Can you ever have enough yarn, yarn containers or sheep?

That’s the six million dollar question and my answer is simply NO! I can’t resist a gorgeous colourway or a yarn clearance sale. My head is constantly full of knitting project ideas that will probably take me a life time to complete. I simply need more than 24 hours in each day!

At the recent Redlands Spinners & Weavers craft camp, I was again tempted to purchase more yarn as we had two traders with some beautiful and too tempting yarn and fibre for sale.

I’ve bought heaps and heaps of yarn from Shorn Fibers and at camp I bought even more. I blame it all on Angela for dyeing such stunning colourways which always encourages me to spend!

This beautiful colourway is called  ‘Hermes’ and is Shorn Fibers Tuff Sock yarn which is an 80% merino / 20% nylon mix. I don’t often buy blue but these colours just caught my eye.

I just fell in love with this colourway called ‘Oranges and Lemons’, a very apt name I must say. It’s a Merino 4ply yarn.

Angela actually showed me this yarn and said ‘I thought you might like this’. How right she was!! I bought two skeins so I can make something substantial or maybe a shawl/scarf and a hat. The pattern hasn’t come to me yet (despite the fact I have hundreds of patterns at home!!). This colourway is ‘Mountain Troll’ and the yarn is a 100% Merino Fingering

Another colourway that caught me eye is ‘Erato’. This yarn is a 100% Merino Superwash DK

And another Tuff Sock yarn is this stunning colourway called ‘First Beach’. Those colours are amazing and so reminiscent of the beach aren’t they?

Lindy Boshler, who is a member of our club and also a registered Ashford agent, brought along her goodies too and I was immediately drawn to this hand-dyed 100% super fine wool in these gorgeous autumn shades of orange and green.

Lindy also had some lovely hand-dyed mulberry silk which I will use when blending fibre on my Ashford Blending Board (which I also bought at camp).

I’ve been rather remiss and have fogotten to show you the additions to my ART WALK series from Zen Yarn Garden.

The ninth offering features a painting by Pablo Picasso entitled “Petite Fleurs“. From one medium to the next, artists express their use of colour. Inspired by Picasso, the dyer has successfully captured the vividness and subtlety of the colours of the painting.

Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973) was an artistic virtuoso who co-founded Cubism, and produced an astounding 20,000 paintings, prints, drawings and sculptures during his brilliant 70-year career. Picasso’s unparalleled body of work was so vast, and its phases so unique, that art historians have divided it into specific periods. A child prodigy, Picasso took advanced classes at the Royal Academy of Art in Barcelona when he was only 15. His revolutionary Cubist works, with their distorted shapes and fragmented forms, established art as a genre that does not need to literally represent reality. Zealously embracing every medium from primitive art to sketches to Surrealism, Picasso had an unrivaled influence upon 20th century art. [quoted from Art.com]

I purchased two skeins of Serenity 20 which is a 4ply / fingering 70% superwash merino / 20% cashmere / 10% nylon yarn and contains 400 yds /100g.

These colours certainly “pop” don’t they?

This is the painting the colours are based on…

The tenth offering in Zen Yarn Garden’s new ART WALK Series features a painting by Andy Warhol entitled “Ice Cream Dessert“. Inspired by Picasso, the dyer has successfully captured the vividness and subtlety of the colours of the painting.

Andy Warhol’s pioneering Pop Art defined a decade and a culture, distinguishing him as one of the most influential, creative and prolific artists of the 20th century. Originally the most sought-after commercial artist in New York, Warhol (1923 – 1987) is most known for his multiple images of Campbell’s Soup cans, Coke bottles, dollar bills and celebrities, which exalted the beauty within ordinary objects and familiar images. Working out of a studio called The Factory, he invented the silkscreening process which enabled him to mass produce a single image in his signature style. Warhol was also a talented filmmaker, music producer, commercial illustrator, author and magazine publisher. [quoted from Art.com]

I purchased two skeins of Serenity Silk single which is a fingering single ply / 75% superwash merino / 15% cashmere / 10% silk yarn and contains 430 yds / 100g.

This is the painting that inspired the colours in the yarn…

The eleventh offering in the new ART WALK Series features a painting by Justyna Kopania entitled “Sold“. Inspired by Kopania, Zen Yarn Garden’s dyer has successfully captured the vividness and subtlety of the colours of the painting.

My name is Justyna Kopania. I am a painter. Art is my asylum, life, poetry, music, the best cigar, tasty strong tea, everything.My Art reflects the world I perceive with all mysenses; people I meet and love; nature I admire,and all the things that affect the way I am…. .In my studio – work – I painta few, sometimes several hours a day. This is typical painting – easel, oil, structural. Paintings are “fleshy.” Paint requires both painting, as well as brushes – and I do not regret the paint. Paintings are painted this way – creates a kind of reliefs. Paintings are painted in a sort of style, original … – Inspired by certain passages of whatI see, and stay in my memory. Paitings are entirely painted by hand. I always try to give the climate the moment that stuck in my memory.  [quoted from studiounderthemoon]

I purchased two skeins of Serenity Glitter Sock which is an 80% merino / 10% cashmere / 10% metallic (sparkling nylon) 3ply / fingering yarn. Each skein contains 400 yds /100g.

It really is quite beautiful!

This is an image of the painting ‘Sold’ which the colourway is based on.

Now, from yarn to yarn containers. Because I have so much yarn, I have to find inventive ways to store it. I have so many types of yarn containers and not long ago I found these laundry bags which I immediately knew I could adapt to use as yarn containers. Just ignore the fact they have ‘dark’ and ‘lights’ printed on them.

Each one can hold heaps of yarn and fibre. There’s a neat divider down the middle which is great as it stops the yarn collapsing on itself.

And every time I see little sheep in a shop they just seem to follow me home!

This little fellow welcomes guests into my home…

And these little sheep like hanging around my spinning wheels…

Along with their friends who are itching to get into my garden 🙂

They don’t eat much and don’t make a noise…

But they do seem to be multiplying…

But I love them!! They make my home look happy and ‘yarnified’. My son questions my sanity when he visits me but he knows his mum is hooked on yarn 🙂

Until next time…

Melanie