A storm gathers

I mentioned I was knitting the storm cloud shawlette in a recent post. Here's the last row being cast off using my own handpsun art yarn. I had 10cm of the mohair left over and about 30cm of the artyarn. I love when a project uses up all the yarn. I tend to hoard the small scraps left over after a project and then end up not using them.

I've seen a lot of strong opinions about art yarn on the internet and Ravelry. Some people really dislike it. They argue that it is really hard to knit or crochet with art yarn. I've even seen people press the disagree button and tell people that their project using their art yarn isn't nice.

I think these people need to lighten up, stop being mean and learn to think outside the box.

Of course art yarn isn't traditional spinning, of course it looks a bit mad but then that's the whole point. People spin for fun these days just like they knit for fun. You don't have to spin or knit, you can just pop to the shops and buy a pair of socks. I'm very thankful for that. I spin quickly but I knit very slowly so I'd never manage to make myself enough socks. When people don't have to do something out of necessity I think they have more freedom to be imaginative and creative. Spinning is an old art form and while it's very nice to spin a traditional woolen laceweight long draw it's also nice to go mad and spin some crazy ass yarn with poms poms and glitter sticking out of it. Art yarn keeps spinning modern and vibrant and I think it will help ensure that people remain interested in the craft.

If you want to see more art yarn check out the websites of these fabulous fiber artists Jazz Turtle, Studioloo, Pluckyfluff, and Insubordiknit.

Art yarn makes a perfect accent in a project. I think the purple shawl would have been much less interesting without the odd row of colourful handspun breaking it up. The shawl is fantastically fun and I think I will wear it over a plain t-shirt during the summer. It's also really warm, that must be the mohair. When I visited Cushendale I was told that it's hard to find really top quality mohair and they had to search for a while before finding the mohair yarn they dye in such lovely colours.  

I've been somewhat in hiding the last few weeks as I was finishing my project for college. I have a quick break today but I'll be back studying for my exam next week. After that I'm free and looking forward to a summer filled with knitting, spinning and dyeing.