GOING TO THE MILL!

The last few years I have had a lot of fiber processed by Blue Hills Fiber Processing out near Bruce, Wi.  Recently the business changed hands and last weekend I had an opportunity to go and see the new location of the business and pick up some fiber that my sister had dropped off there for me.  My sister lives fairly close to this fiber mill so she does a lot of dropping off and picking up for me when we are going to be doing something together or she has just come home from doing something.
Last weekend we were vending out in Eau Claire for their Art in the Pines festival.  It is a lovely location and all that shade helped with the ninety degree weather that we had when we were there.
We took some fiber from friends over to the mill on Friday and my sister's dog made the trip along with us.

Doesn't he look excited?

SISTERS

I am a very fortunate person to have (3) sisters.  It was crazy growing up and I am sure we all drove our parents crazy as we were very close in age and constantly going somewhere and doing something.  One of my sisters helps me TREMENDOUSLY with knitting product and dyeing fibers and felting and packaging and going to shows with me.  I seriously could not do so much without her. 

This is Zoe and ZuZu and when reading before going to sleep last night these two sisters were laying on the end of the bed giving each other baths.  I thought how wonderful that those two sisters have each other and then I thought how wonderful that I have all my sisters even though I do not get to spend time with all of them.  It is always nice to have a sister to lean on... just whenever.  Thanks Sisters!

Our lovely Sven and our Schedule

This was our Svenie boy.  I sat down last night and started spinning some of his lovely clean fleece that I can put up to my skin with no irritation which can be a little different with some Icelandic sheep.  I am thinking that I may have to keep some of it for myself and would love to keep it white but I do like dyeing and my sister and I are going to have a natural dyeing time (for fleece) on labor day weekend.
Thanks to everyone that made purchases at the Garlic Festival in Hutchinson this past Saturday.  It helps me to maintain the flock at home and they sincerely appreciate it.
We are going to be pretty busy at shows on weekends coming up so catch us when we are in your area.  It is always fun to meet new people and see friends and aquaintances.

This Saturday we are at the Arts & Crafts festival in Buffalo from 9-3.
The next weekend you can find us at Arts in the Park in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
The next weekend is Labor Day weekend and we will be working on fiber at the farm.
On Sept. 8th we are in Osceola Wi. for Wings and Wheels event.
The fifteenth is South Dakota's fiber event at Watertown, S.D.
We will be taking in the Cranberry Festival in Warren, Wi on Sept. 29
and another Cranberry Festival on Oct. 6th at Stone Lake, Wi.
Oct. 13th we will be down at Mill City Farmers' Mkt. in Mpls.

Hope one of these events fits into your schedule to come and see us.  God's blessings to all of you.
And thanks Sven for the beautiful fleece....

GARLIC FESTIVAL COMING UP1

The Garlic Festival is this Saturday, the 11th of August!  How did that happen so fast?  It is a wonderful extravaganza of garlic, food, entertainment and beverage tasting.  It takes place at the McLeod County Fairgrounds in Hutchinson, Mn.  I go and do vending at this show with my own look-alike garlic bulb...natural wool dryer balls!  I make them from the wool of my sheep.

Zhu-Zhu is busy helping me rearrange the roving that I use for making the dryer balls, lots of nice white icelandic fiber.

I weigh the fiber and roll it by hand and then the fun of felting begins!  I use them in my own dryer at home and have not used those awful dryer sheets or fabric softener for years.  Love 'em.  So do the cats and the dog when I drop one. 
So remember Garlic lovers!  This Saturday in Hutchinson.  Did I tell you that they usually have garlic ice cream there?  It runs out every year I think.  If you google the web site for the event you may find 2 for 1 coupons!  Come on and enjoy all things garlic and Sustainable.

Summer Songs

There was a festival in Hutchinson this past weekend and my sister and I were vendors there.  It is always interesting promoting and selling wool items when it is ninety degrees!  I go to get my name out there if nothing else but always enjoy sitting with my sister and spinning yarn or working on projects and visiting with the people that attend the event.
There was a young boy who was the age of ten I believe and he was amazed at the spinning wheel on Friday and when he came back on Sat. he sat down with us for a while and I taught him how to knit.  He was very happy when he left with his little icelandic swatch after about 45 minutes.
One of the items we are selling is a felted wine cozies.  They are a little rough yet but we are working on refining them.  Here is picture of some I made on Sunday while my sister was driving back to Wisconsin.

The festival was called Riversong and they had several bands there playing on different stages.  The weather was hot but the breeze by the river was nice, the food was good and the company was excellent.  It started early Friday evening and resumed Saturday close to noon.  We got there on Saturday and rearranged a few things so that we could get a little more air flow through the pop-up canopy and we got a surprise when we found a musician hanging on the side of our display rack...a very natural musician that we hear everywhere this time of year when we are outside...a Cicada!  After a while he just disappeared, probably went to get a closer view of one of the stages so he could sing along. 

So all of you go out and sing your summer songs....the end of July is coming already!

"What's for supper tonight?"

The Icelandic lambs are all growing like crazy but in this picture one of the girls is a little short for the taller  feeder...so the $64,000 question, the one that has plagued home makers for years, the eternal dilema, the single thing that can send you into a tail-spin all day...thinking of one thing and suddenly wanting something else...."WHAT IS FOR SUPPER TONIGHT?"   Not that this little gal had much choice.  By the way, I wonder what is for supper tonight, I have about two hours, I suppose I should think of something pretty soon.....

Moms and kids (lambs)

Her is one of the Shetland mamas with her twins.  She is such a good mama.  They all headed down for grass one day and after a few minutes the lamb races were on and all babies came racing back up into the yard where they commenced to hang around and jump in the feeders.  While I was watching the antics, mama came galloping into the yard let out a quick short bleat and those babies fell in line as mama turned on a dime and headed back to grass with the lambs in her wake.  Mamas are the same everywhere!  "You two are out of my sight for a minute and off you go...now come with me and behave yourselves!" 

Those kids are just always horsing  (should be sheeping) around!  Let's all be safe and have fun on the Fourth!