Sorry I've been AWOL, but I really have been BUSY!

So sorry it has been a couple of weeks since I last posted. Losing Smokey really knocked me down for a bit. I'm just now getting used to the idea that he is no longer here. And I still cry when I think of him (like right now). But, I have so many other animals to care for that I cannot stay sad for long, the others need me. We haven't gotten a call to foster any kittens yet this year either. Maybe that's for the best because I'm fairly certain if I had a foster kitten right now I wouldn't want to give it up when the time came.

But, I have been keeping myself busy with fibers. I will share with you what I've made in the past few weeks.

The last post I made was Wordless Wednesday and it was this Extreme Fringe Scarf

This scarf is another Split Rock Ranch One-of-A-Kind Original Design creation. The base scarf is handspun from a merino/bamboo fiber blend batt purchased from Hanks in the Hood and spun by Brenda Vance at Split Rock Ranch. The merino/bamboo yarn was plied with a viscose thread in a gorgeous copper color. The fringe is tailspun yarn handspun by Esther at JazzTurtle Designs using some gorgeous long Teeswater wool locks. Tailspinning is an extremely labor intensive spinning technique that results in some stunning extreme lock yarn with a price tag that reflects the time and effort involved. Teeswater sheep originated in The United Kingdom and are relatively rare in the United States. It takes a couple of years growth to reach the long staple length so the price tag on the Teeswater long locks is higher than that of more common shorter staple length fibers.

This scarf is named "Verdigris" and is available for sale in my ArtFire store. Here are some additional photos of it, showing various ways to wear the scarf.

I won't bore you with what else I've made in the past few weeks - I'll do another blog post soon with more projects to share!

Peacock SRR OOAK Original Design Hand Knitted Long Scarf w/ Fringe

Recently I saw a new yarn listed in Cool Climates shop on Etsy and fell in love with it. It is a component yarn, which consists of several commercial yarns tied together. Here is how Rachel describes the yarn in her listing:

Made from many commercial yarns tied together. The yarns contain all kinds of fibers including wool, mohair, cotton, synthetics, tencel and more. Some are handspun and hand dyed. Some top name brand yarns including Colinette "Fandango" and another Colinette hand dyed wool (can't remember the line). There is also some Noro "Kureyon." A dramatic colorway of deep emerald, spruce, green, teal, turquoise, violet, and some lighter blues and greens.

This yarn is very similar to Prism's "Wild Stuff" and "Cool Stuff" yarns. 


I grabbed a set of size 19 knitting needles (they're HUGE) and started knitting. I didn't use a pattern, I just went with my intuition and cast on a certain number of stitches and then just used a simple stockinette stitch until the scarf was the length I wanted. I then found some yarns in similar colors in my yarn stash and used those to make the fringe.

I debated on whether or not to bling this scarf up a bit more by attaching fringe all along the scarf but decided the yarn was so spectacular that it didn't need any special stitches or special bling to make it look incredible.

The scarf ended up being 6 feet 4 inches in length with 9 inches of fringe on each end for a total of 7 feet 10 inches in length.

Here is the finished Peacock scarf.

You can wear this scarf so many different ways. Put the scarf on "backwards" against the front of your neck and flip each end over the opposite shoulder and bring back around to the front.

Or

Or, simply drape the scarf around your shoulders. You need to be really tall for this one because it will probably be halfway down your legs if you aren't!

Or, fold the scarf in half, drape it around your neck and pull the ends through the loop.

There are so many different ways to wear this scarf. Use your imagination and your fashion savvy to come up with all kinds of different ways of wearing this incredible piece of fiber art. 

Proud as a Peacock, that's how you'll feel when wearing this gorgeous fashion accessory!

For sale in our ArtFire store.