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

Here come 2 new handpainted lots of pure Shetland wool, oooohh how fluffy this stuff is! I am having great fun painting this fiber, it absorbs the dye just as well as my Bluefaced Leicester or the Merino.

 I won't have much time left for the next few weeks because I have received 12 large fleeces from last month's shearing, and they all need to be washed and sorted - sigh.... Though it is a lot of fun diving into raw wool, it's also a mega load of work getting all the fleeces into their buckets, soak them, rinse them, soak them, rinse them, soak them.... yep, lots of work! But the clean fleeces will be such a delight to paint and spin!!!!

Anyway, I need to make a liiiiiittle bit of room for those fleeces, so I have put out some of my Bluefaced Leicester premium fleece for sale in my Etsy store - and it's gone already. At first I didn't really want to let go of it, it is such a beautiful fleece, and I always have tons of ideas what to do with it - but I would need to live in a mansion with at least 25 large rooms ( hahahaha!!!!) for storage, if I wanted to keep all my fibers for future projects. Just not possible.

 Yesterday I started on a new lot of handspun Bluefaced Leicester single yarn to extend my range of knitting wool in my stores, and apart from my new VERY ELEGANT elfyarns this BFL will make fantastic close to the skin soft knitwear!! Let's see how many skeins I will be able to spin and paint within the next week with all those fleeces needing to go in the bucket!!

Everyone have a very good time and HAPPY FIBERCRAFTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is my second rose-theme OOAK yarn design "Wild Rose II", which has come out exactly how I wanted it - I am sooooooo pleased with this lot :o) I am always one happy bunny when a yarn turns into what I pictured it to be before I would even paint the fibers, it is so satisfying!! "Wild Rose II" has been displayed in my Etsy store.

I hope you like the colourway of this yarn design as much as I do!

I have also displayed 2 new lots of handpainted Wensleydale curls/locks in my ebay store - one in very vibrant orange shades and the other in a wonderful sea blue, and 2 new lots of handpainted Mulberry silk carrier rods in vibrant purpura purple and saffron - So come and visit my eBay store for more details!!

Gorgeous gorgeous colours coming your way!!! Here is my latest lot of handpainted Merino rovings, plus 2 new sets of handpainted Bluefaced Leicester yummy yarn :o) I have displayed them all in my Etsy store !

By the way: I have also extended my range of handpainted silks in my Ebay store and started dyeing mulberry silk carrier rods, which can be used for felting and handspun yarn projects, silk paper making and embroiding!! So come and Visit My eBay Store for more details!!

Have to go now, spinning wheel is calling and lots of fibers wanting to be spun into yummy yummy yarns!

EVERYONE HAVE A GREAT WEEK AND HAPPY FIBER CRAFTING!!!!!!

This is my second handpainted and handspun elfyarn made from my special blend of super fine Merino wool and pure Mulberry silk and heavenly soft!! I am having such a great time creating these special yarns that I will be spinning more of them in different colourways. They will come as fingering weight and sport weight yarns. Here is my "Rivendell" which I displayed in my Etsy store a couple of days ago:

I have also handpainted another bulk of extra soft Merino wool rovings, some Bluefaced Leicester tops (for myself...greedy,greedy...to spin into yarns) and also some Shetland rovings, which I have added to my shop selection of handpainted wool tops. I will be experimenting with other white wool fibers as well this summer - can never have enough colourful tops in the house, I'd say :o) Here are two of the new lot of extra soft Merino rovings, also displayed in my Etsy store:

I know, there's a good deal of lilac going on in these combed tops. That's because I am really sad that my lilac trees outside have stopped blooming. I absolutely love lilac and its scent...sooooo gorgeoussssss..... guess I will have to wait a full year now for the blossoms to return, sniff.

Hi everyone!!

Today I would like to introduce my latest OOAK yarn design, handpainted and handspun from my yummy Bluefaced Leicester fibers :o) Oh this one is really a beauty - lots and lots of sea colours in it and a whopping 400yds to play with! It will indeed knit up to fingering weight, and I can already see someone make a fabulous wide wrap or stole from it. Here are the photos of "Scylla", which is displayed in my Etsy store:

Don't forget, I've got even more OOAK handspun and handpainted yarn designs for sale at

www.needleworks-pleasure.com 

 so feel free to browse around on my website as well!

It's getting late, and I have got to finish another skein of magical elf-yarn :o). I am currently spinning a wonderful blend of super soft merino and mulberry silk in great great colourways. It will certainly be displayed here as soon as it is ready to come off the drying board.

I took a day off yesterday and went for a nice day out in the Border Country at Hadrian's wall - I am in love with this area, it's just 45 minutes away from the Solway Firth (where I live), and the scenery is absolutely breathtaking, no matter what the weather!! I went to my favourite spot at Crawfields Milecastle, just 5 miles North of Haltwhistle. It is easy walking for a good distance along the remains of the wall, which are clearly visible around there! I took photos of the area, and yes, Sam is on one of them too :o) On the first photo you can also see the Pennines in the hazy distance:

Below you can clearly see the remains of the vallum (2 parallel lines in the ground with the ditch between them)

On the next picture you can view a good length of the remains of Handrian's wall, which used to be almost twice as wide as what you can see now. You can walk the entire wall from the West coast over to Newcastle upon Tyne on the East coast - it would take around 3-4 days of lovely walking and camping, or B&B:

This one below is a view to the North, and in the very far distance you can just make out the beginning of Northumberland National Park

Down by the road the remains of the wall  is temporarily disappearing - I turned around  by the gate to walk back over the vallum side because I still wanted to go and see Vindolanda at Chesterholme. But a lot of other people kept walking up the hill and along the dry stone wall.

One very pretty Rough Fell sheep:

Chesterholme is very close by, about 7 miles South East from Crawfields. It is a rather big site with ongoing archaeological excavations throughout the year (fantastic!!), an open air museum, and a very impressive replica of a turret and milecastle, which caught my interest right away!

If you ever come to Northern England, come and visit parts of Hadrian's wall as well Chesterholme, or Housteads Roman Fort, which is brilliant for walking, site visiting and a hot cup of soup in one of the tearooms!! I myself have had an excellent day out, and it makes me remember why I love this part of the country so much! I hope you will enjoy the pictures.

It's been over a week since I last added something to my blog, but I have been busy with custom orders, and I also finished another bulk of handpainted beauties in between :o) Plus I felt like spinning some more cosy quick-knit slub yarn to go into my ebay store. So here they are, my new yarn beauties - The first photo is the handspun and handpainted sluby yarn "Pandora", and the last 4 are my handpainted Bluefaced Leicester yarns "Sweet Cinnamon" and "Tangerine Dream", which you can find in my Etsy store :

I will soon be adding a new and absolutely gorgeous OOAK handpainted&handspun Bluefaced Leicester yarn design to the handspun yarn section of my website www.needleworks-pleasure.com , so come and have a look around!!

Finally, finally the last lot of my handpainted yarns has come off the drying board - it was about time too! I have displayed it in my Etsy store. The colours have come out so well, I have called it "Rose Blush", it is absolutely GORGEOUS:

And I have also been clearing out some of my yarns on ebay. I have to make space for new designs, and a lot of my handpainted yarns have found their way into my 7-day auction, so have a look in my Ebay store and grab yourself a BARGAIN!!! :o)

Yeyh, my new lot of handpainted Wensleydale curls and Bluefaced Leicester locks&fleece have finally come off the drying board - I thought that they would need at least another 3 days to properly dry, but it has been very sunny and warm for the past week, so here they are in all their splendor!!! The first two pics are the BFL fleeces:

they have all been displayed in my ebay store. Feel free to visit my eBay store for more fiber details!

Everyone enjoy the wonderful month of June, and have a very good weekend!!

Here comes my first handspun BFL yarn beauty for the month of June! I have named it "Charybdis", the name of a sea monster of the ancient greek myths and daughter of Poseidon and Gaia. She used to be a sea-nymph but was turned into a monster by Zeus because she had been too greedy and had flooded too much of his land.

Great, great ancient stories, and a great great yarn I have spun with the colours of a wild sea monster :o)

It is displayed on my website www.needleworks-pleasure.com , feel free to have a look for more yarn details!

I have also made some more yarn for all my dreadmakers and freeform knitters - you can find it in my ebay store. It is sold by the 4 yards, so you can choose several different colours for the same project without having to purchase tons of the same shade. This green yarn is a worsted bulky weight.

There is one little thing I would like to express my opinion about before I go: Not that I would wish anyone any bad things to happen, but this Paris Hilton... I don't know.... I am not a chatter box at all, and I despise all that ado around stars and wanna-be-celebrities. I usually keep very much to myself, but what really upset me this time was the fact that she managed to get out of prison early - yes, it is so true, you just need to be filthy rich and have one of the best lawyers ever, and you are indeed untouchable. And the rest will serve their time, it'll have to do... What was that? She was getting depressed in her cell? Well, perhaps she should have spent her time with some useful thinking...oh, but then she may have...."Where is my jewellery? - Where is my little pooch? - I so need to call about 20.000 celebrities right here, right now!!!! I don't want hot dogs for lunch, I want a 4-course menue and PRONTO!! I am bored!! Ohhhhhh, I am sooooo depressed.....If that girl would ever try to live my life ,(wouldn't dream of it of course), she would never make it through a week, she would simply break down and never recover again, because, yes, life is tough, and yes, most people really do work and don't just pretend to. I hope that someone will soon knock some sense into barbie-princess!