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

Hi everyone!

I have just finished loading pictures of my new handpainted bfl rovings and also of some newly handspun slub yarns, that I have now all displayed in my ebay store! Have a look and Visit My eBay Store for more fibre details!

The dark green slub yarn is an awsome colour, don't you think? It is such a vibrant dark green, and it was my last lot of this particular colour  :o(

The new lot is one whole shade brighter and makes a vibrant grass green.

I took half a day off last week and went walking with Sam in the Caldbeck area , which is located at the very Northern tip of the Lake District - BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! It is one of my favourite places to go, and it's the place where you will also find the "Woolclip", a craft store that sells handspun, hand dyed and handwoven yarns and items made from loacal sheep breeds, yummy!! I always visit them to see what's new, and I always admire their handwoven cushions and throws. Weaving is something that I have put on my wishlist to start within the next few years. I will need to find extra time to actually properly learn it, so for now I have to put it off... sigh....

Here are some photos of Caldbeck and my favourite walk along the Caldbeck river which leads you through a short but fairy tale like gorge and past the ruins of a bobbin mill:

Hi everyone!

For the past week I haven't had any time to pop in and show you some of my latest yarn and fiber designs - things were quite chaotic with lots of special orders coming in and also lots and lots of people having inquiries which needed answering, so it's been spinning, dyeing, packing, PC, post office, spinning, dyeing, packing, PC, post office.... yepp...no time for anything else, really. BUT today I have displayed a new super soft handspun Merino yarn design  in my Etsy store, which I have called "Jade Dragon". Oh it so deserves the name - lots and lots of aqua shades and dragon like ply patterns can be found in that fingering weight skein :o) Here it is:

once knitted it will bring out large layers of different blue and purple mixes - GREAT!! Hey, perhaps I will receive some photos from whoever will purchase this particular yarn, I would absolutely love to see what was done with the "Jade Dragon"!!

I have also added a new shade of dyed Leicester fleece/locks to my range of fleeces in my ebay store, it is a grass green:

and a good shade lighter and brighter than my leaf green. Come and  Visit My eBay Store for more details! Right, I'm off again to finish a skein of a new elfyarn design. I will show you the pictures of it as soon as it is ready for display -  BE SURPRISED!!

Yesterday was such a fine and sunny day!!! Those days are ever so rare up here, so I did pack up Sam and went out for a day into the countryside. I first took a nice stroll at one of my favourite places, Gelt Water near Hayton. And later I thought that there was still time to visit Aydon castle near Corby after all :o) I have taken some very nice photos. The first 4 are from the walk at Gelt Water:

It really was a wonderful day, and Sam and I had a great time!!

Here are my latest handpainted Merino wool rovings and also a new set of handpainted Wensleydale locks which I have all displayed in my Etsy store:

The locks are as always most suitable for adding to felting projects, dollmaking and handspinning! I hope you like the colours I have chosen this time :o)

Finally the sun has come out - god, I thought I would never get my fleeces dried this year!! So far this year's summer leaves much to be desired for, at least in Northern England. We are not blessed with many hot summer days up here anyway, and honestly I can certainly do without oven hot and humid seasons, but a liiiiiitttle bit of warm sunshine would be much appreciated! Let's see what Thursday is going to be like - I have made plans to drive towards Corbridge, visit Aydon Castle and hopefully take a very long and nice walk through the surrounding country site, if the weather is good enough...

Anyway, I have just displayed a new ooak handspun and handpainted yarn design on Etsy. This time I have used my 21 micron extra soft Merino wool, just for a change... :o) I have called the yarn "Ring-A-Ring-A-Roses". I hope you like it!

I have made up 3 bags of handpainted super soft Merino fleece wool, 18microns and yummy soft :o) Those are my last lots, so I am selling them at a low price of $10.00 per bag in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com . Feel free to have a look, the colours are goregous:

And I have listed my third "Cirque Du Soleil" yarn design made from a commercially dyed 18micron super soft Merino wool. It is also displayed on Etsy.

I think this week I will take one day off and go walking with Sam - I am quite frustrated about the new outbreak of foot and mouth down South :o( and I really really really really hope that it will not spread again this time. Perhaps it was indeed an escaped bug from that veterinary lab. nearby the farm where the virus broke out. They blame it on the flood waters that the bug could have been carried out. Honestly I don't care what the cause was, I only hope that this bug will be contained quickly and safely and return to the petri dish where it belongs to make vaccines from it . I just wish the government would have vaccinated all the healthy beasts 6 years ago, and all the slaughtering of millions of animals could have been avoided. WHAT A SHAME AND WHAT A WASTE IT WAS... yes, I am frustrated about all this indeed, and I will so pack up my dog and my rucksack and go walking in the hills and let my spinning wheel rest as well.

EVERYONE HAVE A VERY GOOD WEEK! :O)

Some of you may have already noticed that I have changed some important details of my elfyarns - I used to categorise them as fingering weight because I felt that the yardage was closer (but still exeeding) to fingering weight than laceweight. Over here in the UK there is another yarn size category called "cobweb weight" which, according to the commercial yarn size categories, is equivalent to what U.S. spinners and knitters call "laceweight". One cobweb weight skein of 25g (0.9oz) measures around 365 yds of yarn (some more ,some less), and they are usually single ply yarns. If I wanted to follow that scheme further down and take two threads of cobweb weight/laceweight yarn together I would get to what is called "4-ply weight" yarn, which indeed would fit the yarn size of my elfyarns = ~760yds/3.6oz perfectly!!

As far as I can see no other spinner/knitter/yarn seller is ever using this term of "4-ply weight", and I really wonder if people will understand what yarn size I am talking about if I categorise my elfyarns as "4-ply weight". Nevertheless, I will give it a go as I really feel that I am misleading and confusing people if I continue to make my yarns laceweight when in truth they are not.

I will place a yarn size link on my website for people to read through. It will tell them the weight-yardage-needle size relation of each category, and I will probably just put the cobweb weight and laceweight in the same pot!

If anyone has more information about this please do let me know, I am trying very hard to build a UK/US yarn-category bridge here... :o)

Here comes my latest elfyarn design - an ultra ultra ultra ultra soft and cosy merino/silk blend ,handpainted and handspun into the finest fingering weight yarn! The whopping 725yds will be more than enough to knit a large stole/shawl/long hatscarf, or to knit/crochet several smaller pieces from it. I have called this elfyarn "Gwragedd Annwn" which in Welsh means as much as "Women/Wives of the Otherworld". The yarn is displayed in my Etsy store, and here are some pics for you:

It takes me a minimum of 20 hours to finish one lot of 3.6oz of this very fine elfyarn, but it is absolutely worth the effort :o)

I also displayed a new BFL yarn design in my Etsy store called "Dragonflies&Pixies", and it is already sold, but here are 2 photos of this beauty:

Great colourway, isn't it?

I will be mordanting some new Merino fingering weight yarn tomorrow and hopefully be painting half of them this week. The wool boards are still packed with wet fleeces - god, please give us some warm sunshine up here in the North!!!!!!! These fleeces would dry sooooo much faster, if the sun stayed out for just a few hours, sigh....

I had been asked several times to introduce smaller bags of mixed colours of wool roving for smaller projects, be it handspun yarns or felted creations. So I have now added 2 different colourways to my range of fibers in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com - I hope that people will be pleased with the colours I have chosen for the RAINBOW mix and the COUNTRY mix :o)

Yep, I'm still busy with the fleeces - sigh - I am slowly getting there...it's a lot of sorting, washing and dry spinning going on at the moment, what can I say. But as always the result and the treat of digging your hands into clean and cosy fleeces is such a reward!! And yes, I've already got loads and loads of ideas for the amount of fleeces I will keep for my painting and handspinning projects - uuuhhhh my fingers are itching!

I would like to display 3 yarn designs I had recently finished and displayed in my Etsy and my Ebay store. They have already been sold, but I thought it would still be a delight to view them here on my blog - the colourways are really great :o)

The top 3 pictures are my latest BFL design "The Wind In The Willows", and the 2 bottom pictures are the handpainted Merino fingering weight yarns "Isabella" and "Wild Orchid Trees":

 I will soon be painting more fingering weight yarn, but for now I need to get the fleeces sorted first.

Everyone have a very good weekend and HAPPY FIBER CRAFTING!!!

As usual I haven't got much time ...there are tons of wet fleeces flying around EVERYWHERE, and I have to get them onto the drying board quickly. But I really wanted to pop in and show you my new OOAK Bluefaced Leicester yarn that came off the drying board yesterday (thought I should get the yarn on there to dry before all the fleeces blocked it up!), I have called it "Celebrating the Season" - the shades are absolutely representing the colours of summer, especially July/August:

and I took another handspun slub yarn design off the board as well to make room for the fleeces. Here is my powerful "Boudicca II":

awesome colours, neyh? :o) I have tried to take a third picture of this yarn  with the skein opened and spread out, but my camera simply didn't catch the ruby red properly, so I left it with 2 pics in the store.

Both skeins are displayed in my Etsy store www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com - feel free to have a look for more yarn details!! Hope you enjoy those colourways just as much as I do!!

I'm just popping in to introduce my third elfyarn design to you - I have called it "Tir Nan Og", and it's another feather light and super soft merino/silk fingering weight yarn. I managed to finish it before the greasy fleeces arrived, and it came off the drying board this morning. I have displayed it in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com . Feel free to have a look there for more yarn details, and everyone have a very good weekend!!! :o)

Have to go now and keep dipping tons of gorgeous new fleeces!