Success!

The CT Sheep and Wool Festival was a success. A big thank you to everyone that stopped by our space. Steve and I are exhausted. He never had a chance to take photos of the events. I didn't buy ANYTHING. Why? We were busy! Our sales were more than double from last year. We met many folks walking around browsing and I hope maybe we made some new friends.

Our website remain offline until later today. We must first still unload the trailer and do a thorough inventory. But right now, it's coffee time.

Debi

Later... 7:16pm

We finished the inventory a short time ago. Steve is still entering the data onto the website. He should have it back online within an hour. It's been a long day!

For some reason Blogger does not let me add more than 1 photo in a posting. So, here is the completed wheel. Yep, all assembled in one afternoon. Pretty good, huh? The most difficult part that I think is the assembly of the bobbins. Mine are not completely level so they appear to wobble a bit when they spin. But it works. What does concern me is that I ended up with 2 hooks left over. Could they have really given me extra pieces as Steve insists?

Countdown!

One week until the CT Sheep and Wool Show. We have SO much to do here to get ready for it.

Today I must:

Assemble a Louet S-17 Spinning Wheel to have for demos. I want to do all of the assembly myself so I will have first hand knowledge of the process to explain it to my customers. Since our house is very small, the operation will take place on the kitchen floor, the only fairly large open area(I used to pin my quilts there). I'm quite certain I will be assisted by Bailey our Cocker Spaniel and several cats. I'll have Steve take pictures so I will have a photo documentary of the process. I guess I had better shower and do something with my hair then.

I must weigh out and bag up small portions of washed fleece to sell. I've come to the conclusion that many new spinners are intimidated by an entire dirty fleece. I'll feed their habit with my smaller, cleaner bags of wool. I'm such a fiber junkie.

I may also bag up some of the wool I dyed this past winter. It's not the greatest, but it certainly is colorful.

I must put price tags on our bags of assorted roving and miscellaneous items. I don't have to do the yarn as it is almost all the same price.

I also need to do the normal weekend chores of laundry, bill paying etc. You'll notice I did not say cleaning. I do not clean. I am not sloppy. I'm domestically challenged. We live in filth. Deal with it.

We did the grocery shopping last night so we have no excuse nor reason to leave this house until Monday morning. Egad.

The shed/barn process is proceeding at a snail's pace. We now have 3 of the required 5 or 6 signatures of various town officials on the building permit. The sewer dept. Inspector came to our house to take measurements on Thursday. Steve tells me that he measured. He paced. He placed stakes in the ground. He dug small holes. His conclusion was that we had to move the proposed location west about 5'. Our first choice was too close to the very end of the leech field of the septic. This will now require more work to prepare the site. We will have to have fill brought in and stone and it will need to be leveled. To compensate for the additional cost of the site preparation, we may need to go with a smaller structure.

It's starting to get light outside finally. The sky in the east is bright salmon color. A definite indication of the heavy rain that we are supposed to get this weekend. Red sky in morning...

Later...

I didn't get everything done today that I needed to get done. But I finished the assembly of the S-17. I didn't sand it. I just put it together. I only needed Steve to help me with one screw. My carpal tunnel damaged hand just could not sufficiently tighten the screw. The instructions were a little vague, but I managed to get through them. I made some notes on them to myself and I'm going to keep them in case anyone needs help.


Here is the box and contents when I opened it.

New Products!

They're here! The hand painted skeins from Jessie at A Piece of Vermont. Take a look!

Couldn't sleep.

I've been awake since 2:00am. Darn cold had me up and coughing. It's going to be a long day!

Good news! My order of handpainted yarns should be available later this week. Jessie's work is beautiful. But don't take my word for it. Visit her blog here: http://whathousework.typepad.com

We've started the wheels in motion for the bunny barn/studio. We ordered it but they won't start to build it until we give them a deposit. And we are waiting on the deposit until we get a building permit. And of course we can't have the site cleared and leveled until we get the permit. No point in doing all that work if for some reason the town won't let us put it there. We have almost an acre and a half of land, most of it wooded. So there has to be some place we can put it if they reject our first choice.

This month, the Madley Spinners here in Colchester meet on Wednesday instead of Tuesday. The Town Hall bumped us for some silly official meeting or something. We can't complain as we get the room for free.

It's a rainy morning but it's supposed to clear eventually. A good day for a nap.

Day 1

I decided to set up this blog as a way to reach our customers. I will try to update it regularly.

This week we received some new products. We now have black mohair roving that is a soft as velvet! I wish Steve would allow me to spin some. I purchased some goat hair. It's very rough. I think it should only be used in rugs or some sort of fiber art. Nothing wearable and close to the skin. I also purchased a few skeins of KidLin yarn. It's Kid Mohair, Linen and Nylon. It's a laceweight yarn and it's soft. I think it would be perfect for lace shawl. If you are interested in it, I can order other colors.

Also we are in the planning stages of having a small barn or large shed built for our property. Our business has taken over the house and we need space to store everything. Ms. Eloise Edna is going to live out there during the summer months too. I hope to get an additional bunny or two to keep her company. I may have to install an air conditioner to keep her cozy.

The barn will also be used as a studio and warehouse. We live in a rural residential area. Technically, we cannot have a retail site on our property because of zoning. However, the farm on the next street sells produce and cheese from their property. I figure if it is called a studio and if someone stops by and wants to make a purchase, that would be okay. Just so long as I don't have regular posted hours. And I'll finally get my loom off of the dining room table! It will be a great space to dry yarns and fiber too.

We hope to situate it so it will overlook my garden out back. Of course that means that I will have to keep up with the weeding.

We're still waiting to hear if we have a space at the CT Sheep Show. The show is on Saturday, April 29th at the Tolland Agricultural Center in Vernon CT.

That's about all of the news for now.
Debi