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

Has summer actually arrived, or have we been left out somehow??? I am still waiting for that warm sunshine and blue sky up here in the North...please tell me that it will still get warmer!!!!!!

Meanwhile I am sitting in my workshop...with the central heating going...and a hot water bottle for the evenings....sigh....BUT the chilly and windy weather has not kept me from being very very busy! I handpainted new yarns all day yesterday and they are currently drying on the wool rack, plus I have dyed a new bulk of wonderful shiny silk carrier rods, which will be displayed in my ebay store as soon as they have dried properly :o)

Here are 2 new fibre bags that are now for sale in my ebayUK store, and another gorgeous gorgeous handspun Merino yarn of my "Mylady Greensleeves" design, which is repeatable (with the pattern slightly different but the colours will always be the same) and such great fun to make!!

I will never get enough of those wonderful combinations of green shades!

oops, I almost forgot that I also finished a new colourway of handspun and handpainted extra soft and squishy Merino slub yarn! The colours are very warm shades of purple, blue, yellow, pink and peach, W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L!! Here is a photo of the new lot:

 The shades are not pastel but a good deal stronger than that. You see, I have indeed been busy ;o) So do feel free to Visit My eBay Store for more fibre and yarn information and also check out my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com for new handspun yarn designs!

EVERYONE HAVE A VERY GOOD SUNDAY!

Guess I am in that famous purple mood again ;o) and this is what I have finished while I was in it! All displayed in my ebay store and my Etsy store www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com , handpainted gorgeously soft Bluefaced Leicester and Merino wool rovings for all the handspinners and feltmakers out there!

and I have also displayed this purple yarn beauty below, a handspun and handpainted extra soft and extra squishy Merino slub yarn, suitably called "Purple Dragon" - Feel free to Visit My eBay Store for more yarn information:

 I hope you like my latest designs - got loads more coming up soon :o)

Here they are!! My latest lot of finished custom orders, both beautiful, squishy and yum handspun yarns ;o) The first order contains 3 skeins of handspun white Bluefaced Leicester and Merino wool for a very sweet lady in the UK, who plans to knit a baby blanket for a new arrival within her family. She said that the baby will be part Australian and part Northumbrian. So what better to choose than Australian Merino and my favourite BFL wool, which comes from sheep originally bred in Hexham, Northumbria? I have spun this lot into a very nice and well balanced sport weight yarn:

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The second order was for 5 chubby skeins of "to dive into" squishy rainbow slub yarn, which I have spun for a really nice lady in Australia, who plans to knit these babies into a cosy blanket :o) :

 And I have also finished a new OOAK yarn design for my Etsy store! A gorgeous and colourful handpainted and handspun Bluefaced Leicester yarn in vibrant oranges, purple and peachy yellow, which I have called "Maasai Bride II". Here it is:

 For more yarn details please go to my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com .

Within the time that I was busy with the custom orders I also placed a bunch of newly painted wool rovings in my ebayUK store and also on Etsy, I just didn't display them here because I always ended up working late into the night and never got around to adding anything to my blog. So it's well worth visiting my online stores for loads and loads of new colourful fiber beauties!! ;o)

Here is one lot of undyed pure Cashmere & Silk roving I have just now listed in my ebay store. What can I say, this blend is heavenly soft and smooth and makes my heart beat faster just looking at it!!

 It is indeed as beautiful as it looks on the photo.

Well, I will now go back to my next project, which will be......a new load of greasy Bluefaced Leicester fleeces, that I picked up from my neighbours farm some time ago..... like I can never get enough of sorting, stripping, dipping, washing, dragging and drying those babes...sigh...but still, the finished result of a white grease-free fluffy fleece is such a reward, over and over again...it's just hard work getting there. So let me get started, and once the fleeces are washed & sorted I will certainly display a photo of them here on my blog as well. Now here is the dirty version of what is yet to come:

 This photo actually shows 3 whole fleeces altogether. BFL fleeces are rather small, very curly and beautiful, but indeed small in quantity. The average weight you can expect to get from one fully grown sheep is 1.5-2kg, 2.5kg if you are lucky! The ones I received from my neighbour are all lambswool fleeces of the flock he reared last year and which he intends to use for breeding purposes. I see his beautiful animals out in the field every single day, and it is an absolute joy to watch them. I believe that the Bluefaced Leicester is one of the most beautiful sheep breed in Britain!

Well, gotta go now and get greasy ;o)

Goodness me, has it really been almost 3 weeks since I last added something to my blog????????? I can hardly believe it, except that I have actually grown fast into my armchair, where I have been sitting day and night, behind my spinning wheel and finishing a dozen of custom orders that came in all at once at the beginning of June. So apart from making new yarns and handpainted fibers to restock my online stores I also spun away making wonderful special yarns for very lovely people! :o) I will not be finishing all orders until the end of the month, but here are 2 hanks of the "Tigereye" Merino yarn design a lot of people are fond of, and that I have so far repeated 4 times since the original sold some months ago. I too like these wonderful earthy but vibrant shades of mocha, apricot, fox red and amber, they go together so well!!! So these two hanks are finished and will be going to a new home in Germany:

 yes...they are GORGEOUS!!!!

I have also managed to finish 2 new hanks to go onto my website (which desperately needs restocking!!!!!) at www.needleworks-pleasure.com , one is my popular Pinata-Slub Yarn Design, and the second one is a beautiful  Bluefaced Leicester yarn I can never get enough of :o)

I will now go back to my spinning wheel and try to finish another skein of squishy rainbow slub yarn that I am currently making in bulk for a very very lovely lady in Australia. Once they are finished I will certainly display them on my blog as well. Until then......EVERYBODY HAVE A GREAT SUMMER AND HAPPY FIBER CRAFTING!!!

Yeahhhh it's finally bank holiday weekend.....yippieh......and I have got tons of work ahead of me.....SIGH....another big SIGH.....  I guess work never stops for a handspinner, what can I say. But to be honest, I was planning to drive to Caldbeck mill and walk my lovely round past the bobbin mill, up the waterfall and through the green fields (Caldbeck is so gorgeous!!), but having seen the latest petrol prices (Diesel has now jumped up to £1.23/litre... I mean.... why not £5.00/litre ???!!! JUST AS RIDICULOUS!), I got so frustrated with it that I ended up walking Sam down by our Nature Reserve and planning new yarn designs + starting on a new custom order of handpainted BFL rovings, which I was going to leave until after the weekend, but hey, if I can't really afford to go anywhere anyway... I might as well go back to work.

Anyway, here are 3 new yarn designs I finished 2 days ago, and another one this evening, all veeeeeery veeeery beautifullllll ;o). They are now displayed and for sale in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com , and here are some photos of my new yarn babes:

 Now there's a lot of colourplay going on, huh? I love all three of them, indeed I do!

EVERYONE HAVE A VERY VERY GOOD BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND, AND ENJOY THE WEATHER, AS LONG AS IT STAYS THIS SUNNY AND DRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am just popping in to show you my latest "flower" yarn designs, they have come out so beautifully, and I am very happy with the vibrant colourways of "Wild Orchid Tree VII" and "Flower Fairy", both displayed in my ebay UK store. Here they are:

I hope you like them as much as I do! For more yarn details please Visit My eBay Store.

 I am very busy dyeing fresh Wensleydale locks and fleeces at the moment, so for me it's back to the dyepot!!!

EVERYONE HAVE A VERY GOOD WEEK!!!!! ;o)

oh I have been busy as a bee spinning new yarns, dyeing tons of wool, washing fleeces (yes...still...), and making up new creativity fibre bags, which I will display here on my blog today, including a wonderful picture of my apple tree in blossom... THAT SCENT.....!!!

I love my apple tree, it grows the sweetest and juiciest apples I have ever tasted, but there are usually too many for me to store (they do last for months when stored in a cool and dark place, but still, I can't eat apples all the time..), so I always leave a large part of them hanging for the birds to feed from, and boy do they enjoy them too :o)

Right, I have also finished 2 new shades of handpainted Wensleydale curls, which are perfect for handspinning artyarns or blending them with other fibres, felting projects and of course for doll hair! I have kept them quite mediterranean this time:

They are still for sale in my ebay store, they usually go quite quickly, but I have made a bit more of them, so they will last a while.

And here are my latest creativity mixed fibre bags, both also for sale in my ebay store. The first two photos and the last two photos show the same bags each:

there are, as always, loads of different colours and blends in them, perfect for handspinning combo yarns and for needle felting and wet felting of course :o)

So Visit My eBay Store for more fibre details! ;o)

I have just finished displaying my new bulk of handpainted ultra soft Merino/Silk rovings, all such beauties in themselves and gorgeously yummy!!!!! :o)

There a loads of different colourways available in my ebay store, and another new range is also for sale on my website at www.needleworks-pleasure.com . Remember, you can always combine your S+H charges on all your purchases from all 3 sites I sell on! So feel free to also Visit My eBay Store for more details. Here are the new lots from my website:

and I have also finished 2 new lots of handspun and handpainted slub yarn for freeform knitting, feltind and dreadmaking, which are for sale in my ebay store, here they are:

All the above colourways are my customers' most favourite ones! And if you are looking for a different colourway just send me an e-mail, I also spin and paint these fibres by custom order.

Everyone have a very good bank holiday weekend! Right now the weather is certainly gorgeous up here in the North :o)

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!