Hi there, I have been thinking about how I could make new items to sell both in my Etsy shop as well as in my booth at Unwind Brighton and have decided upon some wool for spinning. I’ve already showed you my blending board and the rolags I make using that. Now I have invested in a “hackle” that I bought from a woodturning artist on Etsy and a Diz from another artist also on Etsy so as soon as my little gems arrive I will be able to make lots of beautiful fibre preparations for spinning.

Now you may not know what a “hackle” is but it is a tool with one or two rows of long, pointed “teeth” that you use to blend wool for spinning. I found the tool rather impressing at first but after looking at various videos on Youtube I decided it was not too complicated and most importantly that “I WANT ONE TOO” 🙂

Here is a nice video that shows how to use a hackle and a diz to make a beautiful roving clic here

And just this morning I discovered that I could also use my blending board with a diz and make a roving that way too so I immediately went on Etsy and bought the cutest Diz set and now I’m anxiously waiting for it to arrive in my mail box.

This is the video that was a revolution this morning click here

So now I can’t wait to get started. I have lots of roving and add ins not to mention undyed wool that I can play with and dye myself before blending. I just can’t wait to actually move and have a bigger house with more space for me to create and work. It is so frustrating to have tons of wool and supplies of all kinds and to just have them locked up in carton boxes all over the house and not being able to use them as I want to. So I think I just may start a reverse calendar for when we move 🙂

I’ve also been doing some plying, and incredible enough I have actually finished plying all my spools that were ready and waiting

 Nice don’t you think ?

I’ve also added a new product to my Etsy shop –  some luxury stitch markers sets. I use Crystalette pins with Swarovski crystals and beautiful little cabochon decorated tins. These make for a great gift for a knitter/crochet friend or  just for your own pleasure.

 They are the cutest 🙂

Well, that’s all for now. Have a great weekend and enjoy any free time you have for some crafting fun 🙂

Hi there everyone, how are you doing? I’m  as before busy preparing for Unwind Brighton. I find it very difficult to evaluate how much I need to produce and bring to the show. I’m afraid of running out of items or on the contrary bring way too much. I think I’m good on stitch markers, needle stoppers, emergency crochet hooks and buttons so now I’m going to concentrate on fibres and yarn. I’ve decided to prepare some rolags for the spinners who will be visiting the marketplace during the show. I’ve already started and it’s a process I that I enjoy a lot. And then there is all my hand spun yarn to finish and prepare for sale. I just bought a yardage counter to be able to  accurately  indicate the length of each hand spun skein. I’ve also bought a small portable scale to use with the “stitch marker bar” where you will be able to choose your own markers and pay per weight.

Now I’m looking into my presentation, boxes etc to beautifully expose my work so that your eye will be drawn to my booth and that you will want to linger and check out my work 🙂 I’ve also made arrangements to be able to accept credit card payments so things are moving nicely along. I’m super excited about the whole thing and I hope many of you will be able to come and enjoy a wonderful fibrefilled weekend with us.

Here are a few photos of my latest work:

I did some dyeing,

 This is a lace weight yarn, 50% suri alpaca and 50% extra fine merino, 100gr 1200 m. I call this colorway Tequila Sunrise   Then I did some dyeing of 100% organic merino, Aran weight so 100 gr and 166 m. I call this colorway Watermelon

 And then I did a few mini skeins of fingering weight yarn. This is 75% superwash merino, 20% nylon and 5% stellina for some glam and glitter. I call this colorway Strawberry on Ice.

Then I’ve been spinning as always and today I just finished plying this skein which I absolutely love even if I say so myself:) This is 100% merino and I haven’t measured the yardage yet but I’m guessing around 400m

And then there are the rolags I was telling you about, I work them on my blending board and here’s an example of one set, I’m thinking of selling them by sets of 10 rolags as each rolag is small/thin so I’m not sure how much yardage you can get out of just one rolag

 I work layers of colour on the blending board and once finished into a rolag the colours come out like this  Nice don’t you think ?

But now it’s time to come back to this articles title “Celebratory Weekend”, why ? What does that mean? What’s up?????????

Well, with the help of a talented artist, photographer, graphic designer I now have a new logo! I’m very excited about this new, personalised and professionally made logo. I chose an owl because I’m very into owls at the moment, my owl is of cours knitting and you will see a small French flag in the background as a reference to the name of my shop/brand inspired by the fact that I live and knit in France. So here goes my new logo

 Beautiful don’t you think?  And if you too want to find out more about the artist behind my logo and discover her work then here are a few links.

Her name is Michelle Mez and you can find her work on the following websites:

www.MichelleMezPhotography.com 

 www.Facebook.com/MichelleMPhotography 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Herstellen

To celebrate this new branding of my shop, I have decided to offer FREE SHIPPING ON ALL ORDERS THIS WEEKEND, OFFER VALID UNTIL 23MARCH MIDNIGHT and I hope you and your knitting friends will take this opportunity to purchase some of my items and enjoy some pleasure shopping. Just use coupon code: FREESHIPPING

Spread the word and enjoy my shop which is just one click away 🙂

Hi there, it’s been a while since I last posted. Since then I went for a few days to Iceland for work and family which was great and since I’ve been back in France I have been hard at work preparing for Unwind Brighton.

But first thing first, I went back home for a week and had a great time. Working from home is nice but getting to work “in the office” with my colleages is also great so I really enjoyed my week in the office, being able to chat and take lunches with friends. After work it was “vacation time” and I enjoyed meeting my family and friends. It’s always good to go back to Iceland and relax and just enjoy this wonderful country. I had lots of luck with the weather. The first days we had sun and just all over beautiful weather and the second half of my stay we had beautiful but snowy weather which was also nice. Maybe you would like to see some photos?

 This is mount Hekla, a powerful volcano -beautiful don’t you think?

 And just a few days later all was covered in snow.

So all in all I had a great week and if you ever have the chance to go to Iceland, I say “go for it” you will not regret it 🙂

But now I’m back in France and working on my stock for the Unwind Brighton show that I’m soooo excited about. I’m working on dyeing yarn, spinning yarn and making stitch markers. I’m also working on magnetic pattern tamers and an idea for an accessories kit with lots of cute handmade items. Here’s a sneak peak:

 These small boxes contain 20 lace stitch markers with sead beads or Swarovzki pearls, I do a bit of both.  This is my very first essay at a needle felted stitch marker. I enjoyed making it and rather like the result but how about you? It’s supposed to be an apple but on the photo it kind of looks more like a strawberry don’t you think? I may work some more on this idea as I find this type of stitch marker original in design and super cute:)

I’m also working on my “candy bar” –  this is going to be like the “make up your own candy bag and pay per weight” that our kids love only this will be a knitter/crocheter version of this. Your chance to handpick the stitch markers you like best and fill up a cute little plastic bag and I’m not sure yet whether you will pay per weight or per marker, but I hope this will be a success. As you can see in the photo below I have even got the little cute plastic sachets to go with my “candy bar” 

Later today I’m going to do some dyeing, I’ve got 6 skeins of organic merino, aran weight, soaking at the moment. I’m also going to do some carding on my carding board. I’m not sure if I’m then going to spin the rolags into yarn or if I’m going to offer the rolags for sale…come to think of that, that might be a good idea. I’m sure there will be spinners among the visitors at Unwind Brighton and as a spinner myself I know a beautiful rolag is irresistible:)

I’ll show you photos of those later once I have some done, here are my supplies for today  The copper fibre is Triobal, a nylon fibre that will add strength and sparkle to the yarn.

Well that’s all for today my friends. Thank you for reading and have a great week full of crafty bliss 🙂