What is that they say about good intentions?

I did intend to fill you all in on the goings on at sock summit…but I have no memory of the event…besides smiling faces, wonderful knit garments and good friends…old and new. The problem is that I was so busy enjoying myself that I forgot to pull my camera out…don’t you hate it when bloggers do that, me too! So my apologies, but trust me…it was fun.

I have an updated picture of the sock…but it is on my camera, which is packed away for my flight in a few hours. I am a rolling stone right now and so very excited about getting into my jammies and knitting in my own bed. Right now, I am fairly useless so I will sign off and be back after a full day of sleeping and drinking tea.

Well We made it! After a VERY long Wednesday of flying and sitting and flying some more we arrived in portland just in time to eat dinner and go to sleep…also a very long sleep…12 hours so that our bodies could adjust to the time change. Whoo we were pooped!

Today we woke up to headed to the convention center and set up our booth.

It was so naked when we started and we dressed it up with some pretty yarn. I forgot to take the after picture…but I promise to post one tomorrow before the booth gets ravaged (I hope)

When I say we who am I talking about!

My beautiful mom, who is always so wonderful in helping me do shows..she is a true joy to hang out with and didn’t hesitate when I asked her to fly across the country!

Sorry for the bad pic…I have to learn to not stick my finger in front of the flash!

On the actual knitting front I started another pair of anklets for my flight…I love vanilla socks for traveling. These are Fleece Artist’s Sea wool

And nothing is sexier than a sock photo shoot on the hotel air conditioner right?

So far…a good first day! Tomorrow promises to be fun.

One of my awesome customers and friend has started a Sweet Sheep  Sweeties group on Ravelry.

Come and join us, we would love to have you!

Now for the knitting portion of the trip!

The second that we left the driveway I had my needles out and did not put them down until we got back home. For a month and a half I think I knit quite a bit.

I have a sweater which is not pictured…it is the Everybody Knows cardigan from knitty that I am just finishing up the collar on. I knit all of the sweater pieces on the trip and will have modeled photos for you soon.

Here we go! First up

Morning surf scarf rav link

Knit with 2 skeins of YoYo in Cashsport

I really enjoyed working with this yarn. The colour is so beautiful and a bit of cashmere?!? How can you go wrong! The scarf is unblocked…I will most likely leave it that way..I love how the YO’s are puffy and squooshy!

Project #2

Hypotenuse by Anne Hanson of Knitspot

My handspun yarn

Carrie and I are doing a shawl exchange so I dyed and spun up a pound of merino bamboo and knit her this stole, as you can see she loved it, as did I, and if she wasn’t knitting one for me I would surely knit this pattern again. For the sake of easy RV knitting I omitted the purl stitches on the right side and had this baby done in a week!

Project #3

One Day Beret by Kristin Kapur

My handspun yarn, roving by Squoosh

This really was an almost one day beret. The pattern was so easy to understand and I loved that it gave you the freedom to  modify the pattern. I was short on yarn so it is a bit less slouchy, but I thought it suited her. Plus spinning from the squoosh roving was a dream!

Project #4

Pattern Coming soon!

I was inspired to spin and design a scarf while in texas. The pattern is on it’s way shortly. It uses 290yds of sport weight yarn. I am also making a second variation with great big sea, which is why it is taking a little bit of time to get this out.

Project #5

Strangling vines scarf by Nicole Hindes

Knit with one skein of Malabrigo sock with lots left over

I love love love this yarn! This scarf was knit for a friend’s birthday. We were hoping to see her along the route but our schedules failed to match up so I will be mailing it. I made the scarf thinner than the pattern suggested…I simply took out a repeat and i am happy with the width.

Project #6

Picture coming: apparently the gloves have run off with the spoon…poor fork.

Toasty

My handspun from a batt that carrie and I worked up together

This was a fun and fast knit which kept my fingers warm as we hit a bit of colder weather. At this point I don’t love spinning from batts but I do LOVE knitting with sparklie yarn…so I am  planning on working on loving batts…because the magpie in me needs some sparklies in my handspun yarns!

Project #7

As mentioned above, this sweater will get it’s own post…because it took that long to knit!

Everybody knows from knitty in Malabrigo worsted.

Oh, and I also started a stole design with my handspun fiber in the “simon” colourway..but no sneak peeks yet!

Now onto wedding knitting…of which I can’t show much because my family has “found” the blog and flickr…but there is wedding knitting and lots of spinning which I have been updating my etsy shop with while my stock is in the USA.

Now back to our regular blogging.

**picture heavy post**

C and I had a wonderful time touring around the USA. We learned a lot!

Our first week was spent trying to avoid snow storms across the northern states and then making our way through Oregon and California.

As tree lovers we really enjoyed the redwood forests, the are just simply amazing.

We spent a few days just walking through these amazing forests, but then decided that we were too cold and headed to our next destination…LAS VEGAS!

Vegas is always fun..no matter where you stay or how long..it’s just fun. We spent our first day and night just walking the strip and checking out the casino’s, I had been once before when I was 17, but it was a whole different world to be of age….but I couldn’t really prove it ( this is a whole different story, but in short; my wallet was stolen on the 5th day of our trip. So along with over $100…my license and id was gone…luckily I still had my passport). Anyways, the casino’s were stunning as usual.

This “moving” fountain puts on a show…it was hilarious and so entertaining!

On our second day there we were offered gambling credits for going to a timeshare presentation…Chris couldn’t refuse and I am so glad we went. In an act of total karma we won back the same amount that was taken in my wallet! Who leaves vegas breaking even?? However, it was still cold…so we moved on…

To Texas to visit my very good friend Funky Carolina. We spent almost 2 weeks with the Funky family and it was so nice an relaxing. They cooked all sorts of southern dishes for us to try and I must admit that minus the meat I LOVE southern cooking…and sweet tea…this should be a world wide thing…I had to bring some home!

Carrie and I spent every waking moment with fiber…this is typical of our visits…I think I spun 9-10 yarns while I was there. We had also done a shawl exchange and I had a few hand knit gifts for christmas that I gave her and she so graciously tried them on all at the same time!

After a fun few weeks we moved on south..it was still chilly. Our next stop was New Orleans…we only spent one day there, but we had so much fun. During the day we checked out the french quarter and I really enjoyed my camera time here

This park was beautiful and as always Chris was interested in the trees.

We spent some good time in the bars on burbon street and then chris took me out for a wonderful dinner.

We were just above street level, the food, atmosphere and company were wonderful, but we were still cold..note the sweaters…so we moved on to Florida…it has to be warm in florida right?? Right!

Florida was beautifully warm and we loved it. We spend the first week going down the west coast to tampa where we visited the state fair. Now, we had free tickets because this wonderful man saw a blood donor bus in the WM parking lot and wanted to donate, just in the middle of the day…we stopped to give blood. It was my first time, I have a thing about blood, but I made it through. We were so surprised and excited to receive tickets for donating, we don’t have that at home. After we spent the day at the florida state fair we headed east to visit some more friends…The YoYo family…notice how most of my friends are dyers…I’m a smart friend maker!

Along the way we stopped off at an orange grove…we desperately wanted to stop at an orange grove and I think we may have possibly found the most beautiful grove..and as a bonus it was organic and had overnight rv sites!

Of course we picked oranges the next day and I have to say that Canada is getting a raw deal with their citrus…I have never had fruit that tasted like these

Please excuse the terrible picture..it was hot and I was WAY overdressed!

We spent two relaxing and fun days visiting the YoYo family…we had plans for dinner and ended up taking over their house for a few days..which they were so gracious about. Thank you Alyson, I will make it up to you in smarties!

And somehow this is the only picture I took while we were visiting them

Upon Alyson’s suggestion we headed to St.Augustine to spend some time on the beach. What an amazingly beautiful beach…the sand was incredible and the weather was great. It was incredibly windy and a bit chilly but we went wave jumping anyways while the locals strolled the beach in their parkas! After our swim we spent hours watching the kite surfers

We took every last second we could in the warmth of florida and then started north. Along the route to forida we ran into 4 beautiful Weimaraners that we fell in love with. We started doing our research and made contact with some wonderful people in Michigan who allowed us to adopt our new baby Ryker.

Because of him, coming home from the trip was just as wonderful as leaving for 2 months!

I did quite a bit of knitting while I was gone too and even worked up a new little scarf design in some handspun, I will have a FO parade for you soon!

The latest order of Yarntini is up! Check it out…now shipping from maryland at $5.95 priority!

C and I have successfully landed in Texas where we will be taking a week or so to hang out with our friend Funky Carolina…yes there will be dyeing and fibers brought home…you never leave Funky C’s without some fiber!

In the meantime, with all the changes being made here I wanted to get some of your input…I love to hear what you think and have had several suggestions for improvement for the site which I will certainly be looking at in the next 6 months…but I want to know what your interests are yarn/fiber wise

If you do on see a selection you would choose here you can leave me a comment or email me at salesATthesweetsheep.com

I have done a TON of knitting in the last few weeks which I will be blocking and photographing shortly so stay tuned!

I have missed you all!

All week long I have felt like poor little Timmy at the bottom of the well. I could see everyone walk by, but no one could hear me.

Needless to say the server switch did not go well at all. I won’t go into the gory details, but I was in fact unable to log into the website, my blog and on many days my email. It honestly felt like I was stuck in the well and no one could hear me. I could see you all, but couldn’t communticate. Then of course I stressed myself out about it into a good and wicked headcold, which I have been fighting all weekend. The good news is that much Christmas knitting was accomplished this weekend!

I am beyond thrilled to be back up and running! I will be updating the shop over the next few days with some amazing lovestick self striping DK and some malabrigo sock and then hopefully moving on to updating with the stunning merino/seawool pigeonroof studios that came in with her BFL roving.  Stop by this evening to catch the first of the updates!

Thank you all so much for your patience!
Signed,

Timmy

Thank you all for making the stock up for Christmas sale a huge success! There are only 2 days left!

Over the next few months you will see a lot of changes happening at The Sweet Sheep with our stock. We are moving things around and some products and categories will be disappearing for some time.
We are working on some new ideas and cooking up somethings behind the scenes, but it will take us some time to put them into effect, so we ask for your patience with us.
We are also moving servers in the next few weeks which may cause some interuptions…we hope not, but anything can happen!

If there is some yarn that you have been stalking/dreaming about, snag it while it is here and probably on sale.

Thank you so much for your understanding and support, we are working hard to make The Sweet Sheep better for you!
xoxox
Michelle

ETA: Christmas knitting is coming along! If you are NOT a member of my family check it out here…if you are…stop trying to get a peak at your gifts!!

I love the Rhinebeck festival..and the town it is in. So much natural beauty….and yarn!

A knitting fair in the fall is just so inspiring, I really look forward to this trip for the absolute beauty of nature.

Of course the people and fiber are amazing! I went this year with a mission…to find the perfect (for me) wheel. It was SO HARD to not buy all the yarn and fiber I fell in love with.

My sweet friend Carissa and new friend Steph took care of the fiber shoping for me!

They did an amazing job of fiber enhancing…I am usually a big shopper, but these girls put me to shame…I was so proud!

Check out my flickr for more fun with the girls!

I did end up with a few braids of roving and 3 skeins of socks that rock…because I am only human! For anyone who has been to the festival they know that Saturday is just JAM packed with wonderful knitterly people. It was so inspiring to see so many knitters, however I had fiber on the brain and my camera in my bag so I didn’t get too many photos. I did run into Anne and her friend Kim on sunday morning.

As for the wheel search, with the help of Morgaine at Carolina handspun I decided to buy a lendrum. At first I had a lot of hesitation. On the technical side the wheel was everything I wanted and more, however, I was not drawn to the physical lay out of the wheel. I wanted a lady bug…they are so cute! In the end my desire for larger bobbins won out and I bought the lendrum. I am SO GLAD that I did, but more on my excitement later.

Carissa and Steph both had a lendrum and were singing its praises and then as I walked through the festival I started to see them everywhere.

They started popping up everywhere…I just couldn’t get away from them…there were so many at the sheep to shawl 

They were also a Canadian Made wheel so I was sold.

I am so looking forward to getting to know my new lendrum!

Rhinebeck always is a wonderful experience. Too bad it is so short! I am off to unpack my new baby! I will surely keep you updated on getting to know my new girl!

I was hoping to have a great pre rhinebeck post, but honestly this week has been insane!

I will be at rhinebeck and I will take lots of pictures and I swear there will be a great post rhinebeck post!

I am still here. Blogging has been a bit neglected lately…sorry.

I am working on the fall yarn orders. There will be several new wonderful lines coming in as well as a few yarns you already know about, but I felt it was time that I brought them in to the Sweet Sheep.

Did you know Noro is coming out with a sock yarn in Silk Garden? They sure are, and although I resisted the Kureyon sock I couldn’t resist the silk garden. It is slated to be here sometime next month…I will keep you updated.

I also have another wonderful Canadian dyer coming into the shop which I am so excited for…not spilling the beans yet though.

If there is anything you would like me to consider for the fall just let me know and I will have a look at it. I have made most of my decisions, but suggestions are always welcome!

What are you knitting this summer?

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.

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!

I try not to complain about winter too much…I’m Canadian, it snows…I get that. However, this year I think Mother Nature is getting a bit out of hand.

That’s a lot of snow! We went up north this weekend for some wintery fun, but just got freezing rain instead. Luckily for me I brought knitting. Here is my weekend progress

Yeah, that’s half a handspun sweater! I adore knitting handspun sweaters and although spring is coming (technically..see above) I still have several more I want to knit!

I am planning on bringing back MARCH SWEATER MADNESS!!  Stay tuned for info!