There is a whole strange sub-culture of spinning, called "art yarns." These spinners really push the envelope when it comes to creating yarn. With a little bit of finagling, if it can be strung on a thread, you can add it to your handspun yarn, to create everything from beautiful thick-and-thin yarns with strange coils, to beaded works, Dr. Who fanart tributes, and strange creations that defy categorization. The sky is the limit when it comes to spinning your own art yarn. Add Barbie doll heads! Teddy bears! Silk flowers and fake pearls! Silk ribbon!
Art yarn is as personal as the spinner who makes it. Pluckyfluff is one of the biggest names in the art yarn world, offering classes and instructional books to help teach others how to create their own. Her art yarn is fascinatingly high-concept art. Just look at this pinkish yarn spun with an elastic thread to make a skein that looks just like a brain. Or this holiday yarn which includes scrunched-up balls of colored tinsel.
Weird & Twisted are a pair of art yarn spinners who I have long admired. Take this recent creation, a tribute to the Dr. Who episode "Silence in the Library." The yarn features brown and copper fiber, reminiscent of the colors of the library itself. It has six silver book charms spun into it, and six strips of white silk fabric to represent the characters' space suits, each with one or two green glass beads to represent the glowing communicators. Such exquisite craftsmanship and care taken to select the materials, and the end result is beautiful in and of itself.
There are several different ways you can spin odd things into your fiber. Here's a great run-down of the basic techniques. Now you just have to decide what to make, or what to add!
Image courtesy Flickr/QueenyVonSugarpants
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