Woodland Woolworks

Tour de Fleece!

2008-07-05T14:01:00.000-07:00

I read about this recently and thought it sounded like a great idea! For the full story, go to the Tour de Fleece headquarters, but basically it's a self-imposed challenge for spinning for the duration of the Tour de France. So, starting today spinners everywhere are starting their challenges! My challenge is to work on some Cashmere that's been a part of my personal history for quite a long time.

Many years ago, before I moved to Oregon, I had this passion for all things fibery (that much hasn't changed!), and I thought maybe I'd be interested in raising fiber goats. I'd had sheep as a child (Southdowns - 4-H project with my brother), and while I like sheep, I didn't much like the idea of what you need to do with tails of lambs. So goats sounded like they had potential. With a very good friend, I visited 2 goat breeders here in Oregon - one Angora goats, and one was Cashmere. I don't remember the name of the Cashmere breeder, but I know she lived somewhere pretty close to here because I remember going through the town where Woodland Woolworks was at the time - Yamhill, and wishing there was time to stop. Funny old world, isn't it? Anyway, Cheryl and I bought a couple of ounces of Cashmere each with the plan being that I would spin the fiber for both of us, and she would knit us some fabulous scarves. I THINK there's about 8 ounces total, but I can't find my scale.

So, my challenge for the Tour de Fleece will be to spin as much Cashmere as possible. And Cheryl, I think as penance for taking so darn long to get brave enough to spin this lovely fiber, I should either knit it or weave it into scarves for both of us... That may be a challenge for another day though. First step, get spinning!!

I'm trying to talk a couple of other people here into joining in the fun, so there may be more to report.

It's whatever kind of challenge you make it - perfect! To spin is to win!

Happy spinning to you,

Diane

What happened to June?

2008-07-02T12:43:00.000-07:00

Good grief! No wonder I'm being chastised for not blogging lately. I thought those last 2 entries were in June, but noooo, they're from May! I lost a month, oh dear.

Well, Black Sheep Gathering, of course, eats up a lot of June, what with ordering for it, packing for it, loading the trailer, being there, unloading and then figuring out what we have after all is said and done. While packing the trailer I thought a picture of the STUFFED TO THE ROOF trailer would make good blog fodder, but of course it didn't happen. Maybe for OFFF I'll remember! Oh, and a pic of the booth might be nice too.

Black Sheep was, as always, a lot of fun. It was a little hot on Friday but we tried not to whine too much, knowing it was still nearly 20 degrees cooler than it was my first year as a vendor there (talk about your trial by fire - a gazillion degrees and I had the worst cold I've had in YEARS, ugh). There were many fabulous and wonderful things to see and touch and dream about, and friends to catch up with and hug, and things to learn and teach. Ahhhh, and soon it will be time for OFFF, and more of the same! Life is good.

I do have some pictures of some dyeing I did recently. We have this new cool Seacell/Silk blend yarn and I wanted to see how well it dyes. I'm not the least bit scientific - measuring is not my forte, repeatable will never be on the agenda. I greatly admire all those dyers who can make a consistent product! I dyed with both Landscapes, and with Procion - and used heat with the Procion, rather than doing the maybe more expected cold batch/soda ash routine. I would like to know how that works on this yarn too, but there wasn't enough time really that day. I dyed with my sweetie's daughter A, who enjoyed it too I think, though the gloves were not a good fit! A is 9, and has small hands.

Anyway, I like to dye using a couple of spaghetti jars with different colors of dye in them, inside my dye pot with water, acting as a double boiler. I drape the skein of yarn across and into the jars, and move it around a bit to get all of it dyed, and maybe mix some colors together.

Below is the yarn getting rinsed - I didn't have much dye wash out (I didn't use much dye either for one skein of yarn, maybe something on the order of a 1/4 teaspoon of each color). Looks like I didn't get quite as much coverage between colors as I might have liked, but I think it will be fine.

And here are the 2 completed skeins - Procion on the left, and Landscapes on the right. The silk gives it a nice luster! Interestingly, the Seacell when wet does indeed give a bit of a whiff of the sea! It goes away when it's dry, but it's definitely there when wet. I was surprised!

I'm going to knit a lacey scarf for A with the Procion version - feather and fan, should be fun.

One of the perks of Black Sheep is that all of us that work the booth hang out together in the evenings - go have dinner at Thai and Indian places (YUM!), and then knit and gab usually entirely too late into the night. I talked Anita into teaching me to knit the "other" way - picking, rather than the throwing I've always done (self taught). So I'm trying really hard to continue that and make it be the way I knit, cause it certainly looks like it's a lot faster. My poor unsuspecting skein of Seacell/Silk was my guinea pig (I had this crazy idea I could learn the technique while knitting the scarf, but GOSH my tension looked horrible!)... so I can also report that the yarn stands up fine to being knit and frogged and reknit. Really - learning a new technique should be done with a nice worsted weight wool instead of a slippery lace weight. Character building. You'll notice there is no picture of the scarf in progress. It's not! Yet anyway.... but it will be.

I uh, found another pair of sock needles at home and started another sock too. Not that there's been any progress on the socks OR green sweater written about in May... But I've finished my 2nd Jaywalker sock, and I'm about done with the Balance tee shirt I knit, except the neck thing has to be changed. I do adore starting things.

Happy 4th of July!!

Diane

She's here!

2008-05-30T09:41:00.000-07:00

This has nothing to do with knitting, or spinning, or weaving, or dyeing, or really any sort of fiber. Too bad!

This lovely filly was born a couple weeks ago, and she's a dandy! Saying a newborn is cute is redundant, but true. Here she is, about a day old - already contemplating hay. What IS this stuff that mom chews on all the time?

And this is about a day later, out for a romp in the arena, getting mom her exercise as well.

She likes to jump things, but I didn't catch any good photos of that. She's a Davenport Arabian, and if you'd like to know more about this bloodline, this is a good starting point - http://www.davenporthorses.org/history/ . Homer Davenport, who imported the ancestors of these horses in 1906, was born in Silverton Oregon!

Hurray for babies!

Ancient History

2008-05-28T13:48:00.000-07:00

I talked about this sweater a few months ago (and said "ask me again in two months". Ahem. No progress.) I started this sweater in 1994, and I'm up to the sleeves! It'll be a nice sweater someday. But heck, it's not like I can wear it this summer, so finishing it up over the summer should be perfect, right? The yarn is Heilo from Dale of Norway.

I like doing both sleeves at the same time. Makes the going slower, sort of - but when you're done, you've got both sleeves and they MATCH without having to make notes and measure a bazillion times. Just like the attraction of doing 2 socks at the same time. Not that I've tried that yet, but I like the idea.

I definitely have a ways to go on the sleeves, plus they're - what's it called? saddle shoulders? where they come up the arm and across the shoulders and end at the neckline. I like the cables and stuff. Must work on this sweater....

Meanwhile there's a few more socks that have been started because, well, I could. The first one is Lacewing from Fly Designs in color Desiderata. It's a dream to work with! I also have some in Halogen, with thoughts of combining the leftovers from both colors in a scarf... It may be a while, having not cast on the Halogen socks yet!

And then these ones below are in the merino/tencel blend that I dyed - boy howdy did it take the dye nicely, or what? I started out doing a pattern from Favourite Socks, but the colors were competing too much so I switched to regular old Helen's Favorite Sock from Fiber Trends. This would have been a really handy one to do both socks at once, since now I have to remember just where I left off from one pattern and switched to the other! Ah well.

What are you knitting these days?

Also considered

2008-05-10T16:38:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd show some of the other pictures we took in our search for a likely front-page-of-the-website picture... We all brought in some handknit socks and tried to think of ways to show them off to best advantage.

First, posing with the sheep. (does he look like a sheep?)

Then a chorus line:

Then another view:

Or maybe without feet in them...

Or maybe a closeup??

Alright. We need some nature in here. Where are some flowers?

Wowee, those are bright! What about socks in trees?? A nice touch of silliness, maybe.

And then we got the one we thought was just the ticket!

So there you go, Diary of a Homepage Picture.

Happy weekend! Happy Mother's Day! Give your mom a hug, I wish mine were here so I could, I miss her each and every day. I love you mom!

Diane

We've launched!!!

2008-04-23T18:46:00.000-07:00

The new website is LIVE! I think it looks fantastic, and sure hope that you do too. There's still a ton of work to do on it, but it's got a lot more stuff on it, and more information and photos will be added daily. It's been a long road to get here, but I think you'll agree it was all worth it. Everything in all our catalogs, and all the stuff that didn't even make the catalogs is on the site now.

Go check out the beautiful Mickey Mouse daffodils on the front page, proudly posing with handknit socks. The daffodils are in Karen's back yard. We had fun going around Carlton looking for likely photo opportunities for our socks.

More to come!

Diane

Weighty matters

2008-04-08T13:31:00.000-07:00

We're coming down to the wire! We're set to launch our brand new website (same address - www.woolworks.com) in under 2 weeks (gasp!) and we're feverishly trying to get as much done as possible. Getting everything done is not possible, of course. I think the nature of a website is to be "under construction", because as everyone knows - things change. New items are brought in, things get discontinued, things change price, more information becomes available....

With our new website launch, we're going to do delivery charges a little differently. We want to do ACTUAL shipping charges. That means that we need to know what everything weighs.
E v e r y t h i n g .... There are approximately 16,000 individual items in inventory. Well - should say SKUs, because some SKUs have multiples in inventory (10 balls of yarn X, color Y). So we're weighing things and entering them. We're getting images of them. We're writing up descriptions of them. It's a rather big job. Back to the shipping charges - you'll get the opportunity to see what it would cost to send your package via Priority mail, or UPS, and decide which way works best for you. It will be based on the weight of the things you order, rather than some other seemingly random method of assigning a delivery charge. If you buy a lightweight but expensive item, it won't cost as much to ship as it would a heavy cheap item. We're hoping that people will like this. I wish we could send stuff for free, but it does cost money to ship stuff, plain and simple. We will continue to offer the free shipping for orders over $300 (except floor looms, which are sent by freight company..... fuel surcharges have tripled in the last 6 months...)

AND we just finished up the spring knit catalog. It is at the printer, hurray!! Typically it's about 2 weeks from printer to mailbox, so look for it soon! Right about the same time the new website launches! egads.

AND I somehow got talked into being the vendor coordinator for Black Sheep Gathering (it seemed like a good idea at the time - I mean, I DO want to give back to the Black Sheep community!) and I'm trying to get all that stuff worked out and sent out and managed.

So if the blog seems a little neglected, maybe you'll understand.

Oh, and I have a mare due to foal in the next couple weeks...

Timing is everything! :)

Happy spring!

Diane

Milestones

2008-03-25T17:24:00.000-07:00

Ta-da! My first 100k on this car! This one came faster than the first one on my last car. This car is a 2004 model. Kinda scary. I put 350k on my last car, guess I like to hang on to them. I had that car for 17 years! and probably would have kept right on going if I hadn't hit a deer... it didn't kill the car outright (tho it did the deer, alas), but it definitely was a lot less happy after that. So here's hoping there are no deer out there with this car's name on them!

Choosing between inspiration and perspiration

2008-02-29T09:10:00.001-08:00

I have a dirty little secret. I have this sweater that I started when I moved to this state back in 1994 (gasp!).... The first yarn I bought in Oregon! The body is done, and I've started the sleeves. I like to work both sleeves at once, that way they'll match and both be done when I'm done - sort of like the appeal of working two socks at once on circular needles. They'll both match without having to measure 40 hundred times, and when you're done, you're done. I haven't tried the 2 socks on circulars yet, but it definitely appeals.

Ever since Madrona I've been mentally casting about for the Perfect Project, something worthy of the knowledge poured into my ears, maybe something I could parade about in next year at Madrona. But this little voice keeps nagging at me to finish up that poor lonely green sweater. Maybe THAT'S what I should parade around in next year. Except of course it lacks the allure of the new. What is it with us - or at least me - that makes us (me) want to just keep casting on new and exciting projects? I cast on another pair of socks because I only had 2 other pairs on the needles.

I'll have to get pictures of the Poor Lonely Green Sweater. It started with the best of intentions, like all projects. Then I moved again, and it got stuffed into a piece of furniture that I couldn't get to (literally - I had furniture and boxes stuffed to over 6 feet in height in a "spare" bedroom with no walkways at all while I lived in a temporary place for nearly a year - the cats ADORED this room because it afforded them much amusement, not the least being that once they were in there, there was no way I could get them out. Vet appointment? Gosh, that's a shame, I was taking a nap 4 boxes back...)... then I worked on it some more, then who knows what sort of angst possessed me to abandon my knitting for years at a time. The lure of the loom? Then I knitted on it some more while spending a lot of time with my dad when my mom died. Then the sweater was at dad's house, but he was coming over to mine to visit. And now.... well, maybe now it's time to buckle down and knit. The sleeves are easy! One simple cable up the center, how hard could it be?

Ask me again in 2 months....

Diane

Madrona report

2008-02-23T14:27:00.000-08:00

Wow that was wonderful! I think it's pretty much impossible not to have a really good time at any fiber/knit/spin/weave fest of any sort, so saying I went to one and had a good time is sort of repeating myself. How could I not??

There were classes Thurs through Sunday, and vendors to see and a constant parade of spectacular hand knits (I think I got whiplash), and a lengthy list of Knitterati (see the list of teachers for this year). I didn't have a class on Thursday, so I got to poke about in vendo-land at leisure and catch up with some folks I don't see very often, or hadn't yet met but needed to. Then I went to the Museum of Glass (in another life, I'm going to learn to do glass, woweeee) for the afternoon.

All of these pics are from the glass bridge, which is an overpass over a busy freeway and you look up and see all of these amazing works of art. These are looking straight up. There was more, much much more.

This charming fellow was in this wall of amazing vase-type pieces also before you get into the museum. I'm really amazed at how much glass art they've put out there to share with the world all the time, for free. You could spend days studying these and looking at them in different lights. What also struck me was that there is a freeway and a freight (train) yard right below all this glass. The amount of vibration that this bridge is subject to boggles the mind. I don't know how they cushioned it so well, but I'm sure glad they did!

Inside the museum they have a huge furnace and many people working on pieces, demonstrating how it's done. Fascinating to watch! Plus of course various exhibits and the museum gift shop, also filled with color and shape and inspiration. I highly recommend a trip!

And I got to knit and knit and knit, and watch the scenery from our 18th floor (!) hotel room. I've never really lived in a city, so it's definitely a case of the country cousin coming to town. (I suppose college in Tucson does count as a city, but really - it's the Old Pueblo! it's not a City, is it??) We had really fabulous weather, which meant that we got some gorgeous sunrises!

Mt. Rainier in all its glory!

And then the classes! I took a sideways sweaters class with Margaret Radcliffe, lace knitting with Evelyn Clark, and intarsia with Lucy Neatby. They were all great classes, and I learned a lot - not the least of which being that I am a very slow knitter and need to find a better way to knit. I didn't keep up with the rest of the class ("It's not a race".... okay, but I don't want to be last either! I miss out if I can't keep up). I'm self-taught, like many people, and what I learned from the little pamphlet from the Coronet store when I was in single digits for age was a good start, but it can be improved upon!

I'll leave this post with a couple of pics of Lucy Neatby's works - the lady knows how to play with color! I love it, I love it, I love it!!

Madrona 2009, here we come!

Diane

Well phooey

2008-02-12T10:10:00.000-08:00

So there I was, innocently minding my own business, blogging away.... got finished, clicked preview, yup, looked good. Clicked "back" and it was GONE! nooooooooooooo!! Apparently that's a bad idea. Apparently you should click "hide preview" instead. And all that nice saving that blogger does while you blog? Sort of useless apparently, if you click back... Let that be a lesson! That was Saturday. I hadn't the heart or the energy to attempt it again that night. Of course it was an exceptionally clever entry, full of witty turns of phrase. Gone, lost forever. Sigh.

Tim, our wonder web and catalog guy, knit some hats! He was kind enough to share with me, and then I took some really rather horrible pictures, and didn't have the foresight to look at them before the hats left the building. Another lost and gone forever opportunity. I'll share one picture anyway, because, well, I can. It's a great hat! Too bad you can't see that. There were 2 hats, made with the same yarn (Big Wool from Rowan, in a brown shade). Tim said something about one of them being more feminine than the other. They're both the same yarn, and same shade. I looked at the hat, looked at Tim, looked at the hat, looked at Tim and said in my most articulate manner "huh?" He made one of the hats in a seed stitch, and felt that the extra texture made it more feminine. What do you think? Is seed stitch more feminine that stockinette?

Meanwhile, I'm getting ready for Madrona! I'm so excited I can't stand myself. My buddy Anita and I leave tomorrow for four full days of knitter madness! I'm going to be completely star struck with all the big names that will be everywhere, and will attempt photos (but given the spectacular proof seen above, that may be more of a threat than a promise... if you see me pointing a camera, you might want to duck). My poor sweetie has been very sick and I'm been avoiding him (can I say "like the plague"?) cause I really really really want to be fully functional. Here's hoping!

Happy trails to you! And I'm just going to publish with no preview.

Diane

Snow place like home

2008-01-29T11:49:00.000-08:00

It snowed last night in my little corner of the world. There isn't any snow here at work in Carlton, or for most of my commute, but at home in a funny little quirk of micro-climate, I got dumped on. My little car dragged bottom down the whole hill and squirreled around a fair bit, but got me to work safe and sound.

It's pretty, isn't it? I used to really hate the snow, but I guess I'm coming to terms with it (about time). It'll probably be all gone when I go home. Course, if it doesn't melt at all, I'll be walking the last 1/2 mile 'cuz down hill is one thing, but up is way different! My vet couldn't make it up the hill this morning in 4 wheel drive (it's a steep hill and really wet snow), so I know my little car wouldn't do it either. The vet visit could wait, so it will.

Meanwhile, a here are a couple of snow cats:

Is it my imagination or has this month been the longest January on record?

Stay warm!

Diane

Brrr

2008-01-22T15:33:00.000-08:00

It's pretty chilly around here, as I know it is in many places. We leave the big roll-up door in the warehouse open while we're here, and the breeze was such yesterday that if someone opened the front door, the doors in the shipping area would be blown open. Is that a venturi effect? Your basic wind tunnel through the whole place. brrrr! It's sunny and gorgeous out with blue skies, which are pretty unusual during winter, but nippy. A good time to be knitting.

We're frantically working on info for the website, which we hope to have go live in a couple more weeks. If only we could clone ourselves and get a lot more done!

We should be working on the spring knitting catalog, but it's sitting on the back burner for the website. It's that cloning thing, and that irritating mere 8 hours a day for work (well - 8 hours for everybody else around here! I try not to add up my hours, it gets frightening). All things in time, right?

Just last week I noticed that it's no longer pitch dark at 5 pm. And this weekend I noticed the daffodils starting to poke through the ground. Spring is coming, spring is coming! Such a tease...

First toe up sock

2008-01-18T17:31:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty new to knitting socks, and trying to round out my learning by trying various different techniques. I've done a few pair cuff down, so it was time to try toe-up. Seems perfect for those sock yarns that you buy 2 of to make a pair, like Panda Wool and Panda Cotton and Panda Silk and Lorna's Laces and ..... well, you get the idea. You take a ball of yarn, start at the toe and knit until done. Perfect! (like those old cook books "bake at medium heat until done").

I turned to Wendy's generic toe up pattern (thank you Wendy!!) with feather and fan for the top, and used the undyed panda bamboo/wool yarn we've got that I dyed a while back using Procion dyes. (I needed to do an experiment - do you dye a yarn thats bamboo and wool (plant and protein) using a dye for plant or for protein (Landscapes)? The answer is they both work great!)

And a close up of the feather and fan:

I'm pretty pleased with them! Well, "it" and a half, I'm up to the heal on the 2nd one. I think I like the heal flaps and gussets type socks better, but looking at all my store boughts of course, that's not what they use! I never considered the making of socks before, other than the difference between regular socks and those icky tube socks. THAT would be a quick knit, but yuck!

Somewhere out there in cyber land I saw something about toe up with gussets, so I may have to hunt that up. But no hurry, there are too many on the needles now. There's just no end to the inspiration and experimentation. Gotta love it!

On a side note, if anyone tried calling yesterday morning and were perplexed by no answer, it was because we couldn't get in! The ~one month old lock mechanism on the door decided to fall apart and keep us all locked out while Charlie feverishly tried to get it to cooperate. He was successful (thank you Charlie!), but no thanks to Schlage and the lousy lock they made. HEH. So, new knob, new lock, new keys and away we go. It's always something!

Happy weekend!

Diane

Another bag completed

2008-01-16T17:18:00.000-08:00

Here is another of the bags we all worked on together. This one Paula made using Lamb's Pride Bulky. It's designed to carry a laptop. Much more stylish than a boring brief case sort of thing, don't you think? You could make one to match all your outfits.

The strap is sewn on after the felting, and she didn't enjoy that part, but otherwise loved the project.

I'm thinking I'll need to make one for me now. I made the beaded number as a store sample to show what the beads look like in action. It was my first fulled project, and it was more fun than I'd imagined. Narrowing it down is the hard part. Oh, and maybe finishing up a few others that are nagging at me... Hate it when projects nag. So unbecoming. I'm knitting as fast as I can! Thursdays are my big knit night - Ugly Betty and Gray's Anatomy! I didn't watch any TV whatsoever for something like 15 years, and now suddenly I'm addicted. It's good for the knitting though. Too bad October Road is on so late, it's past my bedtime. My alarm goes off at 5 am, so a program that starts at 10 pm is too late. See - addicted. Not just one show! What is the world coming to?

Diane

Delinquent

2007-12-31T14:21:00.000-08:00

Where did December go? Has anybody seen it? whooooosh! And the same goes for 2007. How can this be the last day of the year?

What will you remember for 2007? I've got entirely too many not good memories for this year, and yet I wouldn't say it was a bad year. Just seems like the things that stand out are all bad. Weird. So let's see, let's come up with some stand out positive things! Black Sheep Gathering and OFFF were really fun! Getting together one night a week after work with the gang here to knit has been a lot of fun, and I sure hope we'll pick that up again soon. Making progress on the future website (but there is so much left to do, worry worry worry).

I have a couple pics of finished bags - somehow I'm missing a couple of them too though. Anyway, here are 3 of them:

The top one is Lamb's Pride, the middle one is a mixture of yarns including Boku, Lite Lopi and others - with the ring around the "planet" being needle-felted, and the bottom one is Galway, with beaded fringe (see page 60 of the fall knitting catalog) . These are such fun to knit, and fast! The possibilities are endless, of course, with so many great yarns that full so well and color combinations. There are a couple of ladies that make a lot of bags and it's fun to see the yarns they pick out, and their finished products. Wonder if they'd let me take pictures to share? hmmm...

Meanwhile, while I'm on this felting/fulling mission, I started some slippers for my sweetie -

One done - but not yet thrown in the washer. Isn't it huge?? His feet, of course, are not so big. The magic of shrinkage... I'm using a lovely dark green heather Galway, think it's going to be great! I already picked out 3 colors for my pair... Goes fast since it's double stranded on fat needles. Not like socks on toothpicks, much as I love them.

Any fibery resolutions for the year? I'm taking some classes at Madrona in February and can't wait!! Didn't manage to catch all the classes I'd hoped, but am thrilled that I got some of them. I suppose a good resolution for me would be to actually spend some time at my loom and get a warp started. I have 2 warps hanging dejectedly partially on the loom - some 8/2 cotton for dish towels, and some chenille for a shadow weave throw. They've been there WAY too long, and they're both nearly warped... but not quite, and there's the catch. So, here's to getting to WEAVE them both in 2008!

Well, back to work. Please have a happy and safe new year!

Diane

Phones are back on!

2007-12-06T15:45:00.000-08:00

After 2 days of very eerie silence, the phones are back, what a relief. Thank you for your concern and well wishes and your patience! I think most people that tried to call either got an "all circuits are busy" or a rapid busy signal, but there must have been some that got a ringing phone that was never picked up because a couple people called to say they'd been trying to call us for days and why the heck weren't we answering the phones? SORRY! We answered it every time it rang, but they were all local calls. The mysteries of technology. Glad we get to take it all for granted most of the time. We sure notice it when it's gone!

And spring is in the air because our wonderful yarn reps are starting to come around showing the latest yarns for spring, and the new colors and patterns in our favorite current yarns. I really love meeting with the reps and seeing this stuff. But I also really hate it because, like you, I can't get everything I would love to get, and it can be pretty tough choosing. Have to hope I choose right and I don't end up with lots of yarn that doesn't move. That gets painful too.

Tim is working away on the new spinning & weaving catalog, which should be going to the printer in the next few weeks. There's some new fun stuff in there to see too! This catalog changes a lot less than the 2 knitting catalogs, but we are adding 8 pages to it this year, so there must be some new stuff, right? Heh heh, just you wait! :)

And maybe you saw on the home page that we're doing a whole new website... THIS is going to be really exciting! It will be much easier to navigate, it'll have bigger pictures of all the yarns, it'll HAVE all the yarns and the fibers and everything else we carry. We're really excited about it. Course we're also working like mad people to get it all in there, there is soooo much to do. Sometimes I get all worked up & filled with anxiety about it, then I have to tell myself to
b r e a t h e and take it one day at a time. We're all working as hard as we can, and we'll get done what we get done. The message on not one, but TWO recent Dove chocolates said "Don't think about it so much". Oh, okay. They're probably right. Chocolate wisdom.

Enjoy the day!
Diane

Phones are out...

2007-12-04T10:58:00.000-08:00

AAUUURRGGG! Due to the storms and excessive rain and flooding (was that an Ark I saw in your back yard??) our phones aren't working. Or rather, they work sporadically - like when I call in to the repair line and they test it, it comes in fine. But if I call from my cell phone? Nope. If someone in town here calls the 800 number it won't work - but the local number does work FOR HER - but it doesn't work from my cell phone either. And we can't call out long distance, but local calls out do work. Does this make sense?? I hope it does for somebody.

It's very bizarre to have the phones not ringing. Not to mention what it does for business. Our email is working though! So please, send us emails! info@woolworks.com works just fine, or directly to anybody...

Sigh.

The good news is that we're all safe, and mostly dry.

We're a bunch of bag ladies

2007-11-21T15:52:00.000-08:00

About a month or so ago most of us decided we'd like to make some felted bags (or more accurately, "fulled" bags, since we're knitting them and then washing them to shrinky-dink them). We even decided we'd knit together after work one evening, which worked out really well. I so love knitting with friends! We get to admire each other's work, solve problems, offer advice, encouragement and a little friendly competition ("you're not finished yet are you?").

Here are some in progress pics:

We're using a variety of yarns (Lamb's Pride, Galway, Boku, Lopi), and a variety of patterns. It's great watching them take shape!

I hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for, I try to pause each day and give thanks for the many many blessings in my life. It's nice to have a day dedicated to giving thanks.

Diane

Halloween at Woodland Woolworks

2007-10-31T10:03:00.000-07:00

Whee! I love seeing people in costume. Not that that got me to wear one, mind you, but I love it when other people do! The bummer of it all is that I have always, all my life, lived out in the tooleys and not gotten Trick or Treaters. A good year was getting 2. I've never had one ever where I live now - for 13 years. Very sad.

So I thought it was fabulous when a couple people here wanted to dress up. We have:

(leggings needed so as not to freeze to death in the warehouse)

(now wearing a big fluffy sweater to as not to freeze to death in the warehouse!)

Have to think up something for next year. Something warm though.

Boo! Happy Halloween to you and yours!

Sentenced

2007-10-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

Our thief has been sentenced. I learned so much about the ways and whyfores of our legal system, it's been quite the education. She decided to simply plead guilty, so we didn't need a trial, which was good cause that would have slogged it all out through next spring, at least. Yuck. Not to mention expense and all that.

So, around here at least, when one is pleading guilty, there is a plea & sentencing hearing, and it was scheduled for 9:30 on a recent Friday. There are a bunch of other cases all doing the same thing at that time, so we got to sit through several other cases while we waited out turn. I had soooo much to think about after sitting through that. There were some kids (well, kids to me - probably early 20s) who were in on drug stuff, and parole violations. There was the man who'd taken pictures of his 16 year old step-daughter getting out of the shower and other things you don't want to hear about. There was the young man who'd done unspeakable acts of cruelty to his 3 year old daughter and said he was a good father. It made me wonder how it is that the judges and lawyers and DAs and everyone can sit through these day after day, hour after hour and still see beauty in the world, can enjoy a night out with friends, and turn off their day jobs and look out at a sea of humanity and not be scarred and jaded. I couldn't do it, but I'm sure glad there are those who can. I have a greater appreciation for them, and I hope they CAN still appreciate the good in people, and the beauty in the world. We need them.

Having sat through those cases, I wondered if my thief would get any jail time or not. She did - she got 60 days in jail, 5 years of probation, must pay restitution, and of course spend the rest of her life as a convicted felon.

What was really weird to me about that morning was that I was the only one there speaking as a victim. The judge gives the opportunity for the victim to speak, or have someone speak on their behalf. There were no other victim impact statements presented, no one else spoke. No one spoke for the teenage girl (whose mother was there - and seemingly she was there FOR her husband, not her daughter, though she never spoke so I don't really know); no one spoke for that 3 year old baby. I hope this is not typical. I hope that more people who are harmed take the opportunity to tell what this meant. I know the law does what it can to punish, but if there isn't a personal side to it, does the one committing the crime really understand that side of it? Empathy isn't something that's easy to teach, but I think it's one of the most important skills someone can have. Are the criminals only sorry because they got caught, or are they sorry for the victim?? Seems like they're less likely to do it again if they understand that side, rather than just learn how to get away with it or blame it on the cop that caught them. Does that "good father" understand that his little baby girl is unlikely to ever be able to trust anyone or form healthy relationships? He had 2 rows of family there supporting him. Who was supporting that child? It felt like no one was. I sure hope I'm wrong.

A Sock in Panda Wool

2007-10-24T17:13:00.000-07:00

First off let me say that our hearts go out to all those in or near the California fire line, I can't imagine the horror of all of that fire, and what do you pack, what do you save, how long do you stay hoping you'll be safe, where to go, what to do. Paula's mother-in-law lives down there and Paula is worried sick - 12 miles away, 6 miles away, now how far is it?? I wish courage and strength to all, and safe passage.

I have all these stories piling up that I want to put in here, but seem to be missing some bit of information so they continue piling... so, here's a short one.

Here's a sock I've completed using Panda Wool from Crystal Palace color Red Cinnamon. Fun stuff! It's very soft, nice and springy. I am actually a fan of pooling, so I think it's cool when it does it's meandering trick. The pattern is Undulating Rib from Interweave Press' Favorite Socks book, modified to stop undulating over my foot (I forgot to undulate and went a few rows before I realized and said awww, forget it). Now to knit the partner sock.

I'm doing another pair using a different yarn called Panda that you can dye yourself, also made from bamboo plus merino I think. I hope to get pics shortly. It's nearly one complete sock - toe up this time, my first time, using Wendy's toe-up fan & feather pattern. Fun!

Told you it was short...

Diane

Where does the time go??

2007-10-03T16:38:00.000-07:00

Bad blogger, no cookie! Sorry for the lapse...

OFFF was a blast!! The energy and creativity and visual/tactile feast that is a fiber festival is just more fun than I can describe. Everybody is in a happy mood, color and texture is everywhere. I LOVE seeing how perfect strangers become fast friends through fiber. It's that extra language we all speak, the language of creativity and possibility, and we're able to express it fully at a place like OFFF and Black Sheep. We gather as a tribe and we know each other before we've even met, and we LIKE each other. We help strangers by telling them our experiences, by showing each other how to use unfamiliar tools, we teach, we share, we laugh, we dream.

There was a wonderful woman who spent a lot of time spinning on the different wheels, and some children came along who seemed unfamiliar with the craft, and she soon had one on her lap, teaching the ways of the wheel. It was beautiful! I thanked her for showing the child how to spin and she just laughed and said "how could I not?" That's what I love about fiber people, the spontaneous sharing. Generosity of spirit.

I only wish I could clone myself so I could spend the whole time in the booth (okay, I did that), I could go around to the entire show and see everything, every booth, every display, every demonstration, every sheep, every baby camel (baby camels!!), I could sit under the trees and spin or knit the day away while chatting with my tribe, I could take every class.... ahhhh.

I did get to see the baby camels. Who knew they were so friendly and charming?? Alpacas are simply adorable, but most of them act like they're perfectly disgusted if you venture to touch them (UGH, a HUMAN! cooties!!). I wonder, are camels typically like this, or were these guys unusual? Maybe they've been used more by man throughout the ages, so we've selected for dispositions that are more personable, and we just let alpacas get away with it cuz they're cute?? I don't know. I just know that if alpacas acted like they liked you, there'd be a couple in every home in the country. Mine, anyway.

The catalog is ALMOST done! It should go to the printer tomorrow, touch wood. Tim is a wizard, you're going to LOVE this catalog. I can't wait to get it out there and get your response!

Can you call it a knit-along if you don't all work on the same thing? We were talking about making some felted bags (okay okay, knitted and fulled!!), but we don't all want the same design. Can we still call it a knit-along if we each pick a different pattern? Deb and Karen are leaning towards the same one, but I want something with a little fold over flap so I can add this cool beaded fringe that we have - it's on satin bias tape, and I don't want that part to show, thus the flap. I'm not sure what Jennifer wants to do. Cathy and Paula and Wanda weren't here today to say if they wanted in on this or not...

Pictures?? sorry - bad blogger, no cookie.

Diane

We're off to OFFF

2007-09-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

Well, very soon we're off to OFFF - Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival! We're packing up and trying to think what to bring, and wondering how our space will work out and all that stuff. This will be my first time at OFFF as a vendor. Charlie & Melda hadn't gone for some years before I bought the business either. I decided Black Sheep was so much fun that I'd give this one a whirl too. Fall is a tough time around here cause we're busy with the knitting catalog and Wool Rag and spin catalog, but I thought I'd see if I could squeeze it in without killing myself and everybody around me.... here's hoping! :)

Look for us on the porch of the main pavillion! We'll have lots of wheels, and gadgets and sock yarn and books.

AND, if you show up in your t-shirt from this years Komen Race for the Cure, you'll get a small token of our appreciation (while supplies last). It's a really important fund raiser for a really important issue, and I'd just like to say thanks for supporting it.

And that mystery photo from the last entry is indeed silk worm cocoons. Cathy and Wanda are both raising them. Don't know how much silk they're going to get since they aren't snuffing the moths, but letting them emerge from the cocoons and complete their lifecycles. It's a very cool process, watching these guys do their thing.

Okay! Let's all go have a great time at OFFF, it's gonna be a great show!

Diane

Playing Catch-Up

2007-09-13T16:49:00.000-07:00

(did somebody say ketchup?)

First - thanks so much for all the kind words on and off the blog about our run-in with the thief. They were all very much appreciated!

Time to share some projects from around here!

A sock in progress from Cathy, using Maizy...

Part of a finished sock from Cathy out of Trekking color 100

and part of another finished sock from Cathy out of Mielenweit cotton Festa. Cathy is our sock superstar around here. I've managed a couple of pair in my life (thanks to Cathy!), but she cranks them out regularly. In fact, she wears only handknit socks. I have aspirations to be able to do that, but it's gonna take a while. Anybody else wear only handknits? You have my utmost admiration!

And guess what else Cathy and Wanda are up to!!

Any guesses?? :)