Thank you everyone who came and commented on my brand new website and Welcome post! It has been a huge effort to put the website together but I think everything is working now and your comments and feedback have been brilliant! I am pleased to announce that the winner of the draw is Monica of Craftwich Creations on Etsy!! She is selling the most stunning hand crafted crochet hooks ever too, I was just totally sidetracked browsing her shop 🙂  Congratulations Monica! I will be emailing you too. If it wasnt you this time, I wish I could choose everyone who took the time to say hello.. but I will be doing more giveaways in future.. so keep entering when you see one, as we say in New Zealand.. you gotta be in to win! I appreciate all the positive feedback and suggestions, I already added a ‘creations’ gallery to show some of the things I have been making with my yarns, and still to come is a free e-book section with woolie information for spinners and a soon to come booklet of designs and patterns to use with my yarns! Thank you for all your support, hope to see you back soon 🙂   Suzy...

Last month I did a big thing. Well it was big for me at least! I had been thinking about it for a while but was very uncertain about if it would fly or plummet screaming into the firey heart of Mount Doom in the biggest crash and burn in the history of er.. crashy and burny stuff.   I had been dreaming for ages about a new spinning wheel. Not just any wheel, but what I fondly renamed (in my head) The One Wheel to Rule them ALL (mwahahahaha!) the Majacraft Aura. I absolutely became obbessed with fell in love with my precioussssss the look of this wheel. Its made with beautiful Rimu timbers, native to my homeland New Zealand,  it also fills me with pride that Kiwis (New Zealanders) are producing such quality equipment as this, and Majacraft, along with Lexi Boeger (Pluckyfluff) designed this in a stunning organic looking form that is also incredibly functional. SO functional in fact that it earns its One Wheel title (IMO) because it is capable of spinning a huge range of yarns, its so very adjustable that it can be used for many different styles of yarns, and particularly the big chunky art yarns with crazy integrated objects – exactly what I couldnt do with my reliable but small orificed Ashford. I was already selling my yarns quite happily in my Etsy store, but then I discovered crowd funding. People make a project, and ‘the crowd’ (aka internet people) fund it! Project makers offer ‘perks’ or items in return for financial support for their projects.  I liked Indiegogo, it has a big range of fundraisers running and lots of funky arty indie projects. I made the decision to close my eyes and take the leap! I wrote the story of the One Wheel, and made my presentation video to go with it; described by some as ‘epic’ I hoped like hell that I wasnt going to annoy Majacraft with my odd references to Lord of the Rings. I found out later that Andrew Poad himself is something of a major LOTR fan too, the whole thing ended up quite serendipitous 🙂 breathe in, breathe out, calm and centered…. calm and centered….. Anyway.. 🙂 I made my campaign, my One Wheel Fundraiser! I had listed a range of ‘perks’ at different prices, mostly including at least one skein of handspun yarn. I hoped someone would like it and I was a bunch of jittery nerves by the time I hit the ‘go live’ button!  But it worked. It really actually worked! I did quite a bit of researching, looking at other campaigns and figuring out what was cool and what wasnt,...

I am sure that everyone who makes and sells handspun yarn always has a few all time favourites, it can sometimes be hard to let them go! However having great photos of them does take up a LOT less room than keeping them all, and its a great way to keep a record of what I have made and especially what I would like to make again! Here are a few of my favourites. To view, click on the thumbnail, for a close up view, click again!    ...