60% off, last day will be June 15th

We've decided on a last day, and that will be June 15th, and increased the discount to 60% on everything in stock.

Thanks for everything!

45% off & Website Woes

We've increased the discount to 45% off everything in stock, and I sent out an email to announce that, and the response has overwhelmed our server again (and again and again).  I'm VERY sorry about that...  as you might imagine, I'm not keen on spending more money for more space at this time (especially since the next level is a big $jump$, I'm just trying to make it through...)    I split the email list into 3 separate mailings, hoping that would help and maybe it did - but not enough, clearly.  I can't apologize enough... 

In case you were wondering and can't make it on the site - there are no more spinning wheels.  There are no floor looms, table looms, or rigid heddle looms.  There is not much fiber.  There is a LOT of knitting yarn, a fair amount of weaving yarn, a LOT of patterns, a lot of books, needles & other gadgets. 

If you're local, we are still open our regular hours of Mon-Sat 8:30 - 4pm, and that's when we answer the phone too, if you'd rather call to place an order or check on availability. 

Thanks for your patience!  (anybody else getting tired of hearing that?  yeah, I thought so...  I'd like it to just WORK too...)

Deeper discount - save 35% off

We're catching up at last after a phenomenal response to the sale (thank you, thank you!), so now it's time to increase the discount, so you can now save 35% off anything in stock.  Use the coupon code Going - but if for some reason it doesn't work or you forget to enter the code, don't worry,  we're taking 35% off everything when we process the order no matter what. 

Thank you so much for everything.  I wish I had the words to express what you have meant to us, sharing your passion for all things fibery, sharing your joys, your sorrows, everything.  It's meant the world to us.  

Of Websites & Discounts

I am really sorry that our website keeps misbehaving.  2 of the 3 big crashes I can explain, today's I have no idea.  Why is our website a plain white screen?  I don't know.  I wish I did.  We're trying to get it fixed.  It's making me nuts, and I really don't need any help with that. 

When the website IS working, please know that we're applying the 25% discount on all orders, regardless of whether the code was applied or worked when you typed it in or not.  You will get the 25% off. 

Thank you so much for all your many kind words, hugs, and tears.  We're all very sorry this is happening and wish (WISH) it could be otherwise. 

Going out of business

Woodland Woolworks is going out of business. 

Those words leave me with a dead space in my heart, but unfortunately it’s true.  Like so very many knitters & fiber people, working in this industry – owning a yarn store – had been a dream for many years.  There had even been a couple of false starts, negotiations to buy other yarn businesses, thoughts of starting from scratch, and then the dream came true when I was able to buy this business.  I met so many wonderful people, I learned so much.  I have so many treasured memories, and I thank you all for those.  

But the world has changed since 2005 when I bought the business, as it always does.  Changes we should have seen, changes we could not have seen, competition in more forms than we could imagine (digital downloads, anyone?).  I tried to ride out the economic storm, I tried a lot of changes internally.  But it’s not working, so the time has come. 

I want to thank all of our loyal and wonderful customers, the fabulous vendors and yarn reps we’ve worked with, and most of all, my employees who’ve been such a joy to work with.  That’s the hardest part of all, having to let them go.  Please, I know you will be patient and kind with them as we go through this transition; it’s really hard for them too.

If you use the coupon code Going, you’ll get 25% off your order – even 25% off stuff that’s already on sale.  In stock items only, of course.  If you have a back-order with us, we will not be able to fill that order and we will be contacting you about it as soon as possible. 

Free Scarf Pattern from Classic Elite

Classic Elite sends out a terrific email every week that includes a free pattern in one of their lovely yarns.  A while back, there was a terrific lace scarf that Alice Halbeisen designed using Silky Alpaca Lace. 

There's a link on the page to download the directions for the scarf.  It looks fabulous!  I'm trying to resist casting it on, since I AM trying to finish up a few other things.  It's pretty tough to resist!  

Housecleaning

Do you know about the Spinners' & Weavers' Housecleaning pages?  You should.  It's a terrific place to look for used equipment of all sorts - spinning wheels, looms, books, fleeces, carders...  and also to put up ads for your own equipment to sell, or if you're looking for something in particular.  There are even some fiber animals on there, under Grandpa's Barn... 

We're always passing along this gem of a site, and thought maybe we could share it with a few more folks this way. 

Happy looking! 

Playing with double knitting

 
I love color (who doesn't?), and I love things with lots of colors and things going on.  I like to get lost in patterns and color.  Noodling around on Ravelry, I saw a bunch of interesting patterns that were double knit.  If you don't know what that is, it's basically making a double-faced item, with colors reversed on front & back.  Here's a Rainbow Scarf on Ravelry by Eline Sanders that is just gorgeous, knit using Kauni Effektgarn.  I wasn't ready to jump in on the whole scarf, so I took some Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride and Plymouth Boku that I had left over from a hat I knit, and decided to make a hot pad to learn the technique. 

 It's tough to photograph black, the reverse side shows up better!

I'm knitting it on big needles (10.5), and I'll throw it in the washer to full it once I'm finished.  If you look closely at the needle, you'll notice that every other stitch is black (except where the color changes).  Basically what you do is a knit 1, purl1 sequence, with the colors alternating.  All the knits show up on the "front" side, and all the purls show up on the other side - looking like stockinette on both sides.  This is the coolest thing!  It's VERY fun.  You slip the 1st two stitches on every row, then knit 1, move BOTH strands to the front, purl 1, move BOTH strands to the back, knit 1 and keep going.  Eline's instructions for the scarf explain it very nicely.  It's addictive.  Doesn't hurt that I adore the Boku with its sexy color changes.  Yum.  Just look at that color blending, mmm mmmm mmmm.  :)   Good eye candy.

Plus, depending on how you twist the 2 strands during the more solid portions, you actually get 2 layers of cloth.  Sort of a mind bender.  I haven't done it, but maybe this is like those magic mittens that people knit, one inside the other, knit at the same time - finish knitting and pull out the inside mitten!  A great magic trick.  Double knitting is great for scarves and hats - double warmth, and I can see making a reversible vest and oh, all sorts of things!  Imagine doing a hat or mittens with the inside layer as cashmere or angora for super soft, super warm. What decadence! 

There are socks!

I finished up a pair of Monkey Socks last week.  Love 'em!  Like a lot of things, these took a while.  I found a picture I took of the 1st sock taken before the heel turn.  The picture was taken in the fall of 2008.  Yowch.  How did that happen?  Somehow it took me 2 1/2 years to knit 1 sock and about a month to knit the 2nd.  Ah well.

 I tend not to do any patterning over the top of my foot - sometimes that's kind of uncomfortable, so I just skip it and do plain feet.  The patterning didn't show up all that much in this yarn anyway...  It's a fun knit though. 

And I started another pair of socks.  Here's hoping these don't take over 2 years!! 

 They're called Spring Forward, and they're from the Summer 2008 Knitty.  The yarn is a wonderful merino/cashmere/nylon blend that I dyed a while ago. (I'm sensing a theme here...  things just need to percolate for a while maybe). 

The cashmere makes this yarn so incredibly soft.  I'm really loving it so far!  Can't wait to see how it looks as it goes along.  Can't wait to get it on my feet. 

It's going to take a while

Back in December, I mentioned wanting to spin enough yarn for one of the sweaters in A Fine Fleece.  I have to preface this by saying I'm not a technical spinner, and spinning to a standard that isn't my normal mindless spinning just sounds way too hard.  I know, I know, I should be a better person and learn to do this and I would learn a lot in the process and improve my spinning and all that.  To do this properly I should spin up some samples and knit samples and do lots of math (shudder).  Yeah, that all sounds like a lot of work.  Plus I worry that I wouldn't have enough fiber if I have to dedicate who-knows-how-much-of-it to sampling, and then where would I be?  A bunch of samples and I couldn't make the sweater anyway.  So I decided that I would spin all the fiber as a 3-ply.  The yarns used in the book for the patterns I like were all worsted weight, and my usual 2-ply would be too fine.  I AM trying to spin a bit fatter, cause I'm not sure that a 3-ply would be the right weight either, but again - in a not-too-technical way.  Mostly I'm going to wing it and hope for the best.  This is supposed to be fun, so I'm just not going to go and try to make it hard!

The fiber I'm spinning is a blend of unknown wools with maybe a touch of mohair in it too - it's random stuff I dyed over the years and when I took it in for blending/carding, I meant to keep all the info about the fleeces with it, but it didn't happen.  It's really pretty though!  I love the tweedy look to it, with lots of different blues.

 

There are 4 of these little mini-bumps of fiber to spin up, totaling  close to 2 lbs I think.

 

And here is what it's looking like on the bobbin - it's spinning up with a bit of texture, as well as the mix of color.  I think I'm going to like the finished yarn!

 So far I've filled 2 bobbins and have maybe 1/2 of the 3rd one.  So, yeah, it's going to take a while.  I'm not even through the first bump, although it is one of the larger weight ones, if that's any consolation.  I wonder if I'll even get it all spun this year?  Let alone get started knitting...  This is definitely a long-term project.  I so admire those people that get lots of spinning & knitting done!! 

And then if this blue one isn't enough, I have a touch more of this purple blend.  It's not as tweedy looking, but it has some silk noil in it for interest, and it feels like a higher mohair content.  I adore mohair.  But it's REALLY going to be a while if this blue stuff doesn't work out, and I opt to go with the purple!!

Maybe I should consider this a 5-year plan.  So far so good!  :)

New yarn, new colors

We recently received a new yarn from Classic Elite - this is Cricket, which is a 60% cotton, 40% linen blend DK weight yarn.  I think this will make some great spring & summer tops.  The pattern booklets for spring weren't available yet, so I can't show you the designs they've come out with just yet. 

 There were some new colors in Firefly as well - yummy jewel tones.  That red is HOT!  A friend of mine used to say that every woman should have a red sweater.  He may be right. 

 And a new lovely shade of Silky Alpaca Lace.  It's called Beach Glass, which seems appropriate for this dreamy muted shade of green.

Plying options

Saturday when Anita came in to teach the beginning spinning class, she tossed me a hank of heaven.  She brings in lots of examples of hand spun to show her students, and this was a new one.  She plied a strand of hand spun wool with a some Rowan Kidsilk Aura.  It was exquisite!  I wish my photos had feel-o-vision so you could touch this too.  She said it's VERY loosely plied - you're basically throwing the plies together onto the wheel. I seem to always forget about the possibility of plying your hand spun with a commercial yarn.

The brushed mohair of the Kidsilk Aura lends a bit of halo that gets tempered by the smooth ply.  I really liked it!

Thanks for sharing, Anita!

Finishing things

An eon ago, I started a quick little cowl out of Classic Elite's Fresco, using a pattern they sent in their e-newsletter.  I got pretty far along on it, and then for who-knows-what-reason, or no reason at all, it was set aside and languished.  I even had a hard time finding it when I decided to work on it again.  Entirely too many projects sitting around all over the place.  Do you ever have that problem? 

Well, I finally found it and sat down and finished it.  There were something like 3 rows left to do.  THREE ROWS.  This is ridiculous.  But there you have it.  I absolutely adore this yarn.  There's a smidge of angora (the bunny) in it that gives it just a little bit of halo and soft soft soft.  PERFECT for a cowl.  I'd love it as a pair of fingerless mitts too.  Oh, hey, a sweater would be terrific too.  Yum.  You can't go wrong with this yarn. 

Looking a little pale, is my styrofoam head.  But that's life in winter in Oregon. I could have made this longer, but I think I was afraid I'd put it down for another year.  I'll probably just wear it around my neck, instead of over my head - long hair does weird things with cowls (and hoodies). 

And for a closer-up (not close up, but closer):

Restoring Henry VIII Tapestries

A friend passed along a link to a story about restoring the original colors to tapestries that were made for King Henry VIII nearly 500 years ago.  Here is another site where you can see something of the size of this tapestry. It boggles my mind to think of the work that went into making these amazing tapestries, and to think of them lasting so long.  Do we make much these days that will last so long? 

In an interesting bit of synchronicity, I recently finished reading a book called The Children of Henry VIII by Alison Weir, and my friend didn't know that.  Funny how the world brings such things together.  Thanks Cheryl!

Woodworks?

What's in a name? 

Last week I happened to be outside getting something from my car in the side parking lot when I heard someone pull up in front and SCREECH to a halt.  I came back in and a nice couple were in looking around.  The gentleman had been driving, and saw our sign, but he thought it said "Woodland Woodworks", and was excited to think he'd found a place for folks who like to do wood working.  We had a laugh, and he admired the spinning wheels.  His wife happens to be a knitter though, so she didn't mind the stop in the least! 

Speaking of names, we've had several people read our new town as "Yarn hill" instead of YAMHILL.  It would be great if we were in Yarnhill!  Somebody even asked if we'd had the town's name changed just for us.  Hmmm, now there's a thought! 

Finished Chenille Scarves

I managed to get all 3 scarves woven, off the loom, fringes twisted, wet finished, dried, in the mail and TO the recipients in time!  Hurray!  I didn't even begin to make a dent in my stash of chenille (how I love this stuff), alas.  Or maybe that's okay, because really - what's WRONG with surrounding yourself with stuff you love?  I like just moving the cones around looking at different colors together and thinking of all the possibilities. 

Here is the greeney one that was but a blob of warp yarns in the last post. 

 I used the outside stripes color (a rather marled yarn) for the weft.  I thought I'd like the pale green for weft, but I didn't...  This one turned out the softest once it was finished - like butter!  (why do we say that?  I don't think I'd want to be wearing butter...  maybe soft like a kitten!  not so easy to wear either, but I'd rather pet a kitten than butter...).
  Next up was a scarf in red tones...  I used two shades of red wound at the same time for the red stripes.  The other stripes are another marled yarn that turned out to be quite green in the light of day.  In my basement when I was choosing it it looked like something else.  I don't know what, but not so ...  green!  Oh well, covered in red weft it's a whole lot less green.  I outlined each stripe with 1 strand of blue. 

 This scarf started out 11" wide in the reed, because I can't count.  Well, more that I wanted the red stripes to be 2" and the green 1", and I wanted 3 stripes of green, and to surround them with red makes for 11"...  Surprise! 

Now my upstairs loom is naked.  I have 2 looms in the basement that have been in a state of partial warp for waaaay too long.  I need to finish warping both of them and get them woven.  Resolution!  Weave off both these projects!!  One is a shadow weave chenille throw, and the other is 8/2 cotton for dish towels to try out 12 harness weaving....   I'm entirely too tempted to toss a mixed warp I measured and dyed a long time ago onto the upstairs loom...  it's a gradation of greens from light to dark, intended for a vest.  I'd love to wear it to Madrona.  But should it be light to dark across the width once, or narrower flows of color back & forth (light dark light or dark light dark or light dark light dark light.....  sigh)  Sometimes the decisions are paralyzing.  It's a good problem to have. 

We're going to Madrona!

We get to have a booth at Madrona in Tacoma this February!  I'm VERY excited about this show.  I attended a couple years ago as a participant & class-taker, but this year we get to have a booth.  More formally known as the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat, this is an amazing event with many of the top names in knitting, spinning & weaving.  Take a look at that class schedule - some of the classes are still available (many of them fill within nano-seconds of registration opening), and the wait list is actively maintained as well. 

Let us know if you want us to bring something specific (save shipping, we'll bring your order there!  and if you pay for it ahead of time, the Oregon tax rate applies (zero!)). 

Very very excited!  It's going to be a BLAST!   Will you be there?

Socks (the cat)

Socks is our newly adopted shop cat. Or, I should say, we're her newly adopted laps. Once we moved in to our new location, she decided to come on in the backdoor and welcome us to the neighborhood. Ever since, she's been coming by every morning, meeting us at the back with a few hello meows. She comes in, decides on who's lap she plans on sitting in today and makes herself at home. As you can see in the picture above, she really likes to help out with the work being done around here.

Socks actually lives across the street, but it seems like she's made the whole neighborhood hers. Her real owners are gone during the day, so she comes and visits us. We do our best to keep her out of the actual shop part and only in the office, but she does her best to do otherwise. Anytime she sees the opportunity she makes a bee-line for the showroom. Must be all those balls of yarns in there and visions of batting them around.

It's come to the point now, that if Socks doesn't show up we get worried about her. Some days she strolls in a little later than others, but so far she keeps coming by, so I guess she's our shop mascot now. And who are we to say no?

Handwoven chenille scarves

I have a lot of chenille in my stash, so I'm trying to weave a few scarves for Christmas for some extended family members.  I want to get 3 of them done.  At this point, I'm on #3 so it's looking pretty good. 

First up, and completely finished, is one in shades of purple.

 I sett it at 20 epi for plain weave.  Chenille likes to worm (send out squiggly bits from the surface) if it isn't sett nice and snug.  Some of these yarns could have been sett further apart, at say 16 epi, but some of the colors were finer, so I just went with 20 over all.

 Off the loom, the scarf has all of the drape of cardboard.  It's really stiff!!  But I've since twisted the fringes, and washed and dried it - I hand washed, but threw it in the dryer.  Now it's soft and plush and lovely!  But I don't have a picture of that...

 Next up I used 3 shades - one is a marl-ey green, then 2 solids. 

 The blob of yarn (warp chains!), ready to go on the loom.

 This scarf is also off the loom now, but I haven't twisted the fringes yet, or wet finished it...  The 3rd scarf is wound and sleyed, and I've only just started threading it.  I'm a pretty slow warper, but I actually enjoy the process.  I just turn on my iPod and listen to some podcasts, and make my way through it.  I do need to get a hustle on this though so I can finish these other 2 scarves and get them in the mail in time! 

Tick tick tick tick...  hope your holiday projects are coming along nicely!!

Decisions, decisions

I've been admiring and drooling after most of the designs in the book A Fine Fleece ever since it came out.  How I adore cables! 

This book shows every project in both a commercially available yarn, and in handspun. I recently started spinning some fiber from my stash that I'd had processed by Fantasy Fibers into roving, ready to spin.  A few years ago I gathered up a LOT of fibers - fleeces from all over in wools, mohairs, angora, silk - you name it.  I'd dyed lots of things without any projects in mind, just because it's fun.  Stupidly though, I didn't mark what I took in and had blended, so I don't know what sort of fleece or blend I've got in any of the colors I took her that day.  Sigh.  So Janell blended up the blues in one batch, the reds in another, etc.  I recently started spinning up the blue and I have a bit over 2 pounds I think.  Enough for an interesting project!  Now, I don't typically spin for a project.  I spin for the love of the process, just like I dye for the love of the process.  BUT, looking at this book, I keep thinking hmmmm, maybe I should spin for one of these sweaters.  And then I back away - way too ambitious a thought!  But I keep coming back to it. 
This week I committed to buying the book, and now I'm trying to decide which of these sweaters to make: (I apologize for my crummy photos, they looks sooo much nicer in the book!)

I have an abundance of wonderful choices!  I don't know how I'm going to decide.  They're all worsted weight, so I can probably spin a bunch of yarn before I have to decide.  And that's another thing, I'll have to spin some and ply it and SWATCH like crazy!  I tend to do swatches anyway, although I'm not as rigorous about it as I should be.  But this will be really critical - this will tell me if I'm making the right yarn to begin with!! 
There's a lady in Salem named Helen who is making EVERY project in the book.  I am so impressed with that goal!  Here I am barely able to commit to one of them. Helen, you're my inspiration! 
Maybe this will be my New Year's Resolution.  It will definitely be a stretch goal for me. What goals are you stretching for?