pink Lemonade" yarns I spun up. There are two skeins, one 98 yards which is just a boucle with lots of added sparkle, and the other is 58 yards of art yarn with novelty yarns spun in. Here is a picture of both:
For more pics you can check out my flickr here!

It's been hard getting back into the swing of things this week. I haven't spun anything, though I did begin spinning up another fairly thin single last night that is destined to become a two ply. I have about 8 oz and probably did about 3.5 last night. That first bobbin will definitely get finished tonight and I'll start on the second. I'm hoping to have it done on Thursday night. The wool is handdyed Falkland from the Yarn Wench and you can see the colors HERE and HERE.

I'm also knitting another scarf with Austermann Samoa. I've also got to get going on some more summer shawls for the August shows I have coming up. I managed to get some more yarn for these shawls and also the scarves I like to do on ebay! Woohoo!

Well, I'm sure I'm missing some things, but these are the highlights!

Quickie Weekend Review

I've got so much I wanted to blog about from this weekend, but I really don't have time! So, I'm just going to hit the highlights, with pictures!

I went on a knitting frenzy! In addition to the Southwest Winter and Lil Sistah scarves, I also knit two more out of "leftover" yarn wench yarns! I also finished a summer triangle shawl knit with Gedifra Poesie, and started two more projects. I spun up two yarns (well, four skeins, two colorways). One of them is a new kitty yarn! Okay, so here are some pics:

Lil Sistah (aka Rainbow Sherbert Colada):

The two "rainbow" scarves from remainder yarns:

"Wild Night" handspun yarns from handdyed domestic wool from the Yarn Wench and plied with Moda Dea Frivolous:
What my couch looked like on Sunday, as I got fiber prepped and some new knitting projects started:


Then, even though I didn't think I *would* spin anything on Sunday, I got inspired and put together these materials:

And, spun up 250 yards of art yarn! The first skein has Hello Kitty beads strung on the thread that I plied with, and the other doesn't have the beads. Only have "in process" pictures, but I absolutely LOVE how this turned out!

Single on the bobbin:

Plied on the bobbin:

On the niddy noddy:
And, the bead-less skein:
Now, back to work!

Welcome to Another Kitty Grrlz Blog!

So, in my neverending quest to have kittygrrlz everywhere, I've signed up for a blog here.

I've also got a blog here:
http://kittygrrlz.vox.com

and here:
http://kittygrrlz.livejournal.com

Also, please check out my Etsy Shop for wonderful handspun yarns and hand knits!
Kitty Grrlz on Etsy!

I also just signed up with lov.li and have a couple of items listed there:
Kitty Grrlz on Lov.Li!

I'll be updating this blog with pictures of new yarns and knits and also any crafty-related info! Oh! AND notification of sales in my shops!