Snowberry & Lime handspun yarns

The Beekeeper's quilt

2011-09-14T10:49:00.000Z

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?

Autumn is nearly here. :D

2011-08-31T09:05:00.000Z

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!!

TDF Day 7, 8 and 9

2011-07-10T18:58:00.000Z

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

TDF Days 4, 5 and 6!

2011-07-07T19:50:00.000Z

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. :)

TDF Day 3

2011-07-04T20:17:00.000Z

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

2011-07-04T20:12:00.000Z

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!

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

2011-07-02T20:55:00.000Z

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.

My spin along yarn :)

2011-06-25T18:08:00.000Z

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:

Pretty new spindle :)

2011-06-17T08:37:00.001Z

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!

My handspun shrug and shop update!

2011-06-12T13:48:00.000Z

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:

I've joined a spin along...

2011-05-30T21:13:00.000Z

...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!!

Sam the Chameleon

2011-05-15T12:51:00.000Z

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!!

Handspun shrug

2011-04-29T16:18:00.000Z

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!

Sweet scarf creation using one of my yarns

2011-04-13T14:30:00.001Z

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!

S/S 2011 in fashion and yarn

2011-04-11T09:34:00.000Z

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. :)

Wonderwool 2011

2011-04-08T20:11:00.000Z

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!

First art exhibition!!

2011-04-03T18:35:00.007Z

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. :)

2011-04-03T12:49:00.002Z

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. :)

Happy birthday!

2011-02-01T23:16:00.003Z

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....

Handspun cashmere and silk yarn

2011-01-25T11:54:00.003Z

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!

Happy holidays!

2010-12-18T18:38:00.002Z

My shop is now closed for the next couple of weeks as I am off to Switzerland for our family holiday. :)

Thank you all for making 2010 such a great year and I hope I can offer some great new products in 2011 - so many ideas, so little time!!

A stunning creation in Tussah silk

2010-11-07T18:12:00.005Z

This was a very special yarn, consisting of mainly naturally golden Tussah silk blended with some soy silk to add even more of a golden sheen. It was then spun up with lots of beads to look extra glamourous. The yarn was bought, but sent on to another knitter, Cricket's creations to create the fabulous scarf you can see below.

Creations from my yarns!

2010-10-31T17:30:00.006Z

I've been meaning to show off a few of the gorgeous creations some of my very creative customers have made from my yarns for some time now, so here it goes.... :D

A fellow UK Etsy seller, Sarah from SLC SLC has created several scarves using my yarns and they have since been visiting craft fairs with her, where she also sells really gorgeous hand printed and sewn clothing designs.

If you feel so inclined, you can even purchase this scarf, made from my banana fiesta yarn here. The main ingredient is organic falkland wool.

The second scarf has been knitted from one of my yarns naturally dyed with redwood. The scarf has a lovely texture and a sweet little flounce. :)
It is available for purchase here. Btw, the hand printed scarf next to it is also one of Sarah's creations. :)

Star decrease hat knitting pattern

2010-10-25T21:06:00.003Z

Here is another pattern, just a simple hat with a nice looking decrease. :)

Ravelry link or you can download now

I've used it on a few hats, especially some of my handspun ones and it's always turned out nice and cuddly. :D

Venturing into knitting patterns

2010-10-19T14:15:00.004Z

It has finally happened! I have been meaning to write and upload a few of my own knitting patterns for a while now and today I have finally taken the first step by uploading my very classic cabled wrist warmer pattern to Ravelry.
They are called 'Single cable wrist warmers', yeah, I'm original, haha. (Ravelry link)

...and it's all rather exciting! I've got a few more lined up, including freebies. :D

Most of them will be wrist warmers, with some other accessories thrown in - I'll have to take this slowly, lol.

Look what the postman brought!

2010-10-04T12:39:00.005Z

My life is complete! I've now officially got it all. ;)

My order from world of wool arrived today and I couldn't be happier... this crazy excitement might make a little more sense if you knew that I haven't ordered ANY fibre since I moved back to the UK (Which is just over a year ago) - cynics might say it's strange that I didn't have to, because I had a nice little stash, but nevermind that! Either way, in this cute box is everything from milk protein to Cashmere/silk and I will start spinning up some Baby camel/silk right away. :D

New fingering weight hand dyed yarns

2010-09-21T15:51:00.004Z

I am introducing a brand new yarn base, consisting of 100% superwash Merino wool.
This lime green yarn is the very first one to be listed, but more will follow shortly. :)

It is basically either a sock yarn alternative, for those who prefer the pure Merino yarns or a very nice option for slightly more substantial lace patterns.

For example, I have seen some beautiful examples of the Annis shawl knit out of fingering weight yarn - I might have to try it myself soon!

Who will be my 500th customer?

2010-09-19T23:05:00.003Z

To be honest, I thought I had more time! But that is a good, no, a great problem to have! 500 Sales in my Etsy shop will be a very major milestone for me and I will of course add some serious freebies to that order...

I've been pretty busy with getting the shop back in shape and adding lots of yarns which have been ready for a while as well as some brand new, freshly spun ones.

To get into the swing of autumn, I have added some gorgeous pumpkin related yarns, 2 of which are still available here and here.

Remember the Tour de Fleece?

2010-09-09T11:24:00.003Z

I know it's been quite a while, but this morning I got a nice reminder in the form of a price I won during it. :) The lovely Sara from Lush Mommy sent me an absolutely stunning piece of fluffyness in form of a beautiful batt - can't wait to spin it up!

TDF the very last days!

2010-07-26T07:14:00.007Z

We're done, we're done!

It was fun while it lasted, but wow it causes pressure, lol. To be honest I was only really active in one group, my lovely LaiGrai girls. :)

Day 21 (23rd of July):
I carded up some pinks and spun them into singles.

Day 22 (24th of July):
Spun up some more singles in a mix of blues.

Day 23 (25th of July), LAST DAY:
I finally finished this yarn on my hand spindle, lots of hand washed beautiful Shetland wool, hand dyed Merino/silk, silk noil and some Angelina, plus of course those blobs I crocheted a while back.

TDF Day 20

2010-07-23T17:51:00.004Z

I missed a few days of the TDF, as I spent a long weekend in Edinburgh, which was very nice. :)
Yesterday, day 20 (22nd of July) I worked on an art yarn made from a handcarded batt with lots of handprocessed Shetland wool (from Wonderwool earlier this year) and as inclusions lots of little crocheted balls:

All on my trusted Turkish spindle of course (handy to take along to my knitting group).

TDF Days 11-13

2010-07-15T20:46:00.007Z

This first picture shows what I have been spinning for the TDF so far. Today's yarn is the one just above the purple invasion, a simple yarn spun from naturally dyed wool (using Redwood).

But let's go back a step...

Day 10 is a resting day, so that is exactly what I did....

On day 11 I spun a corespun Mohair locks yarn:
The second yarn is the Twister yarn I mentioned a few days ago, that was great fun to spin. :)

The third picture shows the yarns I was spinning on for the last few days, all in the interest of destashing! They are pure purple wool with cotton nepps, which is supposed to be tweedy. I do actually quite like it now it's spun up, nice and chunky for sure!

TDF Day 8 and 9

2010-07-11T19:40:00.005Z

Right, today I spun one of my blue batts into a single and plied it with sparkly thread, including glass beads, gems and freshwater pearls on the way.

Next up I carded some more batts, including this Alpaca and wool based one, which I then spun up into a simple single yarn:

TDF Days 4-7

2010-07-09T21:05:00.004Z

Ah yes, taking pictures always takes a bit more determination than one might think...

I have been spinning every day though, including 2 days on a new Twister type yarn.

Yesterday (Day 6), I spun up one of the blue batts into a single yarn to ply with some beads, but I haven't finished that yarn yet.

Today however I carded up another two beautifully summery batts with a mix of soft hand dyed wools and lime green hand dyed Merino/silk - plus Angelina. Those two batts produced a luscious thick and thin yarn.

TDF Day 3

2010-07-05T21:04:00.006Z

I gotta say, you are such nice blog readers! Having disappeared for 2 months I was just over the moon to get some lovely comments on my previous post. :)

Anyway, before I get all sappy, here is my progress!
The white yarn is called Vanilla delight and is the yarn I spun yesterday, this time skeined but pre-washing.

Next up we have a corespun yarn spun from the batt I carded yesterday. The pictures don't really do it justice, it looks so fluffy and gorgeous close up!

....and theeeeennn, I carded up a really summery, tropical trio, with lots of Angelina and Mohair curls added to the mix. Don't they just look yummy? Can't wait to spin them!

TDF Day 2

2010-07-04T21:40:00.005Z

Hi there! Well, today I used some previously carded batts, mainly containing wool, silk and soy silk to spin a simple textured single yarn, very 'Vanilla'. :)

Browsing some yarns on Ravelry got me really motivated to use my drum carder again, so I used a collection of aqua tones and some yellow/lime green mohair curls for this batt. Tomorrow I will hopefully be able to finish spinning the yarn out of it!

Tour de Fleece 2010 begins!

2010-07-03T22:23:00.004Z

Can it be, can it really be? Have I not written anything in exactly 2 months? Well, it is a little scary, but I suppose I did have many other things going on and in a way it was nice to concentrate on non-yarny things for a few weeks. You'll hopefully be pleased to know that I am back with fresh motivation and inspiration - just in time for the yearly Tour de Fleece!

For those of you who are new to the concept, it's basically spinning during the Tour de France (which I don't even watch) and all of it documented on Ravelry...

Unfortunately I was at work for most of this beautiful Saturday, so by the time I actually had some yarn to photograph it was already quite dark.
It's very much a scrap yarn made from some random fibres I carded together a while ago. The purple yarn is a commercial mohair boucle yarn.

Freeform CAL

2010-05-03T14:20:00.004Z

I don't know what made me do it, but I am tempted to blame Gypsy Dancer for it. :P She showed off a freeform crochet piece at one of our recent local knitting meet-ups - it looked convincingly great!

Aaaanyway, some will know that I don't really crochet. Don't get me wrong, I think it's very handy and love doing little shell borders, but when it comes to picking patterns I just feel more comfortable in knitting. Doesn't help that I only vaguely know German crochet lingo, let alone British or American. Well, nevermind, I always wanted to do some freeform crochet and I am joining in this lovely freeform crochet-along on Ravelry to have some fun and perhaps pick up some new skills. The end result will be some kind of knitting bag, I think. To make it more my own I am trying to use mainly (if not only) my own handspun bits and leftovers.

Do join in if you like, I bet it will be fun!

Handspun button sweater WIP

2010-05-02T20:34:00.005Z

After being so busy preparing for my recent craft fair, I have really been enjoying the calm last few days. I even finally started knitting a cardigan from my handspun Merino/silk singles (The type often appearing in my shop as well). The pattern I am basing it on is the button sweater by 'Oh my stars', a design I have been meaning to try out for ages. It is a top down raglan with a wide button band. The colours on this picture seem a bit washed out as you can mainly just see the shinyness of the silk... I will get some better pictures after more progress. As I am making it up as I go, there are already a few things I would do differently to improve fit, but I kept going as I plan on knitting another raglan in this style eventually anyway...

By coincidence (ok, not really, I just buy a lot of handmade buttons) I already have some lovely ceramic buttons that would go brilliantly with this sweater! http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=9226423

Pictures of Wonderwool

2010-04-27T20:04:00.005Z

This is a picture of our stall at Wonderwool Wales. My friend Sally had her rugs up on the walls and her handspun yarns (using local wool and only natural dyes) mainly on the left part. My hand dyed sock yarns were in the far left corner and my handspun yarns on the right table. My little handwritten sign hadn't gone up yet as I took the picture, but I am planning on sewing a nice big one for next time, using lots of pattern and colour. :)
The two colourful rugs on the floor were also hand dyed and woven by Sally, aren't they gorgeous? We had a fun but tiring time and really enoyed meeting all these knitters, spinners and fibre lovers. It was especially great for me to put faces to a few names I knew from the online world.

I also used my vintage suitcase and antique wooden spools for the first time and am really delighted with the look achieved. Of course there are always improvements to be made, but I get better with every fair I do. :P

Right now I am delighted to be able to say that I am finally truly updating my etsy shop again and have already added lots of new sock yarns! Just before Wonderwool I dyed up a storm and am so pleased to be able to finally show the outcome. Taking my yarns 'out there' forced me to weigh and label a lot of my recent work, which makes my life now a lot easier, haha.

Aaaanyway, this is no time to rest, I am back at my spinning wheel already!

Wonderwool Wales is coming!

2010-04-23T18:58:00.002Z

Wow, time has flown. I'm telling you, absolutely flown! Suddenly I find myself just one night away from my first ever UK craft fair, and it is a big one at that!

Well, if by any chance you find yourself in the heart of Wales this weekend, do make sure to drop by this amazing Fibre Festival! http://www.wonderwoolwales.co.uk/
Ok, I haven't been before, but I have heard and I assume that it is amazing.... ;)

There are so many things to be done yet and soooo little time. I did get lots of sock yarns dyed up though and am going through labelling loads of exciting handspun yarns, including many never seen before art yarns! I will be at stall F8, which I will be sharing with my spinning friend Sally, who is also a brilliant printmaker and weaver.

Please, wish me luck - I could use some. :D
Veronika

Vagabond

2010-03-16T14:17:00.003Z

A vagabond travels and has no set home. For some reason I also connect the word vagabond with beautiful bohemian clothes, all shades of browns and for the girls some splashes of subtle colour. All in all this is a concept I very much love to work with and this simple yarn fit the draft really well. It is pure wool in moss green and rusty red, leading to this rich brown only through carding.
I have listed this yarn in my etsy shop, hoping it will find a kind home.
Slowly but surely I am getting back into the swing of spinning and creating, but there are still many projects I would like to finish first. A triangular lace shawl I started knitting in September is coming closer to completion every day and I am working my way through a neverending 'to spin' project list. Today I brought out most of my bead collection to put together a few exciting mixes for future art yarn projects. Next I want to card up a storm, it being my day off and all.... I just need to move my laptop first and stop looking at gorgeous handmade jewellery... :D

Fight the WIPs!

2010-03-01T17:46:00.007Z

How many different projects do knitters and crafters always have going on at the same time? I am definitely no exception and I am currently vowing to fight the WIPs (works in progress).
First of all, I don't just knit and spin (although that would certainly already take up enough of my spare time!), but I also dabble in various sewing projects. I keep seeing (and buying) beautiful fabrics, but somehow I never get around to finish anything. Somehow I ended up with a huge stash of fabrics and have now decided that I should really start working through them instead of buying more all the time. One of my purchases last year was an autumnal jelly roll from uberstitch on etsy. On the left you can see how that is coming along now, I finally made a big dent into the progress of this simple quilt!

My current knitting project are my latvian mittens and I have almost finished the first one! Ravelry Ravelry link.

And then, let's not forget my sweet little striped cardigan, the eternal WIP. Ravelry link.

Well, either way, I am trying really hard not to get side tracked in this endeavor and hopefully it will result in a few new pieces of clothing and a bit less in my stash dresser. :P

Latvian mittens

2010-02-20T20:47:00.004Z

What happened? Well, quite a bit, actually.
For a start there was my birthday on the 2.2., in February I had a range of guests over for various reasons, I also finally wound my 700g of latvian wool into balls by hand instead of getting a yarn winder, started knitting an adorable pair of mittens from the book latvian mittens, which is simply amazing. It features such a variety of charts and instructions that you are bound to mix and match your favourite mitten pattern. In other news, I rediscovered my sewing machine once again and am sewing my way towards a full-sized quilt in autumnal colours (I know, wrong season, but by the time I am done it might well be autumn in 5 years time....). The fabric is from a jelly roll I bought on etsy a good while ago. :P

Spinning.... yeah, sometimes... not as much as usual though.

New sock yarns are in!

2010-01-21T10:10:00.004Z

Here are two of my latest sock yarns from my recent dyeing day, 'Fairytale' and 'Storm warning'. More are being added every day. :)

Carding and dyeing

2010-01-09T22:33:00.003Z

After my move to the UK my lovely boyfriend got me a drum carder and I have been carding ever since... Mixing all kinds of different colours, textures and fibres is just such instant gratification.
On the left is a simple batt carded from hand dyed Merino wool and Mulberry silk.

Today has also been a big dyeing day - with lots of new sock yarns soon ready to be listed! I'll add some pictures soon, but it is looking pretty good, considering that I haven't done any dyeing in many months.... :D

Grapefruits and limes....

2010-01-06T22:43:00.003Z

...back in the swing of things and happily listing more items in my little shop!
My latest yarn is called 'grapefruits and limes' with more of lilley's beautiful beads.

Roll on 2010!

2009-12-31T15:39:00.002Z

Hello again! Hope you all had a great Christmas time and are getting ready for the new year! As I am still in Switzerland and without my spinning wheel, there clearly hasn't been much crafting going on. I found my watercolour paints again though and have been playing around with them a bit...

Well, the new year already seems to be busy and all planned out, but eventually I shall be back with more yarns than ever. Also, I may be selling some hand carded batts in my etsy shop for a very limited time - more on that later. :)

Enjoy the last few hours of 2009! It was a good year. :D

Graffiti

2009-12-03T22:13:00.004Z

A beautiful graffiti I saw the other day in Wuppertal in Germany. Of course I also checked out the local yarn shop... Lang, Rowan and Noro yarns were all there, nicely lined up. :)

Having fun in Germany

2009-12-01T21:34:00.006Z

My blog absence has a valid reason and good excuse (or so I think): I am currently in Germany! I spent the last two weeks in a little town in the East of Germany for business reasons. On a little trip I stumbled over this old police car, which can now just be booked for parties and such, an interesting end to a police car...

And look at this cool-looking bar of chocolate (with peanuts), I had to get a few of them, and they're actually not all that bad. But I really did mainly buy them for their oh so basic graphic design. ;)

Moved in but still not really here

2009-11-13T20:41:00.002Z

Hey! I feel terrible for having neglected this blog, but the truth is, I still don't have Internet in the new house. In the meantime I have started the new job and they are sending me abroad for 2 weeks - and where else than Germany! Isn't life funny? My etsy shop is in vacation mode during this time but I do hope to be able to reopen after I get back with lots of new items.

In other exciting fibre-y news I am now the proud owner of an Ashford drumcarder and I have been using it lots already. It's great fun and so much easier and faster to use than my hand carders. More news on all of these things once I get back.... just before going home for Christmas.... well, at the latest, see you in the new year. :P

V

Moving

2009-09-11T20:12:00.002Z

Hey there, just a really quick update that I will be moving tomorrow morning! Everything is packed and we are ready to go. If all works out I will arrive in the UK on Sunday and will hopefully get settled reasonably soon. The Etsy shop is also currently closed but will reopen once I can get to all my yarns again and I changed the shipping. :)

All the best,
Veronika

Please vote on the Etsy voter!

2009-09-09T18:58:00.002Z

One of my yarns has been nominated to be in an etsy vote with the topic of handspun yarns. Of course I would absolutely love it if you took a peek over there as well and perhaps voted for my 'mistress yarn', or whatever else is your favourite. There are lots of pretty yarns to look at on there. :)

http://www.etsy.com/voter_list.php?ref=voter&room_id=68

Thanks!

Mulberry silk yarn

2009-09-02T11:18:00.004Z

I meant to show off these silks ages ago! Pretty recently I was lucky enough to get a small box of finely spun, pure Mulberry silk lace yarns into my possession. They will eventually be dyed (I am guessing once I get back to the UK) and will be so perfect for lace projects! I will definitely have to keep at least some of it to work on a pretty shawl or something similar. :D

Additionally I just ordered more sock yarn in my 'normal' fibre base as well as a 100% Superwash Merino fingering weight yarn, which would work for socks, but would also be ideal for other projects (As usual, I am thinking lace again). All of these fibres will move with me to the UK in now less than two weeks!

Just one more week at my job as well, so this is really the time to get nervous. Having said that, I am surpirisingly calm, after I realised that packing shouldn't take me all that long I am actually just really looking forward to my move and to getting slightly more settled. :)

Moving SALE!

2009-08-24T15:15:00.004Z

With it being just 2 weeks until I am moving, I decided to have a moving sale throughout the whole shop!
I am truly hoping to move with very few yarns in my luggage so there is lots of spinning and listing currently going on.
The offer goes like this: buy any two or more yarns/items (listings, basically) and get a 10% refund of the price before shipping.

On other news there has been lots and lots of spinning, including 'fruit cocktail', the yarn to the left. It includes a sweet variety of fruity polymer clay beads, handmade by the amazing lilley! Also check out her embroidered houses in hoops, I love this colourful one!

4 weeks.

2009-08-13T12:46:00.005Z

As some of you may know, I will soon be leaving my job, flat and life in Germany behind and will be moving to the UK. Well, and this 'soon' has been nearing really quickly and it is now in only 4 weeks time! Am I panicking? Perhaps a little bit. Did I have a clue as to how big my fabric collection is? Not really.

What I have been doing the last few weeks though, was to spin as many yarns as possible and use up all the little odds and ends I have lying around. A great side effect of using up some odd bits has been the creation of a new yarn style called 'Art museum'. I have since spun another 2 skeins of this style and am spinning up another one right now. It is an addictive spinning style and I am planning on adding it to my shop to stay. I mainly used wools and some silks and other fibres to create this bulky yarn. The coils which are featured throughout are safely locked into position and do not move around.

Stack of rolags

2009-08-05T06:05:00.003Z

In the absence of a drum carder, I card all my mixed fibres with hand carders. This sometimes results in a huge mountain of rolags. :P

On the top are some blue/white mixes and the bottom is subtly dyed Merino/silk with white organic linen. I will be adding a few meters from my treasured collection of cotton and linen laces to these fibres and spin them up into something with an old time feel to it. :)

Wire core spinning

2009-08-02T14:46:00.004Z

My latest art yarn is a seemingly simple yarn which has been spun around a wire core. You can therefore bend this yarn and do all kinds of things without even touching any knitting needles.

The fibre is a hand-processed Suri Alpaca, in fact the only bit I tried to comb and then dye, so very one of a kind.

There are so many options for wire core yarns that I might consider spinning more of them, but not too soon as it took such a long time!

Baltic souvenirs

2009-08-02T12:37:00.006Z

I am back from my short trip and am back to spinning and listing new yarns. But before I forget, here are some of the things I brought home.

First up some gorgeous latvian yarn bought in a small souvenir shop in Riga. I absolutely fell in love with those mittens and have since purchased this amazing book and am planning on knitting at least a few of them. Before I got to the cities I researched the shops online and for Riga I owe my thanks to this blog post. In Tallinn I seem to have missed a good few of them, but found some and bought some lovely wooden hand crafted buttons as well as some thin pencil roving (third picture).
In Helsinki I stumbled into Marimekko! Of course I knew the name, but only from really cool patterns in the 60s, so I was genuinely surprised to see that they are still going and thriving with lots of gorgous shops! They now sell pretty much everything from clothes to bags, to napkins, umbrellas or mugs. However, they also sell fabric by the meter! Most of it was thin cotton fabric at a really high price. As nice as the patterns were, I really wasn't convinced by the quality (think IKEA) and didn't buy any of these. On the other end they did sell some of the heavy weight (bark cloth) fabrics which they also use in their own bags. The patterns weren't quite as exciting, but I still carried home a few meters, including this bright polka dot fabric!

Next up is a shot with a linen fabric as well as cotton and linen lace, the thin pencil roving and the wooden buttons.

In Vilnius (probably my favourite of the cities) I found a linen shop chain, where they sold all types of linen fabrics as well as absolutely stunning linen lace, so I had to get a little collection. :)

My messy table

2009-07-31T17:20:00.001Z

my working table
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

Soooooo.... this is how a table looks like when it is being used! :P

There are some of my Tour de Fleece yarns on there as well as part of a wholesale order.

Right now I have taken out my sewing machine again, so whilst there are less yarns, it doesn't exactly look any better, haha.

Holiday!

2009-07-16T21:51:00.003Z

I am afraid the regular pictures for the TDF will have to take a backseat as I will be going on a vacation the next 10 days. :D
Of course I will be taking my beautiful Turkish spindle from Jenkins and some stunning milk protein fibre which I recently dyed. There will definitely be daily spinning, but I doubt I will be able to post regularly.

For those who are interested, I will be going to Helsinki (hopefully meeting up with an old friend), Tallinn (which I read is quite a woolshop centre), Riga and Vilnius, so an entirely new area for me. Usually I am not one to squeeze that many places into one week, but this time I am really looking forward to it.
Let's see what kind of fabric/wool souvenirs I can find on the way........ ;)

This also means that I won't be able to ship any yarns bought in my shop during this time, but I will be back to listing lots of new yarns once I am back!

TDF Day 12

2009-07-15T20:33:00.002Z

On day 12 I finished spinning another relatively simple yarn made up of one ply of organic falkland wool and one ply of Merino/silk, all hand dyed. The yarn rests on a bed of handcarded rolags (14 in total) which will be spun into my next yarn. :)

TDF Day 10 and 11

2009-07-14T21:44:00.002Z

Day 10 of the Tour is officially a day of rest, but I have to admit I did spin on some singles for plying at a later stage. It's addiction, honey. ;)

I don't know what I spent doing all day today, but it really wasn't an awful lot of spinning. My meagre results for today are a brown organic wool yarn with Mohair locks (for a swap) and a Tussah silk single from fibre I tried to dye with natural dyes (redwood) ages ago. I spent a lot of yesterday picking out the little pieces of wood from this silk. Yes, next time I *will* use some kind of a net to put the plant parts in....

TDF Day 9

2009-07-12T20:37:00.004Z

Today I got my pirate queen yarn done, 'Anne Bonny'. The other one is a skein of my classic, 'Rokoko', a Merino/silk yarn with real freshwater pearls.

Tour de Fleece Week 1

2009-07-12T20:17:00.005Z

As promised, but with a slight delay: the yarns of one busy week of spinning for the Tour de Fleece!

TDF Day 8

2009-07-11T22:40:00.004Z

Today I was mainly carding, but I also spun a few yards at the lake with my Turkish spindle, but alas, no pictures...

The one yarn I properly worked on is my pirate queen:
It will be plied up with beads next.

TDF Day 7

2009-07-11T22:14:00.004Z

On Friday I worked on these two yarns as well as 100g of Merino/silk (no pictures yet) and a small skein of pure Tussah silk lace yarn. I was only able to take pictures today though. :)
The blue one is called jellyfish and features white bamboo, lots of sequins and beaded trim as well as some more of thos rolags I carded the last few days.

TDF Day 6

2009-07-09T15:51:00.007Z

Today I finally finished my ocean treasure yarn! The beaded skein is about 200m of a fine 2ply yarn. From the same rolags I also spun a matching corespun yarn. :)

TDF Day 5

2009-07-09T15:47:00.003Z

On day 5 of the Tour de Fleece I worked a bit more on my ocean treasure yarn, pictured are the two singles. They are both spun from handcarded rolags and the bottom ply has lots of ocean type beads, pearls and shells in it.

TDF Day 4

2009-07-07T21:24:00.003Z

Well, today was a very long day at work, so I only got very little spun up. I worked more on the ocean treasure yarn, but haven't really got much to show for, so I will leave this post without a picture. I will definitely try to get something finished tomorrow though!

As a lot of the pictures leave lots to be desired, I thought I should post a picture of all of them washed and skeined at the end of each week. :)

TDF Day 3

2009-07-06T22:07:00.007Z

Today was day 3 of the Tour de Fleece, but sadly for me it was also a work day. That and the fact that I also had to bake some cakes meant that I wasn't as productive as I would have liked.

All I got done are three and a bit skeins of soy silk and a blue/white yarn consisting of one ply of undyed organic cotton and one ply of a hand carded batt in blues. Not the best pictures ever, but it was dark and the yarns hadn't been washed yet to set the twist. :)

I also worked a little bit on my ocean treasure art yarn, but it will take a long time to finish. I am intending on making it a 2ply yarn.

TDF Day 2

2009-07-05T20:15:00.015Z

The second day of the Tour de Fleece saw some more stash busting. For my first yarn I just randomly spun up leftover fibre (mostle wool and silk) and then plied it with thread. Whilst doing this I added lots of chunky coils - and the good thing is, they don't move at all, they are really well secured. It was sadly already dark when I took a lot of the pictures, but here we go:

I then went on to work on the rolags I carded the night before. I spun up a single yarn with this Alpaca/wool/silk/linen fibre and added strips of a very sweet dotted cotton fabric. I let a red sparkle thread wrap around the yarn and included many types of gems on the way. Again, the pictures aren't the best, but it is late and I wanted to post this. :)

The last thing I did today was to prepare everything for my first nautical themed yarn of the race: Treasure of the seven seas. I carded hand dyed organic Falkland wool with Merino/silk, hand dyed silk noil and throwsters waste silk filament. All natural fibres and the yarn is going to really special. I beaded shell pieces, small shells, freshwater pearls and teal glass crystals onto a sparkle thread and am ready to spin this up with some sequins.

TDF Day 1

2009-07-04T20:19:00.005Z

On my first day of the Tour de Fleece I spun 100g of a bulky, hand dyed Merino/silk single yarn as well as something more arty. The art yarn is called twister and had as a main purpose to get rid of some of my uglier fibres in the stash. These include horrible commercially dyed colours or batts with weird glitz effect... I carded them all together on my hand cards and hoped for the best. As a single yarn I still thought it looked rather awful, but once I used this new twisty technique it looked really adorable!

Spinning for the Tour de Fleece!

2009-07-04T12:14:00.003Z

Just like last year, there is another Tour de Fleece starting today! What is the Tour de Fleece, you ask? Well, during the time of the Tour de France, lots of spinners are setting themselves challenges or joining together in groups to spin yarns. The time is Saturday July 4th through Sunday July 26th with these days of rest: Monday July 13th, Monday July 20th (Just like the actual tour). On Wednesday July 22nd we are expected to spin something especially challenging, as this is the hardest day of the Tour.
The Tour de Fleece is currently hosted on ravelry and I have joined a few groups (below are ravelry links, you need to register to see them).

This is actually my first Tour de Fleece, as I didn't manage to be at home for any of the past ones.
I have joined a few great teams and am hoping to be able to keep up with all of them!

Breakaways - This is the group for art yarns, so very much my home territory. As my personal challenge I am really trying to concentrate on pushing myself just that little bit further in the art yarn department. It has gotten easy for me to spin simpler single yarns and leave the fancy ingredients out, but in the next few weeks I will try to change that around.

Stash Busters - Yeah, I am almost tempted to say 'no comment'. As I will soon be moving, I really need to decrease my stash. I found loads of undyed Merino deep down in the corner, there is still a fair bit of hand dyed organic falkland wool and gorgeous cashmere, silk, milk protein fibre and more. Also, let's not forget about the huge bags of raw alpaca fleece... yes, yes, I remember them as well.

Tour de Fish, and here - This is rawfish's colourful group! I loved the theme so much that I just had to join. It's all about boats, pirates, mermaids and the seven seas...

Snobby spinners - I'be also joined the snobby spinners, a) because I love luxury fibres and b) because I finally ought to use them, just cuddling is no longer good enough.

Germany - Last but not least I also joined my regional group. At the moment it is very quiet there, but I am sure we can get this going. :)

So yes, that makes 5 teams and I hope I am up for it! Right now I have already spun one yarn and a bit, but I am planning on doing daily updates of what I spun for the Tour, so more about this tonight. :)

Doing some serious destashing

2009-07-03T10:40:00.002Z

destash beige 1
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

Well, it is official, I have terminated my flat for end of September and am gettting ready to move back to Wales from Germany.

However, as some of you may guess, I have accumulated a rather large spinning fibre stash in the meantime, and to be honest I also have quite a collection of commercial and handspun yarns I wanted to keep.

To make my life (and the move) a little easier I have therefore set myself the goal of not buying any new fibre until I basically have to, meaning I will try to actually spin away all the fibre I currently have. Phew. That's a goal. A big goal.

So whilst I am busily spinning my little heart away, I have also looked through my yarn stash and found a few things I will probably never have the time to work on, so I also added two lots of handspun destash to the shop, all wound into cute balls and ready to go.
Pictured is a lot of about 100g Wool/silk in a natural oatmeal/beige colour.

The other lot consists of 273g/9.6oz (!) of 2ply Merino wool in a tweedy shade of rainbow.

My goal is already asking for sacrifice: I am entirely out of my favourite fibre blend: Merino wool/Tussah silk. I still got a few braids of hand dyed Merino/silk but then that is it. And these are already mostly reserved for a big custom order. What this basically means is that the skein of 'Pearl' currently listed is my very last normal sized skein available. I have a few more odd skeins which I will probably list as one big very soon, but then that's it until I move.

At the moment I still got quite a bit of undyed Merino, lots of Alpaca and a great variety of more exotic fibres.

I cannot guarantee that prices will remain the same either, as some fibres seem quite a bit more expensive in the UK and I will have to do my best to find some good suppliers.

So basically, snap it up whilst it is here, because a lot of the yarns I am spinning now might not return after my move!

Wheat and honey handspun yarn and its inspiration

2009-06-28T08:23:00.001Z

Today I will share one of my favourite, most random, places of inspiration.

Are you ready for this?

Ok: When spinning, I use a simple woolen 'leader thread' (the thread which is attached to the bobbin and onto which the first bit of the yarn is spun/attached). Whenever I take a yarn off the bobbin there is usually a little bit of fibre left on the leader thread. Some people cut these fibres off to have a clean leader thread again.... myself I like to leave it and let a whole bunch of fibre naturally accumulate around the end. I find the textures and colours very intrigueing!
Well, and on my current bobbin I kept seeing golden soy silk wrapped around a tweedy yellow yarn - and I liked it!

Yesterday I started recreating the look and here is 'wheat and honey' a respect-demanding bulky 2ply yarn handspun from golden soy silk and a tweedy batt consisting of yellow New Zealand wool and colourful cotton nepps (little 'freckles', if you will). The second picture shows the original inspiration.

What are you inspired by?

'Earth Goddess' handspun yarn WIP

2009-06-24T20:04:00.003Z

My latest yarn is called Earth Goddess and features just about everything nice and brown. Oh, except, I ended up not using the ricrac, as it would have made the yarn too stiff. But I did use hand dyed soft wool, sequins, embroidered cotton fabric, Angelina (sparkle) and a beautiful linen/cotton tweedy thread to ply. I also used some Tunesian wool and Karakul wool, which are both rougher wools, but with a very intrigueing range of colours.

Knit.1 magazine features Snowberry & Lime yarn!

2009-06-19T15:09:00.006Z

Look out for the current issue of knit.1 magazine, the young sibling publication of Vogue knitting. On page 13 you will find a selection of eco-friendly yarns, including my handspun soy silk yarn! The photograph is so sweet, with all the balls of gorgeous yarn - I was so happy to have my yarn in this collection! There are also some really nice patterns in there, including a 50s style yellow lace top I am thinking about knitting.... it's definitely worth checking out.

The very first hand dyed sock yarns. :D

2009-05-18T19:52:00.005Z

Remember the white sock yarns I recently ordered? Well, it so happened that I had to get started immediately and so I mixed up some pretty colours in one of my favourite colour ranges: rainbow. :D
I started with 4 skeins, as I didn't want to mess up too many at once, but they turned out just perfectly! I greedily grabbed the least perfect one and started knitting the toe-up sock pattern 'brainless'. So far the yarn is knitting up in small stripes, which I love. One skein is also available in my shop and hopefully many more will soon be joining it. In an attempt to update my ravelry page I added this style there as well under my yarn category, but there is so much more to be done over there yet... I'd rather be knitting this sock, lol.

Lady Gaga art yarn

2009-05-17T10:24:00.007Z

Sometimes I get inspired by the weirdest things, but this time I surprised myself. :D
The pop/dance singer Lady Gaga has been the inspiration behind this latest art yarn. I just find it intriguing how she makes herself into a piece of art and how she uses style to create her own identity. Her music is kind of catchy as well, although I wouldn't like to admit that, lol.

For this yarn I grabbed fibres in black, white, metallic light blue and added blonde goat fibre for her hair (nothing personal, but it does look exactly like it!). I also strung matching beads on a sparkle thread and added sequins and ric rac. The result is a yarn I could easily see her use in her stage wear (apparently she makes a lot of it herself), but it also incorporates her whole look in one skein, which is pretty amazing.

Even if you have never heard of her though this yarn is a bit of a stunner. :P

Sock yarns!

2009-05-13T21:17:00.002Z

Sock yarns
Originally uploaded by cherrylime

It may seem as if I was gone, but theoretically I actually have more time now, haha.
At the beginning of this month I went down to part time at the day job, which should give me time to finish some things I have on my plate as well as a bit more time for yarning. :)

I have been busily spinning new yarns and adding them to the shop. I also made a small dent in my Alpaca stash, but to me the most exciting step is that I bought some snuggly sock yarn to dye up in beautiful colours. One of the reasons was that I am currently knitting quite a lot of socks and running out of the funky and bright colourways I have accumulated over time, so I need some new favourites. :) The first skeins of this experiment should soon be available and I am curious to hear any feedback about this, as I thought about offering hand dyed yarns for a while now.

Spring is the time for silk lace

2009-04-18T10:03:00.005Z

With the weather finally being warmer I have been drawn to spinning with beautiful hand dyed silk and the results are a whole collection of about fingering weight lace yarns. The picture shows some of my yarns before their final wash, after which they will look smoother and are ready for use.
The four skeins in the middle are pure silk, on the right is my usual hand dyed Merino/silk, and as you can see there is quite a difference in thickness. One of the chunky skeins on the left will be used for a little project of mine involving, once again, my bags - I am thinking about crocheting with it, which should be interesting since I don't crochet all that often. :D
The silk yarns will fit in well with a few lace yarns I already listed in the shop, like Firenze, a recent favourite of mine which was dyed in colours reminiscent of this beautiful Italian city:
There is also luxury latte, a fingering weight yarn for which I carded together lots of different luxury fibres and it resulted in an absolute stunner of a yarn!

Baby Alpaca yarn

2009-03-22T11:37:00.010Z

The other day I washed a batch of Alpaca. The finest, snuggliest baby Alpaca, to be precise. This is the Alpaca from this local farm I wrote about a while back. The colour of the fibre is called Rose grey and is basically a light grey with beautiful brown tips. The resulting yarn has a really nice mélange of colours. The first picture shows the washed fibre - it took me 6 washes before the water was reasonably clear, washing your fibre is really quite time consuming! The second picture shows the rolags I carded on my hand carders. I mixed in some hand dyed Merino/silk, pure tussah silk, Angora fibre and hand dyed silk noil to achieve the look you can see on the yarn in the third picture. The finished yarn has been wrapped in a bouclé thread and also has big transparent rocaille glass beads spun in.

I carded some more of this Alpaca fibre with Angelina and more hand dyed Merino/silk to spin a really sweet 2ply yarn from it, but it is currently being washed, so no pictures yet. :)

Elegant grey art yarn WIP

2009-03-15T22:52:00.004Z

My latest art yarn is handspun from natural grey Alpaca/Tussah silk with dark grey sequins and real freshwater pearls in matching colours. It might well be one of my most elegant yarns to date and I will soon be able to post pictures of the finished yarn. Here is what went into it:

The new knitty is up!

2009-03-12T09:32:00.002Z

This morning I just had a random look at knitty and found that the Spring 2009 edition is up!
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring09/index.php

To my delight there are at least two things I really want to knit. One is a lace cardigan called Decimal (I love lace cardigans, it's almost the only thing I knit and this pattern is really quite interesting) the other is Aeolian, a really stunning lace shawl. The lace shawl has been knitted from handspun yarn, and although it is a lot of yardage, I might actually spin it myself. I would do the handspun medium size, as I think it has a really nice length to it.
Decimal I could probably knit from some yarn I already have for a different cardigan.... Can't wait to start!

Some of the socks are nice too, but I still got so many other sock patterns to make.

Have you got any favourites?

Fresh from the dye pot

2009-03-05T21:47:00.005Z

Some of you may know that dyeing is not my favourite part of creating, but I am always so amazed and stunned by the results (well, except for a few really fugly dye jobs in my past) that I keep going back to it. I guess it is like a bad drug, where you forget about the negative sides of it when you are on a high...
Anyway, yesterday I pulled myself together and finally did some dyeing, I think the first time since before Christmas - thank God for a well-stocked hand dyed fibre collection...

I planned on dyeing entirely different colours, but when I had the dyes so nicely mixed up into a rainbow I just couldn't say no to it. Three batches of different colours were dyed and I am very happy with the intensity I achieved this time (the colours are a little washed out above, but in real life they are really pretty).

Well, and after some dye pot show and tell on the spinner's ravelry forum I crave another dye pot. Just a quick look on a certain auction house page gave me two delightful results, so pretty soon I should be able to almost double my output, yay!

Btw, the fibres above are mainly Merino/silk but also 200g (just below 8oz) of one of my UK souvenirs, a Merino/soy mix. Trouble is, I am really having a hard time distinguishing them from another now that they are dyed! Luckily the soy has different lengths and so I already started spinning one of these rovings. :)

Corespun WIP

2009-02-27T20:14:00.002Z

Just a quick picture of something I am working on right now. It is a yarn corespun from hand carded batts I made entirely from hand dyed fibres (Merino/silk and Mohair curls) and lots of Angelina sparkle in many different colours. The yarn is everything from yellow to orange and pink, I really love these colours!

Strawberry cheesecake art yarn

2009-02-26T19:52:00.003Z

After a short vacation in the UK, I am back with some exciting new fibres and sequins! :D
I am also getting around to updating my shop with a few pretty yarns I have recently spun up,
Pictured here is 'Strawberry cheesecake', a vegan art yarn handspun from pink linen and natural golden soy silk, to which I added lots of pearl beads in different colours and sizes.

Something else that has been going on was my participation in the new yarn sampler box, Phat fiber and I also received my very own box! It was great fun looking through the different samples, and as there was a theme for the month they should also work out into something pretty if combined.

Right now I am finishing off some more soy silk wrist warmers, some of those 'almost-but-not-quite' finished projects for a while... the new batch looks so stunning and it really got me into the mood of knitting even more of them - they are so addictive!

More tweed!

2009-02-09T00:30:00.004Z

Well, apparently another tweed yarn got into the shop first, it's a tweed yarn with pearls.

This one is spun from a blended wool mix in red and green, giving the finished yarn an almost even, rusty brown colour. Exactly this 'almost' makes for such an interesting tweedy texture. There are lots of coppery/olive/golden pearls spun in as well for some extra glamour!

Over the weekend I was able to take some more good pictures of yarns to come, so they will get listed over the course of next week.
I am itching to create some more tweed inspired yarns I got in mind, more on this soon. :)

Tweed love on my birthday

2009-02-02T20:45:00.002Z

Tweed love handspun yarn
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime

It is the 2nd of the 2nd, which has been my birthday for quite some time now. As I am one of the biggest fans of all kinds of tweeds, I want to share two of my recent exploits into the world of handspun tweed with you.
I ordered some tweedy wool batts recently (dyed wool with differently coloured little bits of cotton) and also this brown wool which is green and red wool carded together. In the picture you can see two separate yarns, a tweedy marigold yellow one and a brown one with lots of beads and sequins. These are actually the same ones as in this yarn.

They will soon be sold in my shop together as a set - I want to offer more sets in the future and these two fit together so well and it will also extend their yardage nicely.

One of my big plans for the next few weeks is to purposefully take some time out to actually create some of these yarns I have planned and don't get around to spinning. It is almost unavoidable to get caught up in orders of the same few yarns - and that would just be way too easy. :P
A few more yarns are on my list, but then I am back to creating the more extraordinary yarns I usually have...

A new year with shorter hair

2009-01-13T22:24:00.004Z

Hello again. :)
Sorry for the distinct lack of pictures, but I have been ill and now I am just plain busy trying to catch up with everything. A lot of fibres and beads have been ordered though and I can't wait to get my hands on some new projects! Until then I am kept busy finishing a good chunk of custom orders, I love those!

In other news I finally went to the hair dresser today (last time was somtime in early Summer, I seem to recall), I know, booooring - but guess who just had 20cm of hair chopped off... yes, it is time for some changes. :D I think I got a little carried away, but I love the result. It feels so much lighter and will hopefully dry faster in this freeeeezing cold.

Changes will hopefully also appear in the form of some new bags some time this year, you know, those bags I have been working on for ages..... ? In the meantime, stay tuned for some fun new yarns!

New yarn of the month club!

2009-01-01T15:39:00.004Z

Finally and after much thought I have decided to offer my own yarn of the month club. In case you are unfamiliar with the term: as a member you will receive a monthly parcel of a surprise yarn for a certain period. I decided to start offering 3 month memberships and see how it goes.

These are brand new for 2009 and I will probably keep them in the shop at least for the whole year.

Some info from the listing:

-- What's inside? --

January: One skein of a natural, undyed handspun yarn. This could be soy silk, Organic falkland wool, Merino wool, Wool/silk, Alpaca or another fun mixture. Yardage will depend, but it will always be a full sized skein as seen in my shop.

February: Two skeins (total about 100g) of a hand dyed 50% Merino wool/50% silk mix, bulky weight single yarn with about 150m/160 yards.

March: The big surprise... all I am saying is that it will be some kind of art yarn, it could have beads or be plied in an extravagant way, have mohair locks in it or sequins, perhaps even some crazy trinkets... these yarns will usually be quite chunky and therefore rarely have over 50m (55 yards) yardage.
----------------------------------

Sooooo..... I hope this will be a great gift idea for some people!

Myself I am off to see some fireworks (don't ask me why my town has them on the 1.1. instead of the last night of 2008) and looking at the amount it snowed last night it will be coooold. A good time to wear my massively chunky scarf I have rediscovered this season. :D

Take care!
Veronika

Etsy featured seller!

2008-12-29T15:58:00.003Z

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!

2008-12-12T09:31:00.008Z

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

2008-11-30T08:48:00.004Z

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

2008-11-15T17:52:00.004Z

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

2008-11-07T19:33:00.005Z

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...

2008-10-25T16:35:00.002Z

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.

2008-10-23T08:37:00.003Z

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

2008-10-21T16:52:00.004Z

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.