Without Further Ado...Finally

At this point I just have a few takeaways...

I guess I should have know that a Christmas card featuring two retired racehorses would end up as a photo finish ;-).

I finally found the painting...already in the scanner.  The almost two hours I spent looking for it...I'm never getting back.

It should be noted that even if the house had been clean and tidy...it wouldn't have helped.  So there.

Th-th-th-that's all folks ;-D.

Merry Christmas!

And This Is The Part Of The Story Where...

...I say "The card is finished and in the mail and ta-daaa, here it is!" and...  

.

.

(crickets)

.

.

You really can't make this stuff up.  I've lost the painting.  In the house (that's the not surprising part.).  Worst case scenario I can post the scan from Timprint, but I'd rather have a direct scan from here that is the actual painting, not the one we color adjusted to try to get it "print-worthy".

Headed to the barn to get the skid steer...

Top Nine 2019

It's the time of the year to join the "Top Nine"...whatever you call it...thingy...where you "click the button" (my brain is mush) and it searches through your year of Instagram photos and assembles a collage of your nine most popular photos.  Mine is pretty cute this year :-).  

Two from Wovember, one of silly Mini Moose and the rest from Lamb Camp at Final Frontier and Tring Farms.  I kind of thought Frankie would show up somewhere, but as we all know, it's hard to compete with babies ;-D.

The card is painted and printed and hopefully going in the mail this afternoon.  Whew!  It was a real struggle this year and I'm not really sure why.  Now that's it's done and I'm almost 48 hours away from it, I'm pretty happy with it.  It's cute and sweet and I think everyone will enjoy it.

Here's a funny story...Saint Tim's superpower is making me laugh when there seems to be nothing to laugh at.  After several super late nights struggling (unsuccessfully) to paint the card, I got up (still too tired) the other morning to find Eli's tree ("the stairway to heaven") had fallen down after the latest 3" deluge of rain.

The tree was very old.  There were only a couple branches left on it and they were barely, but bravely hanging on.  Eli used it to climb up to the porch roof (his "office").  I framed pictures of the back of the farm through it's lacy leaves.  Momma birds raised babies in the hollow trunk.  It was a good old friend.  

I stood there staring at it...turned and walked back inside...stood in the kitchen...didn't pour myself a cup of coffee...finally went to tell Tim...and then the tears spilled.  Tim's not as sentimentally attached to trees as I am, but it was Eli's tree and it was special because of that.  

He listened to the tree story, the unhappiness with the card painting, the "I wish I'd stopped after last year like I'd said I was going to"...and "clicked the button" in his brain and said, "You should just download the Loony Tunes font and plaster "That's All Folks!" across the front...and all I could see was Maisie pasted in where Porky Pig usually is, saying "Th-th-th-that's all folks!" :-D

That's (probably) not all folks, but it was just what I needed.  

Keep laughing!

A Warm Winter's Nap

Sweet old Salt.  

The Salt thermometer says it's hovering around freezing.  It has to get at least that cold before she goes in search of a warm nap spot.  Her demeanor around the sheep is so quiet that even the most suspicious sheep (like PPPP) don't mind her company.  

*     *     *     *     *

Everything is fine here.  I've just been so stinking busy trying to keep all the plates spinning that the blog (and even IG) has sadly been neglected.  I think it's sweet that when it gets too quiet you all start worrying.  I'm sorry I let that happen though.  Sigh...

Anyone else starting to get a little sore about losing that extra week with Thanksgiving being so late this year :-o.

On a good note, I came up with a brilliant title for the Christmas card this year.  Sometimes it takes a couple of several days and it usually the most stressful part of the design process.  This year I nailed it straight off...and now have the song stuck in my head as I struggle to paint.  Over and over and over and over and over...

"Serenity now!!!"  ;-D

Watching...

...for fall?  For rain?  For cooler temps?  For the upcoming Kentucky Wool Festival?  For a new puzzle :-).

This has been the hottest September I can ever remember.  We are still in the 90s and my "if I can just make it until Thursday..." has been changed this morning to "if I can just make it until Friday."  If this trend of pushing back the end of this brutal heat stretch continues, it's just going to become "I hope I make it..."

To make matters worse, other than a freak rain storm yesterday morning, we have had no rain.  Everything is brown and crispy and when the wind does blow, it's a hot wind that does nothing to help anyone.  Speaking of the freak rain, it rained 2" at the house, but only 3/8" at the Wool House, just yards away.  The rain was that spotty.  

Hank is doing pretty well.  His foot has healed up beautifully, but he's back obsessively licking both of his elbows now and right after I took this picture I had to stick the cone of shame back on him :-/.  They are actually blow up pillows now and if it wasn't so blasted hot, it probably wouldn't be that uncomfortable to wear, but still.

I'm in the final crunch week of getting ready for the wool festival.  My Ohio Valley Natural Fibers run scheduled for last week was cancelled, but they are hoping they can run my roving this Tuesday.  I have my fingers crossed, but am still stressing about a contingency plan if they can't get their machine back up and running.  

I've got a good amount of wool pumpkins made, lots of wool balls, quite a few mini wreaths and I'm finishing up some big wreaths.  I'll also have all the usual Punkin's Patch "swag" in tow and hopefully some felted sheep as well.  The calendars won't be ready until after the festival, but we have plenty of the "...and to all a good night" Christmas card packed up and also mixed sets of all 15 years.

Tring Farm has eight pretty raw fleeces to sell and for some reason Andy and Tavia's fleeces (two of my favorites) didn't sell back in the spring, so I'll have them there as well.  Everything else is washed and ready to process,  so it will all work out somehow.  

The booth will be full and fun and pretty and if the forecast holds, it should be a great weekend.  We might even be able to wear some wool in the evenings...which seems odd to say after so many weeks/months of not breaking out of the 70s at night.  

I'll believe it when I see it.  I'm watching!

Tough Old Ladies

We hit -1 around 6:00 a.m.  We've had colder nights over the years, but not with so many elderly sheep, cats, dogs and chickens.  The wind during the day yesterday was brutal, but thankfully it died down in the evening and the 10:00 barn check wasn't bad at all.  There is a fun video over on Instagram, but it will only stay up for 24 hours :-(.

I'd put up heavy plastic on the west side of Easy Breezy and closed their door.  That helped a bunch with the wind and I did several hay feedings throughout the day.  Allie is going to be 15 this spring and is horribly thin.  Even though she assured me she was Just Fine Thank You, I felt better putting a coat on her.  

Does it look familiar?  

 

Remember dear old Miss Ewenice taking such good care of new arrival Renny?  Remember Renny's story?  Well, only newer readers won't remember her story.  

Hard to believe Renny is in the Easy Breezy pen now.  Not that she's exceptionally old and definitely not because she's thin, but because the other side of the barn all slopes downhill and her injured legs are starting to give her some trouble.  EB walks out onto a flat paddock.

When I put her old blanket on Allie I wondered what she would think.  Would she remember it?  She didn't.  She was scared of it.  Or of Allie wearing it.  None of the other sheep cared.  I wonder if they remembered seeing that blanket years ago?  Renny wouldn't have actually seen it, wearing it...

Speaking of blasts from the past, Allie is one of Elizabeth's daughters, from well before the blog.  Her sister Amy is still living as well, over at the original Crazy Sheep Lady's farm and she, too, is wearing a coat this winter.  

All those tough old ladies :-).

Well, What Do You Know...

I mentioned that now that the folk art winter/holiday farm scene Christmas painting series is "complete" that I wanted to try something new for the upcoming year.  I love watercolor paintings, so that is definitely on the list.  

I went online looking for some painting tutorials.  You can learn to do most anything on YouTube, including how to operate a skid steer...but that's a story for another day ;-).  For now I'd love to be able to learn to paint watercolor pictures of our sheep.

There are millions of painting videos out there.  There are even several specifically for painting sheep.  How about that?  There is even one teaching how to paint a specific sheep.  What?  And that specific sheep?  Does this big brown sheep look familiar?

Well, hello there, Count Chocula!

While I wish the artist had asked for permission to use my pictures and kindly given a photo credit, we've been in contact and she's working on correcting that.  In the meantime, if I want to learn how to paint one of our sheep, it's pretty hard to beat a video of someone actually painting one of our sheep!

I'm always happy for blog readers to use my photographs as screen savers, inspiration, educational purposes...  Obviously if someone wants to use a picture for commercial purposes, that is a different story.  I'm easy to work with though, just ask :-).

Actually, speaking of commercial purposes, there are 4 Lamb Camp calendars and 9 farm calendars left...if anyone is still needing a 2019 calendar.  Sale price of $7.50 and $9.50 sound okay?

A Live Christmas Cookie Party?

"Cookies?"

You really need to biggify the picture to get the full wonder of Maisie's mouth :-D. 

*     *      *      *      *

Holiday greetings from the land of the not so super tech-y!  I THINK I've figured out how to do a live Facebook video and I'd like to share the Christmas Eve night check with you tomorrow.  We can peek in on all the sleepy sheepies and I'll also stuff my pockets with cookies, so it might be my very first...and very last...live Facebook video :-o.

Here is the plan:  At 9:30 p.m. EST I'll turn on the video and head to the barn.  That should be late enough for most folks to be done with dinner and still early enough to visit with the sheep for a bit and get to bed before Santa comes.  I think it will also record it so you can watch it later.  I think.

Here is a link to the Punkin's Patch Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/MyFavoriteSheep/  I'm guessing you'll just need to go to the page to start watching.  If it's more complicated than that, somebody please chime in!  I may do a quick test run tonight just to make sure we are up to speed.  

Sound fun?

A Thousand Words

I took this picture tonight as I was finishing evening chores.  I'm not sure now if I was behind the barn feeding Hank or back there checking the water tank, but I saw Maisie standing there by herself and quickly grabbed my phone.  

I knew what she was doing.  She was out there looking for Hank.  Of all the relationships within the flock, theirs is the most interesting.  Maisie had walked away from eating hay with everyone to go outside and check on Hank.

When I painted her on the Christmas card, right up front, that's because that's where she sleeps.  Right up front.  I never really gave it much thought.  Many of the sheep have favorite sleeping spots.  A few nights ago, as I peeked in on everyone, I found her sound asleep...right up front.

As a few of the sheep rustled around, she woke up, got up and stretched and then walked out of the barn and around to the left.  When she saw Hank sitting in the dark, facing the front field, she quietly called out to him "Mmmmmmmmm."  And I realized that's why she sleeps by the door.  As close as she can get.

I love the composition of this shot.  I love the colors - the midnight blue, the black barn, the warm lights.  I can't get over how small Maisie looks standing next to the barn.  I love the story behind scene. I wish I'd stayed out there a little longer to watch what happened next.

And To All A Good Night!

This is the 15th year I've painted an Equinox Farm Christmas card.  We've been caroling and decorating, skating and sledding, sleigh riding, snowman building, snowball fighting, cookie baking, sweater knitting, card sending, eating Christmas dinner and even putting on a live nativity.  

As I was out of winter activity ideas for future cards, I decided 15 would be a good stopping point...and I wanted to do something different.  No light blue sky and bright white snow.  Nothing that couldn't actually be happening...except maybe that snowball fight ;-).

Once I got over feeling self-conscious about my goofy hillbilly voice and started actually enjoying doing live barn tours in the evenings on Instagram over the summer and fall, I knew what my card design for the final year would be.  

 

Here's where it gets a little crazy crazier.  Remember those adorable stamps with the sheep and horses last year?

Best. Christmas. Stamps. Ever.  

I knew the post office had some left over...I stewed on them all summer...and then bought enough for this year...and next year.  And then when I needed to add a little extra postage to two envelopes and the post office wouldn't sell me individual sheep stamps...and I saw there were only five books left in the drawer...I bought them all.

The moral of this story?  If something happens to me, would someone please remind Saint Tim that there is probably $200 worth of postage tucked away in the office (insert that cute/funny grimace face emoticon from my phone).  

Merry Christmas!

You're Going To Have To Work For It

This ought to keep you off the streets and out of trouble ;-).  But if you do feel like hitting the streets and come out to the farm this afternoon, we'll give you a real one!

Not to worry if you aren't a puzzle worker.  I'll do a full reveal on Monday.

Have a good weekend!

[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.

Wool-tide Greetings

I actually sketched this card back in July, right after I'd built the Charlie Brown Christmas tree for the robin family.  I toyed with making their "tree" the focus of this year's card and that led me to think about everyone waiting out by the mailbox to see if the robins, who had migrated for the winter, had sent them a Christmas card.  Much more plausible.  Obviously ;-).

I didn't go ahead and paint it however, because they don't call me the CRAZY sheep lady for nothing.  If you give me a birthday gift early, I never open it until it's actually my birthday.  Jumping the gun might jinx something.  Painting the card too early might do the same thing!  There are a couple of old guys on there.  Don't get cocky and assume anything.  Much better to wait until the last minute and be stressed out ;-).

Of course, being a glass half empty sort of person I only assumed something bad would happen and I'd have to remove someone from the design.  It never crossed my mind that something good could happen and I'd have to add someone in.  June fit into the card design as easily as she fit into the family.

Merry Christmas!

We're Ready!

Finishing up the yarn - here is one the batts from Wednesday drafted/pulled out into spinnable roving. It's mate is sitting just above it and one more pair off to the right.

I usually spin all my "singles" and then at the end mix and match thicks and thins to hopefully end up with a consistent batch of yarn.  This time I plied each batt as I went along.  It actually worked out pretty well and probably not significantly different than the mix and match method. 

My trusty sled dog, resting up on her comfy rock pillow ;-).

20, getting ready to wash the finished yarn this afternoon - 975 yards.  That should be enough even if my gauge is a bit off. 

The pattern I picked is a shawl from the same designer as the first Liddy shawl, Tales from the Isle of Purbeck.  I started her Stories from Snoqualmie Valley shawl a year or two (?) ago, but got sidetracked and never picked it back up.   Not really sure why as every time I look for shawl patterns it catches my eye.

Pretty, eh?  And I think it kind of looks like an icy river with chunks of ice floating along a snowy bank :-).

Washed and drying in the wintry air.  It actually spit snow for a bit this morning.  Looking at the 10 day forecast, that looks like the only snow this Iknitarod run is going to see :-(.  You never know though. We've had a least some snow every year I've done this knitting challenge.  Maybe there will be an Iknitarod miracle this year, too!

 I'm very happy with the yarn :-).  Whew!

I'm even happier with my ravatar (Ravelry avatar).  Liddy was such a snuggle bug lamb who loved nothing more than taking naps curled up in my lap.  I miss those days.  She was just one of the sweetest lambs I've raised.  

I'd thought all along that my ravatar this year would be her sleeping out on the trail curled up on a straw bed like the sled dogs do.  It's sort of her theme.  She was the sleeping baby Jesus in the manger  on last year's Christmas card ;-).  

It didn't seem right to just have a solo sheep sleeping unprotected in the Alaskan wilderness.  Should I put Hank on there with her?  I usually put myself in the design.  Would I be sleeping, too?  Wait...I'll be knitting...by the fire...under the Northern Lights!  

I. just. love. this.  

And I love the yarn.  And the pattern.  And Liddy of course.  I think it's going to be a great race!

If you are interested in following along I'll be posting updates quick updates throughout the race on Instagram (which auto posts to Twitter and Facebook).  Instagram and Twitter are easy to navigate and enjoyable.

There is a wonderful Iknitarod group on Ravelry full of knitters, spinners and weavers of all experience levels. Several members have direct ties to the race, whether living along the route or at a checkpoint or even have relatives who have raced.  Getting on the spot updates is Very Exciting!  You are welcome to lurk even if you aren't a knitter.  You'll probably need to sign up for full access, but that's easily done.

If you are interested in learning more about the Iditarod, Iditarod.com is a fabulous website.  I highly encourage you to watch some videos and read the daily updates.  I think there is quite a bit of free coverage, but the Insider packages are worth every penny.  I hope they have the daily commentators like they did last year.  Fun!!!

Here is the "funnest" part.  I have a couple very sweet stories to share about Liddy.  I have some very cute stories to share about Buddy.  I also have a funny story about  spinning the yarn.  Since the name of the shawl is Stories from Snoqualmie Valley, I am going to share stories.  It can be Stories from Equinox Farm.

We all cast on tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

Speaking Of The Christmas Card

On the last day of Christmas...

I love, love, love to get comments on my blog posts.  Especially comments with questions.  And even comments questioning missing characters on the Christmas cards.  

From Cheryl... "I have to ask, where is Eli?"   Eli is sleeping winter away in his heated cat condo.  He would not be caught dead out playing in the snow ;-).

From Lorraine..."Did I miss PPPP?"  Un, (gulp) no...I missed PPPP :-o.  How could I leave out PPPP???? For crying out loud, she's one of my very favorite sheep and is even one of the "oldies" coming out to eat twice a day, the inspiration for the design!

I was sick about this.  Eli...I purposely left him out when I was getting too many characters on there. PPPP?  She had to be on there.  This may sound crazy, but the card was ruined to me without her on there.  

So now she is!  I tucked her in next to Keebs :-).

I haven't decided what to do with the first group of cards Tim has already printed.  I hate the thought of sending my [albeit not quite complete] family to the recycle bin.  Probably no one but me (and Lorraine ;-) would even notice they were slightly different.  Do I leave them in circulation?  Make it a game to see where they end up?  

And while we are talking about it, Tim printed extra calendars to make sure there were plenty of Comby and Betsy calendars to go around.  We only have a few Lamb Camp calendars left, but there is a good stack of Farm Calendars left over (!).  Would anyone be upset if I put them on sale to try to find them homes?  

Meanwhile, out in the cold snow...Comby says "No pain, no gain, Eli!"

I will give Eli some credit.  I'm getting ready to head out to the barn to check on everyone and throw out some more hay before I go to bed.  Eli will make the trek out with me.  Or at least I think he will. It's going down to 4 tonight.  Wonder if he'll bail?  I doubt it.  He goes with me every night.

In Case You Were Wondering...

...why Comby was all by himself way out in the field on the Christmas card.

Because Comby is frequently out there all by himself!  In fact, pretty much every day.  The weather has to be awfully awful for him to stay holed up in the condo.  Eli, on the other hand, hibernates all winter.  At least during the day.  

Actually, Eli hibernates all year now that I think about it ;-D.  And that's why he hasn't made the card in a few years ;-).  He does make almost every night trek out to the barn though, so I'll give him points for that.  Maybe I'll paint a night time card some year :-).

There's Always A Bit More To The Story...An Easter Egg Contest

I won't continue on whining about the Christmas card.  Most of them are now in the mail and I've moved on to other last minute/how could Christmas be this weekend (?!?) panic attacks.  Plus, there are new lambs at The Training Center and they are even cuter just as cute as the first three!

In the meantime, there really is always a bit more to the story of the cards, even if only I know what it is.  Turns out there is a name for that - Easter Eggs!  This year there are quite a few stories within the main story.  Some are pretty obvious (Maisie eating the garland), some not so much maybe (the cardinal).  

How many can you spot?  Leave a comment with your found "eggs" and after Christmas I'll have Comby pick a winner and send out a box or two :-).

I'm headed out to "Santa's Workshop", then to check on/check for lambs, go to the post office and when I get back I'll share some new lamb pictures.  Think "mop top"!  Oh, there's nothing cuter... :-D.

Tough Sledding

I should have used a big hill in this year's card because the painting (and writing and printing!) of the card this year was some sure tough sledding!  I'll do the full reveal on Monday, but for anyone who's finished with their decorating and shopping and making and baking and has their house clean and laundry caught up and bank deposits made and gas bills paid.....or is just looking for something to do instead of all that and would like a sneak peek...

Nope, I didn't make it easy on you, but hey, we are all fighting through the deep drifts together here, right?  ;-)

Enjoy!

Tongue Out Tuesday!

I was going to post a pretty picture I took yesterday of Rebecca Boone and Renny and I think Baba is in there too, but I must have saved it in a weird place because now I can't find it.  Argh!  So then I decided I'd post this picture and title it "Argh!", but that didn't seem right even though that's how I feel right now.

This cute little lamb doesn't care about misnamed files, lost emails, Christmas card painting not going well, no Christmas crafting getting done, no presents being made, the days just clicking by like a CPW (Canadian Production Wheel) chattering on and on and on and for crying out loud it's the THIRTEENTH of December :-o.

So Argh...but those are my problems, not hers.  I went to Google and typed in Pffft to see exactly what it meant, thinking maybe that was a better title and saw all the tongues sticking out and thought "Hey, I should save this for the next Tongue Out Tuesday"...and realized that today was, in fact, wait for it...Tuesday..........

In the meantime, I've lost an email with an shop order.  Yesterday got away from me so I was working on them all this morning (on only one cup of coffee...which may be part of the problem...).  I've got orders from KM, SW and KZ.  I am 98% sure there was another one, maybe E somebody?

If you've emailed me in the last 48 hours and I haven't responded, please resend your email.  I am so sorry that my inbox looks much like my desk office.  I did straighten up the Wool House wash room/work area last week thinking that would help me organize the Christmas card better....  If that DID help, we were in REAL trouble if I hadn't done it :-o.

Here's a short video of everyone stressing out about the painting last night...

Burning the midnight oil. Getting ready to wake everyone up to go to the house. #goodhelp #Christmascard #notgoinggreat #theusual #woolhouse #gooddogsofinstagram #catsofinstagram

A video posted by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Dec 12, 2016 at 7:51pm PST

Today is a new day...even though it's not off to a great start so far ;-).

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

*     *     *     *     *

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!