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

I hope that you have all had a very nice and peaceful Christmas!!! I myself didn't do much at all - of course I ended up spinning a liiiiiittle bit of wool and dyeing a liiiiiittle bit of fibre because some particular colours popped into my mind and did not let me rest until I would actually bring them to live in roving and yarn...what can I say...I am down right addicted to wool and dye ! AND I LOVE IT!!! 

I suppose that this will be my last blog for 2007, and I would like to show my new handpainted and handspun yummy yummy Baby Alpaca yarn, which I have now displayed in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com . The yarn is a festival of warm purples and pinks and so very gorgeous! Have a look:

Alpaca yarn drapes like a dream, and this particular yarn would e.g. make a gorgeous shawl or lace wrap!! As with my last Baby Alpaca yarn design, which sold last month, I also must say here that if this yarn doesn't get sold I will so keep it for myself and knit a lacy wrap to go with one of my long dresses in lilac and purple ;o)

I have also finished 2 more custom orders! And yes, I DID remember to take photos of them :o) They will go out to their new homes tomorrow, here they are:

this one is a very soft 6-ply fingering weight Merino yarn, which the customer had requested to be painted in dark brown, grey and a cream white space. I am very happy with these colours, they have come out nice and strong!

And below is a set of 5 hanks of very soft single ply lambswool yarn, and each hank was painted in a different purple shade. One of these shades is a fantastic pansy with lots of blueish purple in it, and another one is a very mild mauve tending towards victorian rose with a hint of purple in it. Here it is:

Yep, me very very pleased with the result...I am really in love with the colour purple!!!! And because I was in this great purple-dye mood I also finished one Bluefaced Leicester wool roving in loads of purples, and one Merino roving in my favourite autumn colours. The purple one is also displayed in my Etsy store and the autumn shade roving has found its way into my Ebay store, so feel free to Visit My eBay Store for more fibre details:

Right, those are all the beauties I wanted to show you in this blog, and I will now get back to my spinning wheel to finish one more custom order which is due to be sent out in the first week of January - so there's still plenty of time left for me to take it easy on this one :oD

Everyone have a very relaxed Boxing Day evening!!!

I would like to wish everyone out there a very Happy Christmas and a healthy and prosperous 2008!! Thank you to all who have supported my small yarn & fibre business throughout the year and enjoyed my handspun and handpainted woolly beauties :o) I am very much hoping to hear from you again in the future and also enjoy a many a pleasant chats about fleeces, yarns and dyes, whenever you find time !!!!!

Next year I will be back with new ideas and splendid creations that I will certainly announce and display on this blog for you to view and enjoy.

All the best to you all and my warmest wishes,

Yours, Heike

www.needleworks-pleasure.com ,

www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com

Yes, oh yes, we have had some wonderful frosty cold days up here in Cumbria, with lots of blue skies and sunshine. Makes you want to take endless walks outside and enjoy the chirping birds everywhere...and yeeees, makes a Heike also want to ....umm...mow her lawn? OH WHAT CAN I SAY!!! I did it , yes, I did it, I so had to!!! It was overly tempting, all that frosted grass that wouldn't be able to bend under the lawn mower... and I kept thinking that this grass would keep growing anyway (our winters are not as cold anymore as they used to be...remember...greenhouse...global warming....blablabla...) and by March next year it would be such a pain to plough through it with my sorry lawn mower, if I did not cut it one more time this year! I couldn't stand that thought...I do have days like these when little things are bothering me so much that I actually do crazy stuff like that.

So, did I mow that lawn? ABSOLUTELY!

Did I rush out there so it would be done before my neighbours would be back home and hear that ridiculous lawn mower going? ABSOLUTELY!

Did I feel awkward/stupid while I rattled over that rock hard ground, pushing on like there was no tomorrow? ABSOLUTELY!

Was I pleased with the result? A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E-L-Y!!!!!!!

And when I get up tomorrow morning and look out into the garden through my kitchen windows I will sigh and take a deep breath and adore my little frosty garden out there...

Let's change the subject. In this blog entry I won't be displaying any new yarns I have spun, or any new rovings I have handpainted, I am just too tired tonight from all that mowing (:oD), and I have just tried to spin some gorgeous gorgeous yummy Baby Alpaca fibre, but after one hour my arms started aching, so I will leave the rest until tomorrow. I have received another 2 custom orders for handpainted yarns, and I am half way through with one skein, which is soaking in the dyepot as I write this blog. I hope I won't forget to take some photos of my other orders that are finished and have just come off the drying board.

BUT what I would like to mention is a very very lovely gift I have received from one of my customers - a very sweet lady who has been handspinning my handpainted rovings into yummy soft yarns throughout this year, and who has also very kindly provided me with lots of photos for my fibre gallery inside my ebay store! Yep, it's Penny I'm talking about. I think it's alright to mention her name here, as it is also mentioned in the gallery. Please feel free to Visit My eBay Store and have a look at my little photo gallery of customers' fibre beauties!!

Her gift was completely unexpected  (first I receive luxurious chocolates from one customer, now this handmade gift from another...I can tell you, I do feel quite special now... ) and therefore such a great surprise. This is what she made for me from her Bluefaced Leicester yarn, which was handspun by her on a drop spindle:

and below is Penny's hat again...presented by myself ;o) - the hat fits perfectly!

Thank you so much Penny!! Your present is indeed very much appreciated, and this hat will keep my head nice and warm through the winter season!

EVERYONE HAVE A VERY SNUG AND COSY NIGHT...WHEREVER YOU ARE!

Here comes my new super soft Merino handspun yarn design I have just displayed in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com . I have called it "Jade Dragon II", as it is very similar to my original "Jade Dragon" yarn design, which sold earlier this year, but even though the colours are identical the pattern will be entirely different from the first lot! Have a look, it is very beautiful:

Such a wonderful colourway - what do you think? :o)

And I have finally finished my custom order elf yarn design, and the lady who had ordered it is also very pleased with it, she received a photo update so she could see the colourway. Because my first attempt on this design ended up in too thin a yarn size I went ahead and also added some more pansy and lilac to the existing colourway, so the original custom order would stand out more and  be different from the first skein I made, including the pattern it will knit into. Have a look:

and here is another photo of the handspun white camel down/silk sport weight yarn I also made for the same very lovely customer:

oh they are both sooooo gorgeous, yes, I am indeed very pleased with the finished designs!

I have got 2 more custom orders to finish before christmas, but I am well ahead of the deadline, which will allow me to work a little bit on a Bluefaced Leicester roving I finished painting last week :o) So let me go and get pedalling again!!

I have just finished displaying my new lot of handpainted Shetland rovings and Bluefaced Leicester rovings in both of my online stores! Plus one skein of ultra soft elfyarn has found its way into my Etsy Store www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com . It was not a planned design to be sold there; I was working on one of my custom orders and wanted to spin a certain colourway into a requested sport weight yarn...and ended up with something between fingering weight and sport weight...YEP, these things do happen. So I simply started all over again, and I am now in the process of finishing a really gorgeous sport weight elfyarn design, just as it was ordered :o) . So this skein which is now available for sale is called "Amaryllis Of The Sea":

it is very beautiful with gorgeous aqua shades!!

And here are my handpainted rovings, also for sale in my ebay and Etsy store:

Also feel free to Visit My eBay Store for more fibre details!

And last but not least I have to tell you about something very very lovely: I received a surprise package from one of my customers who had just recently ordered several custom yarns, including the fantastic "Scottish Sunset" Bluefaced Leicester yarn design I mentioned in my previous blogs. She was so happy about her yarn beauties that she actually went ahead and sent me this last night!!

I mean, how awesome is that!!!!???? I certainly don't expect anything like this from any of my customers, they order their yarns and they pay for them, and that's as far as it goes. But I must say that this chocolate box was such a kind gesture, it made me very very happy indeed :oD because it also shows how happy this lady is with her custom made yarns - THAT really makes me feel gooooood...!!

Well, the truffels are already half way gone, I had to work very late last night, and the chocolates were such a comfort, SIGH.

So let me go back to my spinning wheel and do some pedalling...and some chocolate munching...;o)

EVERYONE HAVE A VERY GOOD AND SNUG WEEKEND!!

I have received my new lot of single dye Merino wool fibers of a very soft 23 micron. I am very very pleased with the quality of the wool - Yes, I am a very happy handspinner!! :o) Those new shades will not be displayed in my ebay store but will mostly be used for handspun yarn designs and custom orders - all customers will be able to choose their own colours from my colourchart and have their shades spun into a beautiful yarn of either DK, worsted, or aran weight! Here is my new colour chart, and you will find more information on my website www.needleworks-pleasure in the category "Custom Made Fine Yarns" :

And here are my first 2 yarn designs spun from the new lot of Merino wool. They are both displayed in my Etsy store www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com :

I hope you will like these new colourways!

I have to go now and hurry back to my spinning wheel, because I am not done with my custom orders yet. Right now I am working on a great elfyarn design which was requested by a very lovely customer to be spun into a sport weight size. She chose my ultra soft merino/silk wool blend to be handpainted in pansy purple, lilac and turquoise.....ohhhh YUMMY!!!!! Once it is finished, and IF I don't forget to shoot a few pictures before I mail the yarn, I will certainly display it here on my blog ;oD