Latest addition to the fibre family

Yesterday I did some major dyeing, after having finally received some more soft fibre.

First, here is my latest fibre order, but not all of it is for myself:

Somewhere in this huge box is a big bag of mohair curls, and I am currently writing a little tutorial that takes you through the life of a handful of mohair curls which wanted some colour in their life.

Here's a little preview:


I just have to figure out a good way to upload pdf files to this blog... hmmmm...

Spinning projects!

The reason I get a real kick out of spinning chunky art yarns is the challenge of finding the exact right treasures for each yarn. It's not always easy, but the results are worth it!

And sometimes I find something pretty and base everything else around it - souvenirs from travelling, a special trim I only found once, beads collected over the years... or when sewing bags it's that lovely fabric I found only after wandering the unknown streets of a foreign city for hours, the beads and trims and laces which are so much prettier than anything I could find 'at home' or a fabric I first had to haggle for.
Most of my fabrics have their own story, and whenever I come back from an extended vacation my suitcase is packed with fabrics and trims. Or sarees, whatever the country has on offer, lol.

Well, at the moment I have two art yarns planned, but am still rushing around to find the perfect extras.

The first one will be based around these cuties here which I recently swapped with someone: So far I've got a whole bunch of the chicks and have today felted a few white merino 'eggs'.


The second WIP art yarn is for the UK etsy sellers monthly challenge which is for this month 'fairytales'. I always loved frog prince, so I thought I could get started on that, if I could find something suitable enough for the golden ball. Well, I did!
This will be shredded up and spun into the yarn, plus I got some matching sequins:

I love how the fabric already starts fraying. :)
Now all I need for this yarn are the froggies and then dye some green roving. For the froggies I was hoping to get some green children's buttons with frogs, but they don't seem to exist - it's really a lot harder than I thought it would be.

Customer gallery

I've recently been sent some picture of wonderful items made from my handspun yarn, and I'm very proud to see what can be done! Therefore this will be a space dedicated to such items.

If you've used my yarn in one of your creations and would like to send me a picture of it I will feature it here, either anonymously or with a link to your blog/website/whatever. Please don't be shy :)

This crochet scarf has been made by http://charlotte-narunsky.blogspot.com/ from a handspun single. I love seeing the in progress pictures as well!

This sock knitting bag has been knitted by http://ballee.etsy.com/ and has then been fulled. The bottom part is chocolate brown shetland wool with bamboo, handspun by me. Isn't it pretty with the flower embroidery?

Beautiful stitchmarkers from ballee

This is the first 'shopping' post! In this category I would like to show some great shops online, most of which are directly related to either knitting or spinning. Sometimes I might show a little collection with beautiful things which go together and would nicely match one of my own items :)

Today I would like to introduce some beautiful stitchmarkers to you!

Ballee creates extravagant stitchmarkers, the ones I particularly liked feature little pendants of Saints and are combined with pretty beads.

I've done a little trade and got myself this set amongst others. I quite happily call this the most beautiful set of stitchmarkers I have ever seen! The friendly woman behind ballee was more than happy to adjust the rings to fit exactly the needle sizes I have. They also arrived in some of the most original packaging I've seen in a while, ready for gift giving. :)

Everybody I have shown these to fell in love immediately, so go off and get yourself a cutom made set of absolutely stunning stitchmarkers at http://ballee.etsy.com

Leaves

Leaves handspun
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

It's fibre friday! In the future I will try to at least post one new yarn every friday. I've already posted most of my newer yarns yesterday, but this is my latest one: Leaves. It's handspun from hand dyed merino with beads and silvery leaves.

I started with a nice green roving and selected the beads around it. The leaves were a great find and just work so well...

It's so smooshy and took me so long that I don't think I can part with it! It will most likely turn into a hat or some sort of a scarf once autumn approaches. :)

Here is a WIP shot, just before starting to ply this yarn (please ignore the blue tack on the side, it keeps it all running a bit smoother):

Art yarns

Well, I guess this is my first 'real' blog post, how exciting!
I am planning to post my latest yarns, often with WIP shots, tutorials, about other sellers with great products, about my special offers, possibly I'll have some giveaways from time to time...

For today I thought it would be nice to show some of the recent art yarns I've made.

Here is Citrus explosion on the rocks, a pure merino 2ply yarn with biiiig blobs:
on etsy: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6016980

Here is dragonfly, a hand dyed merino yarn with seed beads and silvery dragonfly beads:
on etsy: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6079005

This is true love, a 2ply merino/mohair with heart buttons, seed beads and handmade fimo beads from http://lilley.etsy.com, check out her shop full of ceramics and wonderful fimo beads!
on etsy: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6134313

and the last one for now is called Bride to be, made from hand dyed merino and white and pink tulle as well as some fancy tulle with star print...
on etsy soon.

Links ...or where you'll find me online.

Snowberry & Lime:

http://snowberrylime.etsy.com - shop

http://snowberrylime.deviantart.com - finished works gallery

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43307699@N00 - work in progress gallery

http://www.ravelry.com/people/Snowberrylime - on ravelry

Support:

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?board=171.0 - Spinning forum on craftster

http://www.fibergypsy.com/cgi/fiberlinkmanager/measurement_converter.cgi - Meter to yard conversion

http://www.knitty.com - Unusual knitting patterns

http://kurrajonghandcrafts.com/blog/ - The blog that introduced the SSAL (Sunday spin-along), join in on the fun!

http://work.nataliejost.com/inc/etsycalc.htm - etsy calculator, will give you an idea of pricing

Recycled sail

I grew up on a sailing boat called 'Flamingo' and the sails are about the closest to textiles and fashion you will get on a boat...
Sails do break however, and when I first got into making bags they were a readily available and cheap fabric to work with. Of course I couldn't resist the sweet call of bright fabrics, but when recently another sail broke I immediately nicked it to create some very individual bags.

Here is a small tote bag:

Back with stencil

Front with sail seam

...and this was a custom order from fellow sailors:
It's the size of a beach bag, features the boat name and 4 inside pockets.

I call them 'Sailorbags' and try to incorporate as many typical details you can find in a sail as possible. The writing is stencilled and definitely weatherproof!

As sail is hard work to sew due to its heavy weight, I generally only do these as custom orders, with the boat name stencilled on. Please contact me if interested and I'll see if I got all the necessary material around. :)

Bright bags

My fabric stash exists in several different locations, here are some of the bright ones I have with me in the UK:


Beautiful fabrics are one of my main inspirations, and they lead me to bags like this one:

Handspun yarn

Leading up to last Christmas I read every spinning tutorial I could find online and spent hours on eBay trying to find the perfect deal for either a spindle or a spinning wheel. It just so happened that there was an incredibly cheap buy it now spinning wheel in Germany, so I arranged for my parents to get it sent to them whilst on a short holiday there. My first wheel is a Polish wheel, a Kromski Mazurka, which now resides in Switzerland.

When I got my wheel I could already spin theoretically, but had never even touched a spindle. Well, after a few hours of adjusting the wheel I was spinning my own yarn! Within the first few days I spun all these skeins:

I soon graduated to dyeing my own fibre when I had to leave for university.

Back in the UK I soon realised I couldn't live without spinning and bought a turkish spindle (because I'm lazy and don't like the idea of having to wind the yarn off a spindle, lol).

Well, by some twist of fate I soon got an offer to buy an Ashford traditional for a reasonable price, and so I did...


I spin pretty much every day and love trying out new, exotic fibres and also often add beads and other things to my yarns. For pictures please check out my gallery on deviantart: http://snowberrylime.deviantart.com :)