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

It is definitely purple time!! First I am into creamy lemon yellow, then it's cinnamon I can't get enough of, and now it's the widest range of wonderful purple shades one could imagine :o) There are probably more purple shades in the colour range than any other!

This is my new handspun Merino yarn design "A Night In Paris", for sale in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com :

and I have also finished 3 new lots of handpainted extra soft and extra squishy British Bluefaced Leicester wool rovings for all the handspinners and feltmakers out there!! The first one is for sale in my ebay UK store, and the other two are displayed in my Etsy store. Have a look:

And some of my latest lot of freshly clipped fleeces is already dry from last weeks washing session, so the gorgeously soft moorit Shetland fleece will be out for sale shortly, to be followed by a first class and very yummy Bluefaced Leicester Cross Lambswool fleece.... still thinking about keeping some of that lot for myself though... ;o)

Hi everyone :o)

Just popping in to show you my latest artyarn design that I finished yesterday, and which is now for sale in my Etsy store.  I felt like giving this yarn a real good mix of colours, vibrant and frisky! I have called it "Colour Dance":

and I have also finished a new lot of my very popular handspun and handpainted Merino slub yarn for freeform knitters, dreadmakers and felters, in purpura pink and lavender purple, for sale by the 4.4yds (4m) in my ebayUK store, so feel free to Visit My eBay Store for more yarn details and to view my wide range of slub yarns! ;o)

I now have to get back to a huuuuuge load of fresh fleeces that arrived yesterday, amongst them a gorgeously soft lot of Bluefaced Leicester Cross lambswool (hm...I may want to keep this one for myself...)  and just by looking at them I already broke into sweat, thinking of all that washing ahead of me. But trust me, the new lot is absolutely spot on, gorgeously soft and of excellent quality!! I am very pleased with them indeed, they are all remarkably clean, and because I ran out of buckets and tubs this afternoon I also occupied the bathtub with 3 Shetland fleeces, now soaking away in their soapwater :oD Does the house smell of sheep? YES, IT DOES! But it's rather a nice scent of lanolin that's spreading through every room, and I quite like it! It's not a bad stable smell,  otherwise I don't think I would have given my bathtub away!!!! I have done it before, that's how I know.

Yep, so let me get back to rinsing these beauties now, I have got the second load waiting for a good wash tomorrow. Oh they will be such yummy fleeces once they are all clean and dry!!

Here it is, my "Erindir"...the most beloved star of the elves, a super soft 50/50 blend of pure Bluefaced Leicester lambswool and pure ultra smooth tussah silk, handpainted and handspun in several days of hard work and turned into the finest 4-ply weight yarn I have finished for a looooooong time!! :o) "Erindir" will make fantastic knitwear or crochetwork, be it lace or a regular pattern, its 740 yards will be loads to work with:

it is now out and displayed in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com . Feel free to have a look for more details. This yarn is one great beauty!

Oooooh it's freezing again, I was so hoping that the coldest days were over!! I am running low on heating oil, so this means that I simply have to put on a second set of clothes ;o) Let's hope that the sun will come out very soon and that the days will warm up VERY VERY QUICKLY!!!

I have finished more handpainted Bluefaced Leicester rovings, and I was also busy spinning and plying a very special Bfl lambswool/silk yarn all week - these very fine wool/silk designs take ages to finish, they are ever so finely spun (mostly cobweb threads to be plied into lace/4-ply/fine fingering weight yarns), so it is not unusual for me to spend 6-7 days to finish just one skein with a yardage of up to 750yds. I will display a photo of my latest wool/silk beauty as soon as t has come off the drying board! IT IS ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!!! WAIT AND SEE :o)

But for now I will show you my latest handpainted rovings, the first 2 of them are displayed in my Etsy store www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com, and the last 3 are for sale in my ebayUK store, so feel free to Visit My eBay Store as well for more details:

I also finished a new handpainted sock yarn design, which is also for sale in my ebay store. I have called it "Masquerade", and trust me, the colours are incredibly strong and vibrant, I wish they would have come out in all their splendour on this photo (which is still very reliable though):

and before I forget to mention it: I have prepared a new set of white wool mixed bags, well, one of them is a light grey but the entire mix is most suitable for hand dyeing, spinning and felting! There are a total of 7 different breed wools in one 4oz bag, Masham, Bluefaced Leicester, Falkland, Swaledale, German Merino, Norwegian and Shetland:

each fibre can also be purchased individually if you are looking for a larger amount, just contact me for details!

I will now go and prepare a hot water bottle, it is really really really cold today, brrrrrr...!

Everyone have a very good weekend and keep warm and snug ;o)

Just to let you all know that my website www.needleworks-pleasure.com will not be accessable over the weekend because my webhost ist moving all his equipment to a new data center, and that will take 24-48 hours. At least I have been notified weeks in advance, which is really good of my webhost, no bad shocks or customer complaints ;o)

But my ebayUK store and my Etsy store are all running well on the web! I have just now displayed two new yarns on Etsy:

and one new slub yarn design in my ebayUK store:

 so feel free to Visit My eBay Store and my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com for more yarn details :o)

EVERYONE HAVE A VERY GOOD WEEKEND!!

Running late...again...sorry! I meant to display my latest yarns days ago but I have been extremely busy with sorting orders and packing them for prompt dispatch. Sometimes I wish I had another pair of hands and an extra few hours in the day, I swear!

But nevertheless, here they are now, my handspun super squishy rainbow yarn design made from extra soft Merino wool, and my "Spaced Peacock" handpainted extra soft and extra squishy Bluefaced Leicester yarn, which was quite a handful to finish. It's  a double dye design so it has taken me twice as long to get painted than normal, but the wide range of pansy blues and tons of purples have been worth the effort!! Both yarns have been displayed in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com :

I have also tried out my new handmade shampoo bar that I had bought from a seller at the continental market last week - IT IS ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!!!! I didn't think that it would be so easy to get adequate foam out of this bar to actually cover all my long hair, but just a bit of rubbing produced loads of shampoo in no time. And the bergamotte oil that was used in the bar remains for days, in fact the entire bathroom now smells of bergamotte in a very nice way, not annoyingly strong but nice and subtle. I will so stick to handmade shampoo bars from now on, and even save a bit of money because the organic/animal testing free products I usually buy from the health store have become incredibly expensive. What can I say

 - HANDMADE IS ALWAYS BETTER!!!!!! ;o)

I just got back from Carlisle where the last day of the Continental Market was coming to its end, and I wanted to catch at least a couple of loafs of freshly baked sour dough bread from the Polish bakery that always has a stand there. The bread is just as delicious as German sour dough bread (oh how I miss German bread!!!), and I always buy a few loaves and put them in the freezer. The French were there with their yummy feta filled peppers (they simply are better than the ones prepacked from the stores), and I also bought a handmade bar of glycering shampoo bar with bergamotte and rosemary essential oils...hm...I have never used shampoo bars before, I wonder if it's going to work with my long hair, you sort of have to rub that bar along the hair to make it foam. Let's be excited ;o)

First thing I saw when I got tot he market place was a group of people with dozens of beautiful and majestic greyhounds - these dogs are rescue dogs from the racetrack...if they get the "useless" mark they are out and usually get shot or put down because they simply don't bring in the money. I love dogs very much, I am the type of person who will never ever want to live without a dog (or two...or three...) in the house, I simply enjoy their company too much, and it is so practical as they can be taken along on vacations, or run beside the bicycle for exercise if you are lazy for a day, or, if they are too small for that type of running, they can sit in a basket attached to your handle bar!  Anyway, I chatted to two of these people for a long time while cuddling a very very gorgeous greyhound girl....YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW HOW CLOSE I CAME TO SAYING "HEY, I WILL TAKE YOU WITH ME"!!!!!

This is the website, which is packed with information about greyhound rescue:

www.dgrescue.org.uk

and this is Thomas, the dog of the month. Is he handsome or what!!!?

Who knows, I may end up with one of them, perhaps Sam would like a playmate?

Right, before I dive into my yummy sour dough bread with stuffed feta peppers, here are my lates handpainted Bluefaced Leicester wool rovings, which I finished last night....YES, NO CINNAMON THIS TIME...;O).... They are all displayed in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com . I hope you like the colourways!

Everyone have a very peaceful Easter time!!!

Today my last custom order (for now) has been mailed - 2 wonderful skeins of very soft and smooth handspun Merino DK yarn, that have found a new home in Canada. The request was for a similar design like my "Tiger Eye" yarn that sold a while ago:

Weighing a total of 180g and measuring a minimum of 389 yds, now that's plenty of yardage to knit or crochet with :o)

And because I can't seem to get enough of my cinnamon and brown shades these days I have painted some more Bluefaced Leicester rovings in very rich ...yes...cinnamon shades, one for the shop and two for myself! I am planning to spin one lot into a fine yarn and the other lot will be for a wet felted scarf...whenever I will find time to do it...

The lighter shade on the photo may look like a victorian rose pink, but it's really rather a very nice warm light cinnamon. I think it looks absolutely gorgeous!!! This lot is for sale in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com !

Let's hope that the weather will be nice and sunny over the Easter holidays. I so want to take a day off and go for a nice long walk with Sam along Hadrian's wall, or perhaps at Little Salkeld past the druids circle. I cannot drive too far (heaven knows I would looooove to drive further up into Scotland for a whole day!!), but the petrol prices are killing me and my wallet...sigh....it is ever so frustrating!

But hey, let's not be too discouraged by the rising costs of living!  Bad times will always come and go like the four seasons, it's not the first time we have seen them, is it? ;o)

They are finished!!! They are finished!!!!! My bulk order of handspun natural Bluefaced Leicester yarn is finally ready for dispatch. WHAT A TREAT to see these hanks finally spun and plied! It has taken me almost 5 weeks to get them done, I don't think I could have finished them any faster because I always have to do so much sidework for my business, taking orders, answering e-mails, administration, paper work, packing, dispatching... and yes, in between I also need to finish new fibers and yarns for my stores too. Spinning fine yarns such as these sport weight BFL hanks does take time, and I can only spin so much of a thin ply per day, my vision just gets blury if I focus on a thin thread for too long in one go. But as long as my customers know how long it will take me to finish their gorgeous yarns things will roll quite well :o)

The white yarns will be handpainted with natural dyes and be part of a Tudor re-enactment. How awesome is that!!!??? Yarns on stage...fantastic!

I also finished a new handspun Merino yarn design in vibrant blues and turquoise. I have given this yarn a stronger twist, which will make it suitable for sock knitting (remember to ALWAYS reinforce your heels and tips when making socks from pure wool!) and weaving:

These photos were taken today, a very rainy and dark day, so they don't quite do the original justice. The shades are really vibrant and strong. It's a great colourway indeed! I have called it "Waves", and you can find this particular design for sale in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com .

If you are looking for a different colourway please feel free to view my category "custom made yarns" on my website www.needleworks-pleasure.com , where you can choose your very own colourway!! ;o)

I have finished another custom order of handpainted wool rovings. They went out in the mail today. They will be turned into handspun yarns by their new owner, and I already know that the colourways will be simply gorgeoussssss ;o)