Beads! April 2, 2008

I’ve been itching to try something new with my spinning lately, and I think I’ve come up with just the thing – spinning yarn with beads! I’ve been dreaming up all kinds of gorgeous plied yarns with beads lately, so I got myself down to my local craft store and picked up some inexpensive beads to start experimenting with.

Pretty blue crystals.

Silver stars.

And just for fun, some funny multi-colored fish.

I just love these pictures! I think I’ve finally figured out the macro function on my camera.

The only beads I have plans for so far are the stars. Hopefully I’ll have a finished yarn to show in the next few days!

Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday!

Exciting News! March 25, 2008

Wow, I’ve been away from this blog for quite a while! Now that spring break is over and some computer malfunctions have been resolved, I’m back. Don’t worry, I haven’t been neglecting all things fiber-y while I’ve been gone – in fact, I have super exciting news to share – I GOT A WHEEL!!!! Yep, it’s true, after a year and a half of spinning on a drop spindle, I finally have a spinning wheel, thanks to my parents giving me the best birthday present ever. I ended up with a Majacraft Suzie, after trying out pretty much every wheel at The Fold, a really nice little shop in Marengo, IL, that sells spinning wheels, fiber, yarn, and all kinds of fun stuff. I looove looove looove everything about this wheel – how pretty it looks, the smooth way it treadles, the delta orifice. But what I love most of all is how darn fast it is! The day I bought it, I broke it in while watching Casino Royale and spun a skein of yarn in about 2 hours that probably would have taken me 4 or 5 days on my drop spindle. And that was the first time I used it! Here’s a picture of the wheel – this isn’t mine (I haven’t taken a picture of it) but it looks exactly like this -

Gorgeous, right? The only sad thing is that it isn’t at school with me right now – I have a roommate and a little tiny room, and there just isn’t space. So I won’t have it again till May, which is very depressing – I just can’t wait!
Anyway, on to something happy. Here’s my latest yarn – Holiday Lights. I dyed it with all the colors of the lights on my Christmas tree.


Well, I’m off to spin more yarns! Have a good night!

Friday Five – Kanzashi February 22, 2008

My latest cool Etsy discovery? Kanzashi. These beautiful, intricately folded fabric flowers are a traditional Japanese hair adornment, and I’ve been noticing them all over Etsy lately! I just think they’re so stunning – like little pieces of wearable art. Here are 5 of my favorites.

1. By mizusugi.

2. By littlecookie.

3. By gochemoche.

4. A more elaborate example. By AtelierKanawa.

5. This one shows how they are worn. So lovely! By hanatsukuri.

In geeky English-major news, I realized today that I’ve been reading way too much Wordsworth for my British Romantic Poetry class when, in casual conversation, I had to fight to make myself to say something was “so worth it” instead of saying it had provided “abundant recompense”. Yikes.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Lorna D. February 21, 2008

I’ve finally managed to get pictures of some of my latest yarns! Here’s the first to be listed – Lorna.

The name was inspired by the main character in November of the Heart, an excellent book (if you like sappy, somewhat improbable love stories) by LaVyrle Spencer. Lots of pastel colors – pink, lavender, yellow, and baby blue – in a squishy two-ply merino yarn.

By the way, here’s something I found while I was looking for that book over at Amazon. Have you heard of the Kindle?

What a cool idea! I was a little bit skeptical of the idea at first, but watching that video made me really want one! Being able to keep all of your books on something so small so that you can read them whenever you want, and letting you download new books wherever you are? Genius. And the idea of having the newspaper electronically delivered every morning is so futuristic and cool that I can’t get over it.

Have a wonderful Friday!

A post with lots of pretty pictures January 8, 2008

I have a few new things to show off today. First of all, my latest handspun. It’s a two-ply in shades of blue, and it’s 100% merino, which is soooo ridiculously soft. Seriously, I think I’m obsessed with the merino. I’m calling this one Glacier.

To dye the roving for this yarn, I mixed up a bunch of different tones of blue to get a really variegated spectrum of the one color. I really like how it came out, and I want to try it again with other colors.

When I was home over Christmas, I dyed some really nice superwash merino-viscose roving from Shpherder on eBay. Check her out, seriously – her roving is sooo nice, and it’s inexpensive. Plus, it’s all mill-end!

This one was inspired by the colors of the lights on our Christmas tree, but now it reminds me more of a parrot.

I was going for white with a little bit of pale pink and the tiniest tinge of yellow, like a cherry blossom. Didn’t turn out exactly how I pictured it but I still like it.

I looove this one. Hot pink, purple and orange.

Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday! I’ll be studying for my Eastern Religions test tomorrow and spinning up more merino!

color stripes December 1, 2007

I happened to stumble across the most gorgeous blog today…Kris’s Color Stripes. She’s an artist who takes photographs and then isolates the colors in them. I could stare at it forever….soooo much inspiration for dyeing!