First Brietta and Lucy, and then I’ll explain about Maria.

Brietta lambed two twin ram lambs on April 3, at about 3:50. We have bought breeding stock to breed for spotted sheep and Jerome (the ram we used) was chosen to bring this into the flock. You can read more about that here. Well, so in short, I expected this year to get what I got from Ashlin and the others. Mostly plain sheep, with a little white on them. My poor preggo self almost had an accident when Breitta presented me with this:

In Shetland speak, this is a moorit yuglet flecket ram. That means mostly white, with brown patches of color on the body, and brown eye patches. I wasn’t expecting this at all, but this is exactly my breeding goal…

I put her in the jug and went in to use the bathroom and when I came back out, she was grunting again when I got back, and low and behold another one had been born. I did expect another lamb, but not another yuglet flecket! What a surprise. With pounding heart I did the butt check, another ram…oh well.

What a cutie though! They really are so much cuter when they are all spottie! This one was born at about 4:10 pm.

So all that was left was Lucy, who we thought may have not settled after all and Mist. We caught Lucy and checked out her udder, and she was bagged up, so we knew that she would be lambing after all. Friday night Beau went out to feed the sheep and Lucy ran up as normal and ate with the rest of them. He thought nothing of this. A few minutes later as he was feeding the horses, he heard a lamb bleating, so he went to look and found this cute little booger:

So he was born about 9 pm on Friday, but that’s sorta a guess lol. So the lambing saga continues.

Mist has still done nothing, and I am beginning to suspect that she will lamb on about the 14th instead. Sometimes even though they breed, they don’t take or settle. So that would mean she will lamb on the next cycle, although no other breeding activity was seen. Mist however did not deny us some excitement. As Beau had found the lamb on Friday night, he forgot the scoops (empty) on the ground out in the yard. The sheep run on the yard so we don’t have to mow. But, watch where you step, if you please. Saturday morning I was called out of bed to witness how Mist’s tendancy to stick her head into things finally backfired.

moar funny pictures
So you might go over and vote for it and help make me famous. I would really like to see it get published.

But what about Maria? Maria is Mist’s daughter from last year. She is one year old at the end of this month and she has been in the past quite the burr under my blanket. If you need a good laugh, read this. I only share this stuff to keep from going crazy, and also because if I can laugh at myself, well then it isn’t so bad when everyone else does too. Besides, it was really funny.

Mist and Maria are houdinis, and they drive me insane. I have thought about selling them, because they are too smart for any fencing system. Maria is not supposed to be exposed to a ram, and out of the blue, Elizabeth our 5 year old daughter came in to tell us that Maria was lambing. Say what????

Maria had this georgeous Ag flecket ewe lamb at about 2:50 this afternoon. We plan on naming it oopsie.

So, all that is left is Mist. I am too tired to look back and see what anyone guessed right now. But just to spice things up, here is one last one. Justina was dumped here on us by some animal lover who thought she would be happier living in the wild no doubt. Many people have the misconception that they can just set cats and dogs “free”. Well she was half starved and beat up, and now she is expecting anytime. Lucky for us, unless she has a huge litter we already have excellent homes for them all.

I feel rotten about this, because although many people breed their ewe lambs, I hadn’t meant to, and she really wasn’t big enough in my opinion. There was a time when she escaped into the breeding group, but I could have sworn she cycled after that, so we thought she wasn’t bred. She did have some trouble, as it was another big ol single. We got two of them this year. Lucy’s was a good normal size, but Ashlin and poor little Maria had big babies. Poor thing. She seems to be happy as a clam now though.

Whew, what a week! Only one more to go!

We haven’t chosen a name yet, but Ashlin lambed this morning at about 9:45.

This little guy had a rough start.  His Mama was SO spooky that when we walked outside she got so excited apparently her labor stopped.  We didn’t even go within 50 feet of her…But once I started walking towards her she did go into the catch pen.  And once she tried to run through the fence I caught her and stuffed her into a jug with the babies head and feet hanging out.  It had been a nose and two feet for over an hour, so time to intervene before baby gets overly stressed.  So with just a bit of help he was born and even though she was a real pain in the patootie, she is a great Mama.  Everyone is doing fine so far…

I am breeding for spots so, I got some at least, I wish he had been a girl lamb, but that’s the breaks.

Mary L guessed someone would lamb today between 9 and 10. one of each, so she got a 50%, Michelle is still in the lead.  Must be becuase her husband is a vet….  Mary and Lesley, you can guess again if you want.

Anyone else is also welcome to reguess, Mist and Brietta are left to lamb, Mist was due on Sunday, and Brietta was due today.  Mist is a second year lamber and Brietta is a firstimer.

Here is a picture of Mandy’s kids that were born Sunday morning - I haven’t had much luck getting a good photo of them yet.  I’m tired from being up and all.  Soon…

Well, we have 5 new babies for the contest.  Yesterday on March 29, DuClair had twin lambs, a boy and girl at 11:20 am.  As far as I know, there was no guess that was more correct than Michelles.  Donna, you can guess again.

This morning, Mandy had triplets!  Two girls and one boy from 9 - 9:45 am.  I don’t think anyone made a guess that was accurate on her either.  To say the least I was afraid she would kid all night, so I had to check her every few hours.  I don’t have a picture yet, I will put some up soon.  They all look like Mandy.  One girl will stay here with us, and one will go back to the Lady I bought them from.  That was part of the deal.  The buckling is free to a good home.  I have two people who would like to have him.

I don’t need any pet wethers, so I am just giving him away.  On names, (I forget if I explained this yet) I was going to choose Saint names again, but I was informed by the children that they wanted something more fun this year.  They decided to name the lambs after children’s rhymes, songs and stories.  So the first two lambs were renamed Star and Twinkle, and these two cute little black boogers are Peter and Piper.  The one baby girl we are keeping from Mandy will be named Mercy, as today was divine Mercy Sunday.    Yeah well so it’s outside of the theme, shoot me.

I have a lambing jug that I have made out of an old campershell.  The sheep and goats love these because they have windows, and they can see out.  I have been wearing a pair of overalls around for lambing and stuff, because skirts just don’t do well, and none of my pants will go over my huge, fat, lard- butt, cow body  Rubanesque, voluptuous pregnant figure.  Anyhow, I like to make sure the bedding is nice and fluffy-comfy, and I forgot to put some around the edges to block any drafts.  So I managed to crawl in there and Beau took this picture of me, beached testing the jug for comfort.

My children have taken to calling me “Farmer Preggo” since I have been wearing the “preg-alls” that are also Beau’s.  What he uses for height, I use for width.  well, it all works out, usually I wear some jeans or something when working with the sheep or something, but as I said, I don’t have any that fit any more.  The overalls are really more comfortable anyway.

The bedding was very deep and cushy.  I was quite comfortable in there and seriously considered taking a nap.   I was very comfie and besides I would never be able to hear the kids screaming and fighting  playing from all the way out here.  Then I discovered that the sheep needed it more than me, what with having just given birth.  Stupid sheep, sigh.

Of course when I had hauled and wiggled my rear in there, I didn’t really think about getting back out again.  Beau took this picture of me laying there thinking on it.  Well, there is another jug, I could just insist that Beau put her in the other jug, and stay in there until it was time to go to the hospital.  Well, ok maybe just until I have to pee so bad that I can’t wait any longer.

Well, we now have two new arrivals!  Monkey kidding this morning at about 9:30 am.

Look how proud Mom is!  These two little doelings are experimental.  That means they are mixed blood basically, but the American Dairy Goat Association lets you register them anyway.   They are half LaMancha and have little elf ears that are so cute! Mama is 3/4 Toggenburg and 1/4 Alpine.

The closest guess was Monkey on March 21, with two twin does.  So Catsmum, only got a 40% Correctness score.

So, Catsmum, Anna Stein, and Mary L,  you should all guess again.  Also, if you guessed Cecilia or Agnes, you should also guess again, keep the contest going!

Michelle is still in the lead with an 80% correct guess.  This roving is the prize, and it is merino, with lots of pretty angelina in it!  So, if you want to win this yummy roving that was drum carded then hand pulled (drafts like a dream I might add) then make a guess on the ewe or doe of your choice.  Here is what you need to guess on.

Mom, day, time, number of babies and sex of babies.  Each correct guess gets you 20% of a correct guess.

“HEY, where are you going?  Get back here brat!  That’s the wrong end!”

Kids are not the quickest at finding the teats….Being used to the shetlands who are born knowing their times tables (hee hee) the kids were quite a lot slower to pick up on how to nurse.  They are also a lot slower to be on their feet and trying.  The first Shetland baby will often be up and nursing or trying by the time number 2 arrives, which is usually in about 15 minutes.  Anyway, these two are now doing great.

“Give Mama a kiss….”

We were going to take the doe kids off their Moms and bottle raise them, but since I wasn’t dressed and out there in time, Monkey had already fallen in love with the white one who came first.  So we will just let Mom raise them, since Mandy will have kids too.  Many people take the kids off and heat treat the milk to prevent CAE which is a diesease in goats.  But I don’t have the heart to break them up after they are all in love with each other.  I have been told, that when you are there, and take the kids away before Mom sees them, that Mom will lick and bond to YOU and be happy without the kids, but Monkey was too fast for us!  So, since she tested negative this year, it is probably fine that she keeps her babies.

I’m not sure how much I want to worry about CAE anyway, from what I have read, many many of the positive animals are merely carriers, and do not get symptomatic, further, the disease is not super easy to spread.  The most common way, is from milk from Mom to babies.  Many farms do not test, and never have any sick animals either, so it is a debatable topic at best.

Anyhow, there are the new pictures of the latest arrivals, make your guesses if you guessed wrong!  Also Lucy almost must have not settled the first time around, so if you guessed on lucy, you might want to reschedule your guess for around the 31st.

Well, so Michelle is in the lead with the guess of

“Cecilia will have a ewe lamb between 1:00 and 5:00 a.m. on March 10, followed by twins from Agnes by midnight that night”

Michelle has the closest day, the correct sex, and she nailed the time.  BUT she has re - guessed.  So Michelle, you have only the day off, so you have a correctness score of 80%  You can keep your guess with Cecilia, or choose your guess with Mist.  Tammy, you may guess again if you like. Your current guess is 60% correct.  (I assume you meant that Cecilia would also lamb in the early morning.) Once you are out of the running, you can always guess again, that will make it even more fun.

This isn’t quite how I planned to choose the winner, so you can edit your guess as you like to reflect this change.  If you get the sex and time right, that’s pretty good, so I don’t want it to not count.  So you get 20% for each correct part, ewe, day, time, number, and sex.

But I guess you want pictures right?

This is Tatiana, named in honor of St Tatiana

We will call her Tawty for short.  This years theme is Martyrs.  This tells us the sire, and year they were born.  We choose a type of Saint each year and so we can sort of track our pedigrees off paper, just by names.

It was an easy birth, I worry about the new Moms, they can be so ditzy sometimes.  Cecilia did a great job though, excepting that she didn’t understand the lamb could nurse from BOTH sides, not just one.  So everyone is cared for, and temorarily housed, and when Beau gets home we will get things sorted out better.

Everything normal and doing fine!  Now, Agnes, Lucy and Monkey are next.

First of all, there is a really neat site I found today.  It shows you all the local knitting shops in your area, and you can add a shop if your’s isn’t there.

www.knitmap.com/map

For all the good it does me, there are none nearby…But maybe you guys will find some.

Now, to lambing, two of my sheep are seemingly SOOOO ready, but nothing. Yesterday was a day of the sheep torturing me, you can read about that on my other blog if you are interested in how funny the sheep can be, and how much of an idiot they made out of me yesterday.  I reserve this blog for posts that make me look smart, not uh the opposite…

So today I am trying really hard to NOT watch them, but I am not very good at it. I just want those cute little Sherino babies! I am also making up more batts for tutorials on various methods of getting interesting effects in your batts.

Don’t forget if you haven’t to guess that lamb from the last post. The roving is REALLY much prettier than the picture shows. You can’t see the tons of shiny angelina/tinsel stuff in it. It absolutely glows!

I will post pictures as soon as I have any!

Sooo, lambing will begin anytime now, and we are still getting ready. Being sick has us so far behind, I feel like we will never ever catch up.

So, for this months contest, I am having a guess when the lambs will be born contest. I got the idea from my pal Tammy . Some of you might like to take a peek at my other blog, as I posted birth pictures from last year, but beware they are graphic!

I am making some changes though, from what Tammy did, you can guess any lamb, not just the first one, and you also guess the number of lambs and boys/girls. After lambing, I will send out the prize to the person who guessed the closest time and day. Sound Fun?

First up, Cecilia, due March 9 (1/4 Dorset, 3/4 Merino) Wool is lovely, soft, crimpy and about 4 inches long.

March 10, Agnes, same breed as Cecilia.

Now comes Lucy Due March 17. She is a “Sherino” Half of the above mix, and half Shetland. Her fleece is soft, and wonderful! It felts SO easy, and also spins so well. It is my favorite fleece from my flock. I will have more of them after this season. It really is the best of both worlds.

Now comes Monkey, who is not a sheep at all. She’s a dairy goat. Hopefully we can get lots of yummy milk from her. She is due to kid on March 19.

After Monkey comes Mandy on the 25 of March. Mandy is an American LaMancha. They naturally have no ears, nobody cut them off! Actually they have small teddy bear type ears that are very cute. They are a bit odd looking but they are super sweet and nice.  She is very sensitive, and was developing a complex from SOMEONE WE WON’T NAME (cough BEAU)!  Calling her “no eared freak” poor thing.

Mist is a pure bred Shetland and she is due on March 30. She has a lovely intermediate fleece that spins so fast you can finish enough for a sweater in what seems like no time. It also spins up to lace weight very easily. It is very pale gray and she is a real sweetie.

DuClair is also a purebred Shetland. She is due on March 31, and she has a primitive double coat. It is very unique and fun to work with. The outer part makes a great addtion to sock yarn for the heels and toes, and the undercoat is as soft as the finest Merino. She is a horned ewe, which is allowed but more rare. I wish I had all horned ewes, I admit that it is much easier to handle her than the others.

Ashlin is lambing for the first time, and she is also due on March 31. She is a spooky little booger, and a purebred Shetland. (I can’t believe my spell checker didn’t recognize the word booger :P) I haven’t made friends with her yet. I hope that I can do so when she is confined with her lambs. I hope I can catch her to confine her with her lambs lol. It’s too bad, these pictures are all from last fall, and so they are not in full wool. I’ll go out and snap a few so you can see it, it’s magnificent!

Finally is Brietta, another purebred Shetland ewe. She is due on April 2, and this will be her first lambs. She is freindly, but a little reserved. I think she will tame up nicely while she is in with her lambs.

Its funny, because some bot grabbed this photo, and stuck it on a baby names site. It says something about, “This is what someone named Breitta looks like” ROFL. I looked it up, because I wanted to link to it, but they had changed it Oh well.

And that is everyone who will be having babies except me, and that won’t happen until June, lets hope. We can have a contest about that too, but not for a while hee hee.

So, here is how it works. Choose a sheep and make a guess on the day and time they will lamb, also guess how many lambs, and boy/girl. After everyone has lambed, we will look and see who guessed the closest.

Here is the prize…

These are from a batt I carded up. It is 100% Merino. I dyed the wool, then carded it, then hand pulled it into roving. It is red, pink, blackish purple and a very blue violet. The colors don’t do it justice. There is about 2.5 ounces here and it is in pencil roving. There is tons of glittery angelina sort of stuff also carded in, that is the stuff that looks like long white hairs lol. One final thing, if the winner lives outside of the US, then I will ask for them to split the shipping with me, as it gets very expensive!

Have fun and make a guess. Here is a little information to go by. The due dates are figured on day 145. I believe the average gestation period is 147 days, so it is fairly accurate. They are grained very lightly in the morning (to get them to go out!) and turned out to graze. Then hay and a ewe ration in the evening. (There are those who are of the opinion that this encourages daytime lambing) The sheep and goats will most often twin. Both the goats I have may triple, as their lines carry this trait strongly.

Last year DuClair had two boys, Mist one boy, and one girl, and Lucy one boy and one girl. The others are all first time Mamas.

So remember, day, time, number of lambs, and boys/girls!

I hope you will all have a go!

So I am going to be making an article about batts. You can blend fibers on batts, in lots of different ways. Then stack the batts and transform them into a nice continuous roving. Did you know that?

I had considered the technique for changing a batt into roving, but never actually tried it for some reason or another. Well I did it finally and was pretty darn happy with the results.

This yarn was my first batt, and I just made it with three scrap peices of fiber I had. The colors didn’t really do so well, although the yarn looks pretty enough. I think it needs a bigger, bluer section lol.

Anyway, the batt, went from violet color on one side, and gradiated to a lime green on the other. The effect on this yarn is so so, but if there was a nice blue section, I think it would have been spectacular. There is an important lesson here, in case you don’t know it. The first attempt is rarely what you wanted, but it can prove if what you wanted is possible. Sometimes it might take 10 times to get what you actually wanted…. This yarn will make a swatch that will be lime green on one end, and purple on the other….cool huh? It is much easier to do it this way, then to dye finished yarn to that effect.

So I then pulled the batt into rovings, and the roving was basically lime green on one end, and purple on the other. Pretty roving! I wish I had photoed the batt, but I didn’t.

I navaho plied the singles, and I am sad to say that I stink at it, but then it was only my first try and I did manage a balanced skein dispite the odd variations in the plying. Beau actually commented that he liked the effect. Well, ok, but that only counts as skill if you do it on purpose lol. But the effect could be used in an interesting way, so I filed that away for later. It looks like socks to me, but call me crazy! Might be fun to try, one sock would be purple to blue, and the other sock would be blue to green heh heh. How fun. There is enough here for a pair of baby booties, a small scarf, hat or something. It is around 13 - 14 wpi. Good size for those things.

I will give this skein to my little friends who are learning to knit. Regina, Michelle, Felicity, and Jacinta. They are all under 12, and I give them all my odds and ends, plus any sample skiens like this one. When I have something nice like this, I go and ask their Mom who has been extra helpful that week, and then they get it. If you need to destash, or find a home for left overs, please contact me. These little girls can’t afford nice yarn, and we all know how I feel about WalMart acrylics. Do a great deed of charity, and send some to these little girls who are knitting feinds. That reminds me. Someone offered to spin them some yarn if I donated some fiber, but I don’t remember if I actually sent the fiber. If that was you, can you email me? allena at spindleandwheel dot com.

So, for the article in the magazine, I will be doing much nicer color gradiations. So I did a little dyeing yesterday - well ok a lot of dyeing, about 3 pounds worth.

I dyed very dark jewel tones, in 4 ounce lots. That will give me a lot of carding and blending materials in all colors. I dyed them so dark because you have to card the fibers once, before you blend any together. So for light colors, I will just blend these with some white for now. Once I have a definite project in mind, then I might dye them to actual desired finished colors.

So, this is a sneak peek to the next issue which will have the theme of “Batty About Batts!”

Well, the sick spree seems to be finally ending. We are starting to get our strength back finally. It really hit us all very hard. It took me 3 weeks to recover, and I still am quite tired if I do much of anything. Even Beau (Who btw never gets sick) is still dragging around some. The kids seem to have bounced back ok though so that’s good.

We also bought two dairy goats for Dominic’s 4H project.  I know, I know angora would have been my preference too, but they don’t really show so well at 4H, and the boy like to win if he can.  Sooo dairy goats it is, as we could really use the milk.  It can have an off flavor, but usually this is because of poor management, not the goats.  The milk I had was sweet, ultra creamy and yummy.  It was close to what you would get from a Jersey or Guernsey cow.  So milk and cheese for us in 3 - 4 weeks or so… You can read more on my other blog.   Back to fiber stuff…

I STILL haven’t quite finished the blankity blank gloves lol. For those of you who don’t know, I am making them for my paramedic friend, Christlyn, for when she has to work wrecks, because she can wear them under the latex gloves and keep her hands warm. She has to have the tips out, so she can feel for pulses and stuff. She has been out of work all winter, because of an injury, and so hasn’t needed them. She won’t have recovered from her surgery until it is quite warm. So I got off the rush rush train and have been dawdling with these. Why?

I really do not like kniting fingers. Well, more specifically I do not like knitting fingers on tiny yarn with size 0 needles that are nickel plated. Oh and the yarn is alpaca. I can just bet you all know where my head was lodged when I did that…..it was dark…so very very dark…

Anyhow, I only have one finger left, or rather about a half a finger. Here is a picture of the middle finger, quite ironic really since I felt like I wanted to show my own middle finger…to myself for doing this on nickel plate needles lol.

Really, I am not usually prone to flipping middle fingers at people, but the thought was there, to my shame lol.

Anyway, I have completed that finger, and half of the pointer finger, but this glove had to be knitted at a much finer guage. The first one was too thick, so we decided to just use it for the left hand. Since Christlyn only needs her right hand to be very free for inserting IVs and such. Poor girl, so happens I made the hand too big, and ended up with a few extra stitiches for the pointer finger, so I just decreased. That and the fact that I jump down to just one yarn instead of two made it pucker in a little. Still it looks ok when it’s on, and will fit well. I am not doing the &%)@#7 fingers again. IF she has a problem, I will be happy to show her how to tear them out and re do them, however since she doesn’t like to do things like that much, I think I’m safe. Next winter when her hands aren’t freezing to death, I highly doubt she will take of the latex gloves and think, “Dang, that sure does look funny at the base of that pointer finger.”

Anyhow, my point is, there is a time to worry over a look of something, and a time to JUST NOT CARE. I don’t have to look at it, and she won’t care so I don’t either. sniff. I am not submitting it to the “wonderfully crafted objects award” so it should be just fine.

So, working on the next issue, let me know if you find any really cool blog posts or have something like tutorials and patterns on your own site! I will also be choosing a new contest winner soon.

I usually like winter, and I am usually an upbeat happy person.  Today, as I reflect on the last week and a half, I contemplate the fact that there should only be a few more weeks of winter.  THANK GOD!!!

It seems this winter someone has been sick for the entire time.  Usually me lol.  But, with the trees starting to show their buds, and the plump sheep waddling around, it has turned my mind to the idea that it is almost over.  Flu season has hit hard here in our area.  I have tried to go to the Dr twice, once for me and once for William, and couldn’t get in because they are swamped with flu cases.  Luckily my Dr was kind enough to call a prescription in for my ear infection, and so all is well.  Today William seems better so I decided to not bother with a Dr office visit.  Come on Spring!  I am ready.  Once the doors open and the air warms, it seems that all this goes away.  I hope the rest of you have faired better than us.  This last bout, we all got sick, and Beau missed a whole weeks work.  I don’t remember ever having flu this bad, and he doesn’t either.  I feel even worse for people who had flu and then experienced power outages from the ice storm we had.  That would really stink.  So, I am very thankful that Beau had time to be off work, and that everything is coming out ok.  It just seems like I am a broken record.  Lucky for us, when he was at his worse, I was better and so forth.

On another note I have composed a small list of things to not do when you call people who are very sick.  Kind of funny looking back, but annoying at the time lol.

1. Do not mention that the person wouldn’t be sick if they had had a flu shot.  It’s just mean.  They know that, and besides, this flu strain was not included on this years shot and so we would have gotten it anyway.
2. Do not go on and on about how sick you were when you had the same thing.  Especially, don’t go on and on about how your flu experience was obviously much worse than the sick person’s you are calling.  I mean come on people!  Let that poor sick person feel  sorry for themselves in peace, because DANG, it stinks.  So don’t be trying to get sympathy from someone running 104 temperature who has 4 kids with high temperatures, and a bunch of other stuff going on too.  How about offering to bring some soup and homemade rolls?
3. Do not call during obvious napping times.  This is a good rule of thumb for anyone with napping age children.  The hours from noon to three are nap hours for most young children, so don’t call and wake them up everyday checking on the family, and telling them how they should have had a flu shot, and besides you were 10 times sicker than them anyway.  (heh heh I really am rubbing that one in lol)
4. If you call during nap hours and someone is cross with you, don’t take it personally and bring it up again a week later.  If they were that sick, they probably won’t even remember it.  Besides nobody likes being woke up at a nap, much less when they are so sick.  Somebody that sick isn’t in their right minds, so don’t hold it over their heads later, be a grown up.

Just a few hints, I had never thought of anything like this before ha ha.  It’s annoying, and I never realized it before.  I hope I have never done these things lol.  I have just not had a marathon of flu like this before…

On the plus side, I finished some projects here and there.  I have one finger of the gloves left to do, and I’m done with the pair.  All I have in my bag is half a sock and a ball of lace weight yarn for a shawl/veil that I have an idea for but have ripped out and changed at least a million times :).

So, I am shopping for a new project, what are you guys working on?

I also think I have finally procured a supplier for some specialty fibers that are priced reasonably enough for me to resell.  I could buy them through the ordinary places, then charge like $8 - $15 per ounce for hand dyed silk and such, but really I just don’t think it’s worth that much.  People pay it, but it seems like a rip off to me.  After about a million emails, and lots of googling, I have found two places that might work out very well.  I have to thank my dear friend Heidi for helping me, she has been so supportave and helpful.

So, I was thinking about offering some tussah and mulberry silk, as well as some blends and optim which I LOVE.  They would be dyed in a variety of colors, and I was also asked by several people to consider doing a fiber/batt of the month club.  And maybe a sock of the month club that includes a pairs worth of hand dyed sock yarn each month.  These clubs are fun, and they fill up very fast because most retailers can only handle so many sign ups.  I think I could only manage about 10 - 20, depending on if it was fiber or batts.  The batts of course cost more, because you dye the fibers, then blend them together, so there is more labor.  The fibers are easier, but less exciting as they will not be blends of fun stuff.  The fiber club would be 4 ounces, and probably in the $10 - $20 range including shipping.  The would be fibers such as mulberry silk, tussah silk, noils, blends, optim, 16 micron merino and other really fun stuff.  The batts would be similar, but be in the $15 - $20 range for 4 ounces.  Would you think batts and fibers or just one or the other would be more desirable?

The sock club depends on me finding a reasonable sock yarn to resell.  Does anyone know where to buy quality sock yarn to dye and resell for a reasonable price, I have one place to buy, but who knows?  I would want to be able to sell the dyed skein for less than $10 US I think.  I can get good nylon/superwash yarn, but would that be good enough or would people want more exotic blends?  I really am not wanting to try and sell things for a super high price.  I like to feel like I offer a fair price, and that people can afford to spin and knit.  Some of the products are just out of range for many.  So what do you guys think?  This is also going to allow me to be able to write about these things, and of course offer more tutorials, so it benefits me too.  I have trouble because there are so many fibers I would love to write about, but it gets hard to choose, and hard to pay for the materials.  Some of them are so very high in price, not that I am blaming people for over charging, but I would rather make the products available to everyone.  Most people can afford $20 per month, but it can be hard to spend $40 for enough fiber to make a small project.  I would really like to make these things available for almost every budget, and the best thing is, that I won’t be sacrificing quality.  OOHHH and just think, that stuff will show up in the prizes instead of the normal stuff lol.

It looks like I am going to publish March 15, and perhaps we will just forgo the Jan issue in the future.  This seems to be the best way to deal with it.  I have a good line up and a good start on those articles, I just keep getting interrupted!  Thanks so much for all your input and support.  I have a wonderful product and book review for the next issue, and also plan on doing some specialty fibers.  I am still looking for something to do for the something fun article, any ideas???

I was thinking of shaking things up and going off into another fiber arts area that many people haven’t ever seen or done.   I have contemplated doing some embroidery, and needlework articles for something fun, wouldn’t it be great to do some of the lovely needle work crafts, with hand spun threads and yarns?  And what about felting?  That would be fun too.  I’m tossing it all around, let me know what you think.

OH I FORGOT!!!  We found out that our little baby who has caused me so much grief with morning sickness is a little girl and we have chosen the name Julianna Rose for her.  So little Julianna will be coming along in June to make life more interesting.  It will be fun to see how I manage to deal with that and the magazine.  I think I can do it, but I need to organize my time better, and focus on articles everyday.  I did publish an article outside of S&W on spinning.  You can view it here.   I am always pleased to write to a group of people, who ordinarily wouldn’t consider spinning or knitting.  I will be republishing the article on S&W in next issue.  Mostly I plan on breaking it up in to smaller articles, and fleshing it out some.  As they wanted it, all in one shot, it gets too long imho.  BUT maybe I can rope a few more innocent bystanders into the club eh?

So, that’s the news here, I hope all of you are fairing well, and keeping healthy!