[Sheep] Business Saturday

Because shopping with Maisie is way more

...um...interesting than going to the mall!

We are developing an exciting new program here in the commonwealth (Kentucky is a commonwealth, not a state), The Kentucky Fiber Trail.  Kentucky is already well known for it's Bluegrass Trail (horse farms) and Bourbon Trail.  Now you can discover fiber farms throughout the state as well.  

Okay, let's give this a try!  Our farm shop (and barnyard) will be open this Saturday from 1:00-4:30 for Small Business Saturday.  We'll call it Sheep Business Saturday :-D.  

We'll have calendars, fleeces, roving, spindle kits, Christmas cards and ornaments, wool sheep pins, a few wool wreaths, maybe some felted sheep and for fun, let's make Maisie Orneries!  I'll have a basket of "Ornery"  supplies set out and teach you how to make your own wool roving wrapped ornament.  

So, come hide out on the farm with us this Saturday and take care of all your sheep and fiber-y gift giving needs.  We promise you won't be mobbed by fellow shoppers...unless you have cookies ;-).

If you need directions, please drop me an email.

The 2017 Kentucky Wool Festival

Well, another Kentucky Wool Festival is in the books.  Whew!  This was probably my favorite booth set up to date.  Or I should say booth design.  The set up was as brutal as always :-o.  A huge thanks to Auntie Reg and Uncle John for all their help.  Setting up a festival booth is not for the faint of heart!

The weather was atrocious - upper 80s on Friday and Saturday and then deluge rains on Sunday.  Still, the crowds were heavy (even in the rain!) and they were happily spending money, which was a huge relief.  Maintaining a flock of increasingly aging sheep is not for the faint of wallet and we desperately needed a good show.  Thank you!!!

Here are a few booth shots.  

Can I say once again, Thank You, Auntie Reg!  Not only do you keep everything running smoothly, but you are a great salesperson.  I am Not Good at self promotion.  It was a huge relief to hear you covering that awkward part for me.

I've never tried to make something like felted wool pumpkins before.  If I'd had any idea how cute these would turn out, I'd have been trying to make them all summer.  They sold out quickly and I was sad to see them go, but I can make more and that bushel basket paid for 83 bales of hay :-D.

There were some funny votes for sheep throughout the weekend.  It was pretty much a toss up between "Maisie" and "Everyone because I can't pick a favorite."  I guess because a vote for everyone includes a vote for Maisie, we'll let her think she "won".  The prize for playing was a packet of farm note cards.  

The fleeces inside the booth were from the Christmas Lamb Camp lambs, just recently shorn.  This was one of my favorites.  

Tavia was the festival's "cover sheep" this year.

I think the wool wreaths were very pretty.  That is Petunia on the left and Blossom on the right.

I made some Biscuit and Muffin Christmas ornaments that look like the Tour de Fleece ravatar.  Instead of grazing on clover, they are eating hay...since that's what they'd be eating at Christmas time :-).

I really like the new small tote bags.  I really like the original bags, too, but since Biscuit, Muffin, Mrs. Pepperpot and the Ts aren't on there...  

A few felted sheep.

And a few you can wear :-).

If you saw the new table cloth at the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival in May, you may remember that only baby Biscuit was looking at the spinning wheel.  I can no longer think of Biscuit without Muffin, so even though she wasn't technically here when she was a tiny baby, she was already in our hearts so I painted her on :-).

I have some cute 20 pictures to share tomorrow.  For now I'm signing off and heading to bed. 

A Big Weekend

"Where are we going?"

"To the Turkey Trot Memorial Stockdog Trial at The Training Center!"

I was honored to create the prizes for this year - sheep and wreaths made from wool from three of the actual trial sheep.

This is always one of my favorite weekends.  Usually I "clerk" (write scores for the judge), but this year Kate and I are going to be up on the hill "working the pens" (sorting out the groups of sheep for each competitor).  I can hardly wait!

Also this weekend...Maisie's birthday!  Big number 4!  I have all the ingredients to make her cake (a box of Cheerios and a wax number 4 candle ;-).  She can hardly wait!

I Really DID Live Through The Wool Festival

So it looks like I broke the internet.  I finally put together a blog post yesterday and right as I was close to publishing it a major Verizon tower went down and the entire area was without intertubes until early this morning.  Oops... :-o

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Friday?!?  I really not sure where the week went. Heck, I'm not even sure where the summer went! The Kentucky Wool Festival went really well.  We could not have had better weather, the crowd was the second largest in 34 years (somewhere around 50,000 over the three days :-o), saw lots of old friends, made some new ones, sales were good, nothing got pinched and I think everyone had a great time :-).

As always, I had tons of good help.  Miss B and Miss L helped get the booth components ready ahead of time.  Auntie Reg and Stella worked in the "sweat shop" getting everything packaged and labeled. Saint Tim did his usual herculean job getting all my printing ready and the four legged family, for the most part, stayed out of trouble.

Tim covered farm duties, a Unit driving neighbor came over to doctor on T-Bone's leg (horrible dew poison this year :-o), Miss B and Always Amazing Aaron answered questions throughout the day and helped get new spinners started with their drop spindles and Auntie Reg did a great job basically tripping people coming into the tent and sending them in to buy stuff ;-).  

I am Not. Good. at "selling myself".  Oh, if you come in the booth and ask me a question, I talk until your eyes glaze over.  Having to go up to you and say "Hey, look at all this cool stuff I (and our sheep) made to try and support my bad sheep habit!"... I don't know why I can't do that.  And it's important.  This is what pays for the hay, straw, grain, shearing, vet bills...  Luckily I have a great team.  I appreciate everyone way more than they can even imagine!

*      *       *       *       *

I figured too many days had passed to do a booth tour, but I've had several requests from friends who couldn't be there, so here goes.  I missed a few things taking pictures.  I had so many bags of roving that we pretty much had to tie the booth together to keep it from exploding, but you'd never know by these pictures.  The funny thing is two of us were taking pictures and we both missed that and a couple other things.  

I loved having the raw wool out front.  It was pretty, attention getting, folks were looking for wool at the "wool festival" (it's primarily a huge craft fair with tons of great food and live music) and didn't smell up the booth.  I personally love the smell of raw wool, but as the temps climbed on Friday, it would have been a bit much for non sheep people perhaps ;-).

The usual card display.  What am I going to do with a 13th card next year?  

Volumes 1 and 2 of the Mug Shot Mugs.  

I actually made some felted sheep!

And wool wreaths, which Miss B did a fabulous job embellishing with all sorts of flowers she gathered their garden and fields again this year :-).

I made quite a few medium size wreaths, too, and even figured out an ornament size wreath...that neither B or I took a single picture of...and there were 24 of them in the booth!  How on earth we missed them and all the roving...

Punkin's Patch swag.  I think this design is really cute, but non blog readers didn't "get" it.  That's okay.  I'd rather they were "ours" alone anyway.  If you don't know who Punkin or Miss Ewenice or B. Willard is...

You know what I just realized?  There are no pictures of the Equinox Farm and Lamb Camp calendars!  Now I'm wondering if I'm missing files on my camera card.  This just makes no sense...

Edited to add:  And while I was waiting and waiting and waiting for the internet to come back yesterday I realized that there were also 24 Maisie Orneries and 24 Ornerie kits that neither Miss B or I took any pictures of.  That's a lot of stuff in a small area to miss getting in a picture somehow!

Anyway, back to the tour...

I had a super cute vintage Ashford Traveller for sale, but it was too crowded to set it out where someone could really try it.  It belongs to a friend's mother who is down-sizing and she has a regular and jumbo flyer, extra bobbins, a copy of Paula Simmons Spinning and Weaving With Wool and it is tuned up and ready to go back to work in case anyone is interested.  

We sold 20 spindle kits!  As I ordered another 100 wooden wheels last month to make them, I realized that I've made over 200 spindles over the last 10 years.  That's kind of crazy in a sort of exciting way.  If even 10% of those folks stayed with it (like Miss B did :-) that's 20 new spinners! Definitely not a dying craft.

These are the prettiest wool balls I've ever made.  I almost hated to sell them, but what on earth would I do with 150 wool balls?!?  Inside joke - that's my most common question "What do you do with a wool ball?"  I just consider them neat decorations, but most were buying them for dryer balls. Anyway, they were made from the tiny throw away fleeces from Levi's cousins who got shorn this fall.  Perfect! 

Once again, my favorite part of the booth was the digital picture frame.  One thing I forgot to do was update the photo file, so we re-watched the same 2000 (!) pictures I used last year.  No matter.  I was happy to see the oldies.  If you don't already have a digital frame, go get one.  Just priceless to be able to watch and watch and watch.

Punkin's Patch.  All from one little lamb.  You know, sometimes the whole thing just seems unreal.  As the sun set and the night lights came on and the really good bands started playing while the dinner crowd grew and I was finally able to stand still and catch my breath and look around, I couldn't help but wonder a bit.  How did all this happen?

If you'd have asked me 25 (or so ;-) years ago what I'd be doing with my life, raising sheep and being a fiber artist teaching people how to spin yarn would never have crossed my mind.  Never.  I don't really know what I'd have said, but I can promise you it would not have been that.  What a privilege.  

I appreciate everything way more than anyone can even imagine!

How To Get Removed From My "Client" List

If I make two custom projects for you and inexplicably, coincidentally and though no fault of your own with both I end up in brutal dental appointments, I'm probably never answering the phone when you call again.  Just saying ;-o.  Your sheep is pretty cute though.

I haven't made any felted sheep in forever.  They take a lot of time, are hard on my hands and I (kind of crazily not crazily) find it hard to adopt them out because I worry that they'll end up in someone's dog's mouth or kicked into bits by someone's cat (yes, both have happened and not just once :-/).  

When I make them, each one turns out exactly how they want to and it might not be exactly what I had in mind when I started.  I've had laying down sheep that refuse to lay down, sheep I want to be looking to the right that only want to look left, one ewe refused to be posed with her lamb even!  

I used Blossom's wool for this sheep and guess what...she ended up looking exactly like fluffy (not fat ;-) Blossom!  Isn't that fun?

I had some fun trying to figure out how to pose her on the porch railing.  I wanted to see the sheep in the background so played around with my aperture setting so they would be clearer (small aperture, long depth of field, say f18) or blurrier (wide open aperture, short depth of field, maybe f3.2).

Sheep only tend to cooperate for so long though and I could see her starting to look off longingly towards the barn.

And then out to all the crazy green grass that we never have in the middle of July.  Being Blossom, that grass is sure tempting.  Which is maybe why she's so...um...fluffy ;-).

Hardly Working

That could easily be talking about me.  Well, I'm working (we live on a farm...), but the Kentucky Wool Festival is this coming weekend and while there is plenty of wool to sell and Christmas cards, there may not be many wool wreaths or felted sheep there.  Those "value added" products are important to the farm's bottom line...which always stays in the red, but you know what I mean.  I'm disappointed in my (year long) organizational skills.  I'm hoping for a few quiet days so I can power through some extra work. 

Some good news - the 2014 calendars are "at the printers".  Of course we had a minor snafu when I finished compiling the Lamb Camp calendar and realized I'd completely left Miss Maisie out (!).  She figures pretty heavy in the Farm Calendar (of course), but could not be missing from the lambs (!).  That's been fixed.  I also realized there were no shots of Eli anywhere either.  Who's in charge of photography around here?!?  That's now been fixed as well.

Hey, if you don't want to be featured in the calendar sleeping, Eli, go out and do something!

"I really don't care."

Hmm...

"Wonder if she's going to be able to get all those cool looking wool wreaths done before the festival starts on Friday..."

I'm really not that behind, but I'll feel a lot better when all the bows are attached and the truck was completely loaded.  The wreaths are pretty neat I think and I'm happy with the felted sheep this fall.  I've got a big box of Stella's honey packed, many, many bags of wool and pretty roving (Petunia, Graham, Beanie Baby and Ford are super nice), the usual Christmas and greeting cards and we have the 2013 Equinox Farm calendar ready to go too.  My favorite drop spindle kits are packed, some fun bird nest builder kits and 20 has his wool sweater ready.  Looks like he might need it this weekend :-/.  There are also a couple fun surprises as well :-).  

If you are in the area, the Kentucky Wool Festival is a fun event.  While more of a craft festival than a true wool festival, there will be plenty of fiber goodies in the wool tent and the 'road of food' is beyond outstanding - think homemade chicken and dumplings, all kinds of homemade cobblers, roasted corn on the cob, baked potatoes and sweet potatoes and all the usual fried yummies :-).

Come see us!

Since It Should Be Christmas Every Day

With losing my old cat on Christmas Eve, I lost some momentum sharing Christmas gifts and such. I just delivered my last gift though and thought I should go back and find some pictures.



I knit a couple of these cute sweater ornaments and had a lot of fun making them. They are a great way to use up small amounts of handspun and are the perfect size to stick a gift card into. I should be making these all summer so I'm stocked up for next Christmas. Should, should, should...



I think this mug is identifiable. If the droopy ears don't give her away,



...maybe the side view will ;-).



"Hey, I'm not fat. I'm fluffy!"



I loved how this Cotswold ewe turned out. Each felted (and real) sheep has a completely different personality. I'm not sure how that happens, but it does. I don't question it, but it sometimes makes them hard to send away. The felted sheep, that is. If Graham Lamb** or Brat Willard shows up on someone's doorstep...



I didn't get a great picture of her curly top...and now that I think about it, I should have made tiny dreadlocks instead of curls. I'll work on that. Maybe I can retrofit her with some :-).



I like the first picture best, but I'm not sure why. It's definitely "busy". Probably too busy, but maybe I'm liking the extra background just because it's from a favorite spot in our house.

The last picture is almost the same view, but without all the extra stuff and colors. Do you find the first white sheep picture too distracting? Like if you were looking on etsy and there were actually some Punkin's Patch felted sheep on there ;-).

Should, should, should...

** Stay tuned for a high fivin' "we outsmarted Graham post". That is if we can actually outsmart him.

Shut up!

Headed To New Homes

I traveled to the Kentucky Artisan Center in Berea, Kentucky, this morning to to deliver some needle felted sheep and drop spindle kits. This is a beautiful facility with an incredible collection of Kentucky arts and crafts. I am so flattered to have a few of my pieces there.



I snapped a couple pictures (of course ;-) before I packed everyone up. I thought it would be fun to have the felted sheep lined up on the Wool House porch, with the actual sheep in the background. It was a beautifully foggy morning and I thought the diffused light would be perfect. It was...from certain angles.



See how shadowed everyone's backsides are? Turned facing me, their faces were completely shaded out. I tried using a flash to fix that, but as I frequently find with flash, I hate the artificial look. And it's actually sort of sweeter to see where they are looking anyway.



This momma with her two moorit lambs was a favorite. As was the gray ewe in the background, with her almost black lamb.



This big fat Boudreaux? I shouldn't have taken him. No matter how simple it seems, I never can make two sheep exactly the same. They always have some quirky personality showing through and I love this guy. I won't be able to duplicate him. I'm just hoping the hay he'll buy will help with my seller's remorse. Sigh.



A group shot.



The Kentucky Artisan Center



Besides the felted sheep, the Artisan Center carries some of my note cards. Here are a few of the rug hooking pattern cards.



And some Christmas cards were over in the holiday section.

Kentucky is blessed with an incredible amount of artistic talent. I'm sure each state feels just the same way, but I look at everything here and am proud of our rich and diverse heritage and how folks are keeping the traditional (and new traditional arts) alive and well. I'm sure I don't speak alone in saying the Artisan Center plays a key role in encouraging us all.

If you are ever coming through Kentucky, stop by. The Center is right off I-75 about 20 miles south of Lexington.

Give Boudreaux a pat for me.