Art Harvest Studio Tour

This coming weekend (Oct 1-3) and the following (Oct 8-10) is the Art Harvest Studio Tour. This event is a self-guided trip through Yamhill County to visit 40 different artist's studios in the area. It's a great event, especially with this warm early Fall weather taking place. You get to drive through the scenic hills of fields, wineries, and orchards on a lovely Saturday or Sunday and stop in to see fantastic local art along the way. If you add in a winery stop (or two) and a visit to a wonderful little knitting store called Woodland Woolworks- you've got a perfectly relaxing and entertaining afternoon. ; )

Although most of these artists use paint as their mediums, instead of fiber like ourselves, we feel a connection to the creative spirit and use of hands to create something stunning. This tour is especially interesting because you get to see where the actual creative process takes place, not just the artwork hung in a gallery. It's a kind of behind-the-scenes look at art being made which can be as interesting as the pieces themselves.

You can learn more about buying tickets and find a map of the locations at the Art Harvest website.

Oregon Flock and Fiber Recap

Before the mad rush

Well another year and another OFFF is in the books. It was a lot of fun as usual. A big thanks to all the volunteers that make it happen. We loved seeing and meeting everyone there (lots of hugs!) and were glad for at least one sunny afternoon on Saturday. Sunday, not so much, but we're thankful to all who braved the downpour in the morning to make it out. You just can't keep good fiber fans down! It's always a shame that we're so busy holding down the fort we don't get to do as much exploring as we'd like - there's so much good stuff! We were able to catch a quick glimpse of the duck herding demonstration though, and that was fun to watch. We're already looking forward to next year.

Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival

The Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival is coming up on the weekend of September 25th through the 26th (with workshops also on the 24th). It takes place at the Clackamas County Fairgrounds in Canby, Oregon and is a weekend full of fun for the fiber arts enthusiast.

We really look forward to the OFFF because of all the great events and people we get to meet. There's competitions for livestock, spinning skills, fiber, yarns, fiber creations, and even a cook off (Entry forms). There's also lots of workshops on dyeing, weaving, knitting, beading, and almost anything you can think of when it comes to fiber. There's also live music, crafts for sale, fiber for sale, and activities to keep you busy all weekend long. It really is quite an event! We'll be there on The Porch with a booth, so be sure to stop on by and say hello. We'll have all kinds of fiber-y goodness with us, ready for you to take away and create with.

Carol Hummel Artwork

 Carol Hummel is an artist that often uses knitting, crocheting, and yarn for her outdoor sculptures. We thought we'd share some of our favorite pictures of her unique work today.We love how the brightly colored yarns contrast with the concrete and rock. Just another example of how far you can take knitting, crochet, and the fiber arts - there are no limits.

L.A. County Fair

If you're in the L.A. area this month, then you should try and make a stop at the L.A. County Fair, taking place September 4th through October 4th at the Fair Plex in Pomona.Our good friend Patricia Woods will be on hand at the California Heritage Square, demonstrating and teaching people how to spin fiber on Wednesdays and on the weekends. The Heritage Square also has other fun historical experiences to partake in, like panning for gold, grinding corn, and quilting. Patricia will be by the Big Red Barn; through the tunnel, veer to the left where you'll see Texas Donuts. It will be right next door.

There's also a Spinning Contest taking place on Saturday, September 18th at 5:30pm. The contest is put on by the California Rabbit Society and entry is only $5 (and we think a free ticket to the fair). You can email Hilary Godfrey for more details: hilarygodfrey@therancheslol@sbeglobal.net or click on the link above for an entry form. There's 3 different divisions: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. We'd love one of the winner's to be a Woodland Woolworks fan!

If you're looking for some fun, fair entertainment and want to see some spinning in action or are looking to show off your skills, the California Heritage Center and the Spinning Contest is the spot. 


(Might want to stay away from the cheese fries though- yowza! And we're not sure we want to know how big a Texas Donut is.)

Lantern Moon

We just got in a shipment of new products from Lantern Moon the other day, and it reminded us that we should do a blog on this company, as many who buy or see their products might not know much about them, and they're an interesting company that's worth writing about.

Lantern Moon supports socially and globally conscious living. They work directly with producers to provide income, education, and self-reliance to Vietnamese women and their families. In 2004, they established an educational trust fund to benefit the children of these families.

With your purchases you provide a market for these wonderful products and contribute to the economic and social well being of the areas where they are produced, providing income and self-reliance to women and their families. 

The women create all these products by hand, so most are one-of-a-kind and highlight their artistic skills that are often unique to the regions with which they live in. They create really beautiful items, and it's good to know that they're getting paid a fair wage and have their well-being watched out for while doing it.

Lantern Moon's environmental policy is also something worth cheering about, as they check to make sure how viable the resources are long-term, and how much impact using those resources will have in the regions they come from. They have begun shifting the balance from using local and regional woods to woods that can be certified sustainable through independent third party verification, making sure their footprint on the environment is even a smaller one.

Because of these policies and philosophies in running their business, we thought it'd be good to call attention to it. It feels that much better purchasing a product that not only is gorgeous to look at, but also good in it's core values. Take a look at the Lantern Moon products we carry here (just click on the category links).

We also have their bags currently on sale here.


And the newest items from them can be seen here.

eCatalog and web findings

Well, we just finished our Fall "eCatalog" and got it up on the site. Trying something different to see how well it works. The cost of printing and especially mailing has risen so much - plus the environmental impact of printing all those catalogs up, takes a toll. We thought/think that we can still satisfy those who look forward to our catalogs, plus make it quick and easy to access on the internet, as well as easy to order by adding links to all the products. You just click the picture and voila! you're taken to the webpage of the clicked product. Technology is pretty cool. It's fun to get a chance at pushing forward with technology and web capability to make a more interesting and entertaining catalog. Who knows, maybe we'll even get video clips in future issues. This format will also allow us to create catalogs more frequently, keeping y'all better up-to-date with all the new products we add and events that are up-coming, so that'll be great.

Surfing around the web, I found a couple fun blog articles I thought I'd share:

First off is a really simple and fun pattern for Woven Square Slippers. It comes to us from the Knitting Interrupted blog. Basically, you weave up a square (or possibly knit/crochet), sew up the sides, felt, and just like that, you've got a new pair of slippers. If knitting socks looks too daunting, this might be the way to cheat and get yourself some warm slippers on the easy. I won't tell, I promise. 

I thought the Kool-Aid dye color recipes at Tried & True were pretty clever. Who knew you need 2 lemons, 1 grape, and 1 orange to make brown? Nice color chart. Not sure how well it carries over to wool though...

Speaking of wool and felt - this site has a lot of great information on learning how to felt. Lots of videos. Maybe it can inspire you to do some felting.... we've got fun little felting wool packs on sale right now too. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge. 

-Tim