Fit to be tied yarns!

A while ago I discovered that I have a lot of yarn. A LOT of yarn. All kinds. Commercial, handspun, novelty, etc. Lots of yarn.

And then, when I lamented to this to my boss, who is also of the yarn obsessed sort, we discovered we had the overflow of yarn in common.

From there it just progressed and ended at “Well, I can make that myself.”

And we did.

Hand tied yarn. It’s a time intensive process but the results are worth it if you are into multi strand, sparkly yarns that are constantly changing.

I’ve actually made quite a bit of this in the past couple months, but only started parting with some of it last night. Quite honestly, I like working with crazy/out of the ordinary yarns sometimes so this suits me just fine.

So what can you do with it? Well, I personally have used it as a carry along with two strands of wool in a project that eventually became a felted bag. Lots of pops of color and texture. My boss has made scarves and shawls. One she wove the ends in, the other she left out for a wilder look. Which for some reason reminds me of Helena Bonham Carter. I should totally send her a scarf.

Antiqued-450 yards, sold.

Pinky Lee-105 yards, available at fabulosity.etsy.com

Floofy Greens-125 yards, available at fabulosity.etsy.com

Orange Borange-108 yards, available at fabulosity.etsy.com

Anemone-125 yards, available at fabulosity.etsy.com

This was another skein I made and sold a while ago, it was small enough that you could wear it as a fiber necklace if you were so inclined. I’d love to know what the buyer made with this or if she kept it as a necklace!

Back to the day job, more soon!

March? Really?

Well hello there!

I cannot believe it’s already March! Though if winter would truly end I’d be even happier. My spring fever is killing me!

As I did last year, I have once again created a Bunny Bedlam 2009 edition. Bunny Bedlam was created last year when I was walking through Hobby Lobby and saw bags of polyester bunny batting/fiber fill. I couldn’t get the idea out of my head at the time, wondering if I could spin it into yarn. By itself, I suppose you could but I decided to blend it with white merino blend wool roving and sparkle. Last year I had yellow, pink and green to mix in, this year I could only find purple, green and yellow. Apparently this was a bad year for pink bunny batting.

This year, 100 yards:

This led to another crazed carding session for a second series of Brouhaha. White merino blend wool roving as a base and I mixed in tons of sparkle, commercial and handspun yarn scraps, a random assortment of mixed wools and some pulled sari silk. I crazy plied one skein with a 3 ply wool thread and left the other as is. 100 yards. This yarn takes forever to spin, as does nearly all art yarn as I’ve learned!

Brouhaha Series 2

Finally, a litta bitta fame! A super cool girl who goes by JennyBangBang at Etsy purchased my first Brouhaha series and she featured it in a video she made! It all makes me ridiculously smiley!

Otherwise I’ve been busy as usual dyeing roving and yarns and spinning as often as I can. So until next time may your stitches not drop and your yarn not tangle! (This is advice I really need to follow.)

Fly By

Oh hello little yarny blog. Neglected, aren’t you?

So what have I been up to? Lots of stuff, all accomplished on weekends and occasionally late into the night. I’ve been trying to spin every night, so far I’ve managed. I’ve also been making a lot of randomly designed creations on my drum carder that eventually become the base for my Bedlam yarns. I used to spin each batt as it came off the carder, which would create a bunch of low yardage skeins that I’d sell in a bundle.

To be honest, that process was extremely time consuming for me so I’ve taken a break from it. Instead, the Bedlam collections have evolved into Litta Bitta Bedlam. Basically I’m saving up all the batts that become Bedlam yarns and when I’m ready to work with them I pull the batts into roving, toss all the small bundles of roving into a basket and grab them randomly as I spin. This really mixes it up as you can probably imagine and I love the results.

I tend to get paralyzed by certain projects. For me I think it’s just the (perceived, I’m not that arrogant I promise) expectation to produce. It’s of course flattering to get the requests but for some reason it backfires on me and I find myself occasionally unable to move forward. So instead, in the case of Bedlam yarns, I think I’ve found away to avoid that problem. And yarn problems are good to have, don’t get me wrong.

I also don’t actively set out to create any specific batt anymore either. Each batt is a couple days creation, as I gather little bits here and there and card them as they come my way. If it is even remotely spinnable it goes into the carder, the packrat in me won’t let anything go into the trash. When the carder is full, the batt is ready. I pull it off and start over. And I’m always surprised by what is in each layer as I start pulling the batt into the roving, kind of a “Oh! That’s what I did with that scrap!”

Hey, I’m easily amused. It’s all good.

I don’t have any photos of the super top secret roving creation (o.k. it’s not a secret, I just didn’t take photos), but here are some recent results:

In other areas, I’ve been working frantically towards building stock for a show I will be in coming up in November in Sheridan,Wyoming. This will be the second year in a row I’ve gone armed with yarn and other goodies, I hope we are as successful this year as last! If nothing else being able to go and take my wheel with me is always fun, you meet a lot of really interesting people when you roll into a place carrying a spinning wheel.

And, by this time next week my best friend in the whole wide freaking world will be here! Jen is coming in on the 18th and leaving the 28th. Yarn madness and baby smooshing will commence! OMG, I am so excited to have her here! Can you tell?

So next week a bunch of stuff will all happen simultaneously. A metric ton of undyed yarn will arrive (I might have gotten a wee bit carried away, I freely admit it.), Jen will be here and the spinning wheels will be running as the roving stash is busted out. I seriously cannot wait. Vacation and so many good things! I’m so glad I waited to take time off this year. It was hard but in the end it will be so worth it!

Have a great weekend all!

TdF 2008-Day 12

You know, I’m really glad I’m not riding a bike because I’d probably be dead right now. Yarn? Psh, no problem!

See You In The Funny Pages Kid! 62 yards, Smoosh yarn, super coily and bubbly. Plied with pink silk thread.

Tour de Fleece: Day 9

BedlamSmoosh 3: 110 yards art yarn and plied singles. Lots of time spent at the drumcarder for these!

TdF: Days 2 & 3

Yikes, this is a lot harder than I had anticipated!

Day 2-Calamity-200 yards

Day 3-GrapeTaffySmooh 116 yards

Onward!

Busy Weekend

I spun and spun and spun some more this weekend, I feel like I accomplished much! I also managed to get some yarns listed that have been sitting around the last week or so. I should list more often but by the time I get home in the evening I’m usually so tired it’s all I can do to keep myself from slipping into a coma whilst making dinner.

As much as I really don’t like to move my spinning wheel, I’m going to take it with me to Wyoming over the 4th of July so that I can spin during the days while Jacob plays outside at my mom and dad’s place. They have an area of their yard that is in shade for the majority of the day, last year it was the perfect place to set up a little spinning camp and do my thing while keeping an eye on Jacob. I know that if I don’t take it with me I’ll regret it later!

So, without anymore delay, the yarn updates!

Sooper Bedlam Smoosh-170 yards

Berries & Greens-170 yards

Skeinlet Sensation Lot 28 (Already sold by the time I am posting tonight, those things go like wildfire!)

AntiquedSmoosh-60 yards

Happy 4th of July weekend everyone! Eat s’mores! And potato salad! And beer can chicken! And, and, and…

*Makes mental note to avoid dastardly scale next Monday morning*

I live!!

Argh, poor husband. He’s got a wicked cold and has felt like stir fried ass all weekend.

He said “Is it just me or are summer colds worst than winter ones?”

Summer is much, much worse.

We did get out yesterday and go to the park and then went to dinner to celebrate Father’s Day a little early to avoid the rush today in addition to him not feeling well.

Otherwise, there’s been yarn and spinning and running through the sprinkler in the front yard.

BedlamSmoosh, 110 yards.

Boomdiada, 183 yards.

Cucumber Cool, 183 yards

Sockins-Pastel Rainbow Superwash Sock Yarn, 400 yards.

Wildflowers, 360 yards.

I think this is quite possibly one of the coolest things ever. I don’t know what makes me happier, Mike Rowe (for obvious reasons, my goodness) or the general coolness of Stephen Hawking saying “Boomdiyada”!

Also, I’d be willing to bet money that my kid is the only one in Montana with a Moxie t-shirt!

I guess that’s it, I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend!

Store Updates & A Life Glimpse

I’m feeling a sense of urgency about spinning these days, I know my “free time” such as it is, is going to be even more limited by the first week of March.  Because this space was created to spare people the yarn talk that permeates my life, I try to keep my life out of it. But in this case, I guess I should make an exception as what I’m up to is going to conflict with wool biz. A couple months ago I applied for a fitness challenge, hosted by a local television station and fitness club. 256 people applied, I was one of 20 selected. I have been paired up with a partner that I do not know and we are going to try to beat the 9 other teams in a quasi Biggest Loser/Bootcamp style 8 week challenge. For the record, I don’t expect to survive.  There will still be yarn, just not in the quantities I’m used to generating between a full time job, parenthood and everything else that grapples for importance in my life. Or at least not until I decide if I’m going to make it through this. I did, after all, sign up for it so I can’t whine too much. 

In the meantime, here you go!

Bunny Bedlam

Do you ever look at something and see it in a way that it was likely not intended? When it comes to spinning, I notice this happens to me more and more often as time goes on. Another question I often find myself thinking is “Can that be carded?” I will run just about anything through my drumcarder, believe it. In this case, three colors of Easter batting, likely meant to nestle candy or sweet figurines. Only in my case I scrambled it through the carder with some white merino wool and generous handfuls of iridescent angelina fiber.  I handspun it all into 124 yards of yarn and then plied it with clear nylon thread. Total yardage is 124 yards, WPI is as thick as 8 and as thin as 12. 

Yellow, green and pink fiber is 100% colorfast polyester.

Goldie Rocks

I kettle dyed merino roving using acid dyes in shades of yellow, gold, orange and olive. I handspun it into 210 yards of single ply thick and thin yarn. WPI=Aproximately 10 to 11.

Confetti Cake

I carded 15 colors of Peace Fleece with white merino wool, I handspun it into a color infused yarn. 150 yards, WPI=approximately 10.

The Dark Side Of Confetti Cake

I carded 15 colors of Peace Fleece with gray/black merino wool, I handspun it into a 132 yards of single ply yarn, WPI=approximately 10.

Until next time!