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

Look who just moved in with me!

Frog prince watering can
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

I just had to share this beautiful find....
For quite some time now I was looking for a nice watering can, and trust me it's not that easy unless you like plastik or stainless steel with 90s style wooden handles. Anyway, yesterday I walked past one of the cute local boutiques and found this darling froggy watering can! Isn't he just the cutest? Well, I for one couldn't resist his sweet little eyes.

Plus, he works so well with my new and improved frog prince yarn I just finished, he might even be willing to model it for me. :D

Featured on Indiefixx!

A big thank you goes out to Fina from http://missfruitfly.etsy.com for interviewing me for a feature on the indifixx blog.

Check it out here:
http://indiefixx.com/2008/05/08/guest-blog-by-fina-tejada-snowberry-and-lime/

In other news I am hoping to get some more dyeing done this weekend as I have lots of plans that are waiting to be put into action. :)

Lady in red WIP

My latest work in progress is all in the name of intense red. This yarn will include hand dyed Merino, hand-processed naturally black Alpaca, red Mohair, sparkly threads in red and black and strung bright red sequins. There are also a whole variety of beads: 3 different shapes of red rocailles, anthracite shiny sequins, black oval beads, two sizes of matte golden beads and beautiful, big, red cut glass beads.



To me this yarn is the expression of a seductive woman, long black hair, wearing a gorgeous, dramatically sequined red dress and leaving wedding bands (the little golden beads) in her wake...

Alpacas in Switzerland

Alpacas in Switzerland
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

Currently I am spending a prolonged weekend at my parents' place in Switzerland. Of course I also used the opportunity to stop by my local Alpaca farm and get myself some wool!

I also just heard that they are one of the biggest Alpaca farms in Europe, which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy... they are all so cute and the owners are always really nice. :)

Check them out here: http://www.alpacas-of-switzerland.com
It's the place where I get all my unprocessed Alpaca from, and judging from the choice I got this time, I assume there will be loads of hand processed Alpaca in my shop in the near-ish future. It all takes quite a bit of time, but creating a yarn from absolutely scratch is just a great feeling and I hope that whoever knits with these yarns or uses them in another way will feel it as well. :)

The picture below is of a cutie which just looks like a giraffe, I would have taken that one home immediately!

Awwwww..... and this one was still a baby in grey/rosewood brown and it was so shy! It barely dared looking around the tree.... :D