Ginga Alpaca Yarn Dreads...

Been having quite alot of fun with my kiddies and a bag of locally grown ginga alapaca.

First I spun the alpaca on my Majacraft Pioneer with some green & orange locks, pieces of sari scarf and turquoise sari silk (as modelled below).  The sari silks I bought from YarnTraders here in New Zealand - a great online resource for exotic and unusual yarns, fibers, felt and fabrics.

It was made a little trickier as the ginga alapaca (kindly and lovingly carded by Sharon at Jumbuck Carding) had been sitting squished in the bottom of my cupboard for a few months and was all matted together.

I think I am going to keep hold of this ginga yarn in case I want to wear it to a party (not that I ever go out these days unless its before 7pm) or I may knit it into a Ginga Hat.

By the way, the lack of Lanolin in alpaca fiber (such as is often found in yarn made from sheep’s wool) also makes natural alpaca yarn hypoallergenic in nature or very unlikely to cause any allergic reactions.

Purple Princess Handspun Art Yarn with Dolls

My little girl (who has just turned 5 - yikes) picked up this cool pack of purple dolls with wooden faces from the "$2 Shop" (although they actually cost about$4.50 I think) - so I thought I would spin them into a Purple Princess yarn.

My own little Princess (definately in attitude) helped me card up the bits on my drum carder - she likes to turn the handle, see the wool disappear from the tray & come out onto the drum. We put in merino, alpaca & polwarth wool (handdyed by myself this time) - and she would throw in lots of sparkly bits (firestar - in blues & greens). Oh & apparently it had to have sequins too.

Spinning it up was cool - I corespun it around a laceweight yarn & she would squeal when each doll got squeezed through the spinning wheel orifice (thank goodness I have a jumbo flyer) & then got submerged in wraps of wool!

Strangely satisfying!

BTW I still haven't managed to figure out how I can add my photos so they appear nicely throughout my blog, throughout the text? So I apologies for the poor formatting - could anyone please enlighten me on this Blogger skill? :)

Easter Egg Handspun Yarn with Flowers

I finished this bright little number today - looks like I'm in a happy mood, which I'm not as I'm feeling quite grumpy. Don't know why - I must have used up all my festive spirit & I think the heat is getting to me - its so hot here in Auckland right now!

This merino roving was dyed by the fiber artist TheArtAtEaglesFind on Etsy - I love her work, its gorgeous & I'm a big fan.

This yarn has beehives, supercoils & flowers spun in and is plyed with a laceweight black yarn.

I am actually in the middle of making a big colourful piece of jewellery with optic fibers, LEDs & touch sensors in it. Maybe if I get the circuit debugged soon (....its not quite working yet!) I can show it soon. Just to prove that I'm not just stuck in a spinning yarn frenzy....

Most recent handspun Art Yarns...

I've been having a relaxing time recently with my Majacraft Pioneer spinning wheel - getting some practice in! Doing coils, supercoils & 'granny' coils (!) with a bit of corespinning and also add-ins such as pompoms. These are my latest yarns - all on the huge/super bulky scale of things!

I wish I could spin all day - but 'interesting' things happen when my wheel is left unattended for periods longer than 10 seconds - my kiddies think its a racing car as it has 2 pedals.

I bought an Ashford drum carder a while ago & now need to spend some time getting to know it better & feed it some interesting fibers (or small children).

Xmas Tree Lights Knitted Capelet.....

I finally finished knitting up my Xmas Tree lights yarn into the base of this capelet! I handspun all the yarn for this myself (except for the top neck bit) - and even had a bash at spinning in some locks.

I ended up having to crochet the lights on, instead of knitting, as the yarn wasn't very flexible with all the wires in there. The batteries (3 x AA) are hidden inside in a sewn on felted pocket (using the same merino roving as the base yarn). Still nothing has caught fire yet!

Shame its summer here & doesn't get dark until 9pm - which is past my bedtime, so I haven't worn him out as yet.....

Xmas Tree Light Yarn update!

Yay - I soldered the lights back onto the battery pack and must have got my +s & -s round the right way as my yarn lights up! I plied some more of the same colour wool with glow in the dark thread to give me something easier to knit with.

So far nothing has caught on fire! Bonus.

I am imagining a hat knitted from the top down, so finishing with the lighted part as a trim - as it will be a bit more difficult to knit/crochet. Or maybe a cowl? The 3 x AA battery compartment I will cover with a felted pocket (using the same coloured wool) and maybe add some kind of brooch to it?

Plus I want to experiment with building a smaller battery pack, now that I remember how to solder & calculate the currents/voltages/resisances (vaguely)....

Corespinning my Xmas Tree Lights!

I haven't been pracitising my spinning for a while now as I've been up to my armpits in felted soaps as they are going down well as Xmas gifts.

And then the day after Halloween we put up our Xmas tree (for the kiddies of course) & it got me wondering if I could fit the lights through the orifice of my spinning wheel and then, if I spun them into a yarn - how would they knit up?

So I gave it a bash today - using the Xmas lights as the core thread and then spinning an overspun single around it as 'supercoils'. Now I must locate a soldering iron to connect the wires back to the circuit. Its just a small(ish) 3 x AAA battery pack, so portable. I think I can make the supply much smaller by wiring a couple of those flat circular batteries together instead? I did an engineering masters degree way back in a previous life, but it is all rather vague & mainly involved concrete.


I will post another picture of the yarn all lit up - my soldering skills permitting. If you don't hear from me again, you will know it didn't work out too well.

Hopefully - I can then knit my Xmas tree lights into a nice hat! Or will the elecromagnetic radiation fry my brain?

Verdigis Garden Art Yarn with Flowers!

Very excited as I found some time to get my spinning wheel out again last night!

I've been too busy felting soap recently (but at least my house smells nice!).

I attempted my first corespun yarn with some fabric flowers added into the mix and also 'beehive' pink buds. Now to test how it knits up! I think it would make a cool 'Garden Hat'....

Crochet Rainbow Woolly Hat

I finally got around to crocheting up my first spinning attempt (the rainbow 'lumpy' yarn) into a funkytastic hat!

The weather here in NZ seems to actually have got colder, despite there being hints of summer being on the way - so I can actually wear it out!

Friends think it looks rather like one of those vintage rubber swimming hats.....

My Spinning Wheel Has Arrived!

Yay! My spinning wheel has arrived (a Majacraft Pioneer) - and after a couple of hours trying to assemble it (bearing in mind I have an Engineering degree....) it is working, I think.

I had my first spinning lesson a couple of weeks ago and so was raring to go!

This is my first yarn. Rainbow wool roving spun thick & thin (i.e. I couldn't get the tension/drafting consistent!) and then coiled/plyed around a pink laceweight yarn. Not sure I'm using the correct terms, but never mind I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!

Maybe I will knit this into a nice woolly hat ready for the NZ summer?

Recyled Sari Yarn

I bought this FABULOUS recycled silk Sari yarn from Yarn Traders in New Zealand (who import it from Nepal).

About this fab yarn........

"The yarn is made from the scrap silk, and other fibres, produced as a bi-product of sari manufacture and other silk production in southern India. The colourfast industrially dyed remnant fibres are brought into Nepal and distributed, via women's cooperatives, to disadvantaged women. Spinning and knitting the yarn enables the women to earn a much needed small income from their cottage industry.

The yarn is hand spun, either by charka, drop spindle, or wheel, into gleaming hanks ready for export or use in local garment manufacturing. Because it is hand spun each hank is unique, and there are no dye lots. In addition, the yarn varies in thickness and contains some overtwisted areas. As a consequence of the village conditions where the yarn is made it carries a slight musty smell. In addition, you may also come across the odd piece of straw or leaves. Simply remove any "foreign objects" as you go along! The yarn handles washing well."

For this pot - I crocheted the sari yarn with some beige wool and did a lid using pink wool with sari yarn edging and some 'spirals'. Plus some spotty wood bicone beads.

This little fella is only about 7cm high.

So far my daughter has claimed all the crochet vessels I've made to put her 'bling' in - but I may put them on my website anyway. Maybe....