Osborn Fiber Studio

Sweetwater submissions are finally done and in. I have a couple Christmas commissions to finish up, and one more I haven’t started yet, but I can finally breathe a little – I am going to make it.

One of my categories of stuff that I’m submitting to this art show is a bit of a risk. I had a lot of fun experimenting with novelty yarn with mom over the summer, but for the life of me I didn’t want to knit with the stuff. I just wanted to wear it – if I was the sort of person who wore a plain black sheath dress to work. Or who wore statement pieces ever. So it’s very much a risk, but we’ll see what happens; at the least I didn’t spend anything on materials except the pendants I bought on etsy.

#1: This corespun was the first thing I tried, and I’m still in love with it. It’s so soft, and a good blocking makes it hang quite balanced. With all the necklaces, I folded them double to make two uneven loops, and fastened them together in the back. But this one was too perfect by itself for me to add a pendant.

#2: The other regular corespun entry is this camo-colored deal. the long loop is *really* long, so I imagine anyone who ears it would fold the longer loop around again. It has a little feather hanging from one of the shorter loops.

#3: The rest of these offerings are tailspun locks. When I first tried these, I was going off a couple pictures in a book and some very imprecise ideas, but I think they turned out prettily.  The dark blue one has a koi fish…

#4: While the light blue one has a heart hanging in a circle. These yarns were both made this summer.

#5: The pink and purple one I made Saturday gave me a harder time. I’m not sure if Mr. Fricke didn’t have enough takeup, or too much, but it got a little funky.

#6: So for the last two I broke down and watched a video. This one, to be exact. I didn’t watch the whole thing, but I watched enough to realize that I could be less fussy about how well attached the locks are and how much twist builds up before I move on. I got much less yardage out of the deal than the blue ones (before I ran out of a color) but that also meant that I could just hold the whole 3-4 yards of finished yarn up and just let the extra twist out that way. This green one has a bronze wire heart that I like very much.

#7: And the yellow one is my favorite (so it gets two pictures). The curls have more variety in color, and I was able to keep them fairly articulate. It’s like wearing a little mane of sunshine. I hung a little cherry branch pendant from the smaller loop. Matching the pendants to the yarns was completely haphazard – I just bought a bunch that I liked one day, and went with what felt right when matching them. I am pleased with the results.

Here you can compare the different phases of tailspun – big difference. I don’t think I’ll be doing any more of this type of spinning unless I get a country spinner; even Mr. Fricke had no desire to wind this stuff on. But my jollies have been met. And if some of them don’t sell, hopefully I will work up the courage to wear some statement pieces!