I’m so very glad that I have discovered the wonders of handspinning.  I’m no expert, far from it, but I am getting the hang!  I’ve even managed to knit an FO of which I am quite proud.  It’s Daybreak, by Stephen West.

The medium brown that starts the shawl, mid-neck, is semi solid Smoothie Sock and the rest is a 2-ply spun from a large braid of superwash Blufaced Leicester, dyed by me.  I’m just blown away by the way the hanspun shows as really striping where it’s separated by the brown.  The closeup shows the last dozen or so rows of just handspun.

My success led me, of course, to the internet in search of more fibrey goodness.  I had a small accident at Daniela Kloppmann’s  FeltStudioUK etsy shop..

They came with a lovely mini batt, which caused another accident, this time a 3 month sub to Daniela’s 8oz batt club!  And then I got to meet Daniela and her fibres in real live person when we were setting up for Wonderwool on the Friday!  Her fibres and colours are truly mouthwatering, and I fell in love with a set of batts that actually kept me awake that night!  I think I may have been Daniela’s first sale before the doors opened on Saturday!  Here it is – I just love the way it looks like a complete landscape..

I can’t tell you just how gorgeous this fibre is.  I’m sure it would photograph better out of the bag, but I don’t want to mess it up trying to get it back in again! I have a plan to spin a single from each one, starting by pulling strips off from one end, and matching  it with the second single, to get a single colour shift from one end of the yarn to the other.

If you’re a spinner of felter, you seriously need to give her shop a visit.  If you’re not a spinner or felter, then you still seriously need to give her shop a visit, because she is also a hugely talented Art Yarn spinner.

Just in case you missed it, it’s FeltStudioUK !