Super fine merino and curly fleece beauties

I will be stocking a super fine mulesing free 18.5 micron merino fiber, slowly replacing my current 20 micron stock, as my wholesaler for this particular fiber closed his business for good – BIG sniff!! I guess when you are 74 years old and worked hard all your live in the wool business you finally deserve retirement. I am surprised he still managed the hard work at that age, I respectfully take my hat off. So far there´s the 18.5micron fiber available in beautiful light taupe, dark burgundy, light pink and dark blue, more to come soon :o)

I have sorted more of my hand washed dark grey wensleydale curly fleece, and I`ve dyed new beautiful batches of the extra soft bluefaced leicester lambswool fleece, all available in my etsy store:

and the handspun/handpainted merino thick and thin yarns have been restocked:

I will be attending the St.Leon-Rot craft fair at the “Harres Cultural Centre” on March 17th (11am-5.30pm), located near Walldorf and Wiesloch. Until then I won´t stop pedalling and dyeing any time soon :o) Do come and stop by at my stall for a lovely chat!

Everyone, enjoy your fiber projects!

Yarn and fiber update

So the craft fair is drawing nearer, and most of the yarns are spun, painted, labeled and boxed. I am still fiddling with the textile labels I have to sew into my wool hats and scarves, it is time consuming, and I don´t like sewing very much.

I have not been neglecting my etsy store :o) There are now fresh yarns, rovings and batts  listed, have a look:

I also painted a new batch of extra soft british bluefaced leicester curly fleece for my dollmakers in a beautiful honey blonde shade. One of my customers sent me some photos of one of her miniature dolls, for which she used my painted reddish brown fleece. This little doll is truly adorable:

Such a cutie!

Everyone have a wonderful autumn season and Happy Crafting!

March fibers and yarns

I skipped the February blog due to a very persistent bronchitis which had me quite incapacitated, I´m afraid. Fortunately the early spring vibes have given me a much needed energy boost, and I am back and running like a well tuned spinning wheel. :o)

My handspun super soft “Charybdis” and “Jungle2” merino yarns are available again in my etsy store,

A custom order of 12oz of handspun plied merino yarn in a beautiful spring yellow and greens were finished last month, using no´s 2 (lemon), 13 (sage), 12 (leaf), 15 (pine) of the colourchart

and the super soft alpaca wool rovings in natural black, sand, fawn and chestnut are also restocked and available through etsy

There will be a new batch of hand dyed honey blonde wensleydale locks available before the weekend, and a hand dyed lot of very long english leicester locks in dark honey are already listed on etsy

Because I had to rest a lot last month I kept myself busy crocheting new beanies with some of my hand dyed and handspun yarns. I love crocheting, it is so amazing what you can do with just one little needle

Our garden was still covered in a thin layer of snow 3 days ago, and today the first blossoms are finally out, thank heavens! Can we get some warm sunshine and a blue sky too please?

Everyone, enjoy the spring season! It´s coming slowly but surely. :o)

Giant crocheting….on a smaller scale

I have created a good luck yarn for 2016, something lovely to start the new year with, something with very happy and rich colours – here it is, my new handspun merino thick and thin yarn “Hogmanay”, a very soft and yummy yarn, perfect for quick knit projects including giant knitting or crocheting, felting projects, embellishing, dolls hair and beautiful ready made dreads:

 

 

For a dense knit (e.g. for baby hats) you can start with needle size 10mm (US15), and for a giant knit or crochet project I personally use needle size 20mm (US 40) and crochet hook size T or U (22+25mm/US44+50).

I just recently finished a wonderful boho crochet scarf, very lush and very soft indeed. I used my handspun merino (20 micron) thick and thin yarn (I also call it slub yarn) and a crochet hook size U. It contains several colours from my 24 colour range, 160yds (145m) of yarn, that´s about 280g (9.9oz), including the fringes:

 

 

The yarn size is the same as for all my thick and thin yarns.

 

 

Giant knitting and giant crocheting is great fun, whether you use very large yarn or thick unspun wool roving. It creates the warmest garments and a project can be finished in no time. However, some people may find using unspun thick roving too hard on their hands and joints, as I too had to experience when I started a giant knit project with wool roving. My wrists began to ache after only a few rows (yep, I am not getting any younger…) of using broomstick size needles and moving and shifting the heavy rows along, even though I had rested my hands and most of the roving yarn in my lap while knitting – I switched to a 40mm crochet hook so I would just have to move one stitch at a time but that did not keep my wrists from aching, the whole lot was getting too heavy. I was very frustrated and had to give up on the thick roving strand project. However, I was determined to create something lovely and snug with my roving, quick knit…well, in this case quick crochet style, so I went and divided the unspun wool into 4 strands to get them to a more comfortable yarn size, yet still thick enough for my large needles and hook. And it worked for me so much better! So here it is, my small scale giant crochet scarf, crocheted with a crochet hook size 25mm (US U), using 250g (8.9oz) of 20 micron super soft merino wool roving in orange, baby pink and raspberry pink:

 

Splitting the roving twice lengthwise into 4 thinner strands is very easy. As the roving is an unspun thick strand of fibre it has natural slight splits through the commercial carding and combing process. Just follow these splits, and the wool separates into smaller strands almost on its own. When the split comes nearer the roving end I don´t separate the wool all the way through but leave about 10cm (4 inches) unsplitted so I can crochet the roving in a continuous strand without any knots . The giant crochet scarf is also displayed in my online exhibition, where I have added more details. Feel free to have a look. :o)

Everyone have a very happy, healthy and creative year 2016!!