Thursday, November 30, 2006

Charkas For Africa!

Our friends Reenie and Angela at www.materialwhirled.com are busy raising money for a wonderful cause--if you have something to donate, please get involved! The funds raised by sales and donations will provide charkha spinning wheels and hand carders for women trying to better their family's lives through their beautiful weaving and fiber art. We will be adding a donation of yarn and spinning fiber from the Homestead shortly-- can you help a great cause?? Too fun how the web can get us all in touch across the world-- check www.jumpsheep.com for lots more info!

Also, don't forget to send your handspun yarn AND finished item pictures and website links to www.yarnmuseum.com-- it is a beyond fun way to show case your fiber art with a fun bunch of people from all over the world! The Scharfs are doing a great job building a site that will be a fun visit for anyone interested in fiber art! More soon! Happy Holidays from the sheep!

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Way too fun-Lash Yarn on the Loose!


My good friend Karen is a knitting whiz--no patterns, she just sits down and knits what she sees in her mind! Just beyond amazing. She shared this picture of her shop window, complete with a hooded, floor length cape created completely with our handspun wool lash yarn! The cardigan next to the cape is trimmed out at the collar and sleeves with the same yarn..... Way too fun and thank you for sharing the picture Karen!

As you may have noticed, we have had some issues with our fiber art gallery page on the site so it is only showing the smaller thumbnail pictures now. We had a computer melt down that 'ate' lots of our info, one of them the larger pictures. SO, if you can, please be sure to send us pictures so we can update the gallery page! We love showing off your creations! Happy holidays all!

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Have you seen the new Spin Off???? News news!





We have more congrats to send to our friends Graham & Margaret Phillipson!!!! The most recent Spin Off magazine is hot off the press featuring an article about Cheviot sheep--complete with pictures of Graham & Margaret's North Country Cheviots, their working Border Collie Jimmy and a few Scottish Black Face sheep too!!

The NCC wool is definitely a favorite of mine and everyone who has tried it so far has had great feedback to report. We have Graham & Margaret's fleeces available on our website so be sure to try them out--we purchase them every spring and they generally do not last long!

Pictured today are several members of our own flock that have made their way here from G & M! left-to right-Frasier, a sassy British Suffolk cross; Brenden, a curly Blue Face Leicester cross; Casey, a beautiful North Country Cheviot girl; and Jim's little Devlyn, a Scottish Black Face lamb!

There is a lot that makes the G&M sheep so special--including Scottish genetics from Europe, acres and acres of pasture and lots of special care.

I hear tell a future issue will feature the Scottish Black Face wool (and more Littledale sheep!), another favorite wool that is much more diverse than many think! We will keep you posted--for more about Graham and Margaret and their beautiful sheep, visit them at www.littledalefarm.com !

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Happy Thanksgiving--Socrates style?

Happy Thanksgiving all! Today I am grateful for many things, including our family, sheepy family, our wonderful customers and friends. However, the greatest gift I could have received is actually living in my little laundry room ICU.

Some of you may have heard that we have been fighting to keep Socrates (our 6 month old Wensleydale lamb) from leaving us for 'greener pastures'. He has a unique dental problem that involved some tricky dental repairs by our very talented Vets Ray Pawlisch and Jason Mertens--and lots of tears and hope by us that we were actually doing the right thing for Socs.

I was not sure last night that we had done right by putting him through a surgery of sorts and expecting him to come out of it eating with his funky teeth--things were not looking bright at all for Socs. However, I got up again at 2 this morning to check on him, and the best sight greeted me ever! Socs had pulled his bag of Sun Chips off the shelf and stomped a bunch into his carpeting, tipped and played in his food AND was working on tipping his water bowl! Woohoo--very typical lamb behavior the little imp! He has finally decided that Quaker Oats are his 'thing' that he can eat lots of with out having trouble chewing.

This Thanksgiving day, we are hoping he has turned the corner and is going to be with us a long long time--what more could we ever ask to be thankful for?! Right now he is looking back at me like, 'hey, what's the big deal???'

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Welcome Old Stage Alpacas!!



We are so happy to be able to sell some great Alpaca fiber for our good friend Jen! She has a wonderful place and spends her time with her purchased and rescued Alpacas! They have acres and acres to romp happily and are now safely home....

All the proceeds from the sale of the fiber will go directly to the flock's care. We will be offering colored Suri and Huacaya fleeces that range from no debris all the way to some that may need some extra work--they are all stunning! If you are searching for a specific color, please email, we have lots here to tempt you with!!

There are already several fleeces added to the site today so have a look! Her prices are very reasonable! Hope you all checked out the yarn museum? Lots of great categories to submit pictures for--including finished items!!! More soon!!

Friday, November 17, 2006

Check out the Yarn Museum!!!


There is a great new opportunity for fiber artists to showcase their unique fiber art!! You can visit the museum at www.yarnmuseum.com . Way too cool and the site just went live yesterday so be sure to keep checking back-the site will be including more and more all the time! Visit to see how to submit your artwork and be part of a very fun project that revels in the fiber/spinning experience!!!

We are also excited to be part of a new section of the hands on exhibits at Mt. Vernon! Some of our wool will soon become part of the handspinning activities at the museum that will allow people to card the wool, then learn to spin it on a drop spindle. I hear the kids love it lots! If you are in the area, be sure to stop in and visit--here is their website: http://www.mountvernon.org/learn/explore_mv/index.cfm/pid/293/ --the sheep are SO excited!!

Be sure to keep an eye on our site for lots of fun gift items from 3 Chic Knits! More to follow--happy day to all!

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Marshall Fields Display Sheep!



We recently received a sweet, wonderful gift from friends of my parents! This little family of sheep is one of only two sets of sheep created in Germany for a 1970's Marshall Fields holiday window display. Nobody knows what happened to the other set so this is the one and only as far as we know! Too cool! The wool is actually sewn onto fabric, then was added to the wooden bodies of the sheep--papa, mama and baby. Too cute! We plan to put them to 'work' modeling hats, scarves and shawls--specially since our family of sheep highly objected to the modeling and would not cooperate! Silly sheep! Watch for their pictures on the 3 Chic Knit page! Lots of new yarn heading for the site again this week, and some new dyed mohair fiber. Planning a day of wool sorting tomorrow so keep a good eye out! More soon!!

Friday, November 10, 2006

New yarns posted!!! Fiber to follow!



Had some fun this past week plying some funky yarn! Both are available on the website, along with some other great choices--including our single ply Crazy Quilt yarns! The flowered yarn is a blend of our Treasure's Border Leicester wool, during carding Shari added white Scottish Black Face from our friend's flock, and some dyed orange Cotswold wool. Spun it into singles, then plyed it with a matching thread hand strung with lime green glass beads and pretty pansy flowers to top it all off! The second yarn is mystery wool that I spun, then plyed with a strand of wool yarn hand strung with seashells, seahorses, star fish, sand dollarsa and oh, of course sea colored glass beads! Too much fun! We will be posting dyed fibers and rovings this weekend so keep an eye out. The sheep are enjoying the cooler weather and we are expecting a light snow tonight--yee ha!