A Fun Experiment

 

It all started with my seeing this yarn from Folktale on Etsy; I instantly fell in love with the "scrappy" nature of the skein and the "pops" of color.  Color, if you're in a cold climate like here in MN, is hard to come by during the dark winter months and I simply crave it on a truly physical level.  Thus, I thought I'd try my hand at spinning some of my own scrappy yarn with lots of colors to fed my need.  Friends in Fiber's shop carries  Ashland Bay merino wool in a plethora of colors, which are also pretty inexpensive, but the quantities were much too big if I wanted to purchase all the colors I desired.  So, I inquired if they would sell me just 1/2 ounces of each of the 28 colors I wanted and they happily agreed much to my satisfaction.  Really they are lovely ladies and I have been so happy with all of my purchases from them, they have unparallelled  customer service skills.  You should give their shop a try.

Well, the fun began when all the colors arrived in the mail and I began sorting them out and matching them up.  In my first attempts I tried for a random look, but I wasn't really liking how my colors got muddied and diminished in brightness.  Which brought me to the colorway you see above that has more of a gradient/rainbow effect (Me liking rainbows - shocking I know.)  The colors stayed bright and flowed nicely into one another just as I wanted.  I used 16 colors total per pair of mitts and with 14 ounces of wool I got almost 7 fingerless mitts (I'm missing just 2 colors for the last pair.)  They are all listed here in my shop for you to peruse.  

I focused mainly on the colors I like blues, greens, yellows, oranges and browns, but if they sell well I'm going to try my hand at mixing in some reds, pinks, purples and greys.  You would think it would get boring to make the same mitts over and over again, but the color changes really make it so fun for me and the surprise of how it all turns out upon completion is wonderful.  

Joining in with Linda for Creative Friday and Andrea for Fibre Arts Friday.

Fresh Off the Wheel - Rainbow Gradient

 

My focus has changed some since I last wrote in this space.  During the previous month my world was all about making toys for selling in my shop as well as at a few holiday fairs.  Then while knitting a gnome mama doll I suddenly stopped mid stitch and realized that toy making is usually fun for me, but at that moment it was anything but fun. It felt like a chore; something to cross off a list and not in a good way.  Usually at this time of year I really get into making lists of what to make, ordering yarn and knitting, knitting, knitting lots of toys.  This year it wasn't jibbing for some reason so I decided to stop knitting toys right then and there and take a break to spin some roving into yarn.  My husband was thrilled with the idea of no holiday fairs by the way.  As he is my support for caring for our son, dog and house before (I always seem to need more knitting time) and during these fairs it can a lot of stress for him too.  This year I will only sell toys in my shop on Etsy and hope my inventory can keep up with sales.  It's a big relief.

Spinning is a great relaxer for me.  If I go too long I can tense up and get sore muscles, but usually it really sets me in a good mood both body and soul.  Compound that with rainbows and you 've got a heck of a Ann feel good combo going on.  The rainbow wool is a blend of domestic (to the US) sheep's wool and is plant dyed by Judy at Mamajudes and the undyed brown Jacob sheep's wool comes from Almapark also on Etsy.  The yarn came out to a DK weight with a whooping 328 yards!  It will make a long rainbow gradient from red to purple and I'm really hoping whoever buys it will send me a picture of their completed project.  You can see the yarn's listing here.  

In the last photo is a view of my new yarn labels designed by my fabulously talented friend and graphic designer Emily.  She made them as stickers for me to attach to whatever paper I like to create the label; since my skeins very in thickness it's great to have the flexibility this allows.  I'm also exited to use them to seal wrapping tissue on gifts - oh the versatility!  As you can see I'm still working on my photo taking and they still look a bit dark, but I don't seem to have a good location in my house for picture taking.  Where do you take your photos of your creations?

Joining in with Fibre Arts Friday and with Linda for Creative Friday.