Phones are back on!

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...

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

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

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

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

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??

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