Wooly ways to stay warm!
Sheepventure, spinning packs, blogs!
Today is the coldest day of all winter…I hope! The sheep, goats, and chickens are managing and us humans are only whining a little bit about all the extra work that comes with extreme cold. Fortunately, we have lots of wool to keep us warm! (I’m still going to be excited for warming temps above 20F!)
Today was also the launch of our yarn club special event, Choose Your Own Sheepventure! The next four months of yarn club include a short story and two yarn club colorways that correspond with a choice you make within the story. This is a new experiment for us and we’re grateful for everyone’s enthusiasm so far! If you were thinking about joining us, but unsure of how it would go, I have included a little bit of the first story below. You can join the club at any time, but if you’d like to start with this first chapter, sign up by this Thursday, January 23.
If you’d like other self-striping yarn, I put a few skeins on sale. They are mostly DK and Sport weight, and there are just a few.
Spinners! We just dropped the preorders of the February version of Battvent at the post office: 12 or 24 mini batts in all manner of pink! There are a few spinning packs available, and now I can show you all their pink glory:
If you order one pack, you’ll get 3 ounces (12 minis). There are two different sets available, so two packs will contain in 24 different minis. Here’s the link to check them out.
The cold weather means I’m spending a bit more time online. If you’d like to follow more updates from the farm, here’s where you can find some things:
Blog! Mostly about sock knitting, but sometimes goats… I have a lot of sock knitting goals for the year and have been writing about some of the successes and failures. I love simple and complex sock patterns and am hoping to knit patterns with names from A to Z this year. You can sign up for blog updates here.
You probably already know I’m on Instagram, but I have a Facebook page too. And now I’m trying to figure out Blue Sky as well. If you’re also there, let’s connect!
Thanks for your interest in our tiny shop! Stay warm, friends. Drink lots of tea and snuggle in with your knitting.
An except from Choose Your Own Sheepventure: Gathering of the Woolies
The Gathering of the Woolies (“Woolie Day,” for short) is the day each year that all of the Spindle Falls sheep get shorn. Shearing the sheep in Spindle Falls is a huge activity. It’s a lot of work, but it’s also a celebration. Everyone in town participates in some way, and hundreds of sheep get sheared.
…..
Your job this year is “Recovery.” While a great majority of the sheep are easy to round up, every year, some of the most stubborn, recalcitrant, or otherwise grumpy ewes make the people of Spindle Falls work extra hard for their wool. You’ve proven to have a knack for getting these sheep into an “agreeable mood,” but you still expect to have your work cut out for you. …… This morning, the recovery team is meeting at Jenna’s Cafe (and cupcake bakery).
……
You could enlist help from some of the dogs. They are generally good at rounding up the wayward animals, but these particular Shetland ewes are keenly intelligent and willful.
Time to decide.
Do you:
A.) Select some dogs to help. They have a long track record of being reliable herding partners, and dogs are awesome. You watch as mottled gray and black cattle dogs and rusty Keplies try herding an unamused pyrenese. They’re certainly up for the work! You’re confident they will help you get the job done, but it might be difficult if the sheep climb to a place the dogs can’t get to.
B.) Leave the dogs. They might be more trouble than they are worth for these sheep. You’ll figure something out when you find them, but for now you’re super hungry. The pastel cupcakes are only an arms length away... The bright, vibrant, sugary icing. What is that, Raspberry? Strawberry? Lemon? What flavor are the purple ones? Steal a whole plate of the cupcakes to take with you. You’ll figure it out when you get there. AFTER you’ve eaten.
If you’d like to join us for the adventure, sign up here. I’ll email you the full story and the link to reply with your choice. Join by Thursday, January 23 and your first yarn ships on February 10.