Monday, September 18, 2006




Northern Lights In Stock!

We received our shipment of the Northern Lights wool from Louet and as a spinner, I LIKE IT! It's processed as a pencil roving although all of the information I saw on it at Louet did not mention this. Also, just look at how much is in an 8oz bag!

I quickly spun up a mini-skein just to get an idea of what it would look like.





Suggested retail price is $22 for an 8oz bag. Our price is $17.60. Well worth it that that much fiber.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Yesterday was bunny trimming and grooming day. Rianne came over to help. She had worked about 6 months at the local vet last year so she is very good with the clippers. My job was to hold the rabbits while she clipped and when we stopped, we were both exhausted. I can't say that we finished, as Henry took a dive from my arms and we were not able to catch him again. He is silly looking now with only one side of his hind quarters finished and a big collar of fur around his neck. But by that time, we were all tired and stressed out so we stopped. We had been working on them for over 3 hours. I had to hold them, with a certain degree of firmness yet not enough to crack their hollow bones. Eliose was by far the best bunny. She let us do what had to be done including cleaning her undercarriage.

Frau Ruby was horrible. It took forever to clip through her dense, thick fur. She bit me twice but did not break the skin. I then double wrapped my arm in a thick towel. I could feel her trying to nibble me still.



The clippers slid through Henry's fur like butter. The Satin Angora's fur is much finer and softer than Frau Ruby the German. Next time we catch Henry, it shouldn't take too long to finish him. He too was trying to bite me so I don't want to work on him alone.

We never got around to George. But he was just combed out when he went to the vet a few weeks ago for his "tumors", so I don't think he has too many knots left. He is more mellow now that we no longer call him Loretta.

The weather is great now. Steve removed the air conditioner from the window in the bunny barn. He left them up in the house for now as we could still get hit with an Indian Summer. I planted a small vegetable garden in June. Just this week, the tomatoes are finally ripening! And I started with plants, not seeds. It has taken forever this year. I also planted some kale for the rabbits. It was looking great and then one morning I went to check it and it looked like Swiss cheese. Teeny, tiny little caterpillars were all over the plants. Within a couple of days, the plants were gone. Damn, didn't see that one coming. That is the extent of my gardening this year. I did fill the usual containers and buckets with flowers. It's been so wet that we have mushrooms everywhere in the yard. My garden which I was so proud of back in 2000 is a mass of overgrown weeds. Steve hasn't been cutting the grass as frequently because it's always too wet. He usually take the weed trimmer to the garden but he has done that lately either.

Ryan seems to be doing well at school. I don't know about academically, but socially, his calendar is full. His band is in the process of finding a new drummer. The kid that was their drummer last year, Mike, had a hissy fit and didn't want to play with them any longer. I think it's Mike's loss and he also lost the friendship of the guys. Ryan said they have an opportunity to work a steady gig at one of the restaurants near school. The place wants to hire the local bands for the weekends s they would be playing either a Friday or Saturday night there. He and his roommate Derek have their weekly show on the campus radio station again. Ryan does seem to like his classes again and now that he rooms with Derek, he's happy. Derek also comes from CT. They met last year and became friends. The two of the write the songs and music for the band. Perhaps they are a budding Rogers and Hammerstein?

Rianne is attending a local community college. She seems to have adjusted well. She had always wanted to become an Art Teacher for elementary school aged children, but now she is changing her mind. While she still loves art and small kids, she's afraid if she had to do it for an occupation that it would turn her against art and that she would never want her own children. Instead she is leaning more towards the medical field. She's thinking about being an operating room technician to start as it only requires an AA degree and eventually going into nursing to become an RN. That way she could do her art and painting and it would still be a pleasure for her. She likes working in a medical environment and she loved to assist in the surgeries when she worked at the vet. She does not want to do that however as she becomes too attached to the animals and wants to take everyone home. She seems to be so grown up now.

As for the business, we have some new roving from Louet on order. It's a fiber similar to the Corriedale, but it's a mixed bag of color. I don't know how else to describe it. Steve has pictures up on the site to look at it. We expect it in stock sometime this week. I don't have a retail price yet but it will probably be somewhere between $12-$18 for an 8oz bag. The Yak roving is still out of stock with Louet. I have to call them this week to see what the problem is with it.

We also now have in stock drop spindle kits. They are top whorl spindles and the kit contains three different fibers totaling approximately 4oz, either natural colors or dyed(colors may vary) and a small trial size bottle of Meadows Wool Wash. I had received requests in the past for just such a kit. I'm hoping that they will still be in demand. They would be a good gift for someone who is just thinking about learning the method.

That's about all I have for news this week. Send me an email if you have any questions.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

We are still in the aftermath of a very weakened hurricane Ernesto. It's rainy and very windy. The yard and deck are littered with sticks, branches and bits and pieces of leaves. I'm afraid there won't be very pretty foliage this year as most of the leaves have already fallen off the trees while they were still green.

Steve is certain that we are in for a bad winter. He is predicting that based on the fact that the acorns have been falling for several weeks already. Soon I have to think about getting a load or two of wood for the stove. I must remember to call the chimney sweep before we light our first fire.

I think Autumn is my favorite season. Summer is good, but most of the time it just too darn hot and humid for me. What's the fun of Summer if it must be spent in air conditioning? I love Autumn with the cool nights and mornings. We've already had to break out the sweatshirt and light jackets. The downside of Autumn is the shorter amount of daylight and the fact that winter with it's ice and snow (and oil bills!) is just a couple of months away.

Today, amidst all of the rain and wind, we have to finish packing the car and trailer and drive Ryan back up to college. It's about a three and a half hour drive in good weather without hauling the trailer. I hate to think how long(and how much gas!) it's going to take us today. As a returning student, he can't start his move in until 2:00pm. We might stay overnight up there and finish up in the morning. It's just too exhausting to try to do it all in one day, plus driving the 230+ miles each way. It's at times like this that I really wish he had gone to school locally.

Now that it's cooler, I'm thinking of knitting again. I have started, stopped and ripped out a countless number of projects this Summer. I could not get motivated. I just finished a simple, big, floppy winter hat for Rianne last night. It's made from very soft homespun yarn. I dyed it green with one of the Gaywools dyes and I also added a couple of orange stripes (Kool Aid dyed). It's the colors of the Irish flag and I know she will love it. She's attending a local community college this year and I wanted her to have a warm hat for the walk across the campus.

I have an idea percolating in my head for a knitted coat. I purchased all of that brilliantly colored roving at the NH show in the Spring. I'm thinking of the coat looking almost like a patchwork coat of many colors. The earliest ETA of it would be in the late Spring. I'm not going to set a deadline for myself. That's too much pressure as I still have to finish spinning the yarn.

Yes, I love color. And yes, I can be tacky at times with it. I still occasionally wear tie-dyed tee shirts. I think the fact that I worked in the field of banking/legal for 22 years has caused me to need bright colors now. All that time I had to spend in subdued grays and blues with the almost always present string of pearls around my neck. I can't remember the last time I wore those pearls.

Steve is still asking for his pullover too. I started one last year using a formula on circular needles that I thought I had calculated correctly. It was raglan but before I had reached the collar edge, the knitted mass was enormous. If I had kept up the same rate of decreases, it would have been large enough to use as a cover for our barbecue grill! I guess I had better use an actual pattern and not try to be clever and design it myself. We had a good laugh the night he slipped it over his head and the waist band was mid-thigh and the arm holes hung down near his hips.

I still haven't brought any new products for the business. I just have not been able to focus on it. I hope that once Ryan is all snug in his dorm room, life here will return to a more normal routine. I did bag up some fleece that is a Cormo X. It's a beautiful fleece. No, really! I bought the same one last year and kept it for myself. And with that one, I didn't even wash it before I started spinning. The fleece is just THAT clean! This year the farm contacted me and asked if I wanted to buy it again and I jumped on it. That purchase was my main reason for making the horrible trip up to the NH Sheep and Wool in that monsoon in the Spring.

I have a large Louet order due in next week. They are now offering drop spindle kits. I've had requests for those so I hope they will sell. Before we became vendors, I actually purchased a Louet bottom whorl spindle off of eBay. Honestly, it's my favorite bottom whorl spindle. It spins evenly and smoothly. I have spindles that I have purchased that are much more expensive, but I find myself returning to the Louet.

Well, it's just starting to get light outside now. The last load of laundry is in the dryer (I've been awake over 2 hours already). It's time to get going here and start the big move.