Crafty Yarns - A friend I've gotten to know over the past several years at our fiber retreats is part of Waldorf education. She's also an incredibly creative and enthusiastic woman, a talented teacher, an admirable mom, and a very crafty spinner and crocheter. She runs a great shop, and the photos of her yarns (and other crafts) have always entertained me.

But as a spinner who always made even-weighted, consistent yarns, sometimes I was confused by her yarns [and the yarns spun by her children, which are also really fantastic yarns.... I've even purchases some yarn from her eldest son]. My curiousity always wondered, "Who uses these? Who is the audience? What are they using these yarns *for*?"

I just found one of the niche markets for these yarns: Custom hand-spun yarn used for doll hair. Apparently there is an entire world to hand-made dolls, and even more specifically "Waldorf dolls," or "Waldorf-inspired dolls" (as I've been corrected, thank you!). Go ahead, do an image search on Google or Flickr or Etsy for "Waldorf dolls." Yup, a whole world to this.

There's a local dollmaker who was looking for a local spinner to provide custom hand-spun yarns for her work. She contacted one of our local fiber gurus, who posted the inquiry to an email list, and I contacted the doll-maker to see what it was she's looking for. The dollmaker sent me some links to some similar dolls (made by other dollmakers), and I was immediately in love with the style of this market. (For example, this doll by Tumbleberry Toys) The yarns reminded me of my craft friend from the fiber retreats... and Yes, coming full circle, my friend from the retreat has sold yarn to this very dollmaker before! The dollmaker and I plan to meet up next week, to see if I can make the kinds of yarns she's hoping to get for her dolls.

So last night, I went to my stash of fiber to see if I could create something resembling the doll hair samples I looked at online. I have this odd bag full of fiber I bought at a shop going-out-of-business sale, plus some fiber I dyed last summer at the fiber retreat. I didn't have any plans for that fiber yet, so an experiment seemed like a good idea. As I started blending colors, I remembered some deep burgundy wool in another bag, and some "firestart" sparkly fibers that were in my swag bag from a Retreat probably 4-5 years ago.

Here's the result of my work last night.

• Whole album
• Best image of the sparkly fibers (and the Full Sized image is even better)
  
• With a flash
• With a ruler in the shot

Things I've learned: (1) Wow, that was fun. I loved how soft the wool is and the creativity of blending the colors. (2) I loved getting to do some stash-busting. (3) I love the look of the dolls people are making. I think I would enjoy being part of that effort. (4) I need to improve my photography. I didn't think the flash image would look good, and it has some of the better colors of the entire album. (5) A single evening, catching up on some tv, and I had a nice little skein of yarn. I still need to measure the yardage and/or weight of the yarn, but the whole project went more quickly than I expected (including setting the twist overnight and taking photos the next morning). (6) I will have to start dealing with pricing... one of those things that craft artisans have to overcome when they move from "I just make stuff" to "I make stuff and sell it." It can be difficult to put a fair price on your efforts and skills, to avoid under-valuing your own creative talents. So there will be a learning curve there, too.

Anyways, I'm totally jazzed about this possibility. And gosh, wasn't I just talking about color and spinning two days ago? *whee!*

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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Friends like Jennifer and Bjo, who continually inspire me to improve my own crafts.

Postscript: I almost forgot! Last night I also started hanging framed items on my wall in my room. It's starting to really look like a home!

Oh, and the sunrise was really awesome on my commute this morning: Pretty sunrise sky, More beautiful sunrise sky, Final sunrise pic this morning