Wednesday 15th February 2012

Finally the days are getting longer and the weather is getting warmer.  The hens are laying again and arent huddled in cold, soggy groups around the garden.  I have been very busy over the last couple of weeks getting ready for the craft fair mentioned in the previous posting. I had a great time, meeting the other crafters and seeing both regular and new customers.  I took along my spinning wheel so that I could demonstrate and recieved a great deal of interest from children and adults alike.  Here are two photographs, one of my stall and one of me spinning.




lizziejane2, on Flickr">

There are also some photographs on http://www.burnham-on-sea.com/ of the fayre. 

Its half term here at Pure Inspiration so the dyes have been put away out of reach of helpful fingers and my working is limited to a little weaving and spinning to fit around visits from friends and outings to the cinema.  I am hoping to begin some experimental gradient dyeing soon so watch this space.  I am also looking forward to the warmer days so the house isnt full of damp fibre!!

Wishing you all lots of fibery fun.

Tuesday 31st January 2012

Firstly a very very belated Happy New Year to everyone.  I was just looking at my last post only to realise it was at the start of October last year!  That will give you some idea of just how busy I have been here.

On  10th, 11th and 12th of February next, there will be a craft fair at Sanders Garden World at Brent Knoll in Somerset, five minutes from Junction 22 M5 motorway.  This will once again be in aid of Freewheelers motorcycle charity.

I have been and still am hard at making items to take and hopefully sell at this event.  I have so far made an assortment of jewellery and hand knitted and hand woven items which will be on sale over that weekend.  I shall be there on the Saturday and Sunday only as I am unable to make the Friday.  Come and grab yourselves an unique gift for that someone special on valentines day.  There will be lots of colourful stalls selling home made jams and pickles, cakes, cards, jewllery, pottery, artwork and woodwork as well as my own stall with drop spindle kits, fibres, yarns and jewellery alongside the handmade accessories.

I am glad that the days are lengthening a little and I think our hens are too, the egg laying has increased again.  We have two new hens here now, a Black Rhode and a Cou Cou Moran.  the Black Rhode has just come into lay and proudly informs us each time she has produced an egg with a session of loud clucking. 

You can tell the weather is turning colder at the moment by the fact that our cats have migrated indoors and are not venturing out very much

and you know its really cold when the cats and dogs start cuddling up together!!

I am currently spinning up some hand dyed wensleydale roving that I fell over on Etsy the other day.  I really should be getting on with spinning up some hand dyed alpaca that I want to weave a shawl with but I just couldnt resist the gorgeous colours in this one

I am just hoping that when I ply the finished bobbins the colours will line up quite well.  I think socks might be the end result for this yarn!!

I am weaving some more tea towels to put on the stall at the craft fair.  I was very pleased with how the last ones came out and have been quite pleased so far with these.  The draft comes from Top Ten Towels on Four Shafts which is an e-book that I downloaded from Interweave press.  Its called the Rosepath draft and I like the effect of the yellow and red plaid that looks like rows of little flowers.

In the online shop are a lovely selection of hand dyed fibres and wool rovings together with an assortment of jewellery.  Have a look using the link to the right of this posting.

One of my new years resolutions is to spend a little more time sharing on my blog, so hopefully this will happen.

Happy spinning!!

6th October 2011

Hi everyone, wow hasnt the weather been changeable.  It was a good opportunity to get some lovely Wensleydale fleece washed and dyed though and this is now for sale in the online shop, (link to the right). 

I love Wensleydale fibre, I think the sheep have to be one of the most amazing of their kind and it is so sad that the flocks are getting harder to find in the UK.  I find the fibre so versatile.  A lot of my customers purchase the curls to use for detail in needlefelted projects and others to spin into art yarn, the results of which are quite something to see.  Imagine, if you will, a lovely chunky yarn with little ringlets of colour hanging down throughout, a bag or other accessory made from this yarn would be a very unique item, a piece of art in itself.

Aside from these uses the curls can be carded and spun, the long, lustrious fibres make for a gorgeous knitting or weaving yarn, again some texture can be left in if desired. 

I have been busy here with hand knitting and trying to bust some of my stash.  I have been making lots of pairs of fingerless mittens.  I am selling these alongside the discounted knitting yarns I have started to retail at a local car boot sale at Sanders Garden world, near Brent Knoll in Somerset.  These car boot sales are held on a Friday morning and are in aid of the Freewheelers Motorcycle charity that transfers blood, x rays and other much needed things between hospitals free of charge.  See http://www.freewheelers.org.uk/ for more information.

The discounted yarns are also available in my online shop. If you are UK based then do contact me for prices for postage in the UK and also for pound sterling prices as everything is listed in US dollars as this is a worldwide site that the shop is on.

The next thing that came to mind is does anyone belong to a local knitting group?  I would be interested to know how many are out there as not all of them are widely advertised and I do feel that it would be good to perhaps create a list of them available as links on my website.  If anyone is interested in setting up a link swap then please do get in touch at lizziemasters@btinternet.com so that I can start to compile a list of various fibre related groups and organisations. 

These can be worldwide, they dont have to just be based in the UK.  Spinners, weavers and felters would be welcome too also if you do anything unusual with fibre then again I would be very interested to hear from you.

So, thats all for now, I will hope to get some more blogging done again very soon.

Have fibre fun everyone!!

Saturday 3rd September

The girls have now gone back to school, it was very quiet last Friday with both of them out of the house.  Personally I think it was silly for them to have gone back only for one day but I suppose those in charge of education have their reasons?!

With life returning to its usual routine I need to knuckle down and get some more things photographed and put into the Etsy shop in time for the Christmas season which will soon be upon us.  Also the end of year accounts need to be prepared and handed over to the accountant.  In addition I have dyeing to do, silk rovings need to be dyed for customers in the US. 

I have just finished spinning up approximately 120g of hand dyed Corriedale roving which has come out in a double knit thickness and I am hoping to use it to weave a scarf on my knitters loom.

I have finally finished the handwoven cotton tea towels that were the first serious project on my table loom.  Below are some photographs of the warp on the loom and the finished towels.  They were made with 8/2 cotton that was a bargain last year on ebay.  I used some of it to make the cotton scarf on the knitters loom that was shown in my last post. 

The following pictures show the warp on the loom, the work in progress and one of the finished towels.  Further details of this project can be found on my projects page at http://www.ravelry.com/  where my user name is

Lizziejane.  I belong to several groups on Ravelry and find it a great way to meet like minded people and swap information and show off our finished projects.

On the knitting front I am making an aran weight hooded jacket for my daughter's friends baby son for Christmas, using Hayfield Bonus Aran.  I shall probably make one similar for my grand daughter in Sirdar click aran. 

I purchased a ball of Rico yarn recently, the one that makes the frilly scarves.  I got two long scarves and one shorter scarf out of the one ball.  I felt this was extremely good value and purchased another ball last week to make some more, again for presents at Christmas. 

With the evenings drawing in again it means there are more hours for knitting and spinning and also weaving since the purchase of a daylight lamp, then of course there is that cross stitch picture that needs finishing....................

Wednesday 20th July

Two posts in a week, must be something in the air.

I wanted to share with you the photographs of the finished cashmere scarf. 

the first picture shows the completed fringe, I twisted this using four strands of the warp yarn at a time, it fulled up quite nicely when washed. 

The second picture is of the main body of the scarf showing how the Bronson Lace pattern has fulled and is not quite so lacey as when on the loom.  I was a little disappointed because I thought it would have been the same but I will be trying this pattern again using a fine silk yarn and see how the pattern reacts after washing.  I will keep you posted.

In the meantime the loom is now warped with Sirdar Baby Bamboo yarn and Twilleys Freedom cotton in cream and pale blue to make fabric for a small bag.  Pictures to follow in the next post.

Happy weaving!

Monday 18th July

I thought I would share with you some pictures of my latest two weaving projects using the 12 inch Ashford Knitters Loom.  I am quite enjoying going back to basics with this loom and have been also enjoying meeting up with some new faces in two Ravelry groups that I have joined.  For those of you not familiar with Ravelry, its an online knitting, weaving and spinning community where like minded fibre enthusiasts can meet to share pictures of their latest projects, swap advice and support each other through those tricky moments.  If like me, you are unable to get to a local group for your hobby(ies) then its a wonderful way to meet new friends and gain experience.

I have joined the Ashford Loomies group and also the Rigid Heddle group. 

Here is the first project below, showing the loom warped up using some swedish weaving cotton that I purchased earlier this year from ebay.  This was originally to make placemats but in the end I decided to use the resulting cloth as a scarf as I didnt want to cut into it, I was so pleased with the result.





The following two pictures are of the Knitters loom warped up with 100 percent Cashmere yarn that I purchased from Devon Fine Fibres a few years ago.  It has been mill spun and is very soft.  I wish I had made it a little wider but I was not sure I would have enough yarn.  I am using a pattern from the May/June 2009 issue of Handwoven and the technique is known as Bronson Lace.  This requires the use of a pick up stick to make a third shed. 


Rigid Heddle looms are suprisingly versatile and with the availability of different sized reeds and a second heddle kit for any of Ashford's rigid heddle looms now available the possiblities really are endless. 

I recently hand dyed some mohair curls and I am now spinning them up into quite a fine yarn on my Kromski Minstrel wheel.  The first part bobbin and the curls are shown below.








I hope you enjoy these pictures and that they will give you some inspiration for your projects.  If anyone has any questions, please dont hesitate to ask.

Wednesday 13th July 2011

Here we are halfway through July and I cant believe that the summer holidays are nearly here.  The girls are looking forward to a nice long lazy six weeks and to be honest so am I.  Getting up at six every morning to ensure everything gets taken care of before heading off on the school run can be a bit wearing.

First the chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs need feeding, then the dogs and cats and finally us.  After breakfast its chivvying sleepy children into doing their hair, teeth and retrieving their shoes from the last place they were thrown when they came home the previous evening.  It will be nice to have a slower pace of life for a while. 

Finally after getting them into their schools its time to walk the mad dogs on the beach.  After that down to work.

I have a three day craft fair to attend in August, it will be the 5th, 6th and 7th of August and takes place at Sanders Garden World at Brent Knoll in Somerset.  The proceeds of the fair go to the FreeWheelers charity, which is a group of people who transport blood, x rays and similar free of charge between the local hospitals.  It can help to save lives and is constantly needing funds. 

I shall be taking my fibre shop, with drop spindle kits, hand dyed fibres and yarns and some of my jewellery. 

I have been taking advantage of the hotter weather to get lots of dyeing and washing of fleece done.  I now have 5 lovely Jacob fleeces that were purchased in Somerset through a contact from the craft fair I attended in February this year.  I have also discovered two Bowmont fleeces lurking in my store cupboard and this is now listed for sale in the online shop.  I have assorted hand dyed rovings for sale, last summers stock is currently at half price and the new fibres are being listed as they are dyed and dried. I am waiting on some gorgeous Wensleydale fleece which should be with me by mid August.  This will then be dyed and listed in the shop.

I am currently spinning up some hand dyed mohair curls which I have dyed in shades of lilac and purple and these are coming out very fine and I will hopefully be making a shawl out of the resulting yarn. 

I have warped up the knitters loom using a 12 dpi reed and am making some place mats using some Swedish weaving cotton that I got as a job lot on ebay. 

The weaving bug is still biting and despite selling the beloved floor loom I am strongly considering investing in a small table loom to satisfy my urge to keep weaving.  The jewellery making means that I can just weave for pleasure and not for income so the strain on the back wont be so bad.

I should love to hear from anyone regarding their spinning or weaving projects, its  always good to talk fibre.