Journey to the Golden Fleece- Module 2 - Road of Trials

Once upon a time there was a wonderful woman.  She was creative, open minded, free thinking, all loving, a little overly proud and selfish, and far to positive for most people to handle ("How do you see the bright side in EVERY single dark matter??" They'd say) She loved to spend as much free time as humanly possible creating and making anything.  Her favourite thing to make, was yarn.  However, she was also a mother.  And as the life of a Mother goes, most of the selfishness and pride, and creation went by the wayside. There was laundry to wash dry and fold AND put away.  There were dishes (Oh so many dishes!!) to do. There were meals to cook (more then 3 a day, which always lead to more dishes!) And then the love and tenderness and firmness and caring and book reading and playing with and all that stuff that goes along with raising children as well, got in the way.  It's funny, how she would simultaneously feel pride at her children's achievement as she watched them accomplish something from the stands, and feel a twinge of resentment, that she could possibly be creating something, possibly be grabbing her own bit of pride as well.  She could want to hug and love the child that was having a total melt down because they dropped their pizza on the floor which the dog promptly grabbed,  while at the same time want to whisk them off to their room so they could not disturb anyone else with their fit.  The conflicting emotions of Motherhood often left he overwhelmed. And when it was all just a bit to much, she'd step away and close herself in her craft room, and create something. Anything. But mostly yarn.

My Road of Trials yarn hinges on one thing that has got to be my biggest trial of all: Motherhood. It's the journey I started with, and the journey I will follow, likely through out the remainder of the modules. (Module three is the vision quest, a journey into the deeper you, and having examined what drove me to this course, and what I've discovered through the journaling about me already, Motherhood is a huge part of me, but definitly not the only part of me.)  A quick break down of the components and how they relate to this road of trials is as such:  There is a big fat purple single (of varying grist/diameter) that was auto wrapped with a teal, navy and white crochet cotton, each of varying diameter, which was then quick coiled and Shelob'd (which is a technique Wool Wench shared with us!) The purple represents the pride, how it swells and how it is always there.  The threads it is auto wrapped in represents the chaos and struggle that is often playing along side. And it's coiled up(mostly just because coiling looks super pretty ;) ) and then wrapped in the silk hanky which was purple and grey, to represent how it's all wrapped up in love.

Creatively this was a real struggle. I couldn't for the life of me 1) keep the purple single even and 2) understand that it was OK that the single wasn't even.  Spinning has become very technical for me since starting the Master Spinners course.  Instead of being bound to the rigidity of counting treadles and keeping make lengths consistent, just allowing for texture and the auto wraps to actually auto wrap (without adjusting and allowing them to do what they wanted...) was really difficult.   I am happy with this yarn, though. It's light and fluffy, and textured.

Onward to Module 3, The vision quest!

~Kara

Handspun Christmas Wreath and Trees

There are monthly challenges on Craftster.org, and this month the challenge was 'Just Thread It!'  You could use any kind of thread and any methods you wanted.  I've been wanting to try out Jacey Boggs Tornado yarn method in Spin Art for a while, and this was the perfect excuse to do it!  I took a white pencil roving and 3 different crochet threads (one green, one variegated white/green/red, and one white with silver sparkle, but that sparkle doesn't show up in the picture) and went at it.  It wasn't as 'plodding' as she said it would be.  However I did find that if I worked with shorter chunks of the roving and joined them more often I could let out some of the extra twist that was accumulated before joining.  And it's not quite as densely tornado as the one in her book, but I think it's a great try!  I'll be doing this again in many colors, and hope to not run out of crochet cotton! Here it is on the bobbin.  I forgot to take a skein picture, and can't find the left overs to take a picture of what it looks laid out.

I took the yarn and wrapped and wrapped a 14'' foam wreath form, and when that was done I added the bobbles with some straight pins and hot glue for security.  I did the same with the foam tree forms as well.



I do believe they are going to look lovely together some where.  I was at a Christmas Bazaar on Saturday and got a lot of positive feed back on these, and someone who wanted to think about taking it home, and she knows where to find me if she decides she definitely does want them.



Making these makes me excited for Christmas, I'm almost swelling with excitement this year and I'm not sure why!

~Kara

I'm so Spoiled

About a month ago, we celebrated our 6 year Wedding Anniversary.  We've been together for nearly 11 years, but married for 6 of them (sure took him long enough ;) )  And every single day of this marriage/relationship I'm reminded how wonderful he is.  He brings me coffee in the morning, sometimes before I get out of bed.  He helps do the dishes, does the yard work, and plays with the kiddos.  He treats me like a princess.  And doesn't mind that I take a week a year to go to school, and leave him with the kiddos.  And on special occasions, he buys me pretty things.  This year he bought me an Majacraft Aura!!!!! It was my dream wheel, and he bought it for me!!! Wooohoooo!

So here it is, in all it's majesty, fabulousness, awesome spinning power...


And of course, I've waited so long to tell you all about it, because I wanted to spin on it before I shared.  So here are some of the yarns I made on the Aura.
This is the first one, I just grabbed some roving, and had at it, adjusting, tweaking and figuring out just what everything does! It's pretty thick, and at the end i wanted to see if it could handle undrafted top, and it can!! It's Navajo plied, and it can even handle three layers of lightly spun undrafted top.  Wowza!

Here's the second thing I spun, after deciding that I already have a traditional spinning wheel, that makes a very nice traditional yarn, so why keep trying to get a "perfect" yarn on a wheel that is made to do more then that?  It was tail spun, then coiled.  I'm so glad I decided to coil it.  In person, the BFL is so lustrous, and when the light hits it just right, it glows like it's strung with pearls.


And the last one so far is this one, thick singles wrapped with bamboo thread.  This one is kind of odd, I was having issues trying to get it to feed right and not spin to much at the same time...  The tension system is still pretty odd to me. I'll get it though!


I can't wait to get back from Fibre Week, so I can get to playing on the Aura.  3 more sleeps!!!

~Kara

Art yarn: A topic of discussion.

What makes a yarn art?
Who decides it is art and no longer craft?

IMHO, Just because it is spun thick and thin does not necessarily make it art.  Art is either created with intent, or is a form of expressing emotion or thought.   But even with that being said, even if I spin something creatively, using non traditional methods (traditional as in woolen vs worsted, different types of plies)  does that constitute art?  Or is it just a yarn spun creatively?
I think the term has also become synonymous with poorly spun, and something that would fall apart if you were try to use it traditionally (weaving, knitting, crochet).
I also feel the term is way over used. A quick etsy search for the term brings up  this yarn that is a traditionally spun yarn, with a few different colors and some sparkle.  And far to many like it.  Does this really constitute art?   I think not.
And also this yarn which is waaaaay closer to art, but can still function as traditional yarn.

I've spun the yarn below, but wouldn't call it art.  Yes it has nubs, but overall it's a traditionally spun yarn.



And this, which is more artful, but still not art.  It is a yarn spun creatively.



And this, which is art.  It was spun with intent, to evoke the feeling of summer.



So where is the line?  Is there a line?  is it a thick bold line, or is it blurred and skewed?

Okay, your turn.  Discuss!

~Kara

Yarn Porn

Pictures of yarn. Not naked people doing naughty things.

I spun this and it has since been dubbed Lemon Lime Sherbert

This one is not mine. This one was spun by LaughingLark on Craftster.org

I'm still working on washing the wool I have, but I have recently re-arranged my craft room and the supplies within. I'll show the mess before and after another time (when it's actually finished!) ~Kara

Spun Summer - A Shrug

Once upon a story, I was given a bag full of beautiful little pipe cleaner bumblebees. The instant I saw those bees I knew they needed to be in yarn. In yarn that had flowers and grass. Because where else would bees fly about? You've seen the yarn once already, but you need to see it again. Because it's gorgeous. So here it is.

I knew I really wanted to show this yarn off. But how? A hat? No, not quite my forte in the knit wears department. A scarf? no, there was just to much to make a scarf out of. I could have made 3! but I'm selfish and wanted it all to myself. So a shrug it was. Here it is in all it's glory.
And just because I'm showing it off right now, here are the lovely little needle felted details and the one little bee that made it into the final shrug. Happy with all his flowers.



I've entered it over on Craftster.org in this months challenge, Inspired by nature!

~Kara

I put the Pro in Procraftination

Right, so I was lamenting my procraftination last post.  So now that I have pics, I thought I'd share.

This first one was a beautiful Superwash BFL Hand painted Roving from Cordova Studios  It evolved on it's own into this yarn, complete with little eyelashes, just for that extra bit of ohlala.


And this one was intially inspired by the little bumble bees you see in it.  The kick in the butt to actually make the yarn, however, was this months challenge over at Crafster.org Make something inspired by nature.  Well this most definitely fits that bill.  Art batt I purchased at Fibre Week, needle felted flowers and leaves, some tail spun locks(to look like grass) and some beads, and a bit of the leftover from the above yarn turned in to coil beehives. All spun on a core of crochet cotton.




I hope to turn it into a little shrug in time for posting it in the challenge.  Because that is what I need, more procraftination.

~Kara