Spin a Story: Rue's Lullaby Handspun Yarn

Hello, my lovelies!

You may have noticed that my Storied Yarns Shop is a tad bit empty at the moment. Sorry about that. I'm waiting on a big honkin' order to come in from my supplier and then I promise I will dye until my hands turn all sorts of fun colors and get that baby re-stocked. Want something to look forward to? How about this: in April my re-stock focus will be on my new-ish Downton Abbey colorways, and in May my re-stock will focus on my oldies-but-goodies Percy Jackson colorways.

Hooray!!

In the meantime, I've been a spinning fool over here. My spinning wheel and I are having quite the love affair lately, with several fun and awesome yarns coming off those bobbins. Today I'm taking a break to tell you all about one of them:

Rue's Lullaby.

As you know, I believe very strongly that when you create something with your hands, you tell a story through that creation. This is why I work so hard to make hand dyed and spun yarns and hand dyed spinning fibers that are inspired by the stories we love, because I feel we have a chance to honor that story in our memories when we use the yarn or fiber. Plus, it adds such depth to the item we create when we infuse it with the spirit of the story that inspired it. 

In my own storytelling this week, I created this yarn. I corespun my Rue batt and then plied it with clear sewing thread. Then I washed and set the yarn and when I was finished I sewed on lovely organza flowers (purchased, by the way, from this shop).

This batt (and, of course, the yarn) was inspired by Rue, a character in Suzanne Collins's novel The Hunger Games. I'm going to assume you haven't been living under a rock and that you know the basic idea behind this novel and its movie version which just came out in theaters last weekend.

For those of you who have read the book or watched the movie, my use of flowers in this yarn will make perfect sense. It might even give you chills or make you weepy - it does that to me, I'm hoping I'm not the only one. If it does, then it illustrates my point perfectly. I have told a story through this yarn, paying tribute to a character in a story that touched me and stayed with me long after I closed the book.

I LOVE stories, and this is my way of helping them to go on beyond the page.

What kinds of stories are YOU telling this week?

Fiber Arts Friday: Hodge Podge

This week has been one of those "a little of this, a little of that" kind of weeks. I did some knitting and crocheting and designing, oh my! Wanna see?

This is a knit and crochet version of the same pattern; I'm calling it Tea with the Dowager Countess (Knit) (Crochet) and it's available now on Ravelry. The yarn you see here is my Storied Yarns Superwash Bulky in the Violet Crawley colorway, inspired by Downton Abbey. The pattern is written for 2-cup, 4-cup and 6-cup teapots.

I also did some spinning this week. This is my BFL top in my "Matthew Crawley" colorway (also inspired by Downton Abbey), n-plied:

I also made a messenger style purse/bag for myself for spring. I followed this tutorial by Obsessive Crafting Disorder and bought the fabric from Sew Fine Fabric and I love it!

Now to fill it up with all my junk!

What have you been up to this week? Show it off over on Andrea's blog and link up with other fun fiber artists!

I'm Still Here!

Eek! I haven't posted on here in 20 days, that's far too long!

I've been working on various things, but most of them are pretty secret so I can't really post details yet. However, I have done a few things I can write about!

I made some skirts out of t-shirts for my daughter. She wanted skirts for her new spring/summer wardrobe so I figured this was a cheap and easy solution. I basically followed this tutorial, using boys' t-shirts that were a few sizes larger than what she would wear as a top.

And voila! Skirts!

Here she is modeling the third one, which is black:

The black one turned out a little long, but I figure that will be nice because she can grow into them a little bit more this way. I love it when I can make her clothing last more than one season!

Now I want to go thrifting so I can find T-shirts to use in making some of these for myself!!

I'm also contributing to the Phat Fiber boxes in April. The theme is Tea Party so I'm sending in the following colorways on superwash sock yarn:

I'll be working to fully stock the shop with Downton Abbey colorways in April. I'm also going to be hosting a Downton Abbey SAL/KAL, so check back soon!

Fiber Arts Friday: Random Fun

Hello, and welcome to Fiber Arts Friday! I'm sorry I've been a little absent from blogging lately; things have just been busy as usual around here!

Recently, most of my fiber arts activity has involved buying fiber, ha! I've been on a real combed top kick, though I haven't spun any of it yet (I think I'm starting to hoard for Tour de Fleece). It's funny, though, because just when I think I'm on a combed top kick, I pull out my drum carder and start playing around. Then suddenly I want to keep all the batts I make!

This week I whipped up a few beauties to add to the shop, like this one:

or the silky-shiny-sparkly goodness of this one:

At this point I remind myself that it's good to have a stash with plenty of variety to suit your moods. :) If you're looking to boost up YOUR stash for Tour de Fleece, might I suggest having a peek around the Storied Yarns shop? The batts above are just two of the beauties I've added recently. :)

In other news, I have actually been knitting and spinning this week! My first-ever sock is coming along nicely; I've done the heel decreases and now just have to do the increases and then move on to the ankle portion:

I'm also knitting a Shimmer Lace Top using KnittinK Black Canary sport weight yarn:

In the spinning news, I've been spinning up the mini wool samples from my February Phat Fiber box and a few others I had here using my Threads Thru Time medium hot pink spindle:

I'm planning to include them in the shop as a mini skein set for hexipuffers who want some handspun in their blankets. So far, though, I only have three samples done:

Left: Storied Yarns BFL/Firestar in "Lady Chatterley." Middle: Masham top from BohoKnitterChic Spins. Right: Berry Gelato batt from Zauberzeug.

Anyway, that's about it from here. The Hunger Games KAL/SAL kits will be going out very soon, so follow along with us in the Ravelry thread and cheer on the Tributes as they compete to have the best yarn or FO!

Happy Friday! Head on over to Andrea's blog and have a visit, will you?