Happy new year!
May 2015 bring you creative inspiration, manageable hair, unexpected deliveries of the finest yarn, and a bucketload of cake.
Speaking of fine yarn, I whispered the words arctic qiviut at the end of my last post. Whaddya mean, you didn’t notice? Do pay attention, people! Well I’m going to say it just a little louder, now, because the musk ox is a-comin’ to this blog, and he’ll be here soon. Look! One hundred per cent pure arctic qiviut, a once-in-a-lifetime knitter’s dream of a bundle of purple fluffiness:-
More soon, but you don’t rush matters with arctic qiviut, do you? You need to spend a bit of time with it, get acquainted with its foibles. The musk ox is not to be trifled with. Really, this feels a little like dating, except that I have absolutely no intention of calling things off with this beauty. Would you be perturbed if I confessed that I’ve been known to sleep* with it beside the bed, then carry it carefully downstairs in the morning to watch it in different qualities of light, touch it in different moods, and generally figure out what will make these 29 grams of pure heaven happy? Maybe this relationship is a little unbalanced…
*I use the word ‘sleep’ loosely, since the Toddler Twinnage have ensured that it’s several years since I had a decent night’s kip.
But the proper qiviut posts are yet to come. Meanwhile, I’ve been knitting some Stylecraft Special DK and Bergère de France Lima into a doll for a friend’s daughter. (The pattern is from Deramores, so I can’t take any credit.) I started out with a muddle of body parts over Christmas, which took ages to sew together:-
Anyway, she’s finished, and here she is cuddling a wooden lion:-
And she even consented to pose with the Toddler Twinnage, bless her:-
Anyway, enough for now. I have a NYE hangover to nurse. Oops.
May 2015 bring you much time to knit and crochet. 🙂
eclectichomelife.blogspot.com says
January 1, 2015 at 10:28 amShe is lovely and I do recall you saying you would never knit another doll as they take an extraordinary amount if time. Your friend must be special. As to the musk. You have been seduced. Not surprised. The Twisted spouse should watch out.
The Twisted Yarn says
January 5, 2015 at 10:11 pmHe should indeed. 🙂
KerryCan says
January 1, 2015 at 11:53 amThat musk ox yarn looks yummy . . . except it’s purple. Still, I’ll be very interested to see what it turns into!
The Twisted Yarn says
January 5, 2015 at 10:12 pmAh, sorry. I forgot. It’s you who strongly dislikes purple, isn’t it? Apologies for dangling wondrous yarn in front of you… but torturing you by making it PURPLE.
oddlyended says
January 1, 2015 at 12:28 pmOooh, I thought I did well to get a knot (yes, a knot) of Peruvian alpaca yarn. Looks scrumptious, and the purple is perfect.
The Twisted Yarn says
January 5, 2015 at 10:13 pmPeruvian alpaca sounds pretty much perfect, too. I bet it was gorgeous and soft and lovely to work with?
oddlyended says
January 6, 2015 at 2:38 amIt is gorgeous and lovely, however I have no idea how it works up. When I said knot, I meant KNOT. Scroll to the end of this link for the picture. http://loosethreadsandfluff.wordpress.com/2014/12/28/sunday-sevens-christmas-edition/
sazcreates says
January 1, 2015 at 1:23 pmA very Happy New Year to you 🙂 I hope 2015 treats you well, and The Twisted Yarn continues to reach unprecedented heights! Xx
The Twisted Yarn says
January 5, 2015 at 10:13 pmAnd to you! And to the continued success of sazcreates. 🙂
corine24 says
January 1, 2015 at 1:37 pmThey are so cute!
The Twisted Yarn says
January 5, 2015 at 10:14 pmThank you.
The YarnEater says
January 1, 2015 at 2:15 pmBeautiful yarn! I haven’t had a chance to touch any, but carrying around the house seems reasonable from what I’ve heard 🙂 Can’t wait to see more!
The Twisted Yarn says
January 5, 2015 at 10:14 pmYup, it seemed like an entirely reasonable thing to be doing. I practically had to take leave from work in order to babysit it. 🙂
bonnyknits says
January 1, 2015 at 4:10 pmOooh, I sighed, did you hear? I’m so very jealous of your fluffy purple heaven. I would probably sleep with it too.
The Twisted Yarn says
January 5, 2015 at 10:15 pmYup, I heard and I understood. 🙂
daniellajoe says
January 1, 2015 at 4:44 pmHappy New Year 2015!!
Beautiful yarn!! Can’t wait to see what you are going to make…
The Twisted Yarn says
January 5, 2015 at 10:15 pmHappy new year to you, too. 🙂
daniellajoe says
January 1, 2015 at 4:51 pmLovely dolls!! And i want to learn about yarns in 2015…. Please let me know how this lovely lux yarn works..
The Twisted Yarn says
January 5, 2015 at 10:15 pmWill do…. when I’ve untangled it. (Oops. One thing I’ve learned: it knots badly.)
JenR says
January 1, 2015 at 5:00 pmLove the color of the quivit! I’ve tried dolls a few times but am terrible at faces ? I love the faces on these!
The Twisted Yarn says
January 5, 2015 at 10:16 pmThank you. 🙂
thecontentedcrafter says
January 1, 2015 at 5:33 pmI had already started drooling at the banner pic. Except it looks more pinky-purple and cerise on my screen than purple – but let’s not quibble about a colour – the TEXTURE’s the thing right? I thought a musk-ox was a mythical creature so what do I know! Can’t wait to see what you make with it.
The dolls are gorgeous – but my goodness how fiddly!!
Happy New Year Twisted – and I’m hoping your hubby didn’t catch a cold from this mornings escapade 😀
The Twisted Yarn says
January 5, 2015 at 10:17 pmHa ha. Well I assume that the Stoic Spouse was wearing SOMETHING down below, but as I didn’t catch sight of him, I’ll never know what. ‘Tis a mystery. He seems unscathed (and un-fired from his job). And yup, the texture is absolutely the thing with this amazing yarn.
helen bowden says
January 1, 2015 at 6:02 pmI love this, the doll is truly a beauty!! Xxx
The Twisted Yarn says
January 1, 2015 at 6:04 pmBut I’m worried that the hair is WRONG, and not at all like B’s. We’ll post it tomorrow. I hope she likes it.
helen bowden says
January 5, 2015 at 7:34 amI think its great, she will love it. She got a pram for Christmas so iam sure she will be forced to lay in the pram and be pushed around endlessly all day!!!! Once again, thank you so much. X
mollieandclaire says
January 1, 2015 at 6:08 pmArctic kwwwwwiiiivvviut…… sorry, seeing it written just makes me want to shout it out loud for some reason….
quietwoman says
January 1, 2015 at 6:16 pmthe quivet looks lovely. thanks for sharing
narf77 says
January 1, 2015 at 6:34 pmI have always gazed longingly at luxury textiles and fibres but living here in Tasmania and being prone to being penniless on a long term basis, these luxury fibres tend to be way out of my league. The other day my sons partner was looking for something interesting to do and started to look into spinning fibre. She wanted a spinning wheel but I remembered being most interested in drop spindles about a year ago and put her onto the more simple drop spindle idea. She made one from plans online and she bought some alpaca fleece to have a go at learning how to spin. When I saw the results a resounding SQUEE of delight came forth and Stevie-boy raced out to the shed to make me a drop spindle (Turkish drop spindle soon to eventuate to join it) so that I could have a go…now… where am I going to get some fleece? My son dropped in on his way out to “somewhere” and he and Kelsey deposited 2 large garbage bags of alpaca fleece into my most happy hands. I now have a huge bag of caramel alpaca fleece and a most beautiful white/grey kid mix from a baby alpacas very first shearing. Be still my narfish beating heart! Being fresh out of local musk ox, I can only begin to imagine how delicious that fibre is by looking at that tasty first image.
That doll is gorgeous Ms Twisted! A little girls glorious dream come to reality :). I started to twitch when you mentioned doll body parts. Serendipity Farm was like the body farm for dolls for many months leading up to Christmas and aside from a side foray into making an Ariel doll, I haven’t picked up my hook since. I have been hammering out beer bottle caps to herald in the New Year with visions of musk ox dancing in my head. OH you lucky girl to be able to smooch up close and personal with that scrumptious wool! I would have it tucked close to my heart and would stroke it mercilessly till the fibres split…might be best that I can’t access it here, I need another addiction like I need a hole in the head! 😉
I was fine on New Years day, no hangover (who gets a hangover when their tight husband forks out $6 on a bottle of “peach passion pop” to usher in the new year as he assumes his early rising wife isn’t going to make it till 12 so why fork out? OH how wrong you were Stevie-boy! 😉 ) but by mid arvo, when my hammering bottle caps had raised a bit of a thirst and I started to sip Steve’s new invention “the legless frog” consisting of lots of moscato, fruit juice, rum and frozen berries in ever unbalanced measure “OOPS, too much rum…oh dear…make sure not to do that in the next one!” and you drink 3 of them in a row and then attempt to make dinner in a legless froggy kind of way a most hilarious meal eventuates but when you get up at 3am the next day it’s a whole new game ;).
Happy New Year Ms Twisted. Here’s to communal hooking without being busted by the fuzz (the musk ox fuzz that is 😉 )
The Twisted Yarn says
January 4, 2015 at 10:11 amAnd a very happy new year to you and Stevie-boy and Earl, too. I love you that Stevie-Boy is the sort of chap who can pop into the workshop and make you a drop spindle. (And a table – I saw that amazing piece he put together just because he was bored.)
Your alpaca adventures are going to be wonderful. (I saw the fleecy pic on Facebook.) Please keep us updated with lots of photos. Say…. once every minute or two should be sufficient. 🙂
How’s the peacock coming on?
narf77 says
January 4, 2015 at 6:51 pmSTILL haven’t found those shorts but Stevie-boy assures me that they ripped a bit more and a peacock isn’t going to cut the mustard any more…more like an elephant! ;). Steve just made me a nailbinding needle as I discovered nailbinding on my way to the land of Oz (my ongoing holy grail quest 😉 ) and got very excited. I figure I could use this ancient craft to good effect with my newly spun alpaca fleece (once I actually stop getting excited and researching and do some actual factual “spinning” that is 😉 ). I am a knowledge magpie. I start off and get UBER excited and zip around all over the place finding things out. This year is my year of applying all of that knowledge into actually “DOING!” (yes I meant to yell there as I am still in the lustful throes of finding an awesome series of tutorials about natural dying and mordants and my brain is buzzing…who needs drugs for a high, knowledge is much more potent! 😉 ). You can be sure that my lustful endeavors will make it to my blog posts. They will reach epic proportions once I get producing ;). By the way, if I ever come across a musk ox here in Tassie, I will send you some fibre for free. I saw how much it is EEK! 😉
Woollen Wildnerness says
January 1, 2015 at 6:59 pmMay 2015 bring you a lot of creativity and cake too! Cute dolls, although it looks a bit weird ‘unassembled’ 😉
The Twisted Yarn says
January 5, 2015 at 10:18 pmYup, it looks a bit sinister unassembled. Happy new year!
Jenna says
January 1, 2015 at 7:14 pmWhat perfect purple fluffiness – much inspiration gathered!
Happy New Year! 🙂
vuchickens says
January 1, 2015 at 7:21 pmI’ve been fantasizing about knitting (and spinning!) quivit for quite awhile now… Hopefully someday soon I will be able to splurge on a bit of it. Your dolls are super cute!
Carole says
January 1, 2015 at 7:28 pmMy hands were trying to reach into the screen to stroke that scrumptious yarn. Oh the colours, and I can only imagine the softness of it. I cannot wait to see what you eventually create with it 🙂
jenpedwards says
January 1, 2015 at 8:42 pmLOL!! I really enjoy the way you write! Your description of your love of this quivit yarn is funny only because I totally know what this is Like!! But I must confess I have never heard of this yarn. I’m going to research it.:) adorable dolls too! Happy New Year to you!
gladeridercrafts says
January 2, 2015 at 7:34 amThat yarn certainly looks interesting…29 grams of it….have fun with that!
jem arrowsmith says
January 4, 2015 at 11:50 amHappy new year to you! Oooh the arctic qiviut looks dreamy…I can’t wait to see what you eventually make out of it!
Gallivanta says
January 7, 2015 at 5:20 amLuxurious. Presumably it is not musky in odour or perhaps it is which may explain your ardour for it. 😉
nancywalker says
January 9, 2015 at 5:30 pmQuviut is so amazing!!!! But look into Zealana bush tail possum yarn. It is Just as lighr and warm and soft and Affordable!