This was a yarn spun for this challenge:
http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/novelty-and-art-yarn-spinners/578132/1-25#10But I wanted to share it here too for those of you who might not follow the Ravelry challenges/groups.
I finished this yarn yesterday after waking up early in the morning and getting the story all finished up. I will post the story below with photos of the different facets. It has been spun in a full end to end storyline and when knit up, will follow exactly, the storyline. I will put more footnotes and details at the bottom so this post might be long.
**"Golden Grumbles"
Cindy (2009)**
Once upon a time there was a little boy who went walking through a golden acorn forest in search of some animal friends. As he approached a large pink tree with black flowers he noticed something hiding behind it. He crept ever closer to the tree and started to hear the squeaks of a small animal.
Intrigued, he slowly started to creep around the majestic tree following the little pitter-pat of footsteps. Then he stopped and whispered 'hello?' and heard the fast and heavy breathing of something very scared. He looked around at the golden water trickling over the pebblestones in the river and said 'who are you?'.
Suddenly, the darkness of one thousand lonely hearts fell upon the forest and the boy heard a really muffled grumbling. The creature replied 'Grumbles'. The boy, suddenly realizing that perhaps he didn't consider all the consequences of haphazardly wandering into the woods in search of friends, understood he was at the mercy of whatever was hiding behind the tree.
He did the only thing he could think of at the time. Throwing caution to the wind and ignoring all of those 'Don't Feed the Wild Animals' signs he noticed at the gate, he offered the creature some of the candy he had brought along in his sack. The creature grumbled 'Candy? mmmgrbrrrmmm' and had visions of the swirling colours of hard candy, and long strings of pulled taffy.
Wide-eyed, frisky, and very very fluffy, he crept around the tree to the boy. With puckering cheeks, and briskly whiskers, the boy realized he was being stared down by none other than, a wild golden hamster!
For the next few hours, the boy and the hamster ate lollipops, licorice, taffy, caramels, candy corns, jawbreakers, bubblegum, and those swirling, coloured hard candies the boy had found at the bottom of his Grandma's purse with the humbugs. As they gobbled them down, the hamster recounted his tale to the boy.
It was a sad tale of how from almost birth, the golden hamster could not find friends because of his name, 'Grumbles'. His brothers and sisters, and even his mother chose never to listen to him when he talked, believing that all he would do was grumble on and complain about things. He explained that it was not his fault that he was named Grumbles even before he could squeak.
Eventually, Grumbles got really tired of having no one to talk to and being treated as a second-class, bronze hamster that he developed a habit of grumbling about his troubles. It was his way of venting his frustration but also made him feel like someone was talking to him. The sound of his own voice was suddenly of great comfort to him.
Grumbles recounted of his failed school friendships and how eventually he packed his red sack and decided to retreat to the woods and live on the land as an outlaw. He found the patch of land near the majestic pink tree and settled there, grew a garden of asparagus, brocolli, wheat, corn and beets. He made a pact with the local birds that involved him supplying them with winter seed in exchange for them not eating him.
Grumbles and the boy found that they had lived very similar lives filled with failed friendships. Hours passed since they started talking and eating candy and now the only grumbles they could hear were the complaints of two very bad stomach aches.
Grumbles invited the boy into his modest straw and mud cave and they decided after a long nap that they would remain friends and the boy would live with the golden hamster and help him both cultivate the land and free him from the enslavement of the birds.
For years the two friends lived together, sewing seeds and growing wheat and even a field of candy floss. With never another lonely day, there was never another grumble, and they lived happily ever after.
NOTES:
Here are a picture of my supplies (minus all those time-consuming hamsters I needle felted - they are shown above)
And here they are all laid out as per the storyline:
And here are some finished shots of the yarn:
I tried to depict all of the visual parts of the story including:
Candy - felted beads and candies and long pink sections to show pulled taffy
Bronze Hamster - with bronze bamboo
Mud/Straw Cave - Some grey and brown wool with hemp
Childhood - one of the felted hamsters is a wee tiny baby
Golden Acorn forest - hand dyed gold merino/viscose with acorns in it
Grumbles and grumbling - throughout the yarn are grey locks to represent what grumbling looks like
Pink Tree with Black Flowers - Pink wool with black flowers
Fluffy-ness - Fluffy Ecospun
Garden - a section of green, yellow and dark plum - to represent asparagus, brocolli, corn, wheat and beets
Golden water over pebbles - Golden mohair locks with stone coloured felted beads
Darkness of 1000 hearts - a section of dark black
Birds and seeds - tiny birds and sprigs of berries and seeds trapped in the yarn
Needless to say, this was a labour of love, but I am happy with how it turned out. It will be up for adoption at some point with a signed manuscript of the story.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
as inspired by this picture: 
