Saturday stands out as one of the best days of the year so far.

A morning filled with the Woolfish Wool Festival at St Abbs where I met Natalie from the Yarn Yard, the Bordertart and many other s that I've only ever heard of or spoke to through Ravelry.

After I bought the cutest little felted Alpaca from Cairndinnis Alpacas and a Diddy Niddy Noddy we left and headed north to The Haddington Spinners Open Day.

I've never seen so many spinning wheels in one room before, the most I've ever seen is erm...? one...! mine! lol :D ScottishFibres were there with their stall and I wanted to buy the new Ashford book of Dyeing plus they had another diddy niddy noddy which I wanted to buy but I didn't have enough pennies on me so I'll have to be patient til the next time I see them.

All in all it was a fibery, yarnish, tactile, squooshy, amazing Saturday that will tide me over til WoolFest in June.... I'm counting the days and keeping my eyes and ears open for other opportunities to get my fibre fix.

Next on the calendar... the Edinburgh Spinners Guild met on the 21st May :D

In the picture we have Chocolate Cherries, Pebbles, Refresh and Pink Shadows. These are a few of my favourites that are in my shop just now.

I've set up a members only area,  that is quick and easy to register for, that will allow you to have sneak previews at any special colourways or updates on any new fibers that might be coming in. Members will also recieve the occasional newsletters by email and discount codes in the future.

On another side I'm love love love love loving this venture and I'm so glad that Jess at Dragonflair gave me the inspiration to get my bum moving and do something other than just thinking about it.

Many Thanks to all of the lovely ravellers and goddesses who have already signed up for my newsletter. Every time I get the email that says someone has signed up, I get a squishy feeling inside, kind of a combination of hugs and nerves :D huggy because somebody wants my newsletter and nervous because I'm not really sure what I'm gonna say in it yet :D

Anyway, back to the dye pots for me.

~~~ D skips off with glee into the steaminess~~~

I find it almost meditative, I love the repetitive, smooth nature of it and also the way it allows the colour changes to maintain clarity.

I thought I'd use this picture just to show off one of my favourite colourways at the moment and also some of my more recent spinning, which is of course, Nav Plied!!! :)

I have opened my own online shop selling my own hand-dyed and handspun fiber and yarns.

I had been toying with this idea for a good part of last year and it was only while chatting with a friend of mine on MSN that I realised that thinking about it wasn't getting it done!

I have got a few colourways up already and my darling luffly husband and I have been trying to get the website up and running as quickly as possible, there have been a few teething problems and I'm still trying to get it all organised to exactly how I want it but my DLH is a pooter whizz so he's on the case and making it all run smoothly for me which is great as it leaves me more time for Spinning and Dyeing instead of slogging at the pooter :D :)

Please come to HalonaYarns.co.uk and have a look around.

My Darling Luffly Husband bought me something for Valentines that wasn't flowers or chocolates or wine. It wasn't lacking in thought and it wasn't something I wanted to ask for the receipt for so I could return it.

This Valentines has excelled all other Valentines in our time together, it took real thought and it means he's been paying attention when I've been talking to him about spinning! ;)

My Darling Luffly Husband bought me the one, the only, the Brand New SLIDING HOOK FLYER from Ashford.

I'm such a lucky Girly
:) :) :)

I've had this sitting as singles for ages on the bobbins as I'd already plied half of it and had never got around to plying the rest. so here it is.

This was 25g of pink and 25g of purple and 50g of white, I space spun the pink and purple onto one bobbin and then spun the white single on another and barberpoled them together, it gives it a self striping effect with a marl of white, pretty funky if I do say so myself :)

I have been emptying my bobbins as I have had to part ways with my lovely Halona. I have upgraded to a Brand New pre-laquered, double treadle, scotch-tension Ashford traveller who I have affectionately called 'Halona Too' in memorium to my first love who will be much missed, but I'm sure Lucy, her new owner will love her as much as I have.

Farewell Halona, teach Lucy well.

This is what my First Handspun on Halona, my Ashford Traveller became.

The pattern is called BagLove and it's perfect for holding a full centre pull ball in so it doesn't get tangled at the bottom of your project bag. The pattern is really easy, great for a beginner like me and brill coz it knits up into no time ( about 3 nights in my case but I'm a really slow knitter) and you get something really useful at the end of all your hard work.

I love mine and I love that it's made with my own handspun.

This spinning and knitting thing is more addictive than I could have ever have believed! I'm sooooo inl ove with my little bag coz I spun, knit and now I can use it and I did all myself.

WOOHOO!

I'd like you all to meet Halona. I've called her this as the meaning of the name is well suited to the circumstance she came to us under.

I blogged recently that I had gotten an old Spinning Wheel out of my Classifieds for £25 but what I didn’t then know was that if you run it Anti-clockwise to ply you ended up with the Bobbin, Flyer, and whorl all unscrewing themselves! lolSO it was time for a new plan!!!

I’ve been procrastinating with listing some stuff on Ebay but when my Spinning wheel broke the listings went up super quick as I NEEDED a new Spinning wheel.

Well Karma/Spinning Gods/ my Grandad looking down from above/call it what you will, was shining down on me today coz my Darling Luffly husband picked up another bargain at the carboot!!!

So, Here is Halona, She is my new Ashford Traveller with 9 Bobbins in almost-new-but-been-neglected-just-needing-some-loving condition. We got her for a heaven sent price of only £50 (honest) and she spins like an angel (shame I don't but I'm sure pratice is all I need)

P.S. Halona means: Of Good Fortune.

This is what I made with my First Yarn - It's a Tribble - a knitting pattern inspired by some fluffy round thing in a sci-fi movie. The pattern called for cotton so at least you'd be able to wash the dishes with it. But what I wanted this pattern for was because it used a tiny yardage and meant that the 48 yards I'd spun would be enough to complete it :)

So here it is, my 48 yards of handspun is now a Tribble that if I tried to wash the dishes would decrease 50% in size and therefore become even less useful :(

I love it though, it's my first handspun project and I think it's a work of art!

Look at my pretty Spinning Wheel that I got for the bargain, knock down price of...... only £25!

My Darling Luffly Husband is always on Gumtree see if there are any bargains to be had, he's after anything from computer games to campervans and the latest find... land in the highlands (Me thinks I better start knitting thicker Jumpers :) )

It was on one of his many trawls through Gumtree that he saw my soon to be new Spinning Wheel. I'd wanted one but the price was a bit off putting. I'm well known for spending loads on something (e.g. Lateral Thigh Trainer) and lasting a week at it then never using it again. I'd been looking at drop spindles but hadn't gotten one as i just knew somehow that wouldn't be the same, lol, a touch of Fiber Snobbery never hurt anyone, right?

So anyway, It needed a bit of work as the person selling it had never used it and it was a dry as a dinosaur bone. I gave it a new drive band of green twine (all I had at the time, but it's doing the job) I also had to squeeze about half a tin of oil into it to get it go round smoothly, I'm still having to heavily oil it every time i getit out so as not to pull a hamstring while treadling lol. So Far I've had fun with yarn barf, shabby singles and now I'm on the slow path to something that is starting to look a tad like it might ply up into something knittable.... watch this space!