Thursday, July 21, 2011

When Sheep Make Executive Decisions.....

it is a good thing for all of you! ;0)
 
 

The sheep got together and decided we needed to adjust our prices to address the weather related issues we are having on the farm. We have not had rain for weeks and our pastures/hayfields are literally toast! In light of that, the sheep are having a 'rain dance' price reduction on all fiber and yarn (does not include unwashed wool).

The idea of feeding hay so early in the year is not fun- but since we have almost met our FUNdraising goal for sheep coats, we should be able to get them all coated up before they have to have hay. Thank you everyone for your sponsorship of the sheep- you are awesome!  http://www.gofundme.com/coatsforsheep





Hope you will stop on by and have a browse- if you are looking for yarn (we are re-vamping the yarn pages and links are not officially hooked up yet), just scroll down to the site map, you will see the links there. The yarn will be listed by weight i.e. Aran, Bulky, etc... http://www.homesteadwoolandgiftfarm.com/

Hope you are all happily fibering away, and as always, thank you for supporting the sheep- they send you many many fruit loop-ie smooches!
sandyrella



Sunday, July 10, 2011

Winding my weekend......into one skein of thought

 Most of you probably know I snuck out to the Midwest Folk and Fiber fest in IL two weekends ago? I had to reflect on that weekend, it was so packed with fun! Fun people, fiber and classes! Where should I start??

I got to spend the weekend with my good friend Ellen- at her Palace Ellen on the lake! It is such a cozy, quiet cottage- I hope to spend some time there with her again very soon- thank you Ellen for putting up with me!

I took 3 classes, 2 with the famous Jacey Boggs! She and I go way back and it was wonderful to meet her in person! She is a wonderful person and great teacher. I learned to corespin, work with beehives AND did NOT learn to spin boucle. Grrr. No fault of Jacey's, just cannot GET it. Need to practice practice and practice some more- right Jacey?

Be sure to check Jacey out- she has a new book coming out this fall along with a new handspinning video. You can find her at http://www.insubordiknit.com/ . She also offers weekend classes all over the USA and the world. If she comes to your area sign on up- you will love her!

I also got to meet friends that the sheep have known for sometime, again, great to see all of you in person! Hugs all around!

I also met Conni Togel of http://www.charisma-art.com/ - I swear she is painting my own sheep and the things they think up. Conni used to have a flock of sheep and had to re-home them. Now they inspire her paintings. Just too cool!

The last class Ellen, Diane and I took was Stefania Isaacson's spinning for socks class. It was awesome and so is she! I have to practice and get the blends right- but am on my way. You can find her at http://www.stefania-spins.com/ !

I learned a lot there, and as you know I can go on and on. (but I will try not to!). Diane taught me to use a support spindle, and made me one to take home. She also suggested I use my wallpaper brush as a burnishing brush for my batts/carder. That is the best tip I have ever had for my carder! Now I am able to card up 10 ounce + batts- even including alpaca! My carder is so great, but it had a bad habit of spitting alpaca all over the room. Not good, but we have that all fixed!

Hope you are all enjoying your Sunday- and thank you again to all the people who made my sneak away weekend so special...

Later today the sheep are going to update the website- hope to see you there! http://www.homesteadwoolandgiftfarm.com/

We are over halfway to coating our entire flock! You guys are awesome! If you'd like more info about our Coats for Sheep FUNdraiser, please have a visit:
 http://www.gofundme.com/coatsforsheep

Smooches from the sheep!