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

Oooohhh, my latest handspun yarns are ooooooozing with wonderful colours!!!! It seems that I have been thinking about food way too much in the past few days, which explains the colourways and of course the names of my latest babes :o) Here they are, "Miel de Lavande" and "Cinnamon Swirl", both now for sale in my Etsy store www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com ,... man, those shades make me hungry....

I have also finished one custom order of handpainted Bluefaced Leicester roving in dark green and deep purple. It will go out in the mail tomorrow, so I have taken the opportunity to (actually remember and) take a photo for my blog ;o)

Four more custom painted rovings are currently soaking in their dye pots, and another load of undyed yarn is waiting to be mordanted.

I will now go and have a megasize of cinnamon cake that I made last night (oh how I loooooove cinnamon!!!!!!!!!!!!) before I sit back down behind my spinning wheel.

Enjoy the latest pictures, and do feel free to view my online stores and my website at www.needleworks-pleasure.com as well :o)

God, I'm really trying to keep up with time...it just flies over my head and leaves me spinning...literally!! Yep, I am still working on several custom orders, one is due to be finished mid March, so I better hurry, and another one just came out of the dyebath, a very lovely handpainted Bluefaced Leicester roving in deep purple and dark green, I'm hoping of course that I will get to see a photo of the finished project :o)

In between I have been busy decluttering the house. The longer you live at the same place the more rubbish you keep and store and just don't want to let go of, even though you don't use the stuff anymore at all! Plus I have got more greasy fleeces to take care of, one Wensleydale just soaking in the soapbath as I am typing this, and I better get it out of the buckets and rinsed before it gets dark.

BUT I also painted some more lovely lovely sockyarns and a new lot of aran weight wool as well. Cosy and squishy as always!! As to the sockyarns, they can certainly be used for regular knitting as well, they are just called sockyarns because they have the right yardage and size to be turned into socks, but you can use them for gloves, hats, shawls, garments, knitted felting projects and also for weaving. The sockyarns I am using are 6-ply and 8-ply so they will be perfect for any weaver!

Here they are in all their splendor:

 "Pearl of the Sea" - displayed in my ebay store.

 "Diabolicus" - also displayed in my ebay store.

 "Rosehip" - displayed in my Etsy store.

 and "Shamrock" - also displayed in my Etsy store.

Since my last blog I also finished some more handpainted and handspun special yarn designs that are also for sale in my Etsy store. Please feel free to Visit My eBay Store and my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com for more yarn details!! I will now go and give the soapy fleeces a good wash...;o)

Hi everyone!

Apart from my custom orders I have been finishing new yarn designs all week, and today was my photographing/cropping/displaying...PC - day, so here are my latest beauties that I have now displayed in my Etsy store and in my EbayUK store. You can enter both shops through my website at www.needleworks-pleasure.com  :o)

Well, photo #2 is not strictly speaking my handpainted yarn design, it was painted by a friend of mine who has asked me to display it in my Etsy store for her ;o) It is a gorgeously soft and yummy Merino single ply yarn, really squishy indeed!

Feel free to view my stores for more yarn information. I have to get back to my spinning wheel now.

Oh, by the way: Penny darling, if you read this blog, I received your beautiful card with the "pigment" photo on the front on Saturday! What fantastic and vibrant colours!!!!!!!!!!!! I love that picture! Thank you so much for thinking about me :o)

EVERYONE HAVE A VERY RELAXING  SUNDAY AND A GOOD START INTO THE COMING UP WEEK!

Oh hasn't it just been an absolutely fantastic sunny weekend?! I so needed some sunlight and a blue sky, no gales and just a bright day with crispy cold air. I immediately grasped the opportunity to take a loooooong walk by the Solway Firth at Drumburgh, where I always walk with Sam when the weather is good because when it is not you simply cannot walk there, it would be unbearable. Sam loves the marsh, especially when the sheep are grazing a good few miles away at the other end of the firth so he can run and run and run and run...and be an incredibly happy dog indeed ;o) I have taken some photos of the firth and the shores, I cannot get enough pictures from that area!

This is the view out of the Solway Firth, and on the other side of the water you can see Dumfries&Galloway of Scotland.

I find this blue-in-blue with just a bit of ebb sand in between so awesome, too sad the sea gulls are a bit too far away in the photo. They were having a party out there!!!!

Yep, my Sam has to be in it too :o)

This is the view towards Carlisle in the very distance to the right, and that is where the firth is ending too. I always manage to arrive here during low tide, you normally don't see any sandy stripes anywhere once the water has moved back in.

Lots and lots of marsh for happy dogs to run around on, especially when sheep and cattle are grazing a bit further down.

Lambing season has already started,  I saw and heard the first few newborn lambs out in the fields about one week ago. A lot of them will be born indoors depending on the breed, but there are lots of hardy mules, Cheviot and Scottish blackface sheep around in this area, and their lambs cope with frosty nights amazingly well. I am sure these babes will curl up very close to their mothers at night.

Before I go I would like to mention that I have displayed a new set of mixed wools in my ebay store - 5 different breeds in one mix, all natural white and one light grey, mostly British breeds but also one Scandinavian top in it. They are all beautiful and very easy to work with, and will make any handspinner, hand dyer or felter happy!! :o) Feel free to Visit My eBay Store for more details about this mix.

God, time flies!!! I have been meaning to enter a new blog days ago, and it's been almost a week since I last added new photos. I am currently up to my ears in yarn orders, one of which is a bulk order for white and oatmeal Bluefaced Leicester sport weight yarn that I want to finish by the end of the month, so I better get pedalling big time!!! ;o)

And because I have got a lot of work to do right now this can only mean one thing, and one thing only: I HAVE TO BAKE ANOTHER MEGA SIZE CAKE TO NIBBLE ON WHILE WORKING!! Well, nibble may not be the right word here..that cake will most probably be gone within 48 hours...as usual...

Here are my latest yarn beauties I have just recently finished, and they are also all displayed in my Etsy store!

"Mylady Greensleeves" handspun Merino:

"Highlands III" extra soft Merino:

"Sirens IV" extra soft Merino:

The last two designs are quick-knit slub yarns, really easy to work with and wonderfully soft and squishy :o)

I have also managed to finish a new colourway of large slub yarn in lime and sage green-grey for all the dreadmakers and freeform knitters out there! I have displayed it alongside my range of slub yarns in my ebay store. Feel free to Visit My eBay Store for more yarn details.

The chocolate cake I made 2 days ago is already gone...unbelievable? Not really ;o) I am thinking about baking another one today with a slightly different chocolatey touch. Chocolate provides the body with endorphines which make you feel better, and I can use a lot of endorphines at the moment!! The weather has got slightly better, no heavy rain showers anymore, but still windy and very cloudy and cold. Nevertheless, it's the perfect weather for staying indoors and do some wool painting :oD

I have finished 2 new lambswool designs, 200g each = 445yds, so that's lots of yardage to work with. They will be displayed on my website at www.needleworks-pleasure.com and here in my blog of course. The first lot is called "Nemo II", and the second lot is my "Buddhist Monk":

I prefer to stick to the names if the colourways are quite the same as of their predecessors, be it a different yarn size or wool type, but there are certain schemes I very much like to repeat because I want to see them again and again emerging from my dyepots. I have had several "Buddhist Monk" designs in the past, and I have also had a "Nemo" fingering weight yarn with the same shades, which just recently sold.

I have also finished 2 new lots of handpainted slub yarns which are now for sale in my ebay store:

The first one is a dark rosewood + burnt orange, and the second one is mustard + light plum purple - oohhhhh I like 'em.......:o)

Feel free to Visit My eBay Store for more yarn details!

How sad ist that weather out there!!!!???? It's been raining and snowing for days, the gales get stronger and stronger, and two days ago we had a nice powercut from 9.00h-14.00h....I almost froze my b*** off and once more I so appreciated my open fireplace in the living room...no electricity necessary for this one! But I had no light, no hot water, no warm food, the storm outside was about to rip the roof off the house, and I felt really really depressed about it all. I cannot express how much I long for spring!

In the meantime all I can do is drown myself in work and wool and paint them in marvelously refreshing colours ;o)

Here comes my latest Bluefaced Leicester yarn design that I finished last night, and which is now displayed in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com . I have called it "Mrs.Dalloway":

the saffron shade in this design is very soothing, and I am glad that I added it to the yarn. The natural dyes I have used for it give it all such a warm expression.

I will go now and bake an oversize chocolate cake to drown myself in! The good thing is that these days I do not need to worry about becoming overweight because I have to save on my heating - thanks to the obscene high oil prices (thank you Shell/BP/Texaco...all of you...YOU ARE SUCH RIP OFFS!) my body uses all the calories on maintaining its temperature at 36.5 degrees :o(

Yes, I am rather upset about the rising energy prices...please do not mention failing resources or carbon footprints!!!! I simply don't buy it anymore, they are excuses for the energy tycoons in the world to do as they please. Just recently SHELL announced last year's profit of ...how many billions? Perhaps it's time for me to go and get my own solar panels!

Everyone keep warm and snug and enjoy your hot cup of tea, coffee, or a good old fashioned hot chocolate!!!!! :oD

I have been painting new rovings all weekend, and I have also received a new bulk of raw Wensleydale fleeces that will require a good wash indeed! The locks are absolutely gorgeous but it's a lot of work to get them properly scoured so they will be suitable for dyeing projects. I am very happy with this new lot!! Those fleeces are really good quality!

I have also just now displayed my latest yarn design in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com , which I have spun from my favourite and yummy handpainted Bluefaced Leicester wool - I have called it "Winter Berries" because the colourway includes perfect 4th season shades! Have a look:

There is a very light touch of mint green in it as well, which matches the complete scheme!! It stands for some of the winter herbs you can find out in the gardens and fields before they are harvested.

Before I go I would like to let everyone know that my natural oatmeal and natural brown Bluefaced Leicester wool rovings are still available, but they are not displayed in my ebay store anymore. If you are interested in ordering some of these 2 gorgeous shades please contact me directly through my website at www.needleworks-pleasure.com . I always have a larger amount in stock for my handspun yarns :o) The current price is £1.85/50g roving.

Everyone have a very good week!!!!!!

I just got back from the post office, and boy are the roads terrible!!! It's been raining for over 24 hours now, and all roads into Carlisle have turned into rivers! I am not exaggerating, the drain system does not cope with all that rainwater anymore (same old story everytime it rains too much...), and yes I was a bit sweaty when I drove through the rising floods, mind you it even started to snow while I was out there, just to give the whole scenario some extra spice... Let's hope that the drains in the city and out here will do their job alright, I mean, people are still recovering from the last flood, still arranging their new furniture, and their plaster on the walls has not even dried from latest renovations!!

Well, I  have made it home safely, and I have just got a few moments left to show you what I have been working on in the past few days. 2 custom orders finished and dispatched, and a new gorgeous OOAK Merino yarn design, which I have called "Dreamcatcher". It is now for sale in my Etsy store at www.alltheprettyfibers.etsy.com, here are some pics:

My memory has been very good lately, so I even took some photos of the 2 custom orders before they went out in the mail. The first one is a very soft lambswool design which the customer (a very very lovely lady from the Highlands) requested to be painted in a warm custard yellow. She said that stronger yellow shades would make her look like she was dieing ;oD 

and of course I am always hoping to see a photo of the finished knitwear...will I, will I??....come on Jan! Will I? :oD It is indeed a very nice and warm yellow shade, very spring-like!

And this is the Shetland slub yarn order that has  now made its way to Italy:

my slub yarns are very popular for dreadmaking, freeform knitting and knitted felting projects - the thick and thin look is characteristic for slub yarns and handspun that way on purpose. If used for dreadmaking this yarn will make thin to medium-thin dreads:

All my slub yarns are displayed in my ebay store. Feel free to Visit My eBay Store for more details!

Everyone, I hope you will be able to keep dry tonight,  wherever you are!

Here they are, my latest handpainted Alpaca and Silk beauties! Their colourways are more than yummy, and I am very pleased with the entire result :o) The Alpaca rovings are now displayed in my Etsy store, and the Tussah silk rovings can be viewed in my Ebay store. Please feel free to Visit My eBay Store for more details! These are my tussah babies:

 Streaky deep purple, cinnamon gold, moss-sage, and light turquoise-teal - FANTASITC!!! They will make great handspun yarns and add to the beauty of felted projects and silk paper!

Below are 3 of the Alpaca tops - I have kept 2 for new handspun yarn designs and another one is still on the wool rack:

I really hope that you like the new colours as much as I do!

As usual I haven't got much time left today - I have received a new custom order for 500g of Shetland slub yarn for a lady in Italy, so I must get back pedalling. BUT before I do that I would very much like to introduce Marie to you! Marie has just recently discovered the craft of felting, and when she sent me photos of some of her finished projects I really thought that they were so gorgeous and that she certainly has a talent for felting. I have displayed the pics in my little fibre gallery of my Ebay store, and as she sent me quite a few to choose from I also want to show them here on my blog:

 My favourite are the teacosies - they are awesome :o)  Marie will be accepting custom orders for handfelted gifts and unique creations in the future. She hasn't got a website yet, but you can contact her through [email protected] . She is a very lovely person, and I know that she will be delighted to hear from you guys!

Everyone have a very good week, keep warm and HAPPY FIBRE CRAFTING!!!!