** NEEDLEWORK'S PLEASURE** SPINNING & FELTING FIBRES, HANDSPUN & HANDPAINTED YARNS

Hi everyone!

Apart from my custom orders I have been finishing new yarn designs all week, and today was my photographing/cropping/displaying...PC - day, so here are my latest beauties that I have now displayed in my Etsy store and in my EbayUK store. You can enter both shops through my website at www.needleworks-pleasure.com  :o)

Well, photo #2 is not strictly speaking my handpainted yarn design, it was painted by a friend of mine who has asked me to display it in my Etsy store for her ;o) It is a gorgeously soft and yummy Merino single ply yarn, really squishy indeed!

Feel free to view my stores for more yarn information. I have to get back to my spinning wheel now.

Oh, by the way: Penny darling, if you read this blog, I received your beautiful card with the "pigment" photo on the front on Saturday! What fantastic and vibrant colours!!!!!!!!!!!! I love that picture! Thank you so much for thinking about me :o)

EVERYONE HAVE A VERY RELAXING  SUNDAY AND A GOOD START INTO THE COMING UP WEEK!

Oh hasn't it just been an absolutely fantastic sunny weekend?! I so needed some sunlight and a blue sky, no gales and just a bright day with crispy cold air. I immediately grasped the opportunity to take a loooooong walk by the Solway Firth at Drumburgh, where I always walk with Sam when the weather is good because when it is not you simply cannot walk there, it would be unbearable. Sam loves the marsh, especially when the sheep are grazing a good few miles away at the other end of the firth so he can run and run and run and run...and be an incredibly happy dog indeed ;o) I have taken some photos of the firth and the shores, I cannot get enough pictures from that area!

This is the view out of the Solway Firth, and on the other side of the water you can see Dumfries&Galloway of Scotland.

I find this blue-in-blue with just a bit of ebb sand in between so awesome, too sad the sea gulls are a bit too far away in the photo. They were having a party out there!!!!

Yep, my Sam has to be in it too :o)

This is the view towards Carlisle in the very distance to the right, and that is where the firth is ending too. I always manage to arrive here during low tide, you normally don't see any sandy stripes anywhere once the water has moved back in.

Lots and lots of marsh for happy dogs to run around on, especially when sheep and cattle are grazing a bit further down.

Lambing season has already started,  I saw and heard the first few newborn lambs out in the fields about one week ago. A lot of them will be born indoors depending on the breed, but there are lots of hardy mules, Cheviot and Scottish blackface sheep around in this area, and their lambs cope with frosty nights amazingly well. I am sure these babes will curl up very close to their mothers at night.

Before I go I would like to mention that I have displayed a new set of mixed wools in my ebay store - 5 different breeds in one mix, all natural white and one light grey, mostly British breeds but also one Scandinavian top in it. They are all beautiful and very easy to work with, and will make any handspinner, hand dyer or felter happy!! :o) Feel free to Visit My eBay Store for more details about this mix.

God, time flies!!! I have been meaning to enter a new blog days ago, and it's been almost a week since I last added new photos. I am currently up to my ears in yarn orders, one of which is a bulk order for white and oatmeal Bluefaced Leicester sport weight yarn that I want to finish by the end of the month, so I better get pedalling big time!!! ;o)

And because I have got a lot of work to do right now this can only mean one thing, and one thing only: I HAVE TO BAKE ANOTHER MEGA SIZE CAKE TO NIBBLE ON WHILE WORKING!! Well, nibble may not be the right word here..that cake will most probably be gone within 48 hours...as usual...

Here are my latest yarn beauties I have just recently finished, and they are also all displayed in my Etsy store!

"Mylady Greensleeves" handspun Merino:

"Highlands III" extra soft Merino:

"Sirens IV" extra soft Merino:

The last two designs are quick-knit slub yarns, really easy to work with and wonderfully soft and squishy :o)

I have also managed to finish a new colourway of large slub yarn in lime and sage green-grey for all the dreadmakers and freeform knitters out there! I have displayed it alongside my range of slub yarns in my ebay store. Feel free to Visit My eBay Store for more yarn details.

The chocolate cake I made 2 days ago is already gone...unbelievable? Not really ;o) I am thinking about baking another one today with a slightly different chocolatey touch. Chocolate provides the body with endorphines which make you feel better, and I can use a lot of endorphines at the moment!! The weather has got slightly better, no heavy rain showers anymore, but still windy and very cloudy and cold. Nevertheless, it's the perfect weather for staying indoors and do some wool painting :oD

I have finished 2 new lambswool designs, 200g each = 445yds, so that's lots of yardage to work with. They will be displayed on my website at www.needleworks-pleasure.com and here in my blog of course. The first lot is called "Nemo II", and the second lot is my "Buddhist Monk":

I prefer to stick to the names if the colourways are quite the same as of their predecessors, be it a different yarn size or wool type, but there are certain schemes I very much like to repeat because I want to see them again and again emerging from my dyepots. I have had several "Buddhist Monk" designs in the past, and I have also had a "Nemo" fingering weight yarn with the same shades, which just recently sold.

I have also finished 2 new lots of handpainted slub yarns which are now for sale in my ebay store:

The first one is a dark rosewood + burnt orange, and the second one is mustard + light plum purple - oohhhhh I like 'em.......:o)

Feel free to Visit My eBay Store for more yarn details!

How sad ist that weather out there!!!!???? It's been raining and snowing for days, the gales get stronger and stronger, and two days ago we had a nice powercut from 9.00h-14.00h....I almost froze my b*** off and once more I so appreciated my open fireplace in the living room...no electricity necessary for this one! But I had no light, no hot water, no warm food, the storm outside was about to rip the roof off the house, and I felt really really depressed about it all. I cannot express how much I long for spring!

In the meantime all I can do is drown myself in work and wool and paint them in marvelously refreshing colours ;o)

Here comes my latest Bluefaced Leicester yarn design that I finished last night, and which is now displayed in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com . I have called it "Mrs.Dalloway":

the saffron shade in this design is very soothing, and I am glad that I added it to the yarn. The natural dyes I have used for it give it all such a warm expression.

I will go now and bake an oversize chocolate cake to drown myself in! The good thing is that these days I do not need to worry about becoming overweight because I have to save on my heating - thanks to the obscene high oil prices (thank you Shell/BP/Texaco...all of you...YOU ARE SUCH RIP OFFS!) my body uses all the calories on maintaining its temperature at 36.5 degrees :o(

Yes, I am rather upset about the rising energy prices...please do not mention failing resources or carbon footprints!!!! I simply don't buy it anymore, they are excuses for the energy tycoons in the world to do as they please. Just recently SHELL announced last year's profit of ...how many billions? Perhaps it's time for me to go and get my own solar panels!

Everyone keep warm and snug and enjoy your hot cup of tea, coffee, or a good old fashioned hot chocolate!!!!! :oD