Funky, Chunky, Thick and Thin Art Yarn

For about a month now I have been producing Funky, Chunky, Thick and Thin Art Yarn in hand spun, hand wound yarn balls. They have been going to Hidden Talents in Tonasket, and some have sold. It is interesting how much fun the yarn is to crochet into hats and scarves! All the random colors and nubs and slubs and thicks and thins make for funky, fun wear. Here are some of the balls.

 Which I spin from the really random, funky chunky wools I have created in very colorful batts!

There are sari silk threads and poly thread clippings. When you spin and then crochet there is 'stuff' hanging out everywhere. It is very cool! I will soon feature these on Bell, Hook and Spindle.

Funky yarn and resulting hat.

Getting a life...

It's not as if I haven't always had a life, but it seems to be picking up speed. I love it! I just spent two days in a local park with 48 other vendors of beautiful things. It was a maiden run with my hand dyed wool in braids, batts, bird's nests (roving) and 'painter's palettes', which I came up with for needle felting persons like myself to get a variety of color without having to buy a pound of wool.

I love watching YouTube videos with all the generously free tutorials. I will watch several on some topic, like needle felting little sheep figures, and then give it a try. My first 'sheep' I thought (mistakenly) would look cute made from my line of ice cream flavors batts. What I produced was an exceedingly homely orange sherbet/vanilla ice cream doggy sheep. Then I tried a pure vanilla sheep, very tiny, and it was a bit less doggy, but still exceedingly homely.

So, I decided to try a flat version, like a needle felted applique'. A little more sheepish, but still, well, you know...




Then I shifted back to needle felting a flower, added a stem this time, and it was pretty cute.

 

I showed my 'treasures' to my husband, who is my trusted critic, for his opinion. "You know," he said, "these are just ugly enough to be cute".  Well, if nothing else, I would display them at my sales as practice pieces. By mid-morning Saturday a lady came that bought every single one, save the tiny doggy/sheep, and asked if I could perhaps make something less ice cream and more sheep, like white and brown or something. I did, and to my surprise, it looked like a sheep. I know, because every little kid that walked by my booth while I was needling the poor beast, was asked, "Do you know what this is?", and they all answered a sheep or a lamb. I can build sheep! Who'da thunk!
And the sweetest sale I made that day was to a cute little 4H member who paid with her own money for the little white and brown version because it looked 'just like my sheep'. Then her mom made my day by telling me that her daughter was going to use my little art on the educational poster the kids make for the fair telling about their animal. Is that not just the neatest thing?

Wooly brown bulldog?

I think I need to go make another...
Here's hoping practice makes perfect, or something more like a sheep!

Eureka!

     This morning started at 5 a.m. for me. Not all that unusual, but another hour or two of sleep would have been tolerated... by 6 I had checked the email, facebook, and this blog. I had finished the last lukewarm sip of my morning ritual latte'. I returned the mug to the kitchen, shook my head and made a face. There were dishes from last night, the dishwasher needed to be run, the area under the sink-don't want to even think about it! The stove top needed scrubbing 2 months ago, the floor needs a sweep and a mop, and the general clutter of the counter tops needs taming and wiping down. But out in my quilt shed I have the latest inheritance of wool batts begging to be dyed...such an impossible choice! Such cruelty! To bliss out on fiber and rainbow colors of Kool Aid* or scrub pots and pans? But wait...dyeing wool is several steps, but they are individual steps and cleaning can be done in between batches and steps! Eureka! 

     Got the big kettle with water on the stove and cranked it up to high. As soon as it almost comes to a boil, I turn it down to simmer, add the vinegar and the color, give it a swirl of a stir and sink the first braid of wool. While that is going on I fill the sink with hot soapy water and whip out those dirty dishes between sloshing wool, rinsing wool, soapy water washing wool and final rinsing wool. I add the hanging of the wool to drip dry out on the deck to the pattern just after I sink the next braid in line. Soon the deck is lined in dripping rainbows, under the sink is sparkling, the dishes done, the dishwasher sloshing happily along, the drip pans from the stove top are scrubbed and the stove top almost ready to be cleaned. I get the series of clothes loads sorted and started, just to show off! AND made bran/coconut/walnut muffins for sustenance...

     I would like to say that I continued on my industrious way to the shining end, and I would have, too, but...as this was all winding to an end the post(al) lady honked her jeep horn in the driveway and I went out to find she was delivering my drum carder!!! Here is a pic of the newest member of our family!

Greta

It is an oldie but a goodie just in from Saskatchewan! Needs cleaning and refinishing and some carder teeth straightened out, but OH-MY-Heart be still. I love it!

The pink wools are the first thing I played with, then moved on to my first and only bag of alpaca. Like pink clouds and angels' breath!

Now to finish cleaning the kitchen, folding the laundry and re-braiding the wool. What a wonderful day!

Muffin Recipe- NOT your grandmother's bran muffin...

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1 cup milk

1 1/4 cups 100% Bran cereal

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup granulated sugar

  To avoid muffins 'peaking' like tepees, I mix all the ingredients above together first, then add

1 cup sweet shredded coconut

1 cup broken walnuts

After I mix the coconut and walnuts in, THEN I add the flour and barely mix it through.

1 cup all purpose flour

Grease muffin tin (12 count) and fill with batter.

Bake at 350* about 20 minutes, but keep your eye on them. You want them fairly firm to the touch but do not over-bake.  Just fine and dandy eaten warm with butter... :?}