Away till 6 July!

I'm on vacation! No blog updates from now till 6 July, but things will still be happening in my absence:

* I'll be in the June Phatfiber box, which goes on sale tomorrow!

* The Fibreholics boxes will be released soon!

* I'll be at Black Sheep Gathering with my Sheepshape Spinning shirt - say hi! Not a vendor this year, unfortunately.

My Etsy shops are still open, and any purchases will be sent out on the afternoon of 6 July. I'll also be able to respond to email queries within a few days.

My samples for the Fibreholics UK Box

As you may know, some of my fellow British fibre artists and I are creating a fibre sampler box of our handspun and dyed fibres. The blog for the project is here and we also have a Ravelry group. it's a new project and the first boxes will be on sale at Woolfest this month. After that they will be available through the website EcoProducts4U which is run by one of our members. There is a mailing list signup sheet on the EcoProducts4U site.

Our first round of samples are being finished up and sent to a central point, and I sent mine in over the weekend. Here's a photo (hosted by Flickr) and some more information!


To start with I have sent in 21 samples, evenly split between fibre and handspun yarn. Some of the samples are of items currently available on my Etsy shop.

There are three different types of fibre. The first, the puffy brown and blue batt, is made of deep brown Zwartble fleece drumcarded with a mix of dyed fleece colours. It's really soft and I have done a few more but haven't yet weighed or listed them.

The second fibre is blue, pale green and white and is a sample of the Salt Water Taffy colourway. It's Bluefaced Leicester roving, acid dyed.

The third is one of my favourites, it is fawn-coloured natural Shetland top acid dyed with blue and pink. The colourway is called Blue Raspberry.

I've sent in five different types of yarn, three of which are currently available at Sheepshape Spinning. The yarns are:

Summer Citrus, made of Columbia Dorset wool and dyed by another Etsy seller

Corriedale Glow in the Dark yarn, in a lovely heathery tan

More Corriedale, but mixed with multicolour Donegal Tweed fibre from Kilcar, Donegal

A Shetland/Merino blend made from one of the samples I received from the April Phat Fiber box - one of a kind with lovely greens, blues and browns, and very soft

The last bit of light coloured Alpaca Glow in the Dark yarn, though there are other colours of this on the shop

I'm really looking forward to the release of the boxes, and also seeing what everyone else is making for their samples! If you get one of my samples in your box I'd love to hear from you. :)

Special offer now till June 10th!

I'm going on vacation soon! Since I am going to America, I am running a special "free shipping to America" offer for items from my shops.

Any purchases made at Sheepshape Spinning or Elizabeth's UK Craft Shop between now and June 10 2009 will get free shipping to a US shipping address, if you are willing to wait till my arrival in the US (June 15th) to have it shipped. Just put “Willing to Wait!” in the buyer’s notes for a full refund of the shipping charges.

Now’s the time to get your glow in the dark yarn if you’ve been eyeing it, or to request your custom sock yarn colourways!

I'll be back from my trip on July 6th and anything that is bought between June 13th and July 6th will be shipped when I return.

The farm in the middle of London

It took a while to find it, and I learned that Brick Lane is very...interesting...but I have finally gone to the Spitalfields City Farm! They were having a festival to celebrate shearing day. I got to watch Pants the Sheep get shorn. She didn't seem to care for it too much, but I bet she was glad once that coat was off. It's very hot in London today.

While I was there I spoke to a staff member, and ended up buying two fleeces! (It was an adventure getting them home on the tube...) These sheep photos are credit to Spitalfields Farm because I forgot to bring my camera. The first one is Teggan. They call her the Badger-faced Sheep but I'm not sure if that's a true breed name or just a nickname. Their website says she's of the Torddu variety. She hadn't been shorn yet when I was there but this is last year's fleece. If I like it I am sure to go back for this year's!


These two lovelies are Isla (pronounced eye-la) and Kirsty. They are North Ronaldsay breed. Isla was shorn today before I arrived at the farm, and I got her fleece. (I don't know which one she is in the picture.) Apparently she was being very wiggly for the poor shearer!

I've been on the front page of Etsy!

A very kind Etsy user wrote to me tonight to tell me that I am on the front page! How exciting. I took a screenshot!


In the centre bottom of the shot is my Rustic Rainbow yarn. It's been marked as a favourite seven times since going on the front page! And the shop as a whole has gotten 13 new favourites. This is great!

The final Phat Fiber sneak peek for May

Some of you are already receiving your boxes! Follow the excitement at Ravelry in the Phat Fiber Sampler Box group.

Here's the last item that was sent it for my May samples! It's a Pocket Sheep!




I've put a penny into the shot for scale. This little guy is made of sock yarn and has an embroidered face, ears and feet. I hope he makes somebody very happy.

I am thinking about offering these Pocket Sheep on my Sheepshape Etsy shop. Would people be interested in getting their own Pocket Sheep that way, or do you prefer having them in the Phat Fiber box?

May Phat Fiber sneak peek #6

At this moment your Phat Fiber box may be winging its way to you! Jessie of Phat Fiber tries to get them out as quickly as possible after the sale, though because of the storms she's experienced lately (an inland hurricane! wow!) I'm sure she'd appreciate extra patience. It's hard to wait, though, isn't it!

To help with the waiting, here's the second-to-last Sheepshape Sneak Peek and the final yarn peek.



These ten samples are called "Summer Skies" and are a wool/nylon blend. Each one is slightly different because of the variegated colours of the fibre. These fibres were part of my unlabelled stash that I bought from a retiring spinner, but I applied a "burn test" to the fibres and I am reasonably certain that some are wool and others are nylon, in more or less a 50/50 split. They're very soft!

Tomorrow - the final Sneak Peek where you will see this month's special unique item!

May Phat Fiber Sneak Peek #5

More Yarn! The boxes for May have now been sold - I hope you got one! :)

If you did, you may be one of the few lucky people to get some Glow in the Dark yarn in your box! This month there are five glowing samples in either blue or white colourways.



The white ones are nylon and Wensleydale Longwool and I can't recall what the blue ones are but I think they are probably nylon and Alpaca. It's so fun to play with this stuff. If you haven't seen it in action check out the parts of my shop for glowing yarn and glowing toys - each listing shows an "action shot" taken in the dark! (The action shot is best viewed full size.)

Chunky Monkey yarn!

Ok, no monkeys, but definitely very chunky. I finished spinning and washing this yarn this weekend:



This is a Corriedale/Ryland cross fleece that I bought from LongDrawJames on Ravelry drumcarded by me and livened up with bits of the Serendipity Fiber Arts sample from the April Phat Fiber Box. It's very chunky, very soft and I suspect is destined to become a pair of mittens. I've got plenty more fleece and a little bit more of the yellow sample batt if I decide to spin more for a matching hat!

May Phat Fiber Sneak Peek #4

Today's a fibre day! It's also a very special day for the Phat Fiber community. I hope you're ready!


Hand-dyed blue roving, the fibre is Bluefaced Leicester. Each roving is at least 1/4 ounce and is dyed in shades of blue and green - the "showers" part of Showers and Flowers! There are fourteen of these mini-braids out there...I got better at braiding during the course of preparing for this box, too!

Bluefaced Leicester is a wonderfully soft fibre and also very good for spinners who are just getting to grips with their spindle or wheel. I've got some in a pastel colourway in the Spinning fibre section of the Sheepshape shop - and if you're a member of the Ravelry PF group don't forget to check the Box Day Specials thread for a one-day discount offer!

May Phat Fiber sneak peek #3

Time for another Sneak peek! There will be seven in total, following a pattern of fibre, yarn, yarn, fibre, yarn, yarn, surprise. So today is yarn!

There's a colourway in my Etsy shop called Lilac Gardens. I have sent in two samples of Lilac Gardens for this month's box. I had enough for about 2.5 samples, so one is normal sized and one is jumbo!


It's worsted weight, 50% Corriedale wool (the darker purple) and 50% a mix of white silk and light purple Merino wool. The shop listing has 252 more yards but there's only one listing and when it's gone, it's gone! Also, for the month of May this yarn will ship anywhere in the world for free.

Quick informational post

I've just run through all the listings on my Sheepshape Etsy shop and added estimated currency conversions for British Pounds and Euros. I'm happy to invoice any purchases in those currencies instead of US dollars!