Wednesday 14 September 2011

The Beekeeper's quilt

If you have spent any time on ravelry recently, you have probably encountered the beekeeper's quilt somewhere along the road...
The pattern has only been around for a few short months, but the ingenuity of not having to line a throw, being able to use up leftover sock scraps and having the gratification of having tiny little finished objects all the time must have helped to make this pattern a bit of a phenomenon!
This picture is off her blog, I hope Stephanie can forgive me for 'borrowing' it. :) Most yarns in the original are koigu, a yarn that is quite hard to find in the UK and if you do, don't forget to empty your savings account beforehand because you will need it! I can't quite justify the expense, so will mainly be working with my own hand dyed sock yarns and leftovers from my sock knitting.

This pattern actually came at the exact right time for me as I have amassed quite a stash of sock yarns, but have finally realised that I am really not much of a sock knitter, or at least that I have knitted all the patterns I wanted to try out (my running total of finished pairs of socks is approaching two dozen). Either way, I have already started picking whole skeins out of my stash and will probably add a few mini skein sets to my etsy shop to make good use out of the rest of it. :) If anybody wants to do some swapping, I'd most likely be up for that as well!

Anyway, here is my current progress of yet to be stuffed little hexipuffs, as those little cuties are called. I've been using up some Noro sock yarn as well and will be using some thin handspun later on. Considering I only started four days ago I'm not doing too badly. ;) Is anybody else knitting one?

Wednesday 31 August 2011

Autumn is nearly here. :D

I don't know how this happened, but when I slipped behind on the Tour de Fleece I just kind of disappeared of the blogosphere..... it happens! :P

Anyway, I have since spun some beautiful things, including two SALs about which I'll post later with pictures, yummy.

Other than that my sewing machine has also had a rare outing and I finally finished a bag from years ago - I love it so much! It's got bamboo handles and a tweedy body with hand appliqued tweed flowers and intricate pearl and gemstone embroidery on top of that. Lined in adorable floral cotton.

I've looked through my sketches as Autumn is already nearly upon us (I know, where did Summer go!) and am embracing the theme for A/W this year, which will also be revealed soon with the first few yarns and special items to go in the shop. :D

What else is new? A yes, I've become a bit of a 'pinterest' addict! Don't know what took me this long, but I suppose you can't jump on every bandwaggon....
Here is my link if you're on there as well:

http://pinterest.com/snowberry/

I've mainly been creating my perfect wardrobe over there recently.

More soon!!


Sunday 10 July 2011

TDF Day 7, 8 and 9

Day 7:
After all that dyeing last week I was really looking forward to carding up some beautiful batts and all in the spirit of the cirque de fleece group, this is what I prepared first:
It's a colourful mix of organic Merino, BFL locks, Kent Romney locks with some hand dyed Tussah silk as dark as the midnight sky, some undyed Tussah silk and golden Angelina.

Those two batts are a total of 140g or 5oz, nice and chunky. :) I spun them up into a thick and thin yarn to show off the texture.


Day 8:
I finally started to embrace my personal theme, the snake charmer. Two batts I carded up were in a range of shiny greens, aided by dark tussah silk. The first batt I took along to work to spindle (see how well the fibre goes with my new key lime spindle? :P), the second one was to become an art yarn with some blobs of red Angelina sparkle. The last picture shows the finished skein together with a hand dyed pure Wensleydale yarn I spun yesterday.






Day 9:
Today I have done some more carding, the only picture I have is of a little piece of batt to be spun up. The last bobbin shot shows what I am spinning up right now, it's a thick and thin yarn which will be plied with another thick and thin ply.


Oh, and sorry about the picture overload. :P

Thursday 7 July 2011

TDF Days 4, 5 and 6!

On day 4 I spun a very thick and thin yarn from a very similar batt to the one from day 2:
It's such a fluffy yarn, I can't wait to knit this up into something cosy....



On day 5 I had a go at some of those silk cocoons I just dyed up. The dye didn't go all the way through, but it gives the white a nice touch of colour. I spun it into a textured single to be plied. As one of my goals during this tour I really wanted to use up the neglected singles on my many bobbins, so whilst watching the apprentice last night I plied up these three yarns in the third picture. From left to right: the cocoon silk plied with hand processed brown Alpaca, the cocoon silk plied with organic cotton, organic cotton plied with Merino/Mulberry silk.

On day 5 (so today), I did another lot of dyeing and spun a simple single yarn. The fourth picture shows just a small part of all the freshly dyed goods and the last picture today's yarn. :)

Monday 4 July 2011

TDF Day 3

Ok, I'm really slacking on the blogging here, but daily posts are quite a push for me. :) I didn't have all that much time for spinning today, but I spindled a little at work - it's organic Merino wool:

TDF Day 2

 Right, day 2, slightly belated. I spent the whole day dyeing up a storm! My new best, 5 full pots and I can't wait to spin with the fibre. :)
I've also carded up a sweet little batt and spun it into a single yarn - I'm a little bit in love!

Saturday 2 July 2011

A big welcome to the Tour de Fleece!! Day 1

Yes, it's back and it started today!! I am once again proud team member of Laila of LaiGrai's amazing team - this year the focus is vintage carnival and my inspiration is the snake charmer. :)

Handily my fresh fibre order just arrived in time as well - it might not look like much, but this is about 20kg of different fibre ranging from BFL locks through soy silk to Mulberry silk and golden Angelina (yummy). When I got back from work I started a cocoon yarn with the dyed fibre and white linen. The last picture shows my latest project: degumming silk. Not sure if it will work yet, but I accidentally ordered gummed silk throwsters waste, so it has to be done.




Saturday 25 June 2011

My spin along yarn :)

Yeah, that spin along....

Well, I had a bit of an issue, I went to charge the battery in my camera, put it back in and suddenly it stopped working! I loved that camera! Anyway, got myself a new one now, fancier of course and I really like it as well.

Sooooo, without further ado, I present to you my Lai Grai SAL yarn:


Friday 17 June 2011

Pretty new spindle :)

A while ago I saw a gorgeous turkish spindle on Ravelry and decided I just had to have it... Unfortunately the seller was out of the particular wood I wanted so I waited patiently. Finally, it was available again and I can now call one of the large ones my own! You may be aware that I only use turkish spindles and I am now slowly accumulating a nice little collection. My new beauty (in 'key lime') fits right in and really spins very well!

The seller is on Etsy and is called Threadsthrutime, have a look if you are into colourful turkish spindles!

Sunday 12 June 2011

My handspun shrug and shop update!

I've finished my shrug and am actually very happy with how it turned out! The pictures are a little awful, hence just a Ravelry link to the project here, hopefully I'll get a better picture soon. :)

My SAL yarn is also finished, I am hoping to wash it today so pictures should be coming soon.

A shop update is also under way, as I've finally gotten around to weighing and measuring a whole bunch of yarns!

Little preview:

Monday 30 May 2011

I've joined a spin along...

...and it's time to get my art yarn mojo back in action! I've joined the most recent of Laila's amazing spin alongs over on Lai Grai's ravelry group, where some of my most favourite spinners hang out!
First off I received a goodie pack containing a textured batt and lots of little trinkets. The theme was 'vintage', so I knew straight away that it was one I had to join! There were some extra fibres, silk cocoons, ribbons, fabric strips, wooden beads, beautiful linen thread....













From the beginning I planned on carding up some more fibre myself to beef up my skein, so I went ahead and dug up some matching fibres - I am due to do some dyeing, so my choices were a little limited, but to 'vintage' I can always mix something together. :) The batt in the front is Laila's gorgeous piece, the two simpler ones out back are my additions.
The last picture shows the pieces I decided to include in the yarn, threaded and ready to go. I mixed in some bling in the form of golden sequins, golden ric rac and matte golden glass beads threaded in groups of 7 onto Laila's linen thread.

Pictures of the finished yarn coming soon!!

Sunday 15 May 2011

Sam the Chameleon

It's been pretty quiet around here, one of the main reasons is that we were getting our first pet and it took a loooot of research to understand these amazing little dudes. :D
Now I don't want to become one of those people who just keeps posting pics of their pets, but when it is as adorable as little Sammy...... here's a shot of him just after having moved in last week anyway!
He's a Panther chameleon and should be any shade of green or blue once he's fully grown. I'm sure his colours will inspire a few yarns in the meantime.

I've been pretty obsessed with Chameleons since seeing one in the wild on my trip to India a good few years ago (2004? 2005?). I even painted a huge acrylic painting of one, because I didn't think I would ever get a real one. :D They're just amazing animals, oogley eyes, the cutest little pegs as feet, colour changing and let's not forget their long tongues and twirly tails!!

Friday 29 April 2011

Handspun shrug

I started knitting a little shrug with one of my handspun yarns, the style is a thin textured single, something I spin quite a lot for the shop, but also for my personal use. :) I dyed some organic Merino wool in different shades of yellow and carded it up with undyed Merino wool, white linen, some silk and silk noil and a dash of golden Angelina sparkle. I hope the yarn will be enough for the main part of this shrug and then I'll spin a complementary yarn for the ribbing around it. More details on my Ravelry page. The pattern is from Drops, who I really like for their versatile free patterns and their yarns are very reasonably priced as well, although I haven't yet worked with any of it.
I really like how it is coming along so far, it's a great pattern for handspun yarns!


The last picture is from the Drops page, just to give you an idea of how it should look in the end. :)
Of course mine is a little chunkier and nice and yellow!

Wednesday 13 April 2011

Sweet scarf creation using one of my yarns

The very talented Amber of Raimbowtree has created this scarf using a handspun and hand dyed golden Tussah silk yarn of mine as well as yarns by two other etsy artists. It's a nice and chunky scarf and is for sale here.

I actually own a Raimbowtree headband myself - I just love her colourful and flowery designs!

Monday 11 April 2011

S/S 2011 in fashion and yarn

Quite a while ago I was contemplating that it would be really nice to bring handspun yarns a little closer to the world of fashion and use a seasonal approach. I am interpreting this idea very loosely and am planning to add two themed collections a year to my other yarns which I will of course continue to spin as well. :)

For Spring and Summer I am living out my obsession with Bonsai trees. Expect to see natural colours, luscious greens and warm browns. The picture above shows some of the skeins soon to be listed in my etsy shop, but there are many more on their way. :)

Friday 8 April 2011

Wonderwool 2011

Wonderwool is upon us! I will be going for some shopping myself on the Saturday (tomorrow, yay!), but in case you are going, a lovely friend is taking along a selection of my yarns to purchase on stall N5 (and you should check it out, she makes pretty yarn bowls). :)

I can't wait! My shopping list is huge and I am definitely planning on exploring lots!

Sunday 3 April 2011

First art exhibition!!

I don't really know where to start, so let's just say I am sooooooo incredibly excited about having my work exhibited in the gorgeous Hotel Hadley Studios in North Carolina! :)

The exhibition features a whole variety of fibre artists and is called 'Gay for eagles'. It explores themes of gender, sexuality, war and peace.

If you are in the area at all, it will be open from the 15th of April to the 14th of May and you should definitely stop by!

The picture shows a close-up of one of my contributions; I created several pieces of embroidery featuring art yarns I spun specifically for this exhibition.

A big THANK YOU goes out to the amazing Drucilla Pettibone for organising this!

I'm still spinning and dyeing. :)

2 months since my last post, really? Is anyone still out there?

Well, I have kept nice and busy, dyeing lots of fibres (mainly beautifully soft organic Merino and lovely curly BFL locks), having many house guests, working hard as well as reading, spinning and knitting.

There is some great news, which I will share in the next post. :)

Tuesday 1 February 2011

Happy birthday!

The 2. 2. is my birthday. :) I'd love it if you would celebrate with me and decided to do a little special offer for the occasion.

For one day only (now until the end of the 2nd) any order of $35.- or more will get you a full sized skein of my hand dyed sock yarn for absolutely FREE!

I will pick a gorgeous skein from my collection, it could be something like this one....

Tuesday 25 January 2011

Handspun cashmere and silk yarn

I will admit, it's been quiet around here...

Let's play a bit of catch up!

One of my recent indulgences is 50% Mongolian Cashmere/ 50% A grade Mulberry silk fibre, which I have spun into this yarn here:

It is available here.

This yarn is oh so soft and just a touch of pure luxury...


I've also been playing with lots more Wensleydale - it certainly isn't your average wool, sleek and with a halo closer to Kid Mohair than wool. Right now, a few skeins of hand dyed Wensleydale are drying, as opposed to the undyed Wensleydale lace I am already in love with!

More to come soon, certainly more pictures as well!