SparkleShan

I really wanted to go to Rhinebeck today and had planned on going until I got a flat tire on the way to work Friday morning and had to buy a new tire :( I have never been to a fiber festival before. I guess I'll have to wait another year. So I decided that Emma and I would spend the weekend crafting and making new items that will go in my Etsy shop in a few weeks. Here's a sneak peek. I also did some spindle spinning and spun my first yarn on my wheel Since July!

I spun have finished spinning up the samples I received in my March Phat Fiber Box. First I spun a sample of 50% merino and 50% tencel From Spincerely Yours. I Navajo plied it on my drop spindle. For the rest of the samples I decided to spin them all together so I could get more length out of them and I thought all the different colors would look good together. This yarn contains samples from Giffordables, Whorling Tides, East Kentucky Fiber and Uniquely Yours Design.

I spun up another wonderful batt from Jenna at Uniquely Yours. This batt was called White wedding and contained BFL,Faux Cashmere, Firestar and Tulle. It also Came with some extra add ins of white pearls and sequins. SO this came out to be bit of an art yarn. It's super bulky, 31 yards and soo soft. Now I just have to find a project to knit with it! And here is just some simpled soy silk that I spun up. Its about 43 yards.

I was introduced to another wonderful Etsy Fiber artist by a fellow Ravelry. Here name is Jenna and she has a store on Etsy called Uniquely Yours Designs where she sells Fiber Batts, Hand dyed Roving and Hand spun yarn. I feel in love with her Batts, they have such wonderful colors and sparkle. I got 3 batts of fiber in the mail from her the other day and I spun up the first one a few nights ago. Here are the 3 Batts that I received from Jenna. Here is the orange batt (contains merino, Angelina and firestar) spun up. First I spun up the batt into a thick and thin single and then I plied it with peach crochet cotton and coils in the yarn throughout. It came out to 43 yards super bulky.

The Spindlers group on Ravelry has a spin along every month and every month they have a different theme. You then Post pictures of your finished skein in that months thread and a random winner is drawn each month. February was the first month I participated in the Spin A long and the theme was Mardi Gras. So I decided to spin up a Batt from Butterfly Girl Designs that was red and purple bamboo, black merino and firestar and Angelina. I thought it fit the theme pretty well. I called the finished skein 'Ruby Tuesday' The March theme was Romance and of course I immediately though of pinks. This is inspired by pink roses and is the first 3 ply yarn I have ever spun. I spun thin singles of Soy silk, super wash merino and merino & Angelina. Then I plied the three together and came out with this wonderfully girl yarn and I have to add that it is super soft! I just wish that I had more of the soy silk so that I could make more length!

I joined the Novelty and Art Yarn Spinners group on Ravelry. It is filled with wonderfully talented spinners. I love spinning and this group has inspired me to try new things to create novelty and art yarns. Here is a picture of my first attempt at adding coils to yarn. First I spun a thick and thin single of pink merino top and then plied it with Navy Blue crochet cotton. I held the crochet cotton straight up and held the merino at a 45 degree angle and let it wrap in around the cotton. Then to get the coils in some areas, I stopped spinning the spindle and smooshed the merino down the crochet cotton to create the coils. Overall I like how it came out. I think next attempt I am going to over spin the thick and thin single for a tighter affect.

I opened a new store for my jewelry business on Etsy, Princess Emma's . But instead of offering just jewelry and hair accessories, I am now going to be offering stitch markers, hand spun yarn and knitted and crocheted items. Right now the inventory is low because of my limited time with deployment, but when I get home and have the summer off in a few months, it will be booming. I decided to start my own yarn line called SparkleShan Yarns. Because of my love for knitting I also decided to start making stitch markers, its just like making jewelry! Please check out my store and let me know what you think. And as always I am going to continue to do Bridal and Bridal party jewelry commissions.

I finally used my own hand spun yarn in a knitting project. This is the second yarn that I spun on a drop spindle. I decided to make a hate for Emma out of it.

I've been interested in "Novelty" yarns for about a year now since seeing them on Ravelry. I love the idea of combining different materials to make art yarns. I am still fairly new to spinning so I decided to concentrate on just spinning regular yarn for the first two months, but now I am ready to venture into making art yarns. I have seen this type of 2-ply bubbly looking yarn and I wanted that to be my first try at novelty yarn. I spun up a single of a multi colored fine merino top from Shunklies and plied it with a navy blue crochet cotton to get this bubbly yarn. It took me a while to figure out how to get the effect but I think I did pretty well for my first attempt. I love spinning! A close up of the yarn. Here is a picture of the wonderful Fine Merino Top Roving from Shunklies before I spun it up.

I spun up another batch of Shunklies Fine Merino Roving in Pinks and Teals. Here is a picture of the wonderful roving that I got from www.shunklies.etsy.com Here is the roving after I spun it up on my Ashford Drop Spindle. It's thick and thin mostly thick.

I got some yummy roving from Shunklies on Etsy and Spun up my first batch. Here is is before being spun. Here it is after being spun.

I have been inspired to start learning how to spin yarn. Don't ask me why, but I have. I think it is the fact that I will aspire in my life time to do every crafty thing there is to do. So I have been browsing the Ravelry site and talking to other people that spin, so I bought a drop spindle and some Merino top and sari silk to practice on. This is my first attempt at spinning I think there is a little to much twist in it, but whateva. I also made a little flower with it. Ashford Drop Spindle Ashland Bay Merino Top roving, before being spun