All The Pretty Fibers - Finest Handspun Yarns & Spinning/Felting Supply

OF ELFS, PAGANS AND NYMPHS …in soap

alltheprettyfibers — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:26:11 +0000

Here comes my new pagan and fairy batch of handmade soap with a gorgeous scent of wild jasmine, sandalwood and ambergris, now displayed in my DaWanda store: )

My second batch of soap with tea tree & rosemary essential oil is not quite ready yet, it needs to cure for another 2 weeks. Fresh yarns handpainted rovings and carded batts to come soon, I am way behind with everything…SORRY!

Silk in all its splendour

alltheprettyfibers — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:39:26 +0000

Ooooh, several new colours of pure mulberry silk fibre have made it into my ebayUK store: Bronze, Mocha, Light Grey, Ocean Blue and Lavender Purple. They are truly gorgeous and absolutely yummy!!! Perfect for handspinning the finest silk yarns, adding to felting material for extra sheen, and of course for papermaking. Here they are:

This makes a current total of 19 different available colours, including natural white.

For all my dollmakers, 3 new batches of handpainted wensleydale curls will be sorted within the next week, they are still drying on the wool rack. There will be fresh lots of dark sea blue, teal and a wonderful corn blonde with a touch of ginger. I am doing my best to get them out and displayed as fast as possible, I am leaving trails of smoke I am working so fast. )

Plus 2 new yarn designs are now out and displayed in my Etsy store and in my DaWanda store: A great blend of 70% virgin wool, 15% mulberry silk and 15% bamboo, making this yarn soft and yet resilient if used for sock knitting!

And since the beginning of the year I have also been painting new spinning and felting fibre: Polwarth, Bluefaced Leicester, super fine Merino and of course my popular super fine Merino-Silk blend. The rovings are all distributed throughout my online stores:

Last but not least 2 new soap batches are currently curing and will be ready for sale around the beginning of Febuary: One batch of finest almond oil&olive soap and another lot of soap for problematic skin with rosemary essential oil and teatree oil, one of my favourites. )

That’s all for now folks. Let me get back to the dyepot and paint a new lot of silk scarves for my nunofelters and also for people who simply just want to wear the colours. ;o)

HAVE A VERY GOOD START INTO THE NEW YEAR!

CHRISTMAS WISHES

alltheprettyfibers — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:16:52 +0000

Just topping up some of my handpainted wensleydale fleece locks, and adding 2 more yarn designs before I close up for the week and for Christmas. )

You can find the wensleydale fleece locks in my ebayUK store.

My new lace yarn designs are “ATLANTIS” and “MATA HARI”, both displayed in my etsy store :

Everyone, have a very very HAPPY CHRISTMAS and a healthy and prosperous NEW YEAR 2012!!!

New colours in stock!!

alltheprettyfibers — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 18:07:39 +0000

Oh yay, oh yay, we have finally moved!! Everything went really smooth, and I am SOOOOO relieved, it was my greatest worry that it would snow heavily and that the movers would not be able to drive up the mountain. Or that it would rain like crazy (just as bad when moving…) and all my furnitures and boxes would get soaked. But no, the weather was fantastic, sunny, blue sky with just a bit of a morning mist. Phew, a huge load of worries has fallen off my back, I must say. Half of the boxes are already unpacked and the stock room is fully set up and organised. I will resume painting and carding this coming up week, and everything will be back to normal.

There are now 4 new colours of merino wool roving (top) in stock: skin/light apricot, shocking pink, neon green and neon yellow, all displayed in my ebayUK store along with my assortment of over 60 individual colours!

The neon colours are incredibly vibrant and the skin/light apricot shade will be perfect for dollmakers (for the face and limbs).

Also back in stock is my super soft carded merino wool batt mix, containing a total of 11 gorgeous colours. It is perfect for wet and dry felting and very easy to work with. Making e.g. felt jewelry, felt soaps, bags, hats or flat surfaces with it is a breeze! I have displayed this mix in my ebayUK store and also in my etsy store:

Okay, time to sort out my kitchen further and unpack 1 or 2 more boxes before I go and relax for the rest of the evening. Everyone have a very peaceful and warming advent season! )

Autumn impressions & introducing RosieLovesParis

alltheprettyfibers — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:32:39 +0000

Today was a very sunny but crispy cold day, and I remembered to take my camera along when I walked Sam this morning for some beautiful autumn impressions of the Odenwald countryside where I live :o)

The last photo shows the view from my kitchen window, very picturesque, right? Well, that view will change in about 2 weeks time, when I will be moving one mountain further and into the woods – then my view from the kitchen window will entail an entire valley – I hope I will be able to take some lovely photos there as well. )

Now I would like to introduce Diane’s Blythe Dolls and her etsy store called RosieLoves Paris. She kindly allowed me to use some of her photos, and I can finally demonstrate what can be done with my wensleydale locks when it comes to dolls hair. Thank you so much for your permission Diane!! ) The locks used here are my hand dyed extra long wensleydale shearling locks, which measure an average of 10 inches in length. God, the dolls look absolutely wonderful, have a look:

Please feel free to visit her Etsy store, where she sells these beauties and also various dolls clothes!

Also, back in stock are freshly dyed wensleydale fleece locks (regular size = 10-20 cm/4-8 inch long) in vibrant streaky light and dark pink/ruby red and blackberry purples/mauve pink, they are displayed in my ebayUK store:

This will probably be my last blog entry before I move house. So everyone have a great autumn season and HAPPY FIBRE CRAFTING!!!

An Elf’s Dance

alltheprettyfibers — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 16:05:29 +0000

Now in the middle of painting a wholesale order of 35 merino and bfl rovings I thought I should take a quick break and update my blog because the handspun custom yarns “An Elf’s Dance”, which are a blend of 50% ultra fine camel down wool and 50% pure tussah silk, are finally finished, YAY. ) I am very pleased with the result. They will go to their new home in the UK and be turned into a very luxurious bed cover:

I personally love this blend very much, the quality of baby camel down wool is equivalent to cashmere and produces truly soft and velvety smooth yarn.

Yesterday was drumcarding day, and 4 lbs of extra fine merino-silk batts have made it into my Etsy store and my DaWanda store. :

And 2 fresh batches of handpainted wensleydale fleece locks will come off the drying board very soon, one in blackberry purples/mauve and the other in ruby red/pink. YUMMY!! ;o)

Okay, back to the dyepot now. EVERYONE HAVE A VERY GOOD WEEKEND!

November beauty

alltheprettyfibers — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 11:14:26 +0000

I have been meaning to take my camera along on my walks with Sam to capture some of the splendid autumn colours that are literally thrown around by the trees at the moment, and I have been forgetting about it on a very regular basis… nevertheless I grabbed my little Olympus one afternoon to catch this watercolour cotton sky:

You usually get to see this kind of cloud forming during winter before heavy snowfall. The clouds hardly moved, and I found it very calming indeed…mind you with all that chaos and a maze of boxes throughout the entire house…..SIGH….. Well, we will be moving at the end of this month, and I am actually looking forward to it now. Most of the stuff that comes with moving house has been taken care of, and I am beginning to relax a little…just a little…there’s still plenty of work ahead of me before things are good to go.

Anywho, pounds of wool tops, fleeces and yarns found their way into my dyepot last Monday, and here are the first dry lots of pure Bluefaced Leicester wool, a superb quality 80/20 ultra soft merino/silk blend, and more wensleydale fleece locks:

I also painted some wonderful shearling locks in the above colours, they measure up to 12 inches in length – beautiful:

The shearling locks and the have been displayed in my DaWanda store, and the regular lots in my ebayUK store. Feel free to have a look there. ) My custom order of 7 handspun camel down/silk skeins is nearly finished, one more skein to go. Man, didn’t I pull a nerve in my back 2 weeks ago? It hurt like hell, and it really slowed things down, no spinning, no painting, no heavy lifting allowed. Anything else? I am hoping to get that last skein onto the bobbin and plied very soon, they truly want to go to their new home. Plus the next 2 wholesale orders are waiting to be started on too. Yep, it’s wool season! )

Extra soft wensleydale fleece locks

alltheprettyfibers — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:28:24 +0000

There is now a new lot of extra soft wensleydale fleece in stock! It’s the softest wensleydale fleece I have ever had, it is really beautiful. It can easily compete with the softness of fine kid mohair fleece, and it will be perfect for handspinning soft art yarn, soft dolls hair, coat collars and for felting projects. The average length of the locks is 10-12cm (4-4.8inch). You can find this fleece in my etsy store:

Also 3 new lots of handpainted wensleydale fleece locks are out and displayed in my ebayUK store:

And last but not least I am now stocking a very soft 24 micron Polwarth combed wool roving/top from New Zealand. I have already dyed 2lb of it, and the handle is indeed gorgeous. You can find this fibre in my etsy store and on my German website dieHandspinnerin.

That’s all for now folks. Back to the dyepot and later to my spinning wheel, I have so far finished skein no.4 out of 7 custom laceweight skeins of a 50/50 baby camel down/silk blend, and I need to get into gear with these babies. ;o)

White pencil yarn back on the block

alltheprettyfibers — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 20:28:22 +0000

After several months of waiting my white pure wool pencil yarn is now back in stock. It is displayed in my ebay store.

And a new colour has been added to the pencil yarn stock – vibrant deep red….very beautiful!

Furthermore I have been painting (and carding) 4lb of fresh fibres, they can be found in my etsy store, mydawanda store and also in my ebay store:

“Baby Alpaca & Angora” carded batts:

“Bluefaced Leicester”:

“16 micron ultra soft merino”:

“Merino&Silk, super soft”:

There will also be new batches of handpainted wensleydale fleece locks in saffron yellow, sea blue, leaf green, vibrant orange and honey brown, they should be dried and sorted by the end of next week.

Well, it’s definitely October, and we have had our first stormy, cold and very rainy autumn day today. What can I say, I really like it, call me mad, I just do. I love the strong cold wind so much, Sam doesn’t. But this year he will be wearing a sweater for the first time! Made with my handspun Bluefaced Leicester yarn, of course, haha. He will look handsome and quite hip in it ) I will take a photo for the blog soon. I also found a new house, and I will be moving my stuff at the beginning of December. I am glad that the search is over, I am not really excited though, the past weeks have been way too stressful, I just can’t feel happy yet. The new place is actually very pretty with large rooms and a large porch, it’s further up in the mountain forest, which, however, may cause some problems during winter when we get a lot of snow. I may then have to walk to the local post office, which is around 3 miles from the house. Well, we will see, perhaps we will not get that much snow this year after all. The view from the porch is breathtaking though, you can look very far into the valley, I think I will enjoy sitting out there a lot. It’s just that I could have thought of better things to do than having to look for a new place to stay….right at the beginning and into the wool season…. Still, I am glad that things will be sorted soon and hopefully everything will be back to normal quickly.

EVERYONE, HAVE A VERY COLOURFUL AND CREATIVE AUTUMN SEASON!!!!

Dyed shearling locks and new bfl colours

alltheprettyfibers — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 17:42:36 +0000

I have dyed 2 batches of extra long wensleydale shearling fleece locks, measuring at least 20cm (8inches), one in mottled dark teal and one in honey blonde-ocre. They are both displayed in my ebayUK store:

Please note that I do not recommend brushing wensleydale sheep locks, they will become fuzzy and loose their waves and curls. They are best left as they are to bring out their curly beauty.

2 new Bluefaced Leicester colourways have also come off the board, you can find them in my etsy store, my ebayUK store and also on my German website dieHandspinnerin, in case you need more than one roving for your project:

There will be another painted lot of super soft merino-silk coming off the board shortly, and some gorgeously soft 16 micron merino wool is currently sitting in the dye pot. More painted beauties will follow…between packing and moving house…, I’m getting there though, I’m getting there. )