What do you do when you have a day off from the store (Iron Horse)?

There really is not a day "off" when you own and run a farm.  Today started with feeding and watering  animals.  It is also a time to physically appraise the health and well bearing of the animals. Next came working in our vegetable and flower gardens.  The weeds are faster than our pease, lettuce and radishes! The plan today is  winding some hand dyed and painted wool yarn that was dyed yesterday and into new skeins for the store.    With the yarn of the month club just starting again, this keeps the dye pots happy and full.                                                                                                                     

 Friday a shipment of roving came back from one of the three processing mills we use so some time has been spent winding the roving into balls.  We are fussy where our raw fiber goes because we want to be sure we receive our own fiber back.  After the processor ships back to us, we personally wind the roving into 4 ounce balls.  Occasionally, we will also place some of this roving into our needle felting sample packets.These "balls" are all 4 ounce balls from locally bred, rasied and sheared in Sherborn, MA.  This fiber happens to come from a friend's flock of Corriedale sheep in a rich natural white- cream color.  Some of this has already been reserved for two stores in California.  So boxing up and shipment is on the agenda today. The rest will go tonight to Iron Horse and be placed in the cubbies for hand spinners and needle felt makers.

Tonight is our monthly "Stitch Night" from 6:30-8:30 PM. It will be fun to see what everyone is working on and hear about their plans for the summer.  It is one of the  most pleasant times in the store.  All are welcome.

And the wheels go round and round..

We had a great time last night with new faces, familiar friends and an assortment of wheels. It is always a pleasant night when relaxing and playing with fibers. The wheels were working hard as we worked on merino and tussah silk, shetland, and other blends. For me it is nice to be able to just enjoy the people who come into the store, spending more time talking about fiber.

After spinning, the dye pot was cooking yarns from Kate's collection that she decided she wanted dyed with indigo. I had just dyed with indigo and still had some of the dye bath remaining. It is now drying. Can't wait for her to see it at stitch group on Thursday.

More dyed roving arrived from the processors in lovely lavender, baby blue, teal, turquoise, soft yellows and more.

If you are not back over the weekend, enjoy yourself and don't let the goblins get you!