Spring!

It may seem premature, with bits of snow still lingering here and there, but spring is definitely here. Here's how I know:

My first kid of the year has arrived, a sweet little blue-eyed doeling.

Other signs of spring include: a yard covered in crocuses, planning fleece-buying trips to local farms, and the sudden crushing realization that I have one million things to get done, now. The rest of this month will be an absolute whirlwind as I finish getting ready for the Homespun Yarn Party, wait for Lilly to have her kids, and try to prepare to start the many farm projects that have been waiting for warmer weather.

I just listed some patchwork yarns in the shop - BFL, cormo, and four skeins of a dreamy recycled merino/cashmere/silk blend that I carded into fluffy batts before dyeing and spinning. I may squeeze a few more skeins in tomorrow morning, but there will probably only be one more mini update before Homespun Yarn Party on march 24th, and I may end up putting my shop on vacation before that. There will be more patchwork yarns (I can't wait to get to spinning more of the recycled cashmere blend and the local cormo wool), new colorways, and hopefully a LOT of new goats milk soaps coming to the shop in late march/early april!

New yarns & new spinning group

A brand new spinning group just started up in westminster, MD! It takes place at the westminster senior center, 6-9pm, on the 1st and 3rd fridays of every month. I attended the very first meetup on the 18th, and I'm hoping to be able to make it regularly. If you are local and interested in stopping by, there is a ravelry group called Sykesville Spinners where the meetup started.

I decided to card up some batts from my large stash of dyed fibers that got sort of out-of-control during the process of getting ready for shows in october-december so that I would have something to spin at the meetup, and I ended up carding a TON of batts. I just listed 12 new bulky art yarns in the shop, with more on the way probably by the end of the week.

 

I'm going to try to keep the shop stocked with yarns all the way up until show/kidding season begins (march). I'm dyeing my way through 10lbs of merino x wool in various patchwork colorways and hope to continue to conquer my stash by getting it carded and spun. It's almost shearing season, which means I need to organize my fiber and free up space for brand new wool - my own version of spring cleaning!

MD Hand Dyers Guild Yarn Crawl

The past 6 weeks have been a whirlwind of fluff! Crafty Bastards completely wiped me out - I sold all the soap I brought and came home with only 6 skeins of yarn, so I had to start again from scratch building inventory for a holiday yarn crawl this weekend. I'm going to be selling my yarn & soap this weekend at the first annual Maryland Hand Dyers Guild Yarn Crawl! This saturday, December 8th, and sunday, December 9th, three MD hand dyers will be opening up their studios to sell their gorgeous hand dyed yarns. They just happen to also be my three favorite local hand dyers: Dragonfly Fibers, Neighborhood Fiber Co, and Cephalopod Yarns.

I will be at the Dragonfly Fibers studio (4104 Howard Ave Kensington, MD 20895) on saturday from 10am-5pm and at Cephalopod Yarns studio (1547B Ridgely, Baltimore, MD 21230) on sunday from 10am-5pm.

I'm bringing handspun yarn (mostly art yarns, only handful of patchwork yarns), goats milk soap made with milk from my own little herd, sheepy sachets, and some project bags.



I made 8 batches of goats milk soap right after Crafty Bastards, including these new kinds (pictured above):

Chocolate Orange - sweet orange and blood orange essential oils with a bit of chocolate fragrance oil swirled through. Colored with tumeric, paprika, and cocoa powder.

Ginger, Sweet Orange, & Pink Grapefruit - with pink himalayan salt. Lightly colored with tumeric & paprika.

Lavender, Bergamot, & Juniper Berry - with poppy seeds & lavender buds.

Chai Latte - Cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg essential oils, with powdered cinnamon and nutmeg swirled through the soap.

Frosty Morning -Peppermint and fir needle (smells like a pine tree) essential oils, with powdered oatmeal and dill for color.

Any soaps left over after this weekend will be posted in my etsy shop.



The kids are growing up, I can't believe it's already been 2 months since they were born! They are technically old enough to be weaned but I switched the triplets to being bottle fed because they're so much smaller than Tarot's buckling, who was getting three times as much milk since he had an entire udder to himself. It feels strange to be milking in december (brr), but I'm getting a half gallon a day from two mini goats. Most of my other girls should be bred (fingers crossed) for spring kids.

We just finished up a mini kidding season here. Cameo had triplets, our first set of triplets ever. Two blue-eyed boys and a girl. It was a little chaotic at first, but it worked out well because Cameo is a super mom and well equipped to handle raising that many babies at once.





I guessed that she was going to have triplets, based on the size of her udder and how incredibly wide she got in the last few weeks before kidding:



Tarot had a single buckling, a funny laid back little guy.





In other news, my goats milk soaps are now available in my etsy shop. I love them, I've had a long running obsession with handmade soap and it's pretty great being able to make my own. These soaps all suit my tastes: simple, natural, rustic.

I will be a vendor at the Crafty Bastards craft fair in DC again this year, but it feels like a whole new show since it's going to be indoors for the first time (hurray! No worries about rain/cold!). For the first time, you will need to buy a ticket to get into the show -  it's $10 at the door, but you can order tickets online for half price here. It is totally worth it for all the awesome vendors at this show! The new location is Union Market, 1309 5th Street NE in Washington, D.C., and Crafty Bastards is Saturday, Nov. 10, 2012 from 10am-7pm.

Patchwork roundup

It's been over 2 years since I last posted about projects made with my patchwork yarns, I think it's about time for a new post! There are now 5 pages of projects made with my patchwork handspun on ravelry (maybe more that aren't linked), so I picked some of my favorites to feature. I linked back to the ravelry project pages if you want to see more pictures & details of the original projects.

Gnomey Pants, knit by knittingma from the Gnome colorway. These are beautiful. I don't even know how many times I've just looked at these pictures in my favorites on ravelry, this is one of those times when the yarn and project are perfect for each other and the finished item could not be better! The solid blue edging ties everything together and makes the colors pop. When I was designing this colorway, that shade of blue was one of the main colors it was centered around. And this only took one skein!

Folktale Wristwarmers, knit by mindfulknitter from the Luned colorway. I feel like having happy-colored knits like these keeps me warmer, but that could just be me.

A Thorpe For Mama, knit by Bertha out of the colorway Gypsy Boy. Thorpe is a free pattern, and I dearly love hats with earflaps and ties! I also love this colorway. If you go to the ravelry project page for this hat, you can zoom in on the picture to see more detail.

 

f a r m e r ' s : t o a s t and g y p s y {mitts}, knit by GracieBelle of One Headlight Designs from the Farmers Market and Gypsy Boy colorways.One of the reasons patchwork yarns are excellent for hand coverings like mittens and fingerless gloves (besides just looking good) is that they tend to knit up into a really dense sturdy fabric. I can wear my patchwork mitts while doing farm chores in the winter and they hold up great.

Folktale Socks, knit by EarthenKnit from the Rona colorway. Even though I like knitting socks from heavier yarns, it never occurred to me to knit a pair from my patchwork yarn. I bet they'd keep my feet toasty in this drafty little farmhouse in the winter!

Pull on Hats, knit by my friend Josie from the Farmers Market colorway. She is awesome and grows food for a school in MD, you should check out their blog, Community Farm at Sandy Springs Friends School. The colors in this hat match all the vibrant produce pictures on the blog!

Lirael fingerless mitts, knit by ME from the Lirael colorway. I came up with this pattern as a beginning knitter and have used it countless times over the years, but these are the first mitts I'm keeping for myself. They were SUCH a fast enjoyable knit, and very warm and comfy! I spun this yarn from squishy cormo farm wool, and it was irresistible.

And, lastly - Folktale yoke sweater, knit by POWERPAW. She blogs at LIONHAIRS and also has an etsy shop with cure accessories (I like the collar necklaces). My heart went pitter-patter the first time I saw these pictures! I need a patchwork sweater now, and my goal this winter is to spin and knit myself a sweater entirely from patchwork yarns.


I will be closing down the patchwork yarn sale tomorrow evening, so there is one more day left to place pre-orders. As of right now, the custom spots are just over half filled and I made enough to buy supplies to build nice new kidding pens for my goats so that each doe can have her own space. I'm hoping to get enough orders to be able to buy the supplies to build individual shelters for each pen too. The best part is that the pens will be moveable and can be taken apart and rearranged into different fencing configurations when I don't have any does ready to kid - so I will be able to use them for breeding pens and moveable pasture fencing too. Right now I have my nigerian dwarf does out in a small moveable pasture, eating down the crazy overgrown weeds in the garden for me. It saves me the trouble of having to scythe an acre by hand, the goats get lots of nutritious greens (and bonus: they fertilize as they go), and being able to move them to entirely new ground every day means I can worry less about parasites. Plus my neighbors get to watch the "goat parade" every evening when I lead them all back in to the barn.

Thanks, everybody who's ordered so far!

Patchwork yarn pre-order sale/fundraiser

I know it can be hard to grab a skein of my patchwork handspun yarn, since it usually sells out within a few days of a shop update, and I don't usually update more than twice a month at best. I do take requests for colorways - if you contact me saying you want a specific patchwork colorway & how many skeins, I get back to you when I have that colorway ready to list again, with pictures and details, so that you can have them listed reserved for you if you'd like. However, this takes a while unless I happen to already have the fiber dyed and ready to go in that colorway, sometimes as much as a few months. Well, now's your chance: I've decided to offer custom requests for my patchwork yarns spun from lofty minimally processed merino cross wool at a really really good price, with the goal of fundraising money to get some farm projects done.

You can pre-order any repeatable patchwork colorway or Yarnbow self-striping yarn for $30 per skein for the next few days (until wednesday Sept. 5th) OR until all custom spinning spots are full. I'm going to cut this off at a certain number of skeins in order to make sure I can get it done in a reasonable amount of time and don't get too overwhelmed - I do have a few pregnant goats due in a month, after all. I'm setting aside the month of september to spin these custom requests so that I can get them dyed, spun, and shipped before my goats kid. Shipping is a flat $4 per order, no matter how many skeins are in that order.


The temporary pre-order shop is here. To order multiple skeins in one colorway, just add the colorway to your cart, click "go to cart", and then adjust the quantity there. If you'd prefer to order through etsy, you can contact me through my etsy shop and let me know which colorway(s) and how many skeins you want and I'll make you a reserved listing.

Patchwork yarns are usually around 130-200 yds per 3.5-4 oz skein, worsted to bulky weight, and they are normally priced at $36-$42 per skein plus shipping. They will be spun from merino x wool from DHF farm in the falkland islands - their sheep are mostly merino with a small percentage of corriedale, so the wool is super soft and lofty but with a longer staple length for a sturdier, better wearing yarn. They don't use any herbicides, pesticides, dips, footbaths or regular injections on their sheep, and no bleach or other chemicals in the processing of the wool - so it is, according to them, some of the purest, cleanest wool you will find on the planet. There are 16 different colors in each patchwork colorway, and they knit up in tweedy stripes. You can see examples of how they knit either in my previous blog posts about them or on the Ravelry projects page for my patchwork yarns. I will also have a new blog post showcasing some of my favorite projects made from my patchwork yarns in a few days - I realized that it's been almost 3 YEARS since I posted finished object pictures, and there have been lots of awesome projects in the meantime, including these fingerless knits I knit for myself from the Lirael colorway:





Also, for those who have been asking, my goats milk soaps made with milk from my little herd, essential oils, and herbs will be done curing in about a week, so I will be listing them on etsy soon. I think this may be my first official "farm product".

New Stuff For Sale!

I finally pulled off an etsy shop update! Let's start with the yarn. Back in May, I managed to buy a really amazing fleece at the MD Sheep & Wool Fest.






It came from a Romeldale x sheep named Tofu. The "x" means that while the sheep is mostly Romeldale, it is crossbred rather than purebred ( I pronounce the "x" as "cross" when saying it aloud, so "Romeldale x" = "Romeldale cross"). This particular sheep was 37.5% Romeldale, 34.4% Romney, 12.5% Corriedale, 9.4% Border Leicester, and 6.2% Lincoln. Quite a mix! The many longwool breeds mixed in there made me nervous, since I definitely prefer a finer fleece, but based on feel and looks I probably would have guessed that this fleece was a fine corriedale or a rambouillet crossed with something with a longer staple length. It is REALLY nice. And unique - I've never worked with a fleece quite like this!

I washed, picked, carded and re-carded the wool before spinning it. This always seems to take forever to me since the spinning is my favorite part, but I also greatly enjoy having a big pile of finished batts sitting around.

Most of the batts are plain, but I blended some of the Romeldale x with dark brown CVM wool (CVM is the same breed as Romeldale, just a color variation) and some with 20% recycled soysilk. I started with a 7+ pound fleece, but after processing I ended up with about 4.5 pounds of batts. Then comes the dyeing - which also takes a while, at 16 colors per patchwork colorway! I write out detailed notes for myself before every batch that I dye. And finally, the first batch of finished yarns:

These yarns are up in the shop now, and there will be more coming in the next update or two. I also listed some merino x patchwork yarns and a handful of novelty yarns, like an extreme tailspun lock yarn and a corespun yarn with my pygora goats fiber.

I listed several of my fiber-animal themed small knitting project bags for the first time, one of the new products I mentioned in my last post. I've been sewing these since the beginning of this year and selling them at shows, and have made a few changes to my design. The changes are minor, mostly messing with the dimensions (they are all the same size, just with the width and height rearranged), but I decided to list my remaining bags at a reduced price so that I can start fresh with the next batch of bags I make. The price will go up by about $5 at the very least, since I'm using as much organic cotton fabric as possible, and I'm thinking of custom screenprinting my own fabric in the future. Here are two of the bags with a small turquoise GoKnit pouch for size comparison:

The Go Knit pouch is about 6" wide and 8" tall, and my bags vary but are about 5.5" wide and 9" tall on average, with a square bottom. They can easily hold a small project - I photographed most of them holding a half knit sock with two balls of yarn:

They are fully lined and can be reversed if you want, but really I think the fiber animal fabric on the outside is the best. I have two organic cotton sheep prints and one alpaca print fabric used on the bags in this update. Each bag is unique as the lining and accent fabrics are different. They are super useful, and can be used for things other than knitting - I've used mine to hold a spindle and fiber and embroidery projects.

They also have a carry strap, which can be hung around your wrist if you want to knit and walk, and close with a drawstring made of super strong paracord.

An important shipping note: for the first time in years, all items in this update have the option for international shipping! I finally figured out a way to allow me to ship international items both in a timely fashion and with partial tracking/insurance, so I'm testing it out. I may or may not continue to offer this in the future, but I've had many requests for this! Before I moved to the farm I shipped internationally all the time, since I could walk the packages to the post office daily.

Coming soon: super creamy goats milk soap, made with milk from my own little herd! Nigerian Dwarf goats have super rich milk, and my skin loves this moisturizing soap.