Shepherd's Harvest

If you are curious about what the Shepherd's Harvest Sheep & Wool Festival is like, my friend and boothmate, Denise of Wool Alchemy, has put up a little slide show of her festival experience.  You will see some of her fantastic felted Critters, plus a variety of critters of the live variety that she cooed at over the weekend (yes, even the silkworms!)

Enjoy!!

Spinolution Wheels at Shepherd's Harvest

I had a wonderful time at Shepherd's Harvest Festival. I hope you did, too!

I got to meet a lot of interesting and enthusiastic Fiber Folks, which is about as much fun as a gal could wish for! To those of you whom I promised to visit at your booths, I apologize for having neglected to show up - I never did get a chance to leave my own except for one very short restroom break on Saturday. I was so busy that I didn't even get the chance to find and buy myself the planned Mother's Day present (heaven knows now when I will get those carding tools I was coveting...)

One major glitch - when I ran out of fliers re the Bee, I gave out ones that I had made in a rush on an earlier occasion, without noticing that for some reason I had in my hurry accidentally combined my email address and my Etsy address. This Frankenstinian combo obviously will not work if someone tried to use it to get to my website. Oops. (D'oh!)

So. For those of you who somehow got here from my flier - you are very clever! If you are looking for my store website, it actually is here:

http://knotallthat.etsy.com

Come on by, feel free to contact me with any questions you might have about the Bee travel wheel, the Mach II, or any of the other Spinolution products. I love to chat, it's so nice to have the company...

For the rest of you - next year you really should come to Shepherd's Harvest Sheep & Wool Festival in Lake Elmo, MN. It's great fun, there is lots to see and do (and buy), and the people are lovely. Tell them I said hi!

Shepherd's Harvest!!

Yes, it's almost that time of year again, folks!

On Mother's Day weekend, the good folks of Minnesota (and specifically, of Lake Elmo) put on a big shindig for us fiber fanatics. At the Shepherd's Harvest Sheep & Wool Festival you can see demonstrations of all sorts - sheep herding by those clever dogs, sheep shearing by that clever shearer, spinning by those clever spinners, knitting and weaving and rug hooking and felting and crocheting by those clever textile artists, cooking of lamb by that clever chef, music played by those talented musicians.

You can try out the equipment yourself at the various booths. You can go to the fashion show. You can eat wonderful lamb burgers and other wonderful treats. You can buy all sorts of supplies, fibers, tools, clothing, and various other goodies. You can admire and sometimes pet llamas, alpacas, sheep, goats, and bunnies. You can learn a lot about wool and handspun yarn by checking out the various competitions, and sometimes you can get a good deal if you bid on the wool from the wool competition. You can indulge yourself and give to a good cause at the same time by bidding at the charity auction. If you are clever and act quickly, you can sign up online for wonderful classes in everything from dyeing to knitting to basketry and rug hooking.

Best of all (from my point of view), you can see ME. And my folks (buy their lovely book - they'll even sign it specially for you). And Denise, and Jane, and Pam, and maybe even Nancy.

I'll be selling spinning wheels, yarn, the wonderful Timary's patterns and products, and who knows what else. I will also be demonstrating, and I'll be chatting with you, if you come. So put it down on your calendars now - I'll meet you there!

Speaking of Later...

I wish I had remembered that camera sitting pointlessly in the bag behind our table.

Really, Shepherd's Harvest Sheep & Wood Festival was lovely. It was a lovely weekend, and our neighbors were even more lovely (hi, Jane & Denise!!). The sun was shining, the birds were singing, the dogs were herding, the sheep were de-fleecing (at the shearing demonstration booth), the llamas were blinking in that adorable way they have, the fiber was bright and beautiful, the vendors were creative and helpful, the classes were fascinating.

What more could you want?

Well, you could want a more organized reporter, for one thing. Someone who actually took photos and got out to talk to more folks and see more things on which to report.

D'oh!!

Luckily, there were people who were more prepared, alert, and responsible than moiself. And some of them posted photos here. And here.

Don't you wish you had been there?

(I can't wait to go again!)

Parting Is Such Sweet - well, it's sweet!

Les Parents have returned from their fiber festival adventure - you will soon see their report and pictures on my mom's blog - and the good news is:

I sold three of the smaller skeins. Yes, one of the sales was to les parents, but still...

And I also sold several of the felted catnip balls. Given that the turnout was very small at the event, that I had no signs or banners and only a tiny display of seven skeins (most of which were purple and/or pinkish), and considering that poor mom was left to sell a product she knows absolutely nothing about so that she couldn't answer questions, I'm rather pleased. My lovely mum reports that there were no negative comments, and plenty of positive ones, which is nice to hear. The rest will go up for sale on Etsy - details to come in the week ahead.

One question I have for the sales-oriented spinners out there: evidently someone asked if I would do 6-8 skeins as a special order, enough for a sweater. My feeling is that this would be difficult for several reasons. First of all, I would need the cost of materials plus a bit up front, which would be a considerable sum - I don't yet have a provider of fiber at a significant discount. Secondly, I'm not so sure that I yet have the skill to provide a standardized colorway/repeat over that large a batch of yarn; I couldn't guarantee against weird pooling in some skeins and not others, that stripes would be even, etc. I also couldn't guarantee that the person would LOVE the colors etc. once they were done - what if my ideas of olive green and plum and marigold were different from the customer's idea of olive green and plum and marigold? With the amount one would have to charge, the person would have to LOVE the yarn, don't you think?

I don't know. Has anyone out there done that sort of thing, and can you give me the benefit of your experience (or your friend's experience)?

For anyone interested, here are the skeins that sold this weekend:

Ironically, the FIRST skein to sell was the one that *I* had worried was a bit odd looking... but it was the lovely Pam's favorite of the skeins I showed her, so what do I know? That, of course, was Oscar's Waltz.

The second skein was Rose Quartz - for some reason I never got a picture of that one.

The third (the one sold to les parents) was Sunset.




And that, as they say, is that!

Nerves. And Stuff.

So this is the first time I am going to be trying to sell my skeins.

My folks are going to take a selected group of skeins and felted catnip toys to the North Country Fiber Fair this weekend. I had no idea how to price them, so I just took a wild guess - I can only hope that people don't laugh mockingly when they look at my stuff. I'm all nerves - eek!!

In the meantime, here's what I'm up to:

Spinning 50/50 Merino & Silk...

And knitting donations for a very important Benefit Auction that is coming up. I will post more next week, when I get all the details.

I'll let you know how things went at the Fiber Fair, too. Wish me luck!

Shepherd's Harvest Festival

I am very excited. Again.

This time I am hugely looking forward to this weekend's Shepherd's Harvest Sheep and Wool Festival. If you are anywhere near Minnesota this weekend, you should stop by. There is lots to see (mostly sheep or llama related, but there are some very ambitious herding dogs as well), and buy (mostly wool related), and hear (great music), and eat (lamb burgers!) and do (classes).

One of the things that you will see there is, well, me. I will be tending my little bit of the table that will also be sporting a display of the extremely delightful book "The Wee Mad Road". My folks will be tending the table, as well, and they are very charming. Please stop by and chat with them; they will show you a good time. And check out the book while you are there. It really is lovely.


There will also be knitting and spinning classes. I will be taking one of each - the knitting one will be from Anne Modesitt, and I am really looking forward to meeting her in person. There will also be weaving classes and dyeing classes and other interesting things, but I simply didn't have time to be taking them all, as much as I would love to do so. Maybe next year...

I don't crochet - at least, I haven't crocheted until now - but Timary does, and she has a pattern for these little nesting bowls for sale at her Etsy store. You can make them round or square, in 5 sizes.



Aren't they cute? She is letting me sell them at a reduced price at Shepherd's Harvest, as a sort of charity fundraiser for my extremely fledgling business. She is the sort of person who goes far beyond the call of duty when her friends are gormless enough to have arranged to have table space that would otherwise be displaying... table space.

(See how I cleverly work in that Scottish adjective, bringing you back to the beginning of this post?)