RSS - PostsFiled under: custom requests | Tags: alice in wonderland, felt, felted, german coat of arms, ipod case, ipod cozy, knit, knitted, pooh sticks, spinhandspun, whinney the pooh
Alice holding a Flamingo in Wonderland, for Sarah Page
German Coat of Arms, for Allison Boehm
Pooh playing Pooh Sticks, for Hannah Kinney
To request a custom commission, e-mail me at spinhandspun@gmail.com or visit my Alchemy page on Etsy.
Filed under: opportunities | Tags: crochet competition, knitting competition, threadknits, threadless, yarn competition
Threadknits Threadless Competition
Chris Cardinal of threadknits.com has announced an open call for individuals and group submissions of Threadless inspired yarn-creations.
Prizes are awarded weekly in the categories of knitting and crochet, and include: $250 cash money, inclusion on the custom threadless art panel, goodies from ReadyMade Magazine, and free knitting schwag.
Submissions must be completed by Monday, March 1st, 2010
 Octodecapus David Creighton-Pester |
 Octodecapus Rachel Thompson |
For official rules, visit: http://www.threadknits.com/rules/
Filed under: opportunities | Tags: knitta please, yarn bomb, yarn bombing, yarnbomb, yarnbombing
Open Call for Submissions to New Book by KnittaPlease
Attention urban yarnbombers! Magda Sayeg of Knitta Please has announced an open call for submissions to their new book:
The Knitta Book
Hello knitters,We’re making a book!
From Knitta’s beginning, we have tried to focus on the community aspect of yarnbombing – how art brings people together across generational, national, and political lines. One of our main motivations is to inspire continued growth for the movement around the world. As Knitta has traveled to create our own tags during the last few years, we have met countless knitters and yarnbombers who are also participating in the movement. Out of our desire to document this global community, Magda is curating a gallery style book on yarnbombing which will illustrate the international extent of the yarnbombing movement. The plan is to include approximately 275 images from knitters [and crocheters] around the world that represent unique interactions with our urban environments, innovation in textile design, and an overall sense of integration between art and craft. We would love to have you contribute. Photos can be from past, completed projects or from projects specifically designed for the purpose.
Email to request further information on digital image submission specification and photo/project guidelines. Also – please pass this information on to anyone who might be interested! The deadline for submissions is December 31, 2009.
Thanks! I hope to hear from you!
Best,
Karen McClellan
Assistant, KnittaPlease
Again, the Deadline for submission is December 31st, 2009, so take advantage of this great opportunity before the New Year! E-mail Magda at: contact@knittaplease.com
Filed under: custom requests | Tags: cozy, faun, fawn, felt, felted, glasses case, handmade, ipod case, knit, owl, spinhandspun
Faun with Flute Glasses Case, for Cody “the Floaty” Goulette
Old Skool Owl, for Liam Watkins
Filed under: opportunities | Tags: knitting contest, knitting opportunity, vaska
Get Cozy with Vaska Competition
Vaska, both coast’s leader in eco-hippie laundry detergent, has announced a cozy-making contest for outfitting their 48oz bottles in handmade wares.
Twelve prizes of $300 will be awarded on January 10th, 2010, meaning that all entries must be received by midnight on January 4th, 2010.
Official contest rules state that, “Cozies can be made from any material washable in Vaska and washed in Vaska using any craft style including sewing, knitting, quilting, macramé, embroidering, crochet, weaving and beading.”
In addition to submitting photographs of your cozy, contestants are asked to submit a personal Vaska experience to be included in Vaska’s 2010 calendar alongside the image of their cozy.
Land-lovers beware! Currently, Vaska products are only available in the hip coastal regions where everything happens first (i.e. New York, Florida, California, and Portland). So if you’re like me (see: Minneapolis indicator on map below) you’ll have to order your product online for about $10.
But hey — a grand prize of $290 total isn’t bad, right?
(Jackson, WY, what are you doing there?)
For full contest details, visit: http://www.vaskahome.com/contest
Filed under: artists in review | Tags: artist review, frame knitting, french knitting, john binet-fauvel, knitted, knitted art, sea creature, spinhandspun, spool knitting
John Binet-Fauvel
Born in Jersey’s Channel Islands, John Binet-Fauvel’s oceanic roots have inspired him to craft sea creatures by recycling wire from slot machines, electric motors, transformers, and other found objects through the process of frame knitting. As a child, he fashioned tubing by winding wire around four nails stuck into a wooden cotton reel. Now, he uses the technique of French knitting, or spool knitting to sculpt his designs. The process is similar to finger-knitting, yet utilizes more elaborate, multi-pronged frames. While Binet-Fauvel creates his own frames in the shapes neededs to produce his elaborate forms, the wire’s stiffness allows him to further refine his figures.
He and his wife run the designer textile business “Melissa Warren”. His works are available on Etsy at: johnbinetfauvel.etsy.com.
Filed under: artists in review | Tags: artist review, irina shaposhnikova, knitwear, spinhandspun
Irina Shaposhnikova
In June of 2009, Irina Shaposhnikova graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Aterwerp, Belgium. Though her masters collection, Crystallographica, focused on geometric galactic forms, I was floored by her former excursions into knitwear.
Here, it appears that Shaposhnikova has stripped the sweater dress of its structural guts, leaving only its decorative cables dangling precariously from their ribbed collars. But don’t be fooled — each cable is discretely sewn to a near-invisble mesh liner housing them in place. Her creative approach and ability to turn something so basic as a cable stitch on its head has me on my own! Look out Andrea Zittel — fiber enthusiasts may be coveting a new Six Month Uniform.
Filed under: sneak previews | Tags: etsy, felted, handmade, iphone, ipod, ipod case, knitted, spinhandspun
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Filed under: inspirations, materials | Tags: DIY, do it yourself, handmade, k'nex, kristin boehm, light box, light tent, lightbox, spinhandspun
After months of photographing my work with so-so results, I decided it was time to invest in a lightbox. And what better way to do it than to Do It Yourself? In search of the perfect supplies, I raided my parents basement and came across my favorite childhood toy: a box of K’nex!
If you’re wondering what a lightbox can do for you, look no further than my dingy-yellow digital ‘graphs in the K’nex building portion of this tutorial, then compare those to these images taken inside of the completed K’nex lightbox. Lightboxes keep your colors looking bright, reduce shadows, and make sure your images look clean and professional. Follow the tutorial below to create your own…
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 Knex lightbox.  Knex structure without screen.
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Filed under: new yarn selections | Tags: spinhandspun, yarn, yarn color options
Below is a complete visualization of all available yarn color options:
 brown |
 burgandy |
 rust red |
 fire engine red |
 coral |
 pink |
 orange |
 goldenrod |
 grass green |
 forest green |
 turquoise |
 denim blue |
 teal |
 violet |
 purple |
 dark grey |
 black |
 white |
