Spinning in the New Year!

So, it was a great New Year's weekend with LOTS of spinning getting done! Yay! Late New Year's Eve, I had this fiber ready to become my "First Spin of 2008":

I'll admit, it was a little tempting to actually start spinning this at midnight, but instead, I spun it up on New Year's Day . . . here are the results . . .

The first skein was spun with lots of novelty yarns and plied with two colors of thread. This is superwash merino wool hand dyed by the Yarn Wench, so it is sooo soft and wonderful! This skein is 72 yards, bulky weight. It should be on etsy later today, but is already on my website. I am calling it "Chocolate Cherry Valentine."

The next skein, and the one that was actually spun first, is pretty much the same, except it was plied with Lana Grossa Nuvoletta yarn, a mohair/acrylic blend. This one, "My Cheeky Valentine" is 64 yards, bulky weight, 3.2 oz.

Then, since it seemed I was on a Valentine-inspired kick, I spun up these two skeins from hand dyed merino wool (from the Yarn Wench as well). They are 80 and 82 yards, bulky/super bulky and have novelty yarns spun in, glitz and angelina, and also tons of super silky soft Kid Mohair locks.
These are also available on my website and should be on etsy later!

AND! I have finally gotten a few Kitty Minis up on my site! Kitty Minis (okay, I just couldn't call them Kittens!) are mini skeins of handspun yarn--either individual skeins or lots of smaller skeins. They would be great for freeform crochet, mixed media, scrapbooking, collage, or any other crafty fiber fun project. They are also priced at below what a similar full skein would cost, even though you still get decent total yardage! The first lot has already sold, but here is a picture:
That was 84 yards of handspun yarns!

The second one is a lot of two small skeins (20 and 24 yards) of my "Punk Rock Valentine" yarns! Here is a shot:

And, the last one is a 54 yard skein spun up from sample carded batts, mostly in blues and purples, with a few yards of brown/tan/gold at one end. I was going to split this, but kind of liked it together, so I'm calling it Woodburnt Blues.
Kitty Minis will hopefully become a regular item available from me. I hope to list new ones at the beginning of each month.

Another new item I'm hoping to have listed tonight are novelty yarn lots for spinning, collage, mixed media, scrapbooking, or any other crafty project--but mostly geared towards art yarn spinning. This idea has stemmed from a couple of things. First, I have SO MANY novelty yarns that I can't possibly use them all up! Second, I used some fibers from an etsy seller who seems to have disappeared that I really liked. They were color coordinated lots of various yarns and fibers in 30 or 35 yard lots, 2 yard lengths. I loved the convenience and color combinations. The only drawback was that I usually needed more yardage for 2-4 oz of fiber. So far, from what I've found, it seems like no one else has this type of yardage available for the price. So, I'm going to try and fill that gap--my lots will be MORE than 5-10 yards, MORE than 30-35, probably 40-50 and still be similarly priced! They will be cut in 2 yard lengths. Perfect for spinning into art yarns!! Right now, I have two lots ready to go--they are a little more uniform than future lots will be, meaning each one only has about 4 different yarns. I'm thinking future lots will have a little more variety of yarns with less strands of each. But, we'll see. Watch for them on kittygrrlz.com later today--that is, IF I can figure out what to call them!

Well, I think that is it for now! I leave you with one more picture, PlumLime Grove Yarn, this is the second skein done with the Plumgrove hand dyed merino wool from the Yarn Wench. This was such a fun color combination to do!

Happy New Year!

Well, it has been quite the year! This was my first full-fledged year as a "spinner" and the first full year I have really dedicated to making Kitty Grrlz a viable business. It has been a ton of work but alot of fun, and I am already making plans for 2008!

After being sick for nearly two weeks, and just not getting much done on the crafting front, I have finally gotten back into the SPIN of things--I spun up a whole bunch of yarns this weekend -- most of them on Friday -- and finished a scarf that has been on the needles since before I got sick.

Here is a nice shot of some of the yarns:
Some of them are on etsy now. Sonoma 1 and 2 are here and here. Abundance - one is being held so I haven't listed the other one yet. Plum Lime Divine is HERE and Divine Melon is HERE. The last one isn't on etsy yet, but all of them (except Abundance) are on my website.

In other store news, TODAY is the LAST DAY to get the SALE PRICE on selected items. The Sale Priced HandSpun Yarns are on Etsy HERE and the Sale Priced Hand Knits are on Etsy HERE. ALL SALE items are HERE on my website.

In addition, I will also offer FREE SHIPPING in the USA on ALL ORDERS and HALF PRICE SHIPPING on International orders. Just put "FS" in Notes to Seller or Comments section and wait for updated invoice or pay and I will refund the difference. This offer (and the sale prices) ends tonight at Midnight, CST.

I have also opened a new ETSY SHOP for my HAND KNIT items -- Kitty Grrlz Knits - kittygrrlzknits.etsy.com Beginning tomorrow, I will be listing all of my new hand knit items there and Kitty Grrlz - kittygrrlz.etsy.com will only be for my handspun yarns. I will still combine shipping between the two shops, and my website will stay the same, but this is something I thought I would try for the new year. Items currently in the Kitty Grrlz shop will slowly be switched over to the new shop--I hope to have everything separated by the end of January.

In the new year, I am also going to putting out a monthly newsletter via email. Recipients of the newsletter will be the first to find out about new yarns or items, upcoming craft shows, and will get special discounts and offers. These discounts will be the only ones I offer most of the time, so if you would like to join the Newsletter mailing list, just EMAIL ME.

Finally, I will leave you with some more pictures of my latest items! :)

Amethyst Sky Scarf - hand knit by me with Austermann Samoa yarn hand-dyed by Lynn (aka the Yarn Wench.) This should be up at kittygrrlzknits.etsy.com tomorrow!

Here is a nice cozy scarf knit up from handspun yarn from TerraBellaSpun.

Here is a another new yarn, just finished around 12:30am this morning! It is spun from merino wool handdyed by the Yarn Wench, and I think I'm sticking to the name of "Reckless" . . .
And, just a few single shots of the other new art yarns:

Now, I have to get back to spinning! Happy new year everyone!

Chocolate Covered Cherries

Chocolate Covered Cherries is a wonderfully soft handdyed handspun novelty art yarn. The fiber is superwash merino wool and dyed by chickswithsticks aka sprouty25 on etsy! It was a dream to spin! I added in some novelty yarns for texture and plied with thread. I have two skeins available. Both are available on my website or etsy.

Here are some more pictures:

Busy Spinning Weekend!

Well, I finally got a chance to SPIN SPIN SPIN! Here is a glimpse of the new yarns (they are all available on my WEBSITE.)

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.

New Yarns!

Here are the fruits of my spinning yesterday:

They are both spun with handdyed merino superwash wool from sprouty25 on etsy. Each has two Moda Dea yarns spun in and one is plied with orange thread and the other is plied with purple variegated thread. Both will be up on my website later and possibly on etsy tomorrow.

It felt so good to be spinning. I've missed it this week as I worked on my website. I have some more fiber ready to be spun tomorrow -- will be working on some 2plys this week!