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

I took some photos of the most awesome sunset I watched from my new home in Germany last night, and I would like to share it with you. It is so stunning, have a look:

Fantastic, isn't it? :o) We still have 20 degrees Celsius over here, and even though the nights are already very cold the days are still warm and sunny, and most of the time I keep all the windows open because it is so mild and lovely.

So let's enjoy the last sunny days of this year....winter will be coming soon and the days will be long and dark and cold.....brrrrrrrrr!!!

Yes, it is always very useful to actually have a master plan when you move...especially when you move country. It's a really big deal, very time consuming, very exhausting, very expensive....and if you don't think everything through properly you end up in a great big mess....like me.... :o(  Well, I must say, to my defence, that I did do tons of planning months before the big day arrived, and I truly thought that everything would be sorted. Anyway, to keep a long story short, I am still sitting in the middle of unpacked boxes that seem to have appeared out of the blue (did I really have THAT much stuff when I left Britain?), half of the stuff I need I cannot find, and my German internet provider has let me down so far, meaning that I have to use my friends' and my sisters' PC's until I get my own broadband at home.....SIGH.....OVERLY BIG SIGH.....What can I say? Life goes on and you must make the best of it. At least I got all my stock sorted and properly secured! So my new plan is as follows:

-Ignore the mess around you

-Get your buckets and tubs (those you can't miss in all that chaos!) and paint some wonderful fibers...and you will feel MUCH better straight away!

-Get your spinning wheel and pedal away...and... ignore the mess around you!

-Pack up your dog, take off for a day, enjoy the last warm autumn days of this year...and leave your domestic mess behind!!!!!!!

Well, since my move I have already spun and painted a large variety of gorgeous gorgeous fibres and yarns but I have not had the time to display them all on my blog yet, sorry about that! So here are my latest 3 yarn beauties (200g lots/445yds) that are now for sale in my ebay store, amongst other new yarns, so feel free to Visit My eBay Store for more details:

plus I have taken the liberty of displaying my new handmade soap in the shape of an ancient fertility goddess and celtic circles in my ebay store. I absolutely love my little chubby goddess and I hope that people will not get offended by her, she is such a lovely beauty, and I have also added a smaller photo of the original statue which was discovered somewhere in Austria, and which is dated back to 20.000 B.C.! I really am a sucker for ancient symbols and figurines, have a look:

I mean...how can you not like this chubby lady?!

Those celtic circles are also a favourite of mine, and the soap bars are indeed very mild, quite large and very long lasting.

I also finished a new batch of soap 2 days ago, it needs to finish curing for at least 4 weeks before I can display it. This time I chose a marvelous deep purple/pansy shade for the soaps and a fantastic and very sensual scent, and I already know that people will love the new batch!!

Until then I need to get myself back into sorting-gear and just unpack these boxes! Well...I'll start on them tomorrow....maybe...

EVERYONE HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND AND A WONDERFUL AUTUMN SEASON!!!!

Okay, almost everything is packed, and I have constantly been climbing over boxes, bags and other stuff flying around for the past 2 weeks, taking care not to break my neck on my way through the house....SIGH....it's complete chaos at the moment and I still have loads to do before I can empty the house, pack up Sam and take off across the water to Germany.

May I say how completely overwhelmed I have been by all the people who have contacted me over the past week to wish me well for the move and to send me heart warming thoughts ever since I announced my change of country in my ebay store and on my website!? You guys have no idea what your messages mean to me, they have given me such a boost indeed!!!! So thank you very very much for thinking of me and for being so kind...it is ever so touching....!

So before I finish my last blog for this month I would like to include some more photos of "Long Meg and her daughters" druids circle at Little Salkeld, where Sam and I went for a nice walk last week when it stopped raining for just the right time!! ;o) Oh I can never get enough of Cumbria, the Pennines and the wild wild natural beauty you find there. Hm, let's see how long I will be able to stay away from my heart's delight...I reckon it won't be too long :o)

Below you see what waited for us at one of the gates that we actually had to walk through.....we changed our mind and climbed some stonewalls instead....

When I saw this really pretty hen at the watermill in Little Salkeld I immediately saw a new colourway for a wonderful natural yarn design in my mind. Her colours are gorgeous, aren't they?

Apart from packing all my stuff for the move I was also very busy finishing 3 more custom orders for handpainted and handspun yarns, and yes, I forgot to take photos of most of the beauties....SNIFF.....I so wanted to show them on my blog too before they went to their new homes! One order was for 7 large hanks of handspun and handpainted Merino slub yarn for a very sweet dreadmaking artist in the States, and the colours came out so very well, I was really proud of those hanks. Well, they are gone now but here is a photo of a set of 5 handspun white Baby Camel Down & Silk Lace Yarn, 55g/340yds, veeeeery time consuming and labour intensive, and sooooooo rewarding when I finished them. They have now gone to their new home in the US:

As far as I know these gorgeous beauties will be turned into a fine autumn lace shawl. Fantastic!!

Okay people, let me get back to work, I am still trying to finish a new Bluefaced Leicester yarn before I pack up my last box of wool and load the spinning wheel into the van. Everyone take care and you will hear from me again once Sam and I have crossed the water. My ebay store will remain open for that time and I will start mailing all paid orders from Germany on October 1st.

SPEAK TO YOU ALL AGAIN VERY SOON!!!!! ;o)

I have finally found the time to take photos of my latest lot of handpainted super soft Baby Alpaca rovings!! 4 of them have already made it onto my website at www.needleworks-pleasure.com ;o) Everyone feel free to view them there for more fibre details. Here are the photos:

I hope you like the new colourways! Baby Alpaca is such a luxuriously soft and cosy fibre to work with, I personally like it very very much.

I will add more blogs soon. At the moment I am planning my move to Germany at the end of September, where I will be living for a while to be closer to my family and my little nephew and niece (children grow up so incredibly fast, and I just don't want to miss it... at least for a while... :o)  ). Don't worry, I will continue my yarn & fibre business as always, and the only thing that's going to change is the postage list because I have to adjust for international Air Mail charges. So far I have managed to calculate the new P+P costs very low, so my customers will only have to pay an extra £0.50 - £0.90 on average. I will let you know the date of my move very soon, the movers just need to confirm it too. My shop and website will then be closed for 3-5 days, but I will also send out an ebay message to all who have subscribed to my ebay newsletter.

Until then there's loads more fibre to be dyed and yarn to be spun, so let me go now and get going ;oD

Here are my latest handpainted roving beauties that are now displayed in my ebay store. They are some of the ones that were still drying on the wool rack when I went on holiday, so I am displaying them now :o) Hope you will like the colourways! For more fibre information please Visit My eBay Store :

Everyone, I am having a sale in my Etsy store!! Several yarns must go, so feel free to view them at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com and grab yourself a bargain!!! ;o)

Yes alright, I have taken another long gap between blogs, and I really wish I had much more time in a day!!! Only 3 more days to go until I finally go on holiday - YIIIIEEEEHAAAA!!!! It has been soooooo long since my last vacation, 4 1/2 years without a weekend off, that's why I am truly looking forward to being off for a while. Will I be able to keep my hands off my spinning wheel????? .....I doubt it..... but I have spun ahead tons of yarns and I have painted 2kg of squishy yummy and colourful rovings so I can leave myself in peace ;o) When you are so used to working every single day throughout the year it almost feels surreal not do anything that has to do with wool or yarns and just to enjoy socialising, hanging out, relaxing.....YES.....R-E-L-A-X-I-N-G!! I hope I still remember how to do that, lol. So tonight at midnight I will close down my ebayUK store for 7 days, and I will reopen it on 21st of August even though I will still be on holiday, but people will then be able to place their orders again, have a look through my rovings and yarns, and I will process all paid orders when I return, so the waiting period is actually just 5 days for whoever wants to shop while I am away. I think that's acceptable, right? Anyway, here are some of my latest handpainted fiber beauties I have just now displayed in my ebayUK store and some have found their way onto my website at www.needleworks-pleasure.com :

and the rest of the bulk is still on the wool board, lots of blues, purples and turquoise. I will be taking photos of them tomorrow and display them when I get back from my holiday. Here is also a new lot of handpainted multi layer space dyed tussah silk that is now displayed in my ebayUK store, the colourway is a gigantic blend of loads of blues, purples and turquoise - GORGEOUS, ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!

The blues are really marvelous. I think I will use some of this particular lot and spin it into a find lace yarn. Right, there's still lots to do before I can close down my stores tonight, so let me go ahead and finish up.

I wish everyone a great time working your wools and yarns, and let's hope that the rain will stop falling onto Britain for the rest of the summer!!!!! WE WANT SUNSHINE, NOT RAIN!!!!

Feel free to Visit My eBay Store when it reopens on August 21st!! You can always contact me by e-mail during my holiday at [email protected] !

I have been clearing my wool boards all afternoon, getting the dried and freshly painted yarns and fibres off and sorted, and new bulks of wet fleeces back on and into the sunshine, while we have it.... ;o) So here are the latest fibre babes, the first photo shows a custom order in a similar colourway as my "Solway Firth" fingering weight yarn, which is for sale in my ebay store. On the photo you can see the 3 new yarns on the left and the original 2 skeins on the right - I think I have done a really good job catching the same shades, considering that each dye lot is always a bit different, and I never record any dyelots...just no fun and hardly any challenge.... Well, I am very happy with the result. The yarns have found a new home with a very lovely lady from London :o)

 She needed 1200yds for her knitting project, and the two skeins from the store are only 800yds. As the hanks needed to be identical I custom dyed 3 new skeins for her. They came out juuuuuuuust right!

Two more photos I want to display before I hop back behind my spinning wheel (I am currently finishing a new handspun and handpainted elfyarn design....oooooohhhhhh, be surprised, the colours and the silk within the Merino blend are SO stunning!!!) anyway, here are my 2 latest lots of handpainted Wensleydale locks/curls, one in cinnamon-apricot and the second lot in aquamarine-opal, both now displayed in my ebay store:

 Like the colours? Me too ;o) Feel free to Visit My eBay Store for more yarn and fibre details!

Oooooooohhhhhh, my latest soap batch has finished curing, and boy is that a creamy one!!!! I am absolutely over the moon, had to try it out of course, so I went for a shower...didn't need one, but hey.....and I so love the creamy lather of this soap, it is SO fabulous! I think it was truly worth spending a lot of money on that pricy Jojoba oil, it makes such a difference, even in soap. And the coconut scent.....BOY.....it's pure summer and dreamy coconut heaven!!! I have displayed it in my ebay store:

 All I can say is: YUM YUM YUM!!

I have got lots of work left until I can finish up tonight, so let me just show you two more of my latest handspun yarn designs that I personally like very much indeed. The first one is my "Flower Fairy III", a handspun and handpainted extra soft and squishy Merino slub yarn, which I have put onto my website www.needleworks-pleasure.com , and the second skein is called "Smelling the Roses", a handspun  extra soft Bluefaced Leicester 2-ply yarn which will knit up to about DK (double knit). Here they are in all their beauty ;o)

 "Smelling the Roses" is now for sale in my Etsy store www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com

I will be displaying more yarns and fibers soon, so feel free to come back to my blog whenever you have time!

Everyone have a really good weekend!!

For the past 4 weeks I haven't been able to add anything to my blog because a major bug had found its way into the system and had been messing with all the data...VERY VERY FRUSTRATING INDEED.... and it took forever to sort out the problem. But now my blog is back online, and I am a happy girl :oD

I certainly wasn't sitting around idle for the past month, in fact, I was busier than never before!!!! For some reason I never stopped painting fibers and yarns, and my spinning wheel slowly started smoking I was pedalling so fast....lol....PLUS I have started including my handmade natural soaps to my ebay store, oooooohhhh I was so excited!! I had been making my own soap for a while, and they are really magnificent, lots of frothy lather, great scent, GREAT ingredients, and completely chemical and preservative free of course. So far I have added four types, a wonderful rose soap, a yummy "good enough to eat" cinnamon soap, and a mouth watering vanilla soap and a gorgeous and sweet smelling tropical soap, all of them made by me in my cosy kitchen and now for sale in my ebay store:

I have also made a really beautiful new set of space dyed pure tussah silk rovings to bring even more colours into my range of silks ;o), here they are:

I love all three of them but the top one is my favourite, the shades are so deep and earthy, just great!!!

I also took one day off during this month, and Sam and I went...yep, you guessed right....to Caldbeck, where I looooooove to walk along the little stream and the waterfalls, and the bobbin mill of course. It was a fantastic day out, I really needed a break from spinning and painting and washing fleeces:

I was very tempted to join those laid back sheep under that very inviting tree for a chill-out session....but Sam had other plans and so we moved on.

Anyway, I am really really pleased to have my blog back, YEAHHHHHH, I was so devastated for weeks because I wasn't sure if all the data was lost forever or if it could be rescued. So let me go back to work and make more fabulous yarns, fibres and soaps, and do feel free to Visit My eBay Store and my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com for a really great range of woolly beauties!!

Everyone have a very nice weekend! Enjoy the summer while it's here!!!