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

Okay, I have almost made it through my pile of greasy fleeces, only another 40kg to go.......I kind of feel like Popeye because it is real physical labour to shift and carry those washed wet fleeces around, and I wonder if my muscle mass has already increased without having eaten tons of spinach!! But the good news is that the freshly washed and sorted Romney Kent fleece is also now for sale in my ebay store. It is just as gorgeous as the last lot I had that sold out about 3 weeks ago. I have decided to sell all the new fleeces in 50g lots so people can actually do a mix and match and not end up with huge amounts of wool they may never need for their projects.

Today I would like to introduce Nicola and her absolutely adorable needle felted teddy bears. Nicola makes them herself, and you can see the love and attention to detail put into these little woolly creatures. Some of them get lovely dresses and shoes too, and because they are really so beautiful to look at I have decided to display them in my ebay fibre art gallery, which you are very very welcome to view at any time at http://stores.ebay.co.uk/NEEDLEWORKS-PLEASURE/FIBRE-ART-GALLERY.html, and also here on my blog because not all photos could go into the gallery. So here they are, and just so you know folks, Nicola also sells the bears and makes them by custom order too! Most of them are made of pure Merino wool. Have a look :

So, what do you think? They are just A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E, aren't they? Nicola hasn't got a website yet but if you would like to know more about her teddies or place a custom order you can reach her at [email protected]  She may even have some new ones out that you can purchase right away ;o)

I will now go and sit down in my armchair and .... just.... do nothing.... oooooohhhh what a thought!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :oD

I think that spring has finally arrived up here in the North...god, hasn't it been a long and wet winter again?! Today is indeed the very first warm day of the year, the sun is out, the sky is blue, just a slight breeze going, and I have opened every single window and all the doors of the house to welcome the warm weather! Nevertheless I had to order new heating oil again, I just can't cope with the cold evenings, I need the heating going especially when I sit and spin past midnight...sigh...so I picked up the phone and ordered more oil...only to get a nasty shock - oil prices have still been rising, and this time I had to pay an extra £68.00 for the same amount of oil I ordered around christmas time. I won't tell you how upset I am about the current prices, all I know is that someone out there is getting filthy rich while others can barely afford to sit in a warm room.

But back to lovely news! My first 2 loads of fleeces are finally clean and dry and out for sale in my ebay store. There is now fresh moorit Shetland fleece and a truly magnificent BFL/X lambswool fleece (the one I thought about keeping ;o) ). There are more fleeces to come, the Romney Kent fleeces are currently drying and will be ready in about 7-10 days time. So everyone feel free to Visit My eBay Store for more fleece information! Here are 2 photos of my beauties:

Gorgeous and yummy, what can I say.

I will also be listing 3 large bags of fleeces up for auction. They will be fibres that don't really fit any of my categories in the store. Either the curls are too thick and large, or the locks are not as white as I would like them to be, so I am putting them up for auction. They will be very good for felting projects and for hand dyeing them with darker shades!

It is definitely purple time!! First I am into creamy lemon yellow, then it's cinnamon I can't get enough of, and now it's the widest range of wonderful purple shades one could imagine :o) There are probably more purple shades in the colour range than any other!

This is my new handspun Merino yarn design "A Night In Paris", for sale in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com :

and I have also finished 3 new lots of handpainted extra soft and extra squishy British Bluefaced Leicester wool rovings for all the handspinners and feltmakers out there!! The first one is for sale in my ebay UK store, and the other two are displayed in my Etsy store. Have a look:

And some of my latest lot of freshly clipped fleeces is already dry from last weeks washing session, so the gorgeously soft moorit Shetland fleece will be out for sale shortly, to be followed by a first class and very yummy Bluefaced Leicester Cross Lambswool fleece.... still thinking about keeping some of that lot for myself though... ;o)

Hi everyone :o)

Just popping in to show you my latest artyarn design that I finished yesterday, and which is now for sale in my Etsy store.  I felt like giving this yarn a real good mix of colours, vibrant and frisky! I have called it "Colour Dance":

and I have also finished a new lot of my very popular handspun and handpainted Merino slub yarn for freeform knitters, dreadmakers and felters, in purpura pink and lavender purple, for sale by the 4.4yds (4m) in my ebayUK store, so feel free to Visit My eBay Store for more yarn details and to view my wide range of slub yarns! ;o)

I now have to get back to a huuuuuge load of fresh fleeces that arrived yesterday, amongst them a gorgeously soft lot of Bluefaced Leicester Cross lambswool (hm...I may want to keep this one for myself...)  and just by looking at them I already broke into sweat, thinking of all that washing ahead of me. But trust me, the new lot is absolutely spot on, gorgeously soft and of excellent quality!! I am very pleased with them indeed, they are all remarkably clean, and because I ran out of buckets and tubs this afternoon I also occupied the bathtub with 3 Shetland fleeces, now soaking away in their soapwater :oD Does the house smell of sheep? YES, IT DOES! But it's rather a nice scent of lanolin that's spreading through every room, and I quite like it! It's not a bad stable smell,  otherwise I don't think I would have given my bathtub away!!!! I have done it before, that's how I know.

Yep, so let me get back to rinsing these beauties now, I have got the second load waiting for a good wash tomorrow. Oh they will be such yummy fleeces once they are all clean and dry!!

Here it is, my "Erindir"...the most beloved star of the elves, a super soft 50/50 blend of pure Bluefaced Leicester lambswool and pure ultra smooth tussah silk, handpainted and handspun in several days of hard work and turned into the finest 4-ply weight yarn I have finished for a looooooong time!! :o) "Erindir" will make fantastic knitwear or crochetwork, be it lace or a regular pattern, its 740 yards will be loads to work with:

it is now out and displayed in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com . Feel free to have a look for more details. This yarn is one great beauty!

Oooooh it's freezing again, I was so hoping that the coldest days were over!! I am running low on heating oil, so this means that I simply have to put on a second set of clothes ;o) Let's hope that the sun will come out very soon and that the days will warm up VERY VERY QUICKLY!!!

I have finished more handpainted Bluefaced Leicester rovings, and I was also busy spinning and plying a very special Bfl lambswool/silk yarn all week - these very fine wool/silk designs take ages to finish, they are ever so finely spun (mostly cobweb threads to be plied into lace/4-ply/fine fingering weight yarns), so it is not unusual for me to spend 6-7 days to finish just one skein with a yardage of up to 750yds. I will display a photo of my latest wool/silk beauty as soon as t has come off the drying board! IT IS ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!!! WAIT AND SEE :o)

But for now I will show you my latest handpainted rovings, the first 2 of them are displayed in my Etsy store www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com, and the last 3 are for sale in my ebayUK store, so feel free to Visit My eBay Store as well for more details:

I also finished a new handpainted sock yarn design, which is also for sale in my ebay store. I have called it "Masquerade", and trust me, the colours are incredibly strong and vibrant, I wish they would have come out in all their splendour on this photo (which is still very reliable though):

and before I forget to mention it: I have prepared a new set of white wool mixed bags, well, one of them is a light grey but the entire mix is most suitable for hand dyeing, spinning and felting! There are a total of 7 different breed wools in one 4oz bag, Masham, Bluefaced Leicester, Falkland, Swaledale, German Merino, Norwegian and Shetland:

each fibre can also be purchased individually if you are looking for a larger amount, just contact me for details!

I will now go and prepare a hot water bottle, it is really really really cold today, brrrrrr...!

Everyone have a very good weekend and keep warm and snug ;o)