Etsy featured seller!

Yay! I am the current featured etsy seller for the next couple of days! It feels like I have reached on etsy what I was always aiming for. It might sound silly, but when I first started on etsy back in 2006 that was the prestigious place I wanted to reach - I need a new goal now, lol.
Here is the link.

Thanks to whoever is actually reading this, a spinner is nothing without some creative minds who can turn the yarn into something spectacular. :)

Wish me luck!

Veronika

I want candy, finally finished this handspun yarn!

Some people might remember my post about a yarn called 'I want candy' - well, it has been finished and is now available as a big skein and a smaller skein. It is handspun entirely from hand dyed wool scraps and looks quite delightful. As there are two skeins available, this would definitely be enough for a nice project. I would love to see how this knits up and am actually quite tempted to take it out of the shop again... but I do have a policy that I will have to put one of my other 'keepers' into the shop if I want to keep another one - and I love them all, haha.

Other than that I have just finished a really fun yarn corespun from hand dyed Mohair locks. It is so soft and fluffy and due to its bright colours I called it 'Samba'. So far I have spun two skeins of this and it is so addictive! However right now I got caught up in spinning for quite a few custom orders, which I love to do. Especially my soy silk seems to be pretty popular at the moment - I even had to order more despite my last pretty chunky order, lol.

This weekend will see a lot of spinning. I am actually working on a completely gorgeous custom order of a new style which I might include in the shop in future, it is just so gorgeous! Also, there are still plenty of yarns to be listed and two interesting art yarns I have to take pictures of first. :)

Sharing a piece of madness

Hello there,

just thought I should really drop in and mention why I am pretty swamped right now.
Since my last blog post I spent a wonderful but still pretty stressful (my poor feet) weekend in Paris, where I found some great fabric and trimmings and lots of inspiration, pictures might follow later on. Then I have spent the last few days at my organisation's 100 year celebration in Berlin. I was looking after our international VIPs which was a lot of fun but pretty much a full-time job. Today I finally have a day for my own undertakings, ie. the shop. From the look of it I will be spinning a good few custom orders and I should also really finish making my samples for the Phat fiber sampler, a brand new sample box for knitters and spinners which will include many different artists already in the first box in January! There should still be many new yarns appearing in the shop though, as I still have a little mountain of unphotographed and unlisted yarns around the flat.
I will also share one quick picture before I zoom off into spinning. I spun this yarn for the spin-up-the-crazy-along on ravelry. It was organised within the novelty and art yarn spinner's group, one of my absolute favourites on ravelry!
I got pretty inspiredby my scrap stash (This yarn is mainly Merino and Merino/silk, mostly hand dyed, combined with white organic cotton) and will definitely be spinning more in this style.

Take care in this busy season!
Veronika

Brown leaves art yarn

My brown leaves art yarn had been finished for quite some time already, but first I struggled with rainy days and then... hmmm.... something. :D
The yarn is hand dyed wool with green glass beads, shiny leaf sequins and copper Angelina sparkle spun in.
On another note I have recently been featured by Amy from Pretty Lil Stars, have a look here. She knits lots of neckwarmers available in her shop as well as some bright jewellery and some fun items made from old vinyl records!

Pictures of my 'I want candy' yarn will be up soon and I also received some more fun beads in the mail today, which will soon appear in some more yarns. Right now I am just working on a corespun yarn from some hand dyed Merino I never dared using as it is just so pretty. Pastel prettyness. :D

Darling WIP

Time for another sweet art yarn.... pictures of the brown leaves art yarn will follow shortly. Here we have the beads and sequins for 'darling'. There are also some rose quartz chips for a little bit of pink. The fibre is mainly white, hand-processed Alpaca carded together with some hand dyed organic falkland wool, Tussah silk and many other white-ish fibres.
My most recent yarn to go into the shop is autumn tweed, a soft Merino yarn inspired by the seasonal changes around me:

So much yarn to be uploaded yet...

Please cut me some slack for the blurred pictures, it was late and dark. Oh yes, please also ignore the random cables and the overall state of my spinning corner... Anyway, first up we have a bag of yarns which has even already been photographed (as opposed to the bigger box of still to be photographed yarns and items), so all I have to do is list them.... yeah, sounds simple enough, haha. They will slowly move into the shop and hopefully find some good homes.
Next up are some pure wool leftover fibres, all hand dyed. They have today been turned into two big skeins of colourful yarn which I named 'I want candy'. I will soon make another yarn in this style with hand dyed Merino/silk. The idea behind it is that my boyfriend is coming over to live with me next week and I really, I mean reeeally need to create some room. :D Oh yes, the latest fibre order didn't really help that goal, but what the heck.

I have just been featured on this beautiful design blog: http://622press.wordpress.com/2008/10/23/snowberry-and-lime

Kristin herself is a talented letterpress card designer - as some people may know I am a huge admirer of letterpress printing. :) I am already planning on buying some girly letterpress cards this season...

There were also two recent etsy frontpages I was on, the last one is this beauty:

It was created by inspirationglassware who sells etched glass designs on etsy.

Brown leaves WIP

My latest work in progress is a hand dyed art yarn which includes all of these beads and sequins, including some iridescent leaves. The result will be a heavily embellished yarn which I am hoping to post pictures of pretty soon!

I have also recently spun another expressive vegan yarn made from organic hemp and linen:
The skein is called urban myth and available here.My latest yarn in this series is a funky vegan linen yarn in autumn colours, embraced by a bumpy cotton thread. It is at the moment waiting to be washed to set the twist, but I will post a pic of the finished yarn, if I don't forget.

'Sticheleien' craft fair

Recently my little local art yarn spinning group went to sell our yarns in the middle of the Odenwald, a big forest region nearby at a textile craft fair. The fair was amazing and I am so glad to have gone, although I would have usually said it's a little far, but since we went there with our own stall that was a good excuse. :P It was great fun to be there with the girls, it almost felt like one of our usual meet-ups. :)
Above are just some of the things I got, look here for all the details. My favourite buys are of course yarns - the green yarn to the left has been hand dyed with birch leaves to several gorgeous shades of green and the two romantic skeins of a very soft Mohair yarn to the right have been bought directly from the owner of a small herd. I will try to get some roving from him as well so I can spin my own high quality, 'locally grown' Mohair.

I have also been working on another art yarn and will post pictures in my next post.

Have a great Sunday!

Autumnal inspiration

Just some leaves I picked up on my way home from work. I then played around a little with my camera. The ground was really covered in these three colours and it looked so gorgeous - might have to incorporate some of these colours into my next dye pot.



As much as autumn and winter sadden me, I do love the colours. :)

The new wrist warmers have arrived

Finally I have gotten around to finishing these handspun soy silk wrist warmers I had sitting around for a few weeks, almost finished, but not quite. Well, I think it was worth the wait, as I am delighted with how they turned out. So far there are three different pairs, one with the black patterned pure silk fabric below, one with my favourite ever pure silk fabric in a light pink and purple design with teal and one with a cute brown polka dot fabric.
I have also worked on another one of my original fingerless glove designs, which is a variation of 'circles', only a little better, of course. ;) To fulfil the brief I found some commercial pure Merino yarn which comes in the prettiest colours. Below is the brightest one in rainbow, but I also bought this yarn in dark purple, dark reds and earth tones. I don't know what it is, I am generally very much into a more glamourous style, which shows in my designs, but sometimes I have this little twitch that will make me choose the brightest yarn or fabric possible and create items fit for matching a box of crayons.
The purple wrist warmers also turned out nicely btw, but sadly the pictures did not.Of course I have also been spinning, most recently 'Le boudoir', a Merino and Tussah silk yarn with pearl beads. Drying right now are also a few pure linen yarns and I am planning a few scrap yarns soon as I need to use up some of those little bits of hand dyed fibre.
Oh, plus I have finally taken the plunge and bought some polymer clay whilst I was in Munich and have started sculpting some beads for my yarns. One of the project I had in my sketch book for ages includes little comic style bones, and that is what I have mainly been sculpting so far.

Flower bag WIP - crochet

Flower bag crochet WIP
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

Yay, I got my crochet hook out and finally started working out one of my tweed flower bags according to a sketch I made earlier on. I will crochet all around the top with a beautiful wool and silk dark green tweed yarn I have and then either continue with crochet or - as originally planned - switch to knitting on the top part.
It is going to be a lot of work as I have to push holes in the fabric before starting the first crochet row and the needle size will be quite small - but hopefully it will be well worth it!

If I do another version of this in the future, it will probably be in a chunkier yarn and then definitely knitted. Perhaps also on a smaller bag, this one measures about 40cm at the top, so a circumference of about a jumper size!

I also almost finished a pair of very sweet wrist warmers made from handspun yarn.

Candy the way it should be

Candy the way it should be
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

Just thought I'd share this snapshot of a candy store in Belgium. It was so overwhelming, the whole store was like this and it was just gorgeous!

Other than that my shop now has its own domain: www.snowberrylime.com and will be getting a pretty big update taking place every day of this week. All fresh yarns and I am currently working on some snuggly accessories which can be found there soon. :)

Close to 1000 etsy shop hearts. :)

7th of September etsy frontpage
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

My pink soy yarn made it on the front page today (it's actually still up whilst I am typing this) and my shop is now very close to having 1000 people who have added it as their favourite on etsy. To me that is quite an impressive number and reason enough to send out a little handspun thank you to the person who catches number 1000.

So hop on over for your chance to get some free handspun. :)

http://snowberrylime.etsy.com

14 bags

14 bags
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

Can you see my table? Oh, right, it is covered in bags to be sewn, ie. fabric. Ah well, it will all get done eventually. Most of these embroideries have been done on the evenings of my holiday in Belgium, whilst normal people read or something....

The overdimensional swatch towards the front is me knitting my handspun soy silk yarn and will eventually be turned into some wrist warmers. 'Eventually' might just become my word of the day....

Sushi yarn

Sushi yarn
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

My Sushi yarn is finished! I think I may be in love. :)
It should gently self-stripe randomly between black, white and sparkly red. I want to spin another one, hahaha.

Oh and you know what? It's Friday, so take this as my fibre friday entry...

As much as I love weekends, this one is going to be a busy one. Luckily all things to do with craft fairs and yarns/fabric, so it's not too bad. I also got some new inspiration in the mail today (yes, that is my excuse for ordering supplies online) in the shape of beautiful glass beads and stunning glass buttons from the 1920s and 30s (!).

Well, gotta go, do stuff. :D

A big pot of ...what was she thinking?

what was she thinking
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

Well, I did some dyeing and whilst the first pot was filled with a bit of a classic, light yellow with all kinds of different shades of teal and blue, the second was rather, um, questionable....

What happened was: I had mixed upscary amounts of blue and had originally intended to dye something with green for the second pot, but I also wanted some brown, so I started mixing up some red. A lot of red, because it quickly switches into pink. After some fiddling around I had bright red, lots of blues/teals, lots of dark greenish brown with a hint of rusty brown.

Did I ever mention that my colour combination from hell is light pink, pine green and navy blue? Well, in the pot it looked scarily close to that and I panicked a little. The panic passed quickly and I just kept pouring on the ugliness... all of it.

BUT then this happened:
Yes, it actually turned into a decent (and subtle) colourway: the blue is now dark prussian blue, the unidentified dark green stuff turned into a subtle grey with its own beauty and the red become a beautiful dark burgundy on the silk and a subtle vintage rose colour on the wool you can see in the front. These outcomes are why dyeing can be pretty exciting and so well worth it. :)

Saved by the bell!

Sushi yarn WIP

Sushi yarn WIP
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

Hello again, I seem to have been quite quiet recently, although (or maybe because) I did lots of spinning. I have accepted my stash problem and am working on it. Plus of course I am preparing madly for the craft fairs I will be attending this year. I have been to many, many craft fairs all over the world, but have never sold at one. I have once sold at an antiques market though, so that experience might come in handy.

Quite a while ago my lime green yarn with beads has been featured on this blog.
I like the way Sassa presents her etsy finds, they generally look like a themed treasury, either with similar colours or an overarching theme. So go check it out!

My current work in progress art yarn is this delightful Sushi extravaganza. It features the most amazing little Sushi beads, handmade by Fancyguppy (who doesn't seem to be around at the moment, but her beads are truly fantastic!). I am combining it with red wool handcarded with lots of red Angelina sparkle, handprocessed black Alpaca and bright white pure Tussah silk. I chose these colours to represent Japan, the homeland of Sushi. The strong contrast should set of the beads quite nicely as well...

Other than that I have made a few more fibre orders and the first one has arrived. It consists mainly of organic cotton in two natural shades and organic linen in white and a natural brown/grey. So these fibres are likely to pop up in my new yarns. :)

Bobbin lace pillow and more

bobbin lace pillow
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

Here is my great find from last Sunday on the Belgian flea market. It makes a little more sense if you read my last entry... I like lace, no secret there, nice, old, cotton or linen lace.... I also love antiques... plus I love trying out every possible technique textile arts have to offer. Well, and the combination of all of these led me to purchasing this beauty of a bobbin lace pillow. Going to the bobbin lace museum in Brussels and seeing demonstrations probably didn't help either. Originally I planned to renew the top fabric and actually use it, but it would be such a shaaaame..... :(
We'll see what happens, but isn't it also just the perfect decorative item? ;)

On other news I did lots of dyeing and am starting to accept the fact that there is lots of pink in my colour palette - who would have thought!?
I also tidied my fibre stash, which was a terribly bad idea - I couldn't quite believe how much there actually was and how many things I had deleted out of my mind. This includes knitting yarns - hopefully I will have time to knit a few jumpers this winter, it would help. :D

There was also a beautiful frontpage treasury on etsy today created by http://lisahopkins.etsy.com, which featured my tree bark silk yarn.

In general all my thoughts are currently related to some upcoming craft fairs, I have made some pretty organised plans (now putting them into practise is another thing... hehe) and ama lready busy knitting some things as well from smaller skeins which never made it into the shop. :)

Belgian lace

Belgian lace
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

Souvenirs? Why yes, of course! :D
Whilst in Namur/Belgium, I of course had a good look inside the boxes of the local flea market. Always on the lookout for gorgeous old things, and especially for fabrics and laces I have developed a bit of a radar for the promising boxes... well, this was definitely one of them, I picked my favourite laces out of it, as many as I could afford, really. Already more than delighted I continued and stumbled into an old woman's stall with probably many kilos worth of old lace and ribbons. She also had many old cameras, but I really don't need another obsession, although I do like looking at them.

Another really great find were those massive bobbins, one of them to be seen underneath the laces. The lady who sold them to me told me they were from a ribbon factory which closed down in the 1960s. I can see them working very well on craft fair tables, or just as decoration in general - the tattered feel of the wood is just gorgeous!

Off to Belgium

Indeed, I am off to Belgium for a long weekend and hopefully find some more spinning/creating materials or ideas on the way...
Having said that, when I went to France two weeks ago I didn't really find any crafty shops, but it did fill my head with new ideas, which is always good as well. :)

Bobblelicious yarn

Bobblelicious
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

After I got my order of falkland wool from the Dunnose Head Farm (DHF) I wanted to challenge myself as to how much texture I could get out of a yarn when all I was using was this lofty fibre and some thread. First I spun some normal singles and then I went to bobble heaven. The yarn doesn't look as extreme on this picture, but the thin bits oppose some big, chunky, slightly loopy bobbles.

I am still loving this fibre, which is well respected for being some of the purest wool available. The DHF farm takes environmental and animal welfare issues very seriously and does not use any pesticides in the process. The wool is also naturally white, so no bleach had to be used. These sheep, which are a Merino cross breed and therefore very soft, graze on the falkland islands. You can read all about is here: http://www.falklandwool.com

The yarn pictured is available here, and another, slightly skinnier version will be posted soon.

A hint of peach and a big mess...

...that's all I got from dyeing today! It was a small disaster involving redwood, something went terribly wrong and I am not sure what. Hours of work and barely any colour on it. Plus I thought it would be ok to chuck the chopped wood in with the wool as I did not have any muslin - boy was I wrong. That stuff is as hard to get out of the fibre as vegetable matter from Alpaca fibre, not good.
Oh well, if I can motivate myself I will try to redeem myself with a bit of logwood dyeing tomorrow...
Perhaps natural dyeing was just not meant for me - we'll see!

However yesterday's dyeing turned out nicely, lots of yellow joined by red/orange/yellow and a big bunch of green soysilk will be the latest colours in the shop very soon. I also recently got some Angelina (who are we kidding, *a lot* of Angelina), so I have been working in the sparkle in a few of my latest yarns. I am still a little hesitant and need to muster up the courage though. :)

One of the next styles to go up for purchase is a really funky, bobbly yarn in pure white. I love it and hope they will go to a great home, pictures coming soon!

Still around

fabric cream
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

Did I drop of the face of the earth? Perhaps a little bit. My absence was a combination of me being ill for over a week (not something that usually happens to me) and I guess I was a little discouraged by the lack of comments around here - until I realised today that there were plenty waiting for me to be released. :)
In the process I have also been tagged, but it is so long ago now that I will wait for the next one to come around, hehehe.

Thanks for providing me with an excuse to show off some more of my Bavaria souvenirs though... some lovely creamy cottons with interesting or plain beautiful prints (my least favourite being the pale one in the middle, but I love the stamps, postcards and the flowers on the left). To the very right is a gorgeous pure silk fabric with golden threads running through. As plain as it looks on this picture, it is extremely elegant.What else happened? Ah yes, my interview with the lovely Jodie is up here.
I thought the questions were really thoughtful and she has a really nice blog you should all check out.

In the bag department I have a nice one on its way from the above mentioned silk fabric.
The fact that I am getting back into sewing has led me to watching many seasons of Project Runway and I am currently working my way through the first season of Project Catwalk, which is the UK version and honestly not nearly as addictive. Yes, we all have our weaknesses, hehehe.
Spinning? Well, I desperately need to do some dyeing this weekend, but I do have quite a few yarns ready to list which have been waiting for me to get better.

A little teaser

First bag teaser
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

Can you believe it? I actually finished one of my new bags! Attentive readers might remember this work in progress.

Well, that bag which seemed almost finished last month is still not actually done... however I got this one done, which is great fun.

It is completely my kind of style and I am loving it! I used an old British linen fabric bought during the literature festival in Hay-on-Wye / Wales and combined it with a sweet floral soft and drapey fabric. The closure includes a stunning handmade ceramic button from a very talented artist on etsy.
And yes, the brown top stitching on the handle is hand stitched.

I am hoping to finish a few more bags before taking some proper pictures.
Thanks for reading! :)

Souvenirs from Bavaria

Dirndl buttons
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

I got back from a little weekend in Bavaria and of course I found a few great souvenirs. :D
Amongst them is a considerable stash of creamy fabrics, a bundle of cotton lace and other ribbons and these gorgeous silvery ribbons. Although the shops I got these buttons were both really tiny they has a stunning selection of gorgeousness - all for making dirndls and other traditional clothes.

Summer rain

Summer rain handspun soy silk
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

Here is my latest vegan yarn, handspun from natural soy silk in its golden colour featuring lots of (mainly) glass beads in yellows and greens.

It has also just now been featured on this vegan knitting blog: http://nutmeg.gen.nz/fakesheep/2008/06/19/handmade-vegan-yarn/
Thank you so much, Moira!
There is so much information on that blog and fake sheep as a name? Just too cute, right? So go on and hop over there. :)

I am still also working on my bags and the first one might actually be finished shortly! I will also be updating the shop with a few more yarns this week, mainly the ones pictured in the last entry and some more...

Latest handspun yarns

Latest handspun yarns
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

I couldn't resist posting this picture to give a bit of an update on what I am doing. Can I pretend it is fibre friday already? :D
Lots of different stuff this week, ranging from corespun baby camel (on the left), to soy silk (3rd from left and second from the right), to Tussah silk (2nd with baby camel, 5th, 6th) with some Merino to the right and an absolutely stunning pink yarn called Rokoko (the big skein in the middle), it features a lovely Merino/silk blend and real freshwater pearls, about 80 of them!
You can click on the picture for more details.

Well, as you can see, I have not been picking cherries and this should keep my daily shop updates going for a little while... :)

Handspun giveaway!

Would you like the chance to test some of my handspun yarn for free, no strings attached?

Well, then hop on over here for a chance to win the skein of handspun cotton yarn below. There you can also read an interview and see a picture of my 'workspace'...

What else have I been up to? Well what about 'Heavenly pearls', a Merino yarn with pearls and sequins:
...or another hand dyed soy silk:And more soy silk, undyed in all its natural beauty:
Coming soon is finally my 'Midnight' (or something to that effect) art yarn, for which I have been collecting goodies for a long time.

On the bag front I am still more thinking about making them than actually making them, but once I get around to doing it they will be absolutely stunning, I promise!

Tweed bag WIP 2

Tweed bag WIP 2
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

Just a little update on how my new bags are coming along. Well, as usual I am getting lost in the tiniest details, this is why it is taking me a bit longer...
Here we have one of the herringbone tweed ones (with silk in it, so soft and cuddly) with embroidered flower. I have cut out the lining in a very sweet patchwork fabric I got in Wales, added a padding type interfacing and have sewn a little pocket inside which matches the bottom/side fabric of the bag. Right now I am torn between using my one pair of bamboo handles (horse shoe shaped) or matching fabric handles.

I had asked this question in a forum and was very surprised by the answers. It seems to be a bit of a cultural thing that many Americans consider it as cheap looking and what discounters would sell, whilst here in Europe most people do seem to think it looks classier. Considering how expensive these handles are I was very surprised that they appear to be like a cheap option to many. I am still not sure, but do still believe that the bamboo would look great with it!

New plant based yarns

As you might guess I always love trying out new fibres, and with Summer coming up around here I finally spun quite a bit of my plant fibre collection. The added bonus to being a little different is that these yarns are ideal to people with a wool allergy, very sensitive skin or of course vegans.

To the left we have handspun, undyed cotton, it has a gorgeous natural vanilla colour. Cotton is a lot slower to spin due to its short fibre length, but as a handspun yarn it is also a lot softer and fluffier than commercial cotton, which makes it all worthwhile!

The green yarn is hand dyed pure soy silk. The first time I spun soy silk (a good while back) it was so fuzzy and such a hassle, but this time round (on the wheel) it was a lot easier and I continued with some more soy silk.

Below is some bright pink pure soy silk with faux pearls spun into it, making it like all the other yarns presented here, a completely vegan yarn. It caters in its colour range very well to my hidden inner girly girl persona. :P
I am sure it would look very elegant no matter what kind of project it is used in, the soft drape and lots of pearl just lead to that result by default...
There is some of this pink soy silk left yet and I just bought some more faux pearls, but before I work on another skein of this one I just finished a non-vegan version of it in Merino/silk with genuine freshwater pearls - simply delicious for a natural fibre lover like me....

Gone for a few days

Well, just wanted to say I am off to France for a few days, and when I am back I will tell you everything about my new plant-based, vegan yarns. :D

So yeah, should be about a 5-6 hours drive today, and then again on Sunday - yay! *sarcastic tone off*

Lady in red

Lady in red 1
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

All pretty and finished. There are so many things in there, that using it will be like a little treasure hunt. :D

I also got new fibre, including some baby camel which should be fun to use. Plus I did some dyeing, the batches were yellow-y lime green and purple-y pink. Very pink actually. A bit pinker than usual. Where did the cherry red go in the dye pot?? Anyway, I got plans for it....

Ocean theme yarn WIP

Ocean theme yarn WIP
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

And on to the next work in progress! I am finally getting around to making a few of these yarns which have been in the planning stage for ages. This seems to happen to me a lot, I have a good idea, start collecting all the little tidbits and then there is something stopping me from finishing.

With 'lady in red' I had the problem that I couldn't seem to be able to dye the right shade of red, it always ended up being pinkish. :(

With this ocean theme yarn (just a working title, for sure!) I picked up the most gorgeous ittle sea shell and fish beads but didn't really have anything else to go with it. Well, a recent huge bead order definitely put an end to this and since I already had a nicely dyed shade of blue Merino/silk I went straight to work.

Often it seems a shame though to use these pretty beaded strands in yarn, they would make great necklaces and bracelets, too! :D