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

Just to let you all know that my website www.needleworks-pleasure.com will not be accessable over the weekend because my webhost ist moving all his equipment to a new data center, and that will take 24-48 hours. At least I have been notified weeks in advance, which is really good of my webhost, no bad shocks or customer complaints ;o)

But my ebayUK store and my Etsy store are all running well on the web! I have just now displayed two new yarns on Etsy:

and one new slub yarn design in my ebayUK store:

 so feel free to Visit My eBay Store and my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com for more yarn details :o)

EVERYONE HAVE A VERY GOOD WEEKEND!!

Running late...again...sorry! I meant to display my latest yarns days ago but I have been extremely busy with sorting orders and packing them for prompt dispatch. Sometimes I wish I had another pair of hands and an extra few hours in the day, I swear!

But nevertheless, here they are now, my handspun super squishy rainbow yarn design made from extra soft Merino wool, and my "Spaced Peacock" handpainted extra soft and extra squishy Bluefaced Leicester yarn, which was quite a handful to finish. It's  a double dye design so it has taken me twice as long to get painted than normal, but the wide range of pansy blues and tons of purples have been worth the effort!! Both yarns have been displayed in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com :

I have also tried out my new handmade shampoo bar that I had bought from a seller at the continental market last week - IT IS ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!!!! I didn't think that it would be so easy to get adequate foam out of this bar to actually cover all my long hair, but just a bit of rubbing produced loads of shampoo in no time. And the bergamotte oil that was used in the bar remains for days, in fact the entire bathroom now smells of bergamotte in a very nice way, not annoyingly strong but nice and subtle. I will so stick to handmade shampoo bars from now on, and even save a bit of money because the organic/animal testing free products I usually buy from the health store have become incredibly expensive. What can I say

 - HANDMADE IS ALWAYS BETTER!!!!!! ;o)

I just got back from Carlisle where the last day of the Continental Market was coming to its end, and I wanted to catch at least a couple of loafs of freshly baked sour dough bread from the Polish bakery that always has a stand there. The bread is just as delicious as German sour dough bread (oh how I miss German bread!!!), and I always buy a few loaves and put them in the freezer. The French were there with their yummy feta filled peppers (they simply are better than the ones prepacked from the stores), and I also bought a handmade bar of glycering shampoo bar with bergamotte and rosemary essential oils...hm...I have never used shampoo bars before, I wonder if it's going to work with my long hair, you sort of have to rub that bar along the hair to make it foam. Let's be excited ;o)

First thing I saw when I got tot he market place was a group of people with dozens of beautiful and majestic greyhounds - these dogs are rescue dogs from the racetrack...if they get the "useless" mark they are out and usually get shot or put down because they simply don't bring in the money. I love dogs very much, I am the type of person who will never ever want to live without a dog (or two...or three...) in the house, I simply enjoy their company too much, and it is so practical as they can be taken along on vacations, or run beside the bicycle for exercise if you are lazy for a day, or, if they are too small for that type of running, they can sit in a basket attached to your handle bar!  Anyway, I chatted to two of these people for a long time while cuddling a very very gorgeous greyhound girl....YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW HOW CLOSE I CAME TO SAYING "HEY, I WILL TAKE YOU WITH ME"!!!!!

This is the website, which is packed with information about greyhound rescue:

www.dgrescue.org.uk

and this is Thomas, the dog of the month. Is he handsome or what!!!?

Who knows, I may end up with one of them, perhaps Sam would like a playmate?

Right, before I dive into my yummy sour dough bread with stuffed feta peppers, here are my lates handpainted Bluefaced Leicester wool rovings, which I finished last night....YES, NO CINNAMON THIS TIME...;O).... They are all displayed in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com . I hope you like the colourways!

Everyone have a very peaceful Easter time!!!

Today my last custom order (for now) has been mailed - 2 wonderful skeins of very soft and smooth handspun Merino DK yarn, that have found a new home in Canada. The request was for a similar design like my "Tiger Eye" yarn that sold a while ago:

Weighing a total of 180g and measuring a minimum of 389 yds, now that's plenty of yardage to knit or crochet with :o)

And because I can't seem to get enough of my cinnamon and brown shades these days I have painted some more Bluefaced Leicester rovings in very rich ...yes...cinnamon shades, one for the shop and two for myself! I am planning to spin one lot into a fine yarn and the other lot will be for a wet felted scarf...whenever I will find time to do it...

The lighter shade on the photo may look like a victorian rose pink, but it's really rather a very nice warm light cinnamon. I think it looks absolutely gorgeous!!! This lot is for sale in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com !

Let's hope that the weather will be nice and sunny over the Easter holidays. I so want to take a day off and go for a nice long walk with Sam along Hadrian's wall, or perhaps at Little Salkeld past the druids circle. I cannot drive too far (heaven knows I would looooove to drive further up into Scotland for a whole day!!), but the petrol prices are killing me and my wallet...sigh....it is ever so frustrating!

But hey, let's not be too discouraged by the rising costs of living!  Bad times will always come and go like the four seasons, it's not the first time we have seen them, is it? ;o)

They are finished!!! They are finished!!!!! My bulk order of handspun natural Bluefaced Leicester yarn is finally ready for dispatch. WHAT A TREAT to see these hanks finally spun and plied! It has taken me almost 5 weeks to get them done, I don't think I could have finished them any faster because I always have to do so much sidework for my business, taking orders, answering e-mails, administration, paper work, packing, dispatching... and yes, in between I also need to finish new fibers and yarns for my stores too. Spinning fine yarns such as these sport weight BFL hanks does take time, and I can only spin so much of a thin ply per day, my vision just gets blury if I focus on a thin thread for too long in one go. But as long as my customers know how long it will take me to finish their gorgeous yarns things will roll quite well :o)

The white yarns will be handpainted with natural dyes and be part of a Tudor re-enactment. How awesome is that!!!??? Yarns on stage...fantastic!

I also finished a new handspun Merino yarn design in vibrant blues and turquoise. I have given this yarn a stronger twist, which will make it suitable for sock knitting (remember to ALWAYS reinforce your heels and tips when making socks from pure wool!) and weaving:

These photos were taken today, a very rainy and dark day, so they don't quite do the original justice. The shades are really vibrant and strong. It's a great colourway indeed! I have called it "Waves", and you can find this particular design for sale in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com .

If you are looking for a different colourway please feel free to view my category "custom made yarns" on my website www.needleworks-pleasure.com , where you can choose your very own colourway!! ;o)

I have finished another custom order of handpainted wool rovings. They went out in the mail today. They will be turned into handspun yarns by their new owner, and I already know that the colourways will be simply gorgeoussssss ;o)

Oooohhh, my latest handspun yarns are ooooooozing with wonderful colours!!!! It seems that I have been thinking about food way too much in the past few days, which explains the colourways and of course the names of my latest babes :o) Here they are, "Miel de Lavande" and "Cinnamon Swirl", both now for sale in my Etsy store www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com ,... man, those shades make me hungry....

I have also finished one custom order of handpainted Bluefaced Leicester roving in dark green and deep purple. It will go out in the mail tomorrow, so I have taken the opportunity to (actually remember and) take a photo for my blog ;o)

Four more custom painted rovings are currently soaking in their dye pots, and another load of undyed yarn is waiting to be mordanted.

I will now go and have a megasize of cinnamon cake that I made last night (oh how I loooooove cinnamon!!!!!!!!!!!!) before I sit back down behind my spinning wheel.

Enjoy the latest pictures, and do feel free to view my online stores and my website at www.needleworks-pleasure.com as well :o)

God, I'm really trying to keep up with time...it just flies over my head and leaves me spinning...literally!! Yep, I am still working on several custom orders, one is due to be finished mid March, so I better hurry, and another one just came out of the dyebath, a very lovely handpainted Bluefaced Leicester roving in deep purple and dark green, I'm hoping of course that I will get to see a photo of the finished project :o)

In between I have been busy decluttering the house. The longer you live at the same place the more rubbish you keep and store and just don't want to let go of, even though you don't use the stuff anymore at all! Plus I have got more greasy fleeces to take care of, one Wensleydale just soaking in the soapbath as I am typing this, and I better get it out of the buckets and rinsed before it gets dark.

BUT I also painted some more lovely lovely sockyarns and a new lot of aran weight wool as well. Cosy and squishy as always!! As to the sockyarns, they can certainly be used for regular knitting as well, they are just called sockyarns because they have the right yardage and size to be turned into socks, but you can use them for gloves, hats, shawls, garments, knitted felting projects and also for weaving. The sockyarns I am using are 6-ply and 8-ply so they will be perfect for any weaver!

Here they are in all their splendor:

 "Pearl of the Sea" - displayed in my ebay store.

 "Diabolicus" - also displayed in my ebay store.

 "Rosehip" - displayed in my Etsy store.

 and "Shamrock" - also displayed in my Etsy store.

Since my last blog I also finished some more handpainted and handspun special yarn designs that are also for sale in my Etsy store. Please feel free to Visit My eBay Store and my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com for more yarn details!! I will now go and give the soapy fleeces a good wash...;o)