A Few More Fabulous Finds . . .

Yesterday, my post was getting a little long, so I'd like to post a couple more of my favorite items . . . two made with my yarn, and one, well, one, just because.

First, is a wonderful "Aqua Lime Explosion" scarf from Kelli of LoopyKnitsBoutique. Kelli first found my yarn around the holidays and proceeded to make a fabulous scarf out of one of my "Boho Brights" art yarn skeins. (You can see that on her blog here.) Then, she made this one from another of my favorite, brightly-colored skeins - (photo courtesy of Kelli)

I just love the textures and colors. She has also knit several scarves using my Beautiful Bamboo yarn - you can see them here! Bamboo is great for soft and slinky scarves.

Yesterday, I also mentioned Naomi of KnottyHandspuns. She has also used my art yarns in some of her knitting, and here is one of her cowls, knit with one of my art yarn skeins - (photo courtesy of Naomi)


I also mentioned her fabulous Thick n Thin Single ply yarns yesterday, but she also spins amazing two-plys! This one is in my favorites right now, and if I had even a glimmer of hope that I'd actually have time to knit it up, I would have snatched it up already - this is "Shady Forest" -
(photo courtesy of Naomi)

I'm running out of time again, so that's all for today, except for the new listing picture! I listed one skein of Summer Carnival Light bamboo today, and will be listing 3 skeins of Stormy Night in a little bit. Here is a picture of the Summer Carnival Light skein -

Fabulous Finds Made From My Yarn!

Before I get to my new listing and picture for today, I have to share some of my favorite items that have been made with my yarns. Spinning yarn and selling it - that is a great feeling, to know that someone else likes my yarn enough to buy it - but seeing that yarn turned into something wonderful - that feeling is even better! Lately, some really talented people have created some great items with my yarn so today I'm going to share them with you.

First, is Brenda of Phydeaux Designs. She has actually used several of my yarns for her beautifully knit scarves, but this one is my all-time favorite - so lush and gorgeous - she really knows how to get the most out of my art yarns - Here is her "Titania" Scarf knit with "Sabrina's Vintage Garden" art yarn - (great photo courtesy of Brenda)

She also makes the best scarves out of the best hand spun thick n thin single ply yarns out there - those spun by Naomi of Knotty HandSpuns. Seriously, these scarves are amazing - the spinning is exquisite and the knitting equally so! This is one of my recent favorites, "Honey Berry" spun from Naomi's "Plum Honey" hand spun Squoosh Monster thick n thin single ply yarn. (Again, photo courtesy of Brenda)

Today, I was also notified of this great hat knit with my hand spun single ply yarn by Dave at UrbanRagg, also on etsy. I especially like how he combined my yarn with that of another etsian! Such great colors - and he's got lots more to choose from, too! (photo courtesy of UrbanRagg)

Finally, I have to include one of Becca's capelets - She can be found on etsy - HappiKnits and also on Trunkt! What I love most about her items are the elegance and how she uses the art yarns in an understated way to add that perfect little-extra to her designs. Oh, and of course I love this one because of the color! (photo courtesy of Becca)

These are only a few of the wonderful artists who have used my yarns in their creations, but just happen to be my most recent favorites!

And, quickly, here is the latest yarns I listed today - more Plum Divine 2009. This is the last of the fiber I have on hand so I'm not sure when I'll spin this one again - though I'm sure I will at some point! I have two skeins - an 82 yard skein and a smaller, 48-yard skein.

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!

New yarns!

So, once again, no post on Monday. One of these weeks I'll post every day, really!

But, I don't have much to say/show today, but I do want to post my latest yarns . . .

oh, wait, before I do that - I have a Treasury on Etsy right now! Please CLICK HERE to check it out! It is "From Fiber to Yarn to Art" and includes some of my favorite fibers, yarns, and finished products. It will only be available until Thursday morning, though!

Okay, on to the yarns. First, here is some bamboo that I spun up on Saturday night. Very thinly spun! It isn't quite on etsy or my website yet, but should be later today, along with another skein of handspun bamboo that I spun up yesterday. This one is called "Marmalade Sky" and is spun from fiber dyed by the FiberLady.
Then, there are the CoilySpun skeins I spun on Saturday, too. They were spun from hand dyed domestic wool dyed by the Yarn Wench. They have both been listed on etsy (click on the picture to go to the listing) and kittygrrlz.com.



And, finally, here is what I spun on Sunday - more Andromeda! Andromeda has been a very popular colorway hand dyed by Lynn (aka the Yarn Wench). Each batch is slightly different and I've already spun up several of them. This time, I wanted to spin a thin single of merino/silk, a thick single of merino, and ply them together (similar to what I had done with the "Pucci" colorways). But, I didn't have any of the merino/silk Andromeda! So, thanks to Naomi, who was willing to do some swapping, I got the fiber I needed as she sent me her batch of the merino/silk. There is one large skein of the bulky two-ply (110 yards, 4.6 oz) and then a lot of 2 mini-skeins, including 50 yards of Navajo 3-ply spun from just the merino/silk blend.
And, the mini-skein lot:

Last night, I spun up some more bamboo and then some "Batt-tacular" yarns! Two single ply skeins and 1 bulky plied-with-thread skein, all spun from batts from TerraBellaSpun. They should be listed on my website tonight and a couple of them will probably be on etsy, too. Then, tonight, I have two more batts I hope to spin and then it will probably be back to the art yarns.

But, for now, I must get to work!

New yarns and more . . .

So, today I want to first take a moment to share some totally awesome scarves that were knit with my yarn! The first ones are from Brenda of Phydeaux Designs. She has used several of my art yarns to make her gorgeous hand knit scarves. Here are just a couple (you can click on the picture to go to the etsy listing!)


Then, there is my fiber friend Naomi - she spins some wonderful yarns herself and you can find her etsy shop HERE. Here is a wonderful scarf she knit for her Mom with my "Martha's Midnight Trellis" boucle yarn. She takes some great pictures so I'm including two shots.


And, just in case you thought the only thing you could make with my yarns are scarves, here is a wonderful art doll made by Lisa. You can find her wonderful Nymphlings on etsy HERE.
This is "Veruca the Grape Vine Nymph"! Her HAIR was made with one of my Plum Lime/Plum Grove skeins! You can see more pictures of Veruca HERE. At this time Veruca is not for sale, but she also has a really wonderful bunny in her shop now, "Rosebud Bunny".
Finally, before I have to go, I will share pictures of a couple new yarns. These were shown yesterday, but now I have much better pictures and they are officially available on etsy and kittygrrlz.com.

Blu-Mocha Cherry Hand Spun Art Yarns - two skeins, 100 yards (plied with pink thread) and 92 yards (plied with blue thread). Both have 15 different novelty yarns spun in (3 hand dyed by the Yarn Wench!) which is more than usual for one of my art yarns. I also spaced them much closer, so overall there is MORE spun into the skeins! Here they are!
Then, there is what I spun last night! First, I gathered together the novelty yarns I wanted to spin into the fiber:
Then, I spun up the single:

And, finally, ta-da! Two new skeins of art yarn! These pics aren't the greatest, but I'll be taking better ones this afternoon and then listing them both.


Till tomorrow . . .

Wonderful Etsy Sellers!

Today, I'd like to thank all of the wonderful etsy sellers who have bought from me! Some of them buy for their own personal use, while others use my yarn in their own creations - thus keeping the circle of handmade and etsy going! If you are looking for wonderful handmade items, please consider checking out these shops! Now, without further ado and in no particular order:

CHARTE CHIC
Char is a newer customer, who at the beginning of the year bought some of my absolute favorite yarns. She creates unique, one of a kind, wearable art! I love the textures and yarns she uses and the style of these pieces. They would warm you up while showing your individuality! Here are two of my favorites. Of course, the first one was knit with one of my "Divine Melon" yarns . . . and the second, well, I just love purples! Check out Char's shop HERE for more! She's got different styles and colors to choose from for all your individual tastes!



ARTEMIS I
I always wonder what *other* things could be made with my yarns . . . and then, last fall, I was introduced to Rhonda . . . she makes "WhippetSchnoods" - snoods for your dog! Her items (the snoods as well as beautiful scarves) are hand knit with care, using hand-dyed and hand-spun yarns in soft fibers. It is cute to think that "Kitty" Grrlz yarns are helping make something for wonderful dogs . . . Since most of her work is custom or special request, here is a picture that will link you to her shop, where you can view her for sale and sold items to see the wonderful array of yarns she has worked with in the past. She welcomes custom orders, so if you have a dog in need of a snood or just want some fancy, funky artemitts (fingerless gloves), scarves, you name it, don't hesitate to contact her! :)

NYMPHLINGS, HandMade Dolls by Babji
Another wonderful customer, Lisa creates the most amazing dolls with various yarns, including luscious handspuns! Her Nymphlings each have their own personality and story, so you can find the perfect match! Here are just two of her cute Nymphlings:


RYONO CREATIONS by knottynaomi
It's sort of funny how I "met" Naomi . . . we realized we both "stalk" The Yarn Wench on update days and have been fighting over fibers for almost a year! :) Now, I consider her a wonderful fiber friend. She makes some of the most beautiful sparkly Swarovski crystal jewelry, as well as spins some of the most beautiful single ply yarns I've ever seen! She also spins other types of yarn, as well, and you just know she uses the best fiber! Here are a few of her available items:



I think that is all for today. I hope you will check out these great etsy sellers!

And, I do thank ALL of my customers! I just thought it would be nice to feature a few etsy sellers. If you have bought from me, though, and would like to be mentioned or featured here, just contact me via etsy or my webpage. I would happily have a day where I feature buyers and their finished projects! Or, if maybe you are a seller as well, but I didn't know . . .

***PLEASE NOTE! All pics in this entry are the SELLERS pictures, and not mine!