It is babies everywhere lately!! I don’t think I have ever known this many pregnant and expecting friends/family in my whole life let alone in one year!
We are expecting 7-8 babies (one arrived already) this year! On top of that a friend is also adopting…so that’s 10 new family members! Wow, that’s some knitting! First up is my cousin who is expecting in July…in fact one day before I was due last year.

She loves neutrals and is having a surprise so I immediately thought of the Shelridge farms worsted. Buffy dyes such gorgeous neutrals.

I actually crocheted this blanket…yes crochet. I know. I bet you didn’t even know I could crochet, but I can and I do enjoy it from time to time.
Here is the finished and already gifted blankie

Specs: 3 Skeins Of Shelridge Farms in Chocolate

The Pattern: Tiramisu Blanket found here on the web or on Ravelry

Mods: I cast on or chained 84. I didn’t want the blanket to be huge so I made it a bit smaller. I also didn’t want to use a ton of yarn so this size blocked out really well and is a wonderful size to grow into! I also just worked the body until I felt it was a good size. I didn’t do a gauge swatch (gasp) so I was just kind of winging it on that one and it worked out well! I very rarely do swatches…only when I really need to. I dislike them…a lot!

The Yarn: I carry very few worsted weight yarns. The shop is mostly to spotlight gorgeous fingering weight yarns. Every once in a while a spectacular worsted weight yarn comes by and I can’t say no. Shelridge farms is one such yarn. I love this yarn. it is a standard and spectacular worsted. I have knit with it several times and this certainly won’t be the last!

Any breaks in the yarn? Not that I can recall. Shelridge Farms skeins are always in fantastic condition.

The Fabric: The fabric was a bit different for me than usual to gauge. I am much more used to a knit fabric, but from my previous experience I know that shelridge farms has fantastic definition due to it’s tight twisted fibers. I have knit 2 sweaters with this yarn and in fact this blankie is made from one of them. The sweater for my husband didn’t fit right. It was a top down raglan and he didn’t like the neck. “can’t you just fix the neck” um, no. That’s the cast on point so yeah. It had to be ripped and was re made into this fantastic blankie!

Ok here we go again!!

Enjoy 15% off everything in the shop from today until May 15th with the coupon code: birthday
This is my favorite sale of the year because May is not only my birth month but also brings the green and flowers to Ontario! Hooray!

Please note that free shipping is not valid during the sale and you must use the coupon code while you check out. Unfortunately, I can’t give refunds after due to the volume of orders I receive during this sale.

I am working on another fiber update at the end of may that will be on sale as well (why not! I also have some GORGEOUS funky carolina goodies on their way to us and a restocking of casbah!
May is going to be a great month at The Sweet Sheep!!

Happy Mother’s Day as well to all you hard working mom’s out there!

Hi Ladies!
In the midst of the craziness of a 6 month old I completely forgot about March Sweater Madness but I am ITCHING to knit a sweater.
Anyone interested in Joining me??

It’s a fantastic one month KAL in which you pick your own yarn and pattern and we all knit a sweater together in the month of march!

We keep a separate blog to post our progress and everyone involved is welcome to blog there.
Let me know in the comments or email me if you would like to join us, we would love to have you!

Is it January already!!?? Oh my goodness. Time flies when you are chasing a wee one.

Last round of the club was a lot of fun for me. Spoilers can be seen on the Ravelry group page.

The next round of the regular fiber club runs Feb-Mar-April and is available for purchase here. I also decided to run the Superwash only club again this round and limited spots can be bought here. Please remeber that shipping is included in the cost of the clubs!

Here is a quick peek at this round’s fibers minus january because it just shipped and I don’t want to spoil the surprise for anyone!

November-

Militia- 4oz Mixed BFL/Silk

Which I spun into this yarn

December

Inspire- 4oz falkland

Its been a while since I did a gift certificate giveaway so I am holding a contest over on our Ravelry Group!
Hop on over and leave a comment!
I will be doing another on the blog shortly for those who are not on Rav.
Happy New year!
xoxox

I just read the first issue of the brand new Ennea collective online magazine. As a spinner/knitter I am thrilled to see what this collective of minds comes up with each season. So far I love it.

One of our Multi talented dyers (Lori Law of Oceanwind knits) is the editor and co creator. If you haven’t book marked the site yet run over and check it out.

Even if you arn’t a spinner the patterns would be great with commercial yarns too!

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend

xo

M

Ps..if you are at Rhinebeck just know that all of us at home are jealous..have a blast!!

I am so excited to announce the re opening of the fiber club!

Join the Fiber Club for November-December-January!
This subscription is for 3 consecutive months of fiber. The fibers will change from month to month so you get a variety of fibers, which makes the club great for beginning spinners too!
Braids will be between 4-5 oz of roving and 2oz on months of luxury fibers.

Fibers will ship by the end of the month.

The cost of the club includes air mail shipping from Canada

Thank you all so much for all of the wonderful well wishes we have received as we await the arrival of our first baby! The love and support has been so incredible!
I will be taking a short maternity leave to rest up and welcome our little girl from July 15th to August 6th. If there is anything you would like from the store please make sure to place your order before the 15th. Items will still be up in the shop for browsing but ordering will be disabled for that period of time.

I will be answering emails a few times a week during my maternity leave, but will not be shipping any orders.

Thank you all so much! I will be sure to let you know when out “little sweetie” arrives!

xo

Yay it’s our birthday! To celebrate our 143rd birthday we are having a 2 day sale!

Enjoy 10% off of any products in the shop for July 1st and 2nd with the coupon code: Canada

All and any of your favorite yarns and fibers! Orders will ship on Monday, I just might be taking a few days off to put my feet up and enjoy the weekend!

xo

Michelle

Take me to the sale!

Thank you all so much for sharing your wonderful and memorable birthday memories with me…I enjoyed reading them all! Chris and I had fantastic times on our birthdays and have much cake in the freezer from all of the parties our loved ones threw us! So far being 31 isn’t so bad!

The random number generator picked Amy V as our contest winner and she was awarded a $31 gift certificate to the shop…hope you enjoy it Amy!

Last week the mail lady was good to me and dropped off some beautiful Pigeonroof knits spinning tops in

Merino Silk

and luxurious Superwash Merino/Cashmere/Nylon

I can’t wait to try this new blend! I may have stolen a braid of Ghost Orchid (second one in) to “test” this new fiber…details to come!

On top of this beautiful update a big box of Funky Carolina Fibers arrived on my doorstep this morning…look for those later in the week!

At the age of 30 shouldn’t this “it’s almost my birthday” excitement wear off?

Well…it hasn’t. My birthday is coming up in May and as usual I get very excited…I don’t really know why, we don’t have huge celebrations or gifts, but I just love birthdays.

In Sweet Sheep tradition I usually hold a sale. However, we just finished a sale. So, I will be holding a contest for a $31 gift certificate to the store!

Leave me a comment here by May 14th (my birthday!) and let me know what one of your favorite birthday memories are and I will enter you into the random drawing for the gift certificate! The winner will be drawn on May 17th.

And because no post is complete without a picture, here is a basket of my recent dyes gettting ready to go up into the shop!

Happy Monday!

I am excited to be vending again this year at the DKC knitter’s frolic!

If you are going or in the area come see me on May 8th…I will be there all day! My booth is upstairs from the main room.

Looking forward to it!

Chris has been hard at work getting a room ready for our little girl’s arrival. Since we already had a pink room in the house (my office) we picked out a pretty lilac colour which actually looks  periwinkle in the evening. I adore the colour, and am thrilled to now have 2 rooms in the house painted in my favorite colours!

Now begins the rest of the long and fun list of getting ready for baby! Tomorrow is my 6 month mark…I just can’t believe it.

As a knitter, this doesn’t leave me much time for my grand plans! I dyed some Sweet Sheep Tight Twist in the Candied apricot colourway months ago when we first found out the I was pregnant. I thought that any child of mine would have at least one hand knit blankie to welcome them into the world.

The colour is a bit light on this photo, it was a very bright day (yay sun!)

I worked on the blankie all weekend and am just finishing up my first ball. I fully expect to knit almost 3 balls worth in length. I would really like to have this blankie for longer than the newborn stages.

The pattern is available on ravelry…I wasn’t able to find a non rav source. Basketweave Blanket

I have an almost finished sweater for the wee one and many big plans! I would love to do a few more blankies, but am hoping some of my knitter friends and family are blankie knitting/crocheting too. I don’t think I will get done more than one before she arrives, but I know she will be well loved with hand made goods.

Hope you all have beautiful sunny skies today!

xo

Michelle

The spinning has gone well! Before and after the chaos of Ryker’s emergency I was able to spin up and ply the Forlorn fiber.

I love to see full bobbins! As I mentioned in the first spinning post I split the 4 oz into 2 equal parts and spun them on 2 bobbins…here they are hanging out on my lazy kate waiting to be plied…and I can never wait too long to ply! It’s like knowing you have a big chocolate cake in the fridge…you just have to eat it or it will taunt you!

So ply I did!

I have a big fun plying bobbin on my lendrum which I ply EVERYTHING….the regular bobbins are just too small. I spin quite tight yarns so I almost always ply on the lowest ratio. This is probably one of my more relaxed plied skeins.  If I am plying something much bulkier I will move up a ratio just so I don’t over ply, but to be honest I usually control my plying with my treadling speed.

So here she is..Forlorn all finished! She’s a worsted/bulky weight yarn with 186 yards. All washed, set and ready to knit! Now just to find a pattern.

In the comments Kate asked:
If you were to pre-draft the fiber after pulling off the long skinny pieces, then that would give you thinner yarn, right?

Yes, if you pull off long skinny pieces pre drafting would help you spin thinner, but thicker pieces would still be thicker..for me anyways. I know lots of people that can spin laceweight from a thick sliver!
When you are working on a thin yarn the most important part of spinning it it your finger control and how much fiber you draft out.

Happy Spinny Monday!!

ETA: I just updated the Yellow Brick Road Stocking kits and noticed the Wicked Kits are low…I will dye more this week and they will be re stocked next week! Thanks so much for loving the kits!

Almost as soon as it was announced out trip was canceled.

On friday night my dog got into the fridge and helped himself to almost a week’s worth of groceries. This might sound like a familiar story to many of you, however, Ryker is a bit different. He came to us last year at the age of 3 with some serious seperation anxiety. We have spent the past year working with him and managed to progress him from being in a crate when we would go out to having the freedom of roaming the house. He was doing amazingly well, but for some reason had a relapse on Friday. Most of the time you can just wait for all the food to pass, but Ryker being a deep chested large dog is at serious risk of bloat. Bloat in large dogs can happen when a dog gorges or eats and drinks too soon after exercise…the stomach will expand causing it to flip over and trap all the gasses inside killing the dog if left untreated…Bloat doesn’t go away on it’s own. Ryker ate a deadly combination of pancake in saran wrap and lots of margerine causing a plug in his stomach…the gasses started to expand his stomach and caused the incoming and outgoing valves to swell and close off. When I arrived home on friday night he was in serious trouble. His stomach had expanded to over 400% larger than it’s normal size. He was knocking on death’s door.

An extremely fast race to the nearest 2 am emergency hospital resulted in a major surgery. Trip canceled! We are SO VERY lucky to still have him with us. I am grateful for the hours of research we did on his breed which enabled me to identify his emergency within seconds of seeing him…it saved his life…as did my wonderful car with a heck of a lot of get up and go!

Anyways, he is now home and slowly recovering

Lots of love, snuggles, a new padlock on the fridge and we should all be ok!

All three of us were going on the trip together, but I would much rather we all stay home than be one less in Florida.