“Starry Night”
I have loved Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” painting for as long as I can remember. So I decided to make a version of it into artyarn.
Wool, mohair, tencel, alpaca and bamboo fibers (some are handdyed) are spun into a thick and thin slub yarn. 2 threads bind the yarn, one with hundreds of blue and yellow glass seed beads, the other with several dozen yellow pearls and 3 iridescent yellow pompoms. Some of the handdyed mohair and churro wool locks add additional texture to the yarn.

I have been spinning yarn for 7 years, since 2002. When I was a graduate student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, a student showed me how to spin using a spindle. It was very strange at first, but I kept practicing. In 2003, I moved back to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois (where I currently live) and joined the Champaign Urbana Spinners and Weavers Guild. I bought a very cheap spinning wheel from one of the members. I quickly found out that I preferred spinning on the wheel versus the spindle and could do a larger variety of techniques. I spun yarns, but not conventional ones. In 2006, I took a wonderful spinning, dyeing and color theory workshop at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. The instructor was Deb Menz, who is known for her unique colorful yarns and her knowledge of color. I spun some yarns in the period between 2006-2008. But it really wasn’t until this year that I started spinning regularly and started to experiment.

“Garden of Earthly Delights”
My interpretation of Hieronymus Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights” painting in handspun yarn. The yarn is mainly wool and merino, but also has mohair locks. It is bound with a multicolored metallic thread strung with pearls and beads. Then I sewed on little birds, shells, coral beads, glass beads and other beads one by one. The yarn is a total of 89 yards and weighs approximately 5.5 ounces.

In December 2008, I opened my Etsy shop: Coolclimates. At first, I sold almost all jewelry, but it was not selling well. I put some handspun yarn in there and noticed it sold pretty fast. So I started spinning new yarns and putting them in my shop.  It seemed like my handspun yarns were the only items that were really selling (I had a variety of other items including handfelted coasters, handknitted items and other home décor pieces). Since opening my shop, I have drifted more and more into selling just yarn.  I joined Ravelry in February 2009, and this really made an impact for me: both for marketing/networking and seeing so many inspiring and creative things. This spring, I started experimenting with art yarns and using unorthodox techniques and unusual materials including beads, lace, fabric flowers, fabric strips, sequins, pompoms and even doll hair.  In July 2009, I was very fortunate to take a Lexi Boeger aka “Pluckyfluff” workshop in Chicago.

“Michael Jackson”
My tribute to the late Michael Jackson. The yarn, which is a mixture of wool, tencel, soysilk and metallic, has iridescent white sequin strands (the glove) spun in at random intervals. Lots of his performance outfits incorporated a lot of gold, silver and copper, as well as black, white and gunmetal. This is a slim skein of 44 yards and weighs just 1 ounce. The skein is on the small side because it represents his unfinished career and his early death. Here’s to “the Man in the Mirror.”

In the last few months, I have become very conscious about my sources of inspiration for my yarns. My yarns tend to revolve around certain specific themes: places I’ve traveled or would like to travel, nature/landscape, celebrities, famous paintings and photographs with interesting color combinations. Sometimes the places are imaginary. I tend to spin thicker yarns with lots of diverse color, fibers and textures. I feel that my yarns are the most expressive this way. However, my art yarns range from tame to outrageous. I also continue to spin more conventional yarns. Many of these yarns (both the conventional and artyarns) are for sale in my two online shops: Etsy (www.coolclimates.etsy.com) and Artfire (www.coolclimates.artfire.com).  Some of the yarns I keep because I have a personal attachment to them or they are experiments. I have also been a member of the Phatfiber club since February 2009. This is a group of fiber artists who send in small samples (rovings, yarn, stitch markers, etc) and get a box of a mix of other fiber artist’s samples in return. Each month, there is a different theme. I’ve spun several yarns using various fiber samples from Phatfiber members, and I like to keep those yarns as well.  I do find that storing all this yarn takes up some space (I live in a small apartment), but I’m selling enough so that my stash doesn’t increase so much.

“The White City”
I was in Chicago recently, driving through Jackson Park, where the 1893 World’s Fair (aka “the White City”) took place. Sadly, there are very few remains from this amazing historic event. The only things that are still there are the Museum of Science and Industry and the Golden Lady. This inspired me to create my own “White City.”
This art yarn is unique in that it incorporates a number of fibers (wool, tencel, cotton, bamboo, banana fiber, alpaca) with strands of lace, lacelets that I purchased in Dublin (made in Austria), handfelted balls and irregular white pearls. The balls and pearls give it a festive look whereas the lace adds an old-fashioned or antique element. The yarn was also plied in an unusual way: the natural twists of the yarn were preserved, therefore, the yarn has many “tails,” some up to 4-5 inches long. This gives it additional dimensional interest. The various fibers each have different spinning characteristics which show up throughout the skein.
This yarn is approximately 78 yards and weighs 5 ounces.

In addition to my online shops, I have my personal website: www.rsuntop.com
This website is more oriented to my fiber art, and fine pieces of art, versus consumer oriented items.  In addition to spinning and knitting, I do a lot of felting, beadwork and mixed media. My latest bodies of artwork have been deeply inspired by my travels to Iceland and Scandinavia. I also have a Facebook profile at http://www.facebook.com/coolclimates?ref=name and a Twitter account: https://twitter.com/coolclimates. My Ravelry profile can be reached by this address:
http://www.ravelry.com/people/rsuntop

Dedicated to one of my favorite musicians who died way too young: Jimi Hendrix. “Purple Haze” is a cacophony of wool and mohair fibers with recycled sari silk and Indian fabrics spun right in. In every shade of purple imaginable, plus gold, copper, and other colors. This bulky yarn is a whopping skein of 142 yards, weighing 6.3 ounces. This is yarn taken to the extreme, just like Hendrix took guitar to an extreme.

Spinning for me is meditative. The simple yarns that I spin, that is… For the more challenging yarns, it’s not particularly relaxing, but I get a feeling of accomplishment by trying more advanced/unorthodox techniques.  I’m always working on trying to sell much of my yarn because I’m very productive and crank out the new yarns constantly. I also enjoy having other people use my unique yarn and seeing their finished creations. That is very rewarding for me.

My tribute to the singer Bjork Gudmundsdottir of Iceland in handspun yarn. The yarn is 23 yards, extremely bulky and approximately 2 ounces. It may be short on yardage, but boy are those 23 yards loaded with goodies! Mainly wool, but also bits of silk, bamboo, tencel, mohair and synthetics. Other components include fake hair (both black and gold- inspired by the art of Gabriella Friedreksdottir, an artist on Bjork’s albums), red metallic pompoms, white pearls and metallic thread. Her song “Cocoon” on the album “Vespertine” has the line “a train of pearls, carbon by carbon…”, hence the addition of pearls. The video of that song has plastic-like string sprouting out of her breasts, so I decided to bind the yarn with a hot pink thread. The hat is an example of something you can make with this yarn!

I’m constantly trying to work on new techniques and ideas, and I’m open to more challenges. I have never taught spinning to anyone, but would like to. I have taught many people how to knit (one of my other passions, which I learned at age 6).  I love the feeling of fiber: soft and tangible.  I also just love to constantly combine new colors and textures.  I feel that I can express myself pretty well through the yarn that I spin. Each skein of yarn that I spin has a different mood to it.