My Weekend Challenge - Art Yarns!

It seems that as much as I love spinning and knitting full-time, even I face motivation issues at times. I love spinning art yarns, but they also need to happen a bit more "organically" than some of the other yarns I do. I often need to choose the fiber, partially prep it, but then leave it alone for a few days. Then, I may return to it and find the yarns that I will use to spin in with the fiber. Then it may need to "simmer" a few more days. Until, finally, I take the fiber and yarn and just SPIN IT. I guess this is my "creative process" of sorts, but when I'm trying to get a certain amount done in a certain amount of time, this process doesn't always yield the results I need, or want. So, I am issuing myself a CHALLENGE for this weekend (well, starting today) and that is, I will SPIN ART YARNS ALL WEEKEND! This is actually a shot of some of the fiber that has been "simmering" this week -

There are 3 different colors shown here, in addition to another one off to the side, not in the picture. The 4 piles at the top are "Sprucewood", and the bottom sets are "Parade" and "Boho" - all merino wool hand dyed by the Yarn Wench. By Monday - these piles will be magically transformed into art yarns! :)

To get myself ready for some art yarn spinning, I spun up this beauty last night. It was spun from a Spontaneous Spinning Batt from loop. This one is mostly alpaca, but also has bamboo, Tussah Silk, cotton noils, locks, and angelina. The alpaca makes it feel very warm. I added in some novelty snippets and even more angelina for additional sparkle, and then plied it with two colors of thread - light purple and light green. It is a pretty heavy skein - 5.2 oz - and 100 yards. I'm calling it "Garden Fairies" -


So with that as inspiration, it is now time to begin my challenge . . . starting with "Boho" - the brightest of the batch!

Spontaneous Spinning Batts - spun!

So, for anyone into fiber/spinning, you may be aware of LOOP - her batts were on the cover of Spin-Off magazine recently, and the demand has definitely increased for her wonderful fiber batts. But, none of them compare to her "Spontaneous Spinning Batts" - from her listing, this is a description of the batts:

"Spontaneous Spinning Batts are lumpy, bumpy, super textured spinning batts inspired by an awesome experience I had at Camp Plucky Fluff! These OOAK batts are an exercise in NOT thinking and letting spontaneity take over. I have so much fun making these batts but you'll have even more fun spinning them! They are carded to intentionally create lumps and bumps in the fiber with loads of color and lots of goodies like glitz, locks, yarn scraps, sari silk, silk noils and even sequins carded in! The result is fabulous texture and automatic randomness in your yarn. As you spin these batts, be spontaneous- let the batts spin themselves. It's so much fun!!!"

They are near impossible to get - when they appear in her shop they are gone in SECONDS! Seriously, I know. But, a few weeks ago I was lucky enough to snag *two* of them! And, both in two of my favorite colors . . . . which also happen to be the colors in my logo - orange and purple!

The first one - Purple Progression. I LOVE purple, so this batt was perfect! And, so fun to spin! It contained Corriedale wool, bamboo, alpaca, silk, and merino with a little sparkle, too. I spun in 6 different purple yarns - 3 light and 3 dark - and then plied with shiny light purple thread. The pictures don't quite do it justice, but here is the finished yarn - Plum Perfect Purple:

The second one, well, is quite opposite! The batt was called "Creamsicle" and has shades of orange, yellow and white in it for just an amazing brightness! The fibers in this one are bamboo, silk, alpaca, wool, and of course glitz. I spun in yellow and orange yarns and plied with a variegated orange/yellow/white thread. The blends of fibers give this one a really interesting texture - mostly soft/smooth but with some bumpy parts from the yarns spun in and the wool. I'm calling this skein, "You Are My Sunshine" :
Alas, these are the only two "SSBs" I've had the luxury to spin, but I did join her "Spontaneous Spinning Club" which means I will be getting one new batt each month! Yay! I've also got some batches of "babycakes" on the way, which will be combined for various types of yarns . . .

While I would love to spin nothing but SSBs and babycakes, I do have other fiber to spin, and recently had the joy of trying out a new fiber seller - FeltStudioUK . I was asked to spin up the "Forest" batts . . . I made sure I got extra fiber so purchased two batt lots - and with the smaller one I spun up this yarn:


This smaller skein IS available as I will be spinning a slightly different skein with the other batch for the custom request.

I spun up yet another batt last night - this one from TerraBellaSpun - and that one should be listed later today. It is pretty shades of purple and blue (with shades in between) and black, plied with three threads to match the lighter colors. It also has a bit of sparkle in it! Since it is mostly merino wool, it turned out as a soft & squishy bulky yarn!

Tonight, I'll be stepping away from the batts for a bit and will be spinning up some merino top hand dyed by the Yarn Wench. Or Bamboo. Or both. We'll see! :)

Another missed Monday . . .

So, once again I missed Monday! I had every intention of posting something, but time just slipped away . . . of course now that means I have even more to show/post today!

First, new yarns! Here is one that was finished on Sunday. It is spun from merino wool with novelty yarns spun in (4 of them hand dyed!) and plied with thread. This one also has tons of angelina spun in for sparkle! Available on etsy and my site.

I also finished the second "Violet Blues" skein on Saturday. Here it is:
I also had some coily-spun yarns but they sold yesterday! Yay!

Last night, I worked on "Blu-Mocha Cherry 2" - that is the name of the fiber (hand dyed by the Yarn Wench, of course). First, I found 15! novelty and specialty yarns that I wanted to spin in. I cut them up and set them up:

The color isn't quite right as the ones that are blue look a little purple in this picture. Then, I spun these into the fiber. Here is a bobbin shot of one of the finished single plys, before plying.

Then, I plied with thread. One skein was plied with pink thread, and the other with blue. This is a preliminary picture which isn't quite perfect, but it will give you an idea (these should both be listed with better pics later today):

While I was spinning, Bug, my cat, was sleeping under my chair:

so, this is what she looked like when I was done:

What a mess! She still loves to sleep there, though, even though many times she is really really close to my moving feet! Oh well. Here is one more shot of her through the wheel (please excuse the dust):
I don't really want to post them here, but if you are interested in seeing my "stash" photos, my "workspace" and the mess that WAS my living room, you can check out my PICS on FLICKR. I did some organizing and cleaning this weekend so that THIS and THIS became THIS and THIS. I also did some "organizing" of fiber and matching yarns so that I am ready to SPIN SPIN SPIN this week! I started out good last night by getting my two skeins done, and hope to do the same tonight. This picture shows some of the ones in the queue for this week!

Okay, I think that's all I have time for this morning, but should be back tomorrow with some more great items from some of my favorite etsy sellers! :)

New Orleans Midnight

When I first started knitting, I knit a twisty scarf with some Novelty Yarns from Numei and a purple acrylic. It reminded me of when I was in New Orleans, on Bourbon Street, so I called it New Orleans Midnight. This yarn uses some of those same novelty yarns, and is plied with one as well, thus the names. Both are spun from handdyed domestic wool from PoppyFlowerFibers.

New Orleans Midnight Handspun Boucle Yarn


New Orleans Midnight Hand Spun Art Yarn

They are both available on etsy HERE and HERE! And, check out THIS THREAD for my Special Friday Happy Hour Sale!

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!