Getting Phat

Check out my new fish tank ---------------->

I think that is so cool.

So one of the things I've been wanting to do for the past couple of years is contribute to the Phat Fiber Sampler box.  Those of you who are on Ravelry and who are serious knitters or spinners know what Phat Fiber is.  For everyone else, it's basically a sample box of yarn and spinning fiber that comes out every month.  It's gotten extremely popular, so it's gotten very hard to snag a box... necessitating timed "box drops," a secret email list, and detailed instructions on the home page of the Phat website on how to score a box once it drops (seriously, they literally disappear within seconds.)

Anyway, I remember when the Phat Fiber box was first introduced, about three or four years ago.  Back in those days (let's call them the "days of old"), you had between ten and twenty minutes to get a box before they all sold out, so I managed to get my hands on the first few boxes.  It was pretty fab.  A big over-sized shoe box type package would come in the mail, and when you opened it up it would be packed full of beautiful spinning fiber and handspun and hand dyed yarn from all different Etsy, Artfire, and other kinds of shops.  I swore that if I ever decided to open up shop, I'd contribute to the box, thus becoming a "Phattie."

Cut to this year... if you've looked in my shop, you know that it's full of jewelry.  Nonetheless, I am also very serious about the Spinning of Yarn (much like the Naming of Cats, it isn't just one of your holiday games.)  I fully intended to stock some yarn at some point and eventually follow through with my goal of getting Phat.  But I figured I had time... maybe I'd contribute in September or October, when my schedule wasn't quite so full.

Then they announced the theme for July.  It was... wait for it... Art Nouveau.  I know.  Right?  How could I not contribute to an Art Nouveau box when I go on and on about Joris-Karl Huysman and market myself under the name Decadent Delusion???  So, toward the end of June (pretty late in the game, actually), I signed right on up, and here's what I did:

“In A Silver Charger”

Based on Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations
for the play “Salome,” by Oscar Wilde

Merino, Suri Silk Threads, Wool Locks, Angelina, Silver Thread

"It is for mine own pleasure that I ask the head of Jokanaan in a silver charger."

 “Salome”

Based on Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations
for the play “Salome,” by Oscar Wilde

Alpaca, Merino, Silk, Angora, Silver Thread

"How pale the Princess is!  Never have I seen her so pale.  She is like the shadow of a white rose in a mirror of silver."

Here's the gruesome illustration on which "In A Silver Charger" is based:

BWAHAHAHAHA!  I couldn't resist.  I just love Beardsley... he's so twisted.

Anyway, here are all my little samples before they went out:

The box "dropped" on Sunday, and people are starting to receive them and post pictures on Ravelry.  I've glimpsed my samples in one or two pictures already, and it's kind of a rush.  This has been such a fun project!  I'll definitely be contributing again next month... see you in Bollywood!  ;)