Spring Babies and Art Yarn

New Babies in Hippyland! Three baby goats and Five baby kittens in the last month, and they are so so cute!

~

Now on to the Art Yarn! This one, Sari Sparkle was a long time in the process. I used this neat carded sari silk (much nicer than just the scraps!) from WC Mercantile on ETSY spun with over 100 pompoms made from sparkle embroidery thread and plied along with some of our homegrown brown. I am spinning another to be partnered with this one with tiny copper bells instead of the pompoms.

And a pompom closeup!

This is a pink singles yarn with lilac pygora cocoons added in after spinning a second time. The pygora was grown and dyed by Judy from Spindles and Fiber on ETSY and it's so soft you almost can't believe it! I was inspired to try cocoons from an article in the latest SpinOff magazine and it's my first cocoon yarn!

Dharma has a line of new Acid Dyes, this is Pink Orchid and Electric Violet on my homegrown white, spun up into a super-bulky fluffy Candy Stripes yarn

The last yarn is the first in a new series wherein I envision the final knitted piece and how I want it to be (crazy), then design and spin a yarn to make it happen. This is my CACTUS yarn, and when knit into a beret type cap will look like a barbed wire barrel cactus ~ the yellow twisties are the cactus spines. I have lots of ideas on this subject ~ more to come!

Thanks for checking out my blog! PEACE and Happy Spring!

~AMANDA~

More Art Yarn

Well, i've been spinning more... I love it and I can't stop! Thanks to pluckyfluff and her awesome book and techniques for getting me started!

Here is my latest, a single spun with sparkly gold thread:

Next is my original "Pitaya" yarn, made to look like a pitaya smoothie, aka 'dragonfruit', this is the fruit of a a hanging cactus that grows, among other places, in the Yucatan (Mexico). The Maya people like it's sweet taste and call it Pitaya.

Here is a photo series from 2004 when i first discovered the pitaya in the Yucatan while studying the Yukatek Maaya language:

HaHa! And now the yarn: white romney with slubs of hot pink wool and green curly mohair locks, plied with a pink thread with lots of tiny black seed beads:

That's all the spinning for now...more cool stuff soon!

~amanda~

Spinning Up New Yarns!

After going to the Flock & Fiber Show last month and loading up on cool spinning supplies, I've been making some yarns (in between everything else of course!) and here they are:

A Rainbow Corriedale spun with green sparkle firestar and thread plied with multicolor thread and beehives added during plying

AND

A multi-hued green border leicester spun thick n' thin then thread plied with coordinating green thread and side twists. I made it to look like Usnea longissima, a lichen that grows in the trees here at Hippyland!

New Projects Published Everywhere!!!

This has been a great month for me...THREE of my projects featured in 3 different publications!

First, my Chainmaille Dahlia Ring in the June 2010 issue of Bead & Button Magazine is super fun to make and a great summer project. You can make them in all different colors! Plus there's a mini-photo of the ring on the magazine's front cover! Get the supplies to make the Dahlia ring from my website www.craftycatjumprings.com !!!

Next, my wire version of Peruvian Thread Earrings was featured by the awesome editors at Step-by-Step Wire Jewelry Magazine (and also mentioned on the front cover!). In thread, these are back in style, but the all-wire version is even better!

And finally, my Bronze Mermaid Scale Hoop Earrings is project #1 in the new book "30-minute Earrings" from Lark Books. This book is geared more towards jewelers than beaders but the layout looks great!

Whew, what a month! Go out and get crafting!

~AMANDA~

New FREE Chainmaille Tutorial at Crafty Cat Jump Rings!

I've just finished uploading a FREE chainmaille tutorial to www.craftycatjumprings.com! It's a combination of Basic Spiral Weave with a Jens Pind variation and a project making these

Mini Twist Jens Pind Earrings!

Check it out at Crafty Cat Jump Rings Dot Com!

Bobble Earrings Article in Step-by-Step Wire Jewelry Magazine

My instructions for my Bobble (formerly Biohazard) Earrings and Chain Set have just come out in Interweave's Step-by-Step Wire Jewelry Magazine. As part of their chainmaille issue, they also interviewed me about how to use colored jump rings, particularly the anodized aluminum jump rings that we sell on our website Crafty Cat Jump Rings. Check it out!!!

New Items Posted on ETSY.com

I just posted a bunch of new silk pleated shibori scarves on ETSY as well as re-listing my handmade cold process hemp oil soaps with my new and improved pictures. They all look really great with the better pictures so hopefully they will get more noticed out there...

Check out my etsy site at http://www.redeftdesigns.etsy.com/ for all the new items and as always, the items at http://www.redeftshibori.com/ and http://www.madebyhippies.com/.