Teaser photo of my dyed yarns

I know it's dark... It's about 8:30pm right now, but here's my teaser photo of dyed yarns.


I just need to finish tagging, photographing and pricing these. Then I can list them on the website.

Bye for now,
Sara x
http://www.sarastexturecrafts.com/

Made it into an Etsy Treasury!

Check out http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4ca2e8a0c9fe8eefeda6c6c3/fall-brings-crisp-cool-mornings#4ca2fb06c9fe8eef89a2c8c3

Thank you Nikkisic!

Sara x
http://www.sarastexturecrafts.com/

Customer Photos: MollyMade at The Sheared Sheep Show.

I logged in yesterday to twitter to find one of my customer's had posted a picture of her stand at The Sheared Sheep show in the US.

Here's my sweet set up at The Sheared Sheep this weekend. Wall hanging made w/ @sarastexturecr merino. LOVE IT! http://twitpic.com/2sksgv  

You can see my Blackberry bush Batt hand felted as a wall hanging, on the wall at the back... Molly tells me that she sold it too. You really must check out Molly's very fabulous work on Etsy at http://www.etsy.com/shop/MollyMadeMe and find out more about the artist at http://www.mollymade.net/. 
 
Thank you Molly for sharing!
 
Sara x
http://www.sarastexturecrafts.com/

Hand Dyed Blue Faced Leicester

Is back on the website and as I have a little extra I've added some to my Etsy shop at www.sarastexturecrafts.etsy.com



Bye for now,
Sara x
Www.sarastexturecrafts.com

The late night spinner

In the morning my head is always full of things I want to do...


If I'm lucky this means I might get an hour or two for dyeing wool (in this case Merino), but it's usually evening/night before I get chance to sit and spin.


So for me spindle spinning has become the easiest way to work.


I can sit on the sofa and watch the telly while I work... Which is not quiet where I'm at with the wheel.


And I'm getting better... Finer yarns too.


This is one of my test pieces. I've been making these to help me design dye and ply patterns for my new range of spindle yarns, coming soon.


Bye for now,
Sara x
Www.sarastexturecrafts.com

Yay... Love a craft fair!

Westpoint, Exeter had one of it's annual stitch and craft fairs today and I went along with my mum and mum-in-law to see what we could find. There were so many beautiful exibits, but of course for copy right reasons I couldn't photograph them... A shame as I'd loved to have shared some of them with you.

I did get some pictures from the corset exhibit, from The Fashion Gallery, Snibston Discovery Park...


This was just perfect for me to see, as I have a new project in mind and was thinking about corsetry earlier this morning!


I love how the styling has changed...


And love 'fashion trend' takes on it.


I also saw the most amazing knitting project... I'm going to tell you all about it next week.

So what did I buy... Not much really, I'm so into fibre at the moment that it's rare I move too far from my stock room! I did however ask my mum-in-law to buy me a Lucet weaving kit for Christmas... So excited! I'm hoping to sit with that Christmas afternoon in front of the telly.

Hope you had a good Saturday? What did you do?
Bye for now,
Sara x
Www.sarastexturecrafts.com

Merry Go Around: Favorite color and how it comes into your work (Update)

Check out this link... thank you Maria for sharing this with us!
Sx

Merry Go Around: Favorite color and how it comes into your work

I don't know that I have a favourite colour as such... I used to wear mostly black and red in my late teens and early Twenties... late into Goth and Rock I think did that. I'm not sure exactly when that changed, but as I worked in Fashion and Textiles later on, I guess I was influenced by the trends we designed by. That's not to say if Pirates where in I donned my 'Adam Ant' face paint, nor did I go out head to toe in Leopard print if that look was in either, but I did break my earlier rules and started wearing brighter hues, leaving the black and red to the back of the closet.

Today while you will see me mostly in band T-shirts and jeans on my days off, I do also go for brighter 'hippie' stripes and probably in a range of pinks, purples, reds and blues. I guess these are the colours that show through in the fibre I dye, card and blend.

Colour, or hue of colour is a product of my mood, I think... I often find that the brighter the day, or my mood the more I am drawn to bold and hot colours. Where as a slower, more mellow day might bring out the sugary pastel wools and earthy dyes. I suppose it's also true of my darker days... you know that day you 'wake up and nothing goes right' sort of a day... well they are often the days I don't card, dye or blend... usually because those are the days when I produce incipid or sluggy palates... which is never good! Those now are computer days... days to catch up on admin and the like... not to try and be creative!

So I guess I don't have a favourite colour that dominates my work, but colour (or how my mood dicates colour) does effect my work... you can see below that I had a mix of bright and mellow days carding this lot...

How does colour effect your work?

Sara x

http://www.sarastexturecrafts.com/

----------------

This post was part of a blog Merry go Around, where I have got together with some friends to talk about a similar subject on the same day... a nice way to meet people!

Mitsy at MindArt - http://artmind-etcetera.blogspot.com/

Kim at Vilt a la Kim - http://viltalakim.blogspot.com/

Sara at Crafts of Texture - http://sarastexturecrafts.blogspot.com/

Fabienne at Easterya Jewellery Creations - http://easterya.blogspot.com/

Mariana at Florcita - http://www./florcita.eu/

Agathe at Le Bar du Vent - http://lebarduvent.blogspot.com/

Lily at Lily Pang Art and Design - http://lilypangart.blogspot.com/

Ruth at Birdland Creations - http://insidetheartisan.blogspot.com/

Wednesdays creative moments...

I had a lovely day yesterday... I managed to get about 15 skeins dyed into 5 new colourways for my upcoming yarn range.

Here's some steaming...


Why do I steam to set the dye? Well, for me it's an easier way... It means I can walk away if I need too and do other things. This is only a small run solution though...

Here's one of the colours rinsing...


Mmmm, I think I see a rainbow!

I'm hoping to get some spinning done today... What are you up to?

Bye for now,
Sara x
Www.sarastexturecrafts.com

If I'm lucky it will be a creative Wednesday...

I'm going to race through my admin this morning, like my life depends on it, because I've promised myself some time to spin and dye!

Some of you may have read me talking about my new ranges... Well I'll update you on where I'm at.

Last week I dyed and dried 3 new colourways for yarns (lace, DK and Aran). I just need to finish reskeining them...


I've also been dyeing Mawata, Tussah and silk coccoons. (Also a little bit of throwsters waste for some limited edition art yarn batts.) These have about 5-6 colours drying nicely.


Finally I've finished knit testing some of my spindle yarns, so with a little reskeining hand spun yarns will also be available soon. These will all be Limited Edition pieces.


Sorry this picture is a bit dark... I've been knitting at 9/10pm each night, so the light has faded... Anyhoo, these seemed to go well... Quiet chuffed with myself! I hope you like them when they are finished...

I'll be back with an update soon...
Bye for now,
Sara x
Www.sarastexturecrafts.com

Round 8 Teasers from www.SarasTextureCrafts.com

This round is all about colour, so I had to play with some of my favourites!

I've used Shetland tops...

Here is Gemstone, Rockpool and Sorbet, from my range at http://www.sarastexturecrafts.com/. I hope you enjoy felting, spinning, weaving and knitting with them... they are lovely to work with!

Sara x
http://www.sarastexturecrafts.com/

Prepping for Fibreholics Round 8

I had to miss the last round, due to moving so was really pleased to be able to find sometime at the end of work to cut my samples.


I'm using Shetland hand painted in colour Gemstone... And a couple of other shades too.


You can find this in my fibre shop on the website. If you've seen my Shetland scarf in this, you will know it's lovely to wear when spun!

I hope they like it...

Bye for now,
Sara x
Www.sarastexturecrafts.com

Lazy Saturdays...

It's not often that we aren't too busy on a Saturday, so we took advantage of such a beautiful day.


We popped out to see family.

I'm a bit of a fidgit, so it wasn't long before I scrabbled through my bag to find something to play with while we settled to watch an afternoon film.


So my work in progress (wip) is the startings of a winter hat for me... Not quiet sure on the full design yet, but I've gotten the ribbing done. I did have my spindle with me, but felt to lazy even for that!

Later in the evening we visited my sister who made us roast lamb for dinner... Yum! Nice to have see all the family together.

And I got to meet her new cat too... So cute!



Hope you had a wondeful Saturday too...
Bye for now,
Sara x
Www.sarastexturecrafts.com

Customer photos: Knittynutter's Woodland Knit!

Knittynutter from Ravelry, has used my Merino and Silk Blend, colour Woodland to spin her featherweight yarn.

From this she has started knitting... I love the way the colour has played out in her spinning... beautiful!

You can find details of the pattern and yarn notes at http://www.ravelry.com/projects/knittynutter/featherweight-cardigan

Sara x

You can find 'Woodland' under the Blends shop at http://www.sarastexturecrafts.com/

Etsy Extension... Sara's Texture Crafts

Things on Etsy have been doing ok for me lately... maybe it's my change in stock, photos of stock or what I'm not entirely sure... but I have to say a big thank you to everyone. As a way of thanks I'm starting to list a lot more variety there and you'd be very welcome to try some of it.



Sara x
Alternatively, it's also available on my main website at http://www.sarastexturecrafts.com/

Listing Handdyed Shetland

I have some for the main website, etsy and eBay...



Bye for now,
Sara x
Www.sarastexturecrafts.com

Open weave shawl finished, yay!

I managed to finish the shawl I was knitting as a Christmas present this weekend.


I'm quiet pleased with myself, as it's taken me quite a while to do... What with moving and the shows this year.


I hope she likes it!

Bye for now,
Sara x
Www.sarastexturecrafts.com

Custom Batt Order for Maria...

I had a fab afternoon on Friday... custom batt making can be complicated and time consuming, but always rewardingly creative... just what a girl needs at the end of a long week. Here's how they came out...

Custom Order batt - Merino and Bamboo

Custom Order batt - Merino and Silk

These are for Maria’s college project. I hope she likes them… her theme is snow, so I was thinking ‘snowy glaciers’ with her choice of colour.

Now the pictures are a little dull in shade as the light is not great today… but you kinda get the idea!

Good Luck with your project Maria!

Sx
P.S. if you want a custom batt for spinning or felt making contact me at http://www.sarastexturecrafts.com/

Garden tidy

I had loads I wanted to do with my pots out the back...


I even bought a new pot and bulbs for February to March (before Spring kicks in).


I bought Hyacinths and Miniture Daffodils...


And a coloured Iris I've never seen before.


I potted them up with a fern, cyclamen and a tiny blue flowered alpine... I'm hoping the colours with work quiet nicely with the glaze of the pot.


Ta da... I love a good garden tidy!

Look who I found on the way...


He'd made a web in my tomatoe plant, which is still blooming... Sweet million it's called I recommend these cherry tomatoes!


Bye for now,
Sara x
Www.sarastexturecrafts.com

Friday's Look at Yarn and My Spindle Spinnings.

As many of you know I've taken up spinning on my spindle again and I'm loving it... the freedom to spin anywhere and at anytime allows me to be more spontaneous and feel like I still get chance to be creative again. This is something I've always struggled with as my supply business got bigger... I spend much more time now advertising, selling, packing orders and general admin that I often don't get chance to pick up a new project for me. So spinning on my spindle seemed like a natural choice, as often I only find time at the end of the day... well about 9pm each night!  Don't get me wrong... I love that my hard work with the business is paying off and I thank you all so much for your support and kindness, with out you I wouldn't be here... but I get itch fingers every so often to pick up something to create.

Here is one of my first spindle spinnings, back in the swing of things...

Shetland and Sari Silk blend, spun as a single.

I chose to Andean ply it, which involves wrapping the ply around your hand in such a way that you can ply it back against it's self on to the same spindle.

This isn't always as easy as it looks until you get that 'Eureka' moment and discover the reason why you wind it in such a way. After that it seems almost natural to do.

I'm loving the colour flashes mixed in with the Moorit Shetland... a really nice way to achieve contrast and texture.

Learning to ply can take time... I wasted wool learning to ply (but who hasn't!)... it's the tension of the ply that makes it hard... achieving that balance.

Alternatively you could make an unbalanced yarn... one ply pulled tight and the other loose. This makes like a textured almost 'bumpy' effect... I'm not sure I'm at that stage yet. At the moment I prefer spinning a balanced simple yarn and playing with colour... but that's the thing with spinning, you learn as you go along. So I'm hoping I will continue to progress and try new things.

Here's the finished ply...

You can see that I spin to a Double Knit (DK) or Aran weight usually... That's fine, it keeps things simple so I can play with colours and quickly knit test pieces.

Setting the yarn is nice and easy... after you have created your skein of yarn on a niddy noddy (giving it a little stretch in the process), a quick wash and rinse is all you need. The worse part is the drying time... on wet days it can take two days to dry a yarn... such a long wait for little, old me whose over excited!

Here I am setting the Shetland and sari mix with a natural Shetland yarn I made earlier.

This is also the stage where I get to see if the ply is truly balanced... setting can change the 'tightness' of a ply I find.

When it's finished I wrap the skein for my knitting basket.

As I say I've really enjoyed picking up my spindle again and so am thrilled that I've had so many requests for handspun yarns. It gives a real boost to confidence, so thank you! In fact it's got me spinning more and I've started creating a little range of spindle yarns. Each will be fairly different, so that I can keep excited about working and I will release them as Limited Editions for Knitting, Crochet, Weaving and Felt making/Fabric Art embellishments.

Just got to finish a few more and hopefully these will go live for my next club newsletter at http://www.sarastexturecrafts.com/ in early October. Due to the time it takes to create yarns, I won't be uplaoding lots of new yarns each week... more like a handful each month, so keep your eyes on the website!

I also want to thank those of you who have been asking for very specific custom yarns... at the moment I'm working solely on my spindle, so big batches are difficult. I'm also limited to the techniques I feel comfortable producing at a level of quality to sell from... but bear with me I am practising all the time and hope to be able to offer customs in the future.

Have a fab weekend everyone... I have a date with my carding machine today!

Sara x

http://www.sarastexturecrafts.com/