So, there's all this amazing yarn out there (yarnmuseum.com was an inspiration from its creator, and inspires me constantly!). And with books like Pluckyfluff's Handspun Revolution and Creative Spinning, any spinner with the desire can springboard their creative ideas into unique, one of a kind (OOAK! I finally figured out what that stood for!) yarns.But what do you do with all these funky yarns? LOL, much the same as my regular handspun, I typically will put it in a basket or glass dish as if it were fruit and leave it somewhere I can enjoy it daily once I've mastered a new technique or created a new yarn. My purchased handspun is treated similarly, with great respect for the wonderful spinners I've had the opportunity to buy from (click the links in this sentence to see their current offerings).
I'm planning on a Cat Bordhi Pacific Northwest lap blanket from my study group yarns (we're working through Pluckyfluff's Handspun Revolution) -- it alternates thick & thin yarns, so I can pick and choose and mix it up as I please. Another lady is making a sampler shawl with hers.
With a "smooth" art yarn like one with intermittent coils or beads, a scarf or a hat would look great; use it as an accent band or stripes if you only have a few yards.
I've considered using mitered knitting or intarsia where some of the shapes are commercial yarn or "normal" handspun, and accent areas are the art yarn.
On the crafter spinning forum, other suggestions include:
- Combining it with a “tame” commercial yarn and knitting a diagonal scarf with intermittent stripes of the art yarn (there’s a cool pointed scarf pattern by Iris Schrier that would work great with this!)
- A scarf knit on big needles. I’ve made the ruffle or boa scarf with art yarns and regular yarns interspersed: on size 15 needles, cast on 60-80 stitches (60 for a child, 80 for a tall adult); K one row, K1M1 next row, repeat 2 more times, cast off. Can also be done with crochet using double crochets and doubling them similarly every other row (or trebles, and double every row).
- Use it as trim on a bag or garment – edging on gloves would look terrific, or a band in a knit hat
- Put it on a wall and call it Art. This way you can pet it as you pass by, too ;-)
- Knit or crochet a small creature - arumigurumi style is fun!
*** related posts:
>> What do you teach in Creative Spinning?
>> How do you spin beads into yarn? (and a follow-up post)
>> How do you spin coil yarn?
>> Spinning Over The Edge - The Early Spring Report
>> Do you want to play with thread?
>> Knot Yarn!
>> Over The Edge Yarns
>> What's a Fiber Sandwich?
>> Cool Ideas for Novelty Yarns
>> Over The Edge Group
***
So, what do you make with art yarn? what's your favorite novelty spinning technique? Comment on the blog or contact me. Thanks!
1 comment:
Serendipity! I was doing some catching up on Spinning On The Edge (a terrific art yarn group on Yahoo), and Bobby (Kittygrrlz) posted her flickr group of art yarn finished items -- scarves & hats showing off glorious handspun art yarns. See here and here and here.
And then, serendipity struck again! as I wrote the post above this comment, I browsed www.yarnmuseum.com in their Handspun FOrward section (as in, Handspun FO's) -- there's a terrific one that's little more than a knit square with needles run through it top and bottom to hang on the wall. Lately, I do alot of bead spinning, and at the bead store today I saw "poetry" beads -- words on them like those poetry magnet sets. So the plan is to "spin a poem", but reversing every other line, so I can knit my poem into a wall hanging. Finally, something to "use up" all those old straight knitting needles, LOL. I suppose if I spun my poem straight, I could knit a tube and make it a mobile, instead ... hmmmmmm
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