Official launch and dye-a-day!

Wheee!!  Launch time!  Welcome, welcome, welcome, everyone.  I am *so* excited to be launching this blog officially!

To celebrate, I'm going to follow the lead of Janet and her Scarfaday blog.  Yes, I'm going to make dye-a-day posts for the rest of February!  By the time the month is up, I hope I'll be well into the habit of posting here, and of taking photographs of my fibre and yarns - the hardest part of the whole process!  The rules that I'll try to stick to are as follows:

1. This challenge initially runs through the rest of February;
2. I'll commit to posting on weekdays, though if I get really inspired I might post at the weekend, too;
3. I'll try to post a mixture of colourways and yarn/fibre types;
4. Preparing for Textiles in Focus temporarily trumps the blog.  If need be, I'll miss a day.
5. Family trumps everything else, even yarn! I might wind up missing a few days if something big comes up.

Let's start with this gorgeous Bluefaced Leicester roving, in 'Peachy':

...and own up to the fact that this is a massive 'cheat'.  Yes, I dyed it, but I certainly didn't take the photo.  This is the standard to which I will, over time, aspire.

Bluefaced Leicester (aka 'BFL' or 'biffle') is a type of wool that is becoming increasingly popular.  It is *fantastic* to spin, being almost as soft as merino, but with a longer staple, so it's easier for beginners.  It felts well, if your tastes run that way, and produces lovely knitted and woven items that will be as non-scratchy as wool can be, and soft and warm to boot.

As a side note, I also love working with it because it is relatively easy for me to buy BFL that has been produced in the UK.  This is really, really important to me, because I aim to produce fibres that have as gentle an environmental impact as I possibly can.