High Desert Wool Grower's Market

Sorry for the late notice, but I'm in Prinville for the High Desert Wool Grower's Market. If you're in the area I hope you can make it, Saturday 9-4:30. I'd love to see you and hear about where you live! I've checked into my little room and I'm busy getting over 30 knit samples labeled. I definitely need to do a sample parade on the blog! I hope to see you tomorrow!

{Among Friends}

First, a major thanks to all of you who bought a CD to supported my friend Beth. There's been some improvement, but there is a long way to go. She's more awake and interactive, and seems to recognize everybody. She's not able to walk yet, but I don't know if I could after laying in a hospital bed for 3 weeks. I'm looking forward to visit with her and the family this week. Such a comfort to listen to the cd and hear her voice!

Sunday, March 25th, is the last day for sign ups in the inaugural {Among Friends}. I can't even believe the response we've had, so excited for this first club!! First you say? Yep! We have a bunch more in the works! I hope you are able to join us this first round. There's been so much collaboration getting this club off the ground. A true privilege to work with so many creative women. Sign up now and don't miss out on all the fun!! Below is all the info you need!

What do you get when you add Sincere Sheep + Knitted Wit? Among Friends, a yarn and pattern club! Join us as we knit with Sincere Sheep's naturally dyed yarn in April, Knitted Wit's candy colored yarn in June, and a skein from each dyer in August. Each bi-monthly shipment will feature a pattern written just for the Among Friends Club.

April's designer is Michele Bernstein of PDXKnitterati, in June we’ll feature Carrie Sullivan of Irish Girlie Knits Designs, and we’ll wrap up in August with Michelle Miller of Fickleknitter. Patterns will be sent via downloads through Ravelry.

Want to spin your project? There's an option for you! Instead of yarn you'll receive 4.5 ounces of fiber matching the fiber content of the yarn club along with a sample of the yarn used in the design. Having a yarn sample will give you a goal of what yarn to spin to meet gauge with the pattern.

You want yarn/fiber from BOTH Knitted Wit and Sincere Sheep in each shipment? Done! Purchase the double option and you'll get an exclusive color way on the same yarn base from each dyer. You can also opt to have a yarn and fiber membership, a little of everything!

How can we have more fun in our club? In addition to receiving a delightful package in the mail, there will be lots of fun in our Ravelry Group! We’ll have a contest or two, fun chats with our designers, and sneak peeks at what's coming up with our collaborators.

The knitty gritty details: Shipments go out on April 15th, June 15th, August 15th. Each shipment will include an exclusive skein from Sincere Sheep or Knitted Wit and a pattern unique to Among Friends. The final month will feature a skein from both dyers. Club members will receive a total of 4 skeins and three patterns. Memberships open February 1st and close March 25th, 2012. Purchase by February 29th and you'll also receive a thank you gift in your first shipment!

Single yarn membership: $130 + shipping Double yarn membership: $243 + shipping Single fiber membership: $110 + shipping Double fiber membership: $202 + shipping Yarn & Fiber membership: $222 + shipping The idea for this club sprouted from the friendship between

Lorajean & Brooke and grew to include Michele, Carrie, and Michelle, whom we are lucky enough to count as friends as well. We look forward to getting to know you too!

Happy Knitting,

Brooke, Sincere Sheep and Lorajean, Knitted Wit

A Little Help for a Friend

Beth prepping for a song she sang to Tate at their wedding. I cried like a baby.

If you follow me on twitter you might have seen a few tweets about my dear friend Beth. In the last month she has gone from living a healthy happy life to catatonic. Read this article for an idea of what she is battling. Amazing news to report, she woke up for a bit and tried to communicate this afternoon! This is the most there's been for the past two weeks. We're hoping that this is the beginning of all good things to come. So here's where you come in. Beth is a part of a band Idyltime. You can donate $15 or more and I'll ship you their cd. The band wrote 9 of the 14 songs, a great bluegrass mix. I think you can listen to a few songs on the website even. Anything you can do is appreciated by her family. And what a family. It's been amazing to see a family in such a crisis be so loving and caring for one another.

I love this picture! Betty is having a giggle and Beth is just stunning. Me and Eric in the middle of course.

I'm going to stop here before I cry my eyes out, again. I'll keep you posted as she hopefully continues to improve. Thank you so much for caring about my friend. I've been over crafting around here and I realized that I'm trying to craft Beth back to health. Maybe I'll knit this scarf for Beth, she'd like that. Oooh, here's a cross stitch sampler! I never made a house warming present, this would really help. Or maybe I'll weave. That really helps calm my nerves, I should weave. Yeah, crafting for health. What gets you through trauma? A favorite craft? I'm going to keep trucking on my sweater sleeve and keep Beth healthy!

Falkland Yarn

I love this yarn! It's so nice to have it in stock! The falkland wool soaks up the dye like it's color dehydrated. I haven't dyed other falkland so I don't know if this is a trait of the fiber or just this yarn. This yarn is the only one that will exhaust the dye bucket no matter how much dye is in the bucket. The yarn l-o-v-e-s color!

Beaujolais, pour me a glass would you?

Yellow Brick Road, I'd like to take a walk down this golden street!

Peacock, this color continues to bewitch me!

Another reason I love falkland wool is the story behind the fiber. The sheep are from the Falkland Islands, shocker I know. But because they've been isolated they don't need shots and dips and other medications. The wool is just about organic with how the animals are cared for. I love learning the history behind the breeds. I've decided that when we win the lottery we'll go on a travel tour and learn about breeds of sheep and the history that goes along with it. Sounds divine!

These colors, plus all the other ones you know and love are in the shop! Also, don't forget to tell us all about your finished objects flying off the needles. The Finish A Long (FAL) is going strong in the group. Every finished item you show will get you one entry into a drawing for $20 in the shop! And, less than a week to join {Among Friends}? I just dyed up the yarn and fiber for the double clubbers. Wow! I can't wait to start knitting and spinning!

Finish A Long!

Did you read the newsletter? Haven't signed up for it? There's a little box in the top right where you put in your email address. I send them out quarterly (for the most part) and there's a knit a long and a winner for that KAL. This quarter we're doing a finish a long (FIL)!

I don't know about you, but I have a bit of a back log on the needles. I'm putting some pressure on my Larch Cardigan, and guess what? I have a left front done! I might get the right done today! So join in and finish up some projects. Here's the specifics. Keep us posted in the Ravelry group on your progress. For every finished item you put up in the group you'll be entered to win $20 to spend in the shop! Sincere Sheep is doing the same in her group! Double your chance to win and post in her group too. The projects can be in any yarn, just post pictures in our groups and let us know. You have until April 10th, get knitting and get finishing!

Just decided! First FO to post in the group gets a bag of jelly belly's! The person with the most FO will win a tote bag from Knitting Lab! And with that I'm off to knit!

Why are we clearing off the needles? To get ready for the first shipment of {Among Friends} of course! Only 2 weeks left to join! Yikes!! There are some double memberships, so I'm dyeing my yarn up tomorrow. I'm using a new to me method and I can't wait to try it out!

If you need a little knitting project to tide you over, check out Fickle Knitter's KAL of Ballerina. There's a discount code to use in the shop, too. They've been flying out the door, so act quick. The pattern is using Feather Weight, one of my new favorites!

Stitches West Round Up/Rose City Yarn Crawl Preview

I didn't have time in this post to talk about the community at Stitches. Next post, I swear! I owe a huge thank you to all the people that helped, including Maria and her husband Mark, Jess, Brooke, Carrie, Michelle, Andrea, and all the vendors on our aisle. It takes a community to make a show that much fun!

Stitches West definitely lived up to all the hype! I had a great time with Brooke across the aisle and meeting all the other fab vendors around us. I super hope we're all together again next year! Just before the show Maria, A Needle Runs Through It, contacted me to see if I'd like to sell her bags. I was so excited to get that email! Maria sews beautifully. She has excellent taste in fabric and always has some thing for everybody.

These were the ones that I couldn't live with out!

She sews two box bag sizes, I'm trying to talk her into a jumbo one for sweaters. A notions pouch, stitch marker pouch, and drawstring bags. All fabrics are pre washed so there's no shrinkage when you need to clean yours, the bags are all lined too! I'm a bit of a fan!

This little ditty is from Chicken Boots. I saw her stuff in Brooke's booth back at Sock Summit (did you see the next one isn't until 2014? Enough time to knit through the stash!). I was super excited to see Chicken Boots was right next to Brooke, we had a great time in our aisle! Her fabrics are so beautiful, I had a really hard time narrowing down what I wanted.

I could justify this because it's small and fits a little bit of everything. It's perfect for traveling! And lately I've done a lot of traveling for Knitted Wit. This way I can bring a range of what might tempt me to cast on! And how can I not be inspired by the fabric alone!

So there's the haul. I sort of fell down in the bag department. I definitely won't be needing a project bag anytime soon! (Note to self: please reread that last sentence!) A skein from BMFA, two fiber braids from Western Sky (I think that's the name), a hat kit from Stick Chick Knits, magazines from Living Craft (they were just behind my booth), and two project bags.

These two magical skeins might have also slipped into my bag! Brooke purchased cormo fleece from a local farmer and had them spun into happy yarn. The colors are so beautiful too, I thought these two looked great together. I'm thinking a feather and fan-ish striped cowl.

The second half of this monster post is about the Rose City Yarn Crawl. The Crawl started on Thursday and I hit a few shops with the boys. We went to All About Yarn in Tigard, where I just happened to be the trivia question winner! I picked up a few skeins of Encore and a pattern that will help me finish up an ancient WIP. Our next stop was Northwest Wools in Multnomah. I love this little shop! I couldn't resist the braid of fiber, I'm planning something for E I think. I went to Close Knit today while running errands. Right next door happens to be one of my favorite fabric shops. I got a few fat quarters in a stockinette print fabric. Knitting on fabric? I had to!

Tomorrow (Saturday) I'll be at For Yarn's Sake all day with my trunk show. Wait until you see all my new pretties! There are so many more samples than last time, and lots of new colors on yummy new base yarns. I hope you can stop by, try on a sample and I'll help you find the perfect yarn to make it yours! I also made lots of yummy treats in a bag so you can snack while you shop! I'm so sorry for the late notice, I meant to post this yesterday but traveling caught up with me and I went to bed at 7:45. I'm wrapping this up and headed to bed now!