The Thing Is…

It’s been really busy since SOAR. I feel like hiding in my room for a couple of days. But there are those kids and the shop and more stuff and other things and well can’t take a break just yet.
I’ve been really busy at the shop getting ready for this coming Saturday. It’s my annual anniversary party and there’s lots to do. I know that this is going to be one of those jumbly posts since I haven’t updated in a while and there’s lots to talk about and not enough time.

The tree is up. Isn’t it cute?
Under the tree are the door prizes for Saturday. A spindle sampler kit which has a Spinsanity Spindle and a good variety of wools to try out. There’s also a color sampler good for spinners or felters. It has a bit of every solid color Corriedale I have in the shop. Also there’s a Spindlicity Calendar and there will be 3 gift certificates.

Rita who owns Yarn Hollow is bringing me some new dyed stuff tomorrow and I think she also mentioned something about donating a door prize!

The Yarn Hollow stuff is beautiful and I love the fact that she uses all wool from Michigan farmers in her dyeing. I can’t wait to see it. She’s dropping it off tomorrow morning on her way to Thanksgiving with her family.

I have one of the Wolf Pups decorated with a color gamp warp. It’s lovely. The happy part is that whoever buys this loom will get to take the project with them. It always happens. I very rarely get to finish a project before some lucky weaver comes and relieves me of the lovely colors.

This pile o’ stuff is all the yarn in the shop and almost all of it is marked down. It is more organized than this now thanks to Maddiwood Michelle’s help.

The marked down stuff includes Blue Heron, Briar Rose, Skacel Merino and British Mohair. It’s all lovely and I really want to keep some of it. Maybe I’ll just keep one….or two.

This is a picture of the Peruvian stuff I brought back from SOAR for sale. It is all hand spun and woven on backstrap looms. The stuff is gorgeous. Every cent of the money from this goes to the Center for Traditional Textiles in Cusco.

K. Here’s a new carder. it’s from Louet and will be available for delivery around March. You all know that I am a huge fan of Strauch carders. Well, this one knocked my socks off. Just look at the size of that drum compared to the Ashford carder behind it. Huge batts I tell ya. It’s also compact and stores easily. I’m hoping to have an hour or two to play with it some more next week. I may get the Maggie to make a couple of batts and give her input.

And these sweet little cookies were made by Faina Letoutchia. They are molded cookies and take several days to make. I have some packages of these that will be for sale this weekend and throughout next week. They truly are beautiful.

K. so I only talked about shop stuff. There’s lots more to say but I’m out of time. I promise another update before the end of the weekend. And then Abby will be here to teach us about spindles and drum carders. I’m very excited about the class and about all of the people who will be here…including a new friend…Lisa Grossman. The Tsock Tsarina herself. Can’t wait to spend some time with that girl and ask her to help me get over my sock knitting phobias.

O.K. I’m off.