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Sweet Sheep Lace and Sweet sheep Double Skeins 

Dream in color Classy with New colors!

Pigeonroof Studios

A quick note about the Pigeonroof yarns and rovings. Due to large demand Pigeonroof will no longer be able to supply their yarns and rovings to us. We wish them the best and suggest that if you see something you like please grab it as I will not be able to get it back in.

Thanks!

I will be off camping for the weekend as it is out first long weekend for the summer! Orders will ship on tuesday as the post office is off monday!

It has been quite a while since I have shown you all what I am knitting. You don’t like to see knitting do you?

I am constantly struggling to find better ways to photo my in progress blobs of knitting, but taking a photo of a blob just turns out to be…well a blob. So here are my blobs in progress!

Blob #1

Today is C’s birthday and I was trying to surprise him with a sweater. As you can see it is not finished. I was moving along really well but have for the last few days had really sore hands from knitting too much and reskeining a lot of yarn before maryland. I tried to push through the sore hands, but they seem to be getting worse so I may have to take a few days off from knitting

Enough about me! This sweater is knit with shelridge farms in the worsted weight Chocolate. As you can see I used two dye lots…brilliant! Luckily Buffy from shelridge has kindly offered to overdye the sweater for me when it is done…thank you! I am currently finishing the first sleeve and will be sure to take pictures of C in the sweater when it is finished.

Blob #2

Knitting this shawl has been A LOT of fun. The pattern is from the most recent Knit 1 magazine and is incredibly simple which makes for great TV or traveling knitting. The yarn is Oceanwind Knits Fingering weight in Jardin and is so stunning. This blob should be finished soon, her progress was slowed by Blob #1

Blob #3

My Second “Look how Pretty My Yarn is!” Shawl in Ceyeberfiber fingering weight which by the way we have a HUGE order in the mail and coming soon.  I love these shawls simply because of the way they show off the yarns and they are such simple knitting which is great for traveling, which I seem to be doing a lot of.

Speaking of lace we are doing a Lace A Long over at the March Sweater Madness blog if you care to join us. For June and July each member is picking their own project that has a lace motif in it…does not matter what the project is or the weight of the yarn! Let me know if you would like to join, we would love to have you!

to all the mum’s out there. I hope you have a wonderful day full of appreciation!

I am so blessed to have my mom in my daily life, actually I am so blessed to have my father and sister in my daily life too, but it’s mother’s day.

I don’t often talk about my personal life here so I will keep it short as I know many of you are here for the yarn. However, my mom certainly deserves some spotlight today. She is by far one of the most amazing people I have ever come across in my lifetime. My mom is incredibly empathetic, there is not a day that goes by which she is not thinking about her family and friends and making sure that they are all doing well. Recently on of her friends became ill and she was by her bedside absolutely every day after work. It is this kindness and loyalty that I admire most in my mom. I was certainly a difficult child in my teens and she never, not once, got angry with me. She has always tried to understand how I am feeling and help me find a good solution to my problem. This mindset is something that I strive for anytime I am feeling sorry for myself and I am so honoured to have such a role model.

My mom has always been a wonderfully positive person and I could go on about her for hours, but there is a trend I have noticed in the last few year that deserves mention. At times my life gets quite busy and sometimes downright overwhelming, I fully understand that that’s just the way life goes when you are lucky enough to run a great (thank you) business. My mom calls and asks how things are going, I often reply with how busy things are and the first thing she says every single time is “how can I help” or “when do you want me to come over?” In the last few months she has spent countless hours labeling and tagging yarn to help me get ready for Maryland and the knitter’s frolic. She was so happy to give up her time and work the knitter’s frolic with me for the whole entire day and I was so greatful.

Mom you are the most kind, caring, strong and inspiring woman I know. Thank you…I love you.

Did I forget to mention the Ravelry party?

Saturday night after the festival the ravelers got together for food, drinks and just all around fun.

I had the pleasure of being a cashmere sponsor.

which was very exciting for me because I adore ravelry and the knitting community in general and the thought of helping them all get together in a really positive manner was just too much to pass up!

Tara also pointed out to me that my photo made the ravelry blog. Check it out if you are on ravelry, I look exactly the same minus the sign

Feel free to look me up on Ravelry. I am sweetsheep (creative…I know). I have a lot of knits up there that don’t always make the blog.

Thanks to Casey, Jess and Mary-Heather for a really fun night.

Wow! This was my first year at Maryland Sheep and wool and I think wow pretty much sums it up.

I flew in early to spend some time with Erin. She took me to visit some stunning yarn shops and then we got to work! Mama E decided to have a party at her studio on Friday night before the festivities began and we had a blast.

There were lots of people, it was so nice to be surrounded by people that are actually interested when you talk about yarn.

This is our hostess mid party!

The next few days just flew by!

I met up with old friend and made new friends too

This is my sweet friend Carissa, Steph and Erin. Amazingly wonderful girls. I also met Jody and Sarah for the first time in person and it was like we had known each other for years! I count myself so lucky to know all of these ladies, they are just amazing people.

I also watched a sheep shearing. I was floored to watch an animal give up their coat and was so tempted to buy a fleece. Sometimes I forget where the wool comes from that I enjoy so much…so thank you to all the sheep that provide us with our wool!

Before

During

After

I bet that he is much cooler now!

The festival was a ton of fun, I enjoyed every second of it. The cloverhill booth was carrying my hand dyed yarns and the response was incredible. Thank you all so much!  If you plan on going to the festival next year make sure to check them out, they have a lot of amazing hand dyers all in one place!

Now that I am back to reality, I am packing up all of your birthday orders and hope to have them all out by friday, thank you so much!

I have been knitting A LOT so look for a WIP post soon!

Well, the trip had gone so smoothly I should have expected an over 2 hour delay at the airport. I am expecting it to take the whole day to get home from a 1.5 hour flight!

Sheep and wool was fantastically fun! Thank you to all the wonderful people I met there and at the knitter’s frolic. The last week has been a whirlwind of yarn!

I will start shipping orders out tonight when i get home and also start working on an update of sweet sheep yarns for this week.

Cheers!

It seems to me that this month has been one big game of catch up. I am not exactly winning or losing yet, but just trying to keep up!

Vending at the frolic was a blast. Leaving for Sheep and wool 2.5 days later…maybe not the best planned schedule, but I still plan on having a lot of fun. I am running around a bit and that’s ok because it is all in the name of my own fun!

On the knitting front I decided at the last minute (as any good knitter would do) that C needed a new sweater for his birthday which is on the 13th of May. So I cast on and am knitting at top speed. Cross your fingers for me!

Speaking of birthdays…mine is coming up too! Actually, it is the day after C’s birthday, which provides 2 days of birthday fun for us and an annual sale for you!

This year I will be running the sale while I am away at sheep and wool to keep you all busy and happy! The sale will start this Wednesday and orders will ship the week of May the 5th. That way I can take my actual birthday off and spend the day knitting and being pampered!

I have aslo accumulated a lot of new stock this month which still needs to go up in the store including:

Pigeonroof knits yarns, Sknitches Kettle Dyed, Brooklyn Handspun, Ceyeberfiber yarns and lots of new Sweet Sheep Yarns!

These yarns will start updating as soon as I have the birthday sale packages out! Whew…see what I mean about catching up?

The Frolic was an absolute blast! Thank you to each and everyone of you that took the time to stop by my booth.

I had the pleasure of enjoying Anne’s beautiful shawl for the day.

It was such a thrill to wear and incredible work of art and so flattering to have been part of it!

And just one more shot because I loved wearing this shawl!!

The ladies and I are ready to go!

We hope to see you at the fair, if not maybe we will see you at Maryland Sheep and wool?

I will be flying out to Maryland on the 30th to attend the show. Is anyone going to the Ravelry party? I will be there also with some Sweet Sheep buttons and a few prizes for the raffle!

These ladies will be traveling with me to the Knitter’s frolic and a duplicate batch will be available at the Cloverhill booth in Maryland along with A LOT of other Sweet Sheep yarns including my lace and new double sized skeins!

I often wander through my stash admiring the beautiful handpainted sock yarns.

It struck me that these yarns are often hidden in patterns and not given the glory they truly deserve, so, I decided to create a very basic stockinette shawl to showcase beautiful hand dyed yarns of any weight!!

Introducing the:

Look how pretty my yarn is!! Shawl

This particular shawl used 745 yards of heavy fingering weight yarn. I used my double skeins. However, I have a lot of single skeins in the stash that would make a wonderful smaller version.

Gauge is not terribly important.

Needle size depends on how airy you would like your shawl. I used 6.5mm US 10.5

Stitches:

Knit, Purl, Yarn Over, Place Marker (PM), Slip Marker (SM)

Cast on 5 using any provisional method (if this does not appeal to you simply cast on 5 with your shawl yarn)

Start working your shawl yarn

Row 1: K2, PM, YO, PM, K1, PM, YO, PM, K2

Row 2: K2, Purl to last marker, K2

Row 3: K2, SM, YO, Knit to next marker YO, SM, K1, SM, YO, Knit to last marker YO, SM, K2

Row 4: K2, Purl to last marker, K2

Repeat rows 3 & 4 to desired size making sure to leave enough yarn for the last few rows

Working on the Right side row (knit side)

K2, SM, *YO, K2TOG* repeat ** to next marker, YO, SM, K1, repeat ** to next marker, YO, SM, K2

Next row

K2, Purl to last 2 sts, K2

Bind off all stitches with an elastic or stretchy bind off. I prefer to use the Yarn Over Bind off method

At this point you can graft your cast on stitches together, I use the kitchener stitch and darn in the odd count stitch.

Weave in your ends! Block, and Enjoy!