Category: Business Announcements

It Has Been Quite an Interesting Week

Spring time in middle Tennessee can be volatile and it has been quite an interesting week. It is typical this time of year to be in 70’s or even 80’s but then that can change on a dime and it’s chilly again the next day. We experienced some strong storms with straight line winds over 70 mph on Friday. We lost a few shingles from our work shop and a tree in the back yard. Thankfully that was not near the house. There is a pine tree in the front that was dangerously close to going down which would have taken out the power lines to the house. You could see the ground lifting at the base with the strong gusts. It was very scary, but the winds finally abated and it is still there. For now. It will probably need to come down before the next threat rolls through, just in case.

We did lose power, along with over 115,000 other Nashvillians. There were downed trees, power lines, and poles everywhere. Our electricity was out for about 13 hours. We were fortunate that it wasn’t worse. A little cleaning up is all we had to worry about. There is still the tree to deal with because it is hung in some other trees making it a possible hazard but it is at the back of the property where it’s less of a priority.

So, after all the excitement from the weather was over, it was back to the tasks associated with getting ready for the first festival coming up. Last week I was getting all the new yarn labelled. Then it all needed stored, some went in the trailer and the rest in our work room storage bins. There are also new Darning Eggs, Nostepinnes, and Shawl/Hair Sticks to be tagged/packaged and stored. Like the yarn, some go straight in the trailer with restock in the work room storage.

Yesterday I got the oil changed in my truck. I took along my computer and got some inventory updating done while I was waiting. We did some grocery shopping in the afternoon. Today has mainly been packing for my trip. I will drive to Raleigh, NC in the morning and set up the booth on Thursday at the Carolina Fiber Festival. I have a full schedule on my website, if you’d be interested to see what we have booked this year. If all goes as planned, we will be vending at 21 events this year.

I have made progress on my knitting project but will post a picture of that next time since it’s too dark at the moment to get a good one. I didn’t get started on this post until near dark. So, I’ll sign off for now. It’s almost time to start rummaging in the kitchen for some supper.

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Miscellaneous News

I’ll start today’s post with an update on what is on my needles. You may recall I am working on the Bensusan shawl in my Classic Merino DK yarn in the color Cypress. I have progressed to the main chart and added the second skein of yarn. I am enjoying the variety of the stitch patterns. It’s easily memorized but interesting. I love cables.

The other project I have going is my cowl using the yarn my daughter brought me from Ireland. I am about 25% done on it. I cast it on a couple days ago. It’s a pretty quick and easy knit so it shouldn’t take too long to make.

It will be August very soon and I will be back to festival vending. We are still working on restocking inventory. Within the last couple weeks we have added some more Undyed yarn to the website. I stock two Organic Cotton yarns (a sport weight and a worsted weight) and also small quantities of all our Merino wool yarns as Bare yarn for those who wish to use it that way or to dye themselves.

We have also recently finished some new Darning-Eggs in Cherry and Maple woods. We have some more Walnut in progress.

Last night two of the grandchildren were over and were given a fun ride around the property in my husband’s new cart he built for the lawn tractor. They had fun and didn’t want it to end.

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Home At Last

I returned from Minnesota last Tuesday. I have been trying to squeeze in time to get my gansey blocked and write a post. I have been working hard to get my website rebuilt plus other stuff. So I am happy to report that the website is done. I will probably do some more tweaking but it’s functional and I am pleased with it so far. My blog is now part of my shop which I have wanted to do for a long time.

So now on to my gansey and current knitting. I have the gansey blocking at the moment. I blocked it out quite a bit so that when it relaxes it will be closer to the finished dimensions I was planning for.

I only got one project started. It’s another Gridiron sock.

I really enjoy this pattern. It’s just interesting enough to be entertaining but not enough to be distracting if you are watching videos or something like that. They are also comfortable to wear. My last pair are my favorite socks.

Ok gotta go for now. I am going to be going to Lexington, KY on Friday for the Kentucky Sheep and Wool Festival. I don’t know if I will have time to post again before that. We’ll see. Have a great week!

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Shop Work

I have made good progress on my knitting projects which I will share next time. Today, I am going to talk about our production we have planned during the off season to prepare for next year.

We have bought lots and lots of lumber and yarn.

These slabs of cherry, walnut, maple, and Osage orange will be for turning. It will be mostly darning eggs and Nostepinnes and possibly some bowls.

We have also been culling out the property of brush and trees. Some of this Osage orange and maple will also be for turning when they have cured for awhile. Jerry is painting the ends to help reduced cracks while it dries

This is about 140 board feet of walnut waiting to be dimensioned for Yarn Swifts.

This was 210 board feet of cherry which will soon be yarn swifts also.

This is 400 pounds of undyed yarn. I am still waiting on a other 40 pounds of the Merino Bamboo which was back ordered. So, in the mean time, I am mixing up dye stocks and then mixing my colors so we are ready to get this all dyed up in the coming weeks.

We will be working our way through it as the weather permits. I can dye in inclement weather because I am under cover now, but I do still rely on outdoor lines for drying. With 1900 skeins to process that is the biggest problem this time of year. The good news is that we have plenty of time at the moment 😀.

Okay that’s it for today. Next time, knitting updates.

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More Test Knitting

I’m knitting as fast as I can to finish the test knit I started right before my last post. It is going very quick which is good because I am itching to start my small size test knit of my Vintage Diamonds Cardigan. More on that next time I hope.

I am on the last section which is all lace. It is a wider band than the first three. I may have to improvise on the last 4-6 rows if my calculations are correct on yardage. I thought I had enough but we’ll see. I can always dye a bit more but I may just use a left over of the lighter gray instead.

In other news, we have a new batch of Nostepinnes and Darning Eggs up on the website this week. We had some Spalted Maple from a tree we cut down in our yard last year that was finally ready to turn. These are limited quantities, so if you want a really special and unique gift or treat for yourself, don’t miss out. 😉 Carpe diem.

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Carolina Fiber Festival Virtual event

Today is the day. I’ve been working on my virtual booth and it’s all set for the event. I plan to be available for live video chat during all the market hours, 9-6 ET, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Here’s a link to my virtual booth.

Yesterday I would have been setting up my full booth in Raleigh, NC for an in person event. Instead I spent some time setting up a smaller version here at home. I wanted to have my products near to hand if anyone needed a demo, or whatever.

Bowls, yarn Boxes, Nostepinnes, Darning-Eggs, Shawl-Hair-Stick, and sock-keepers.
Hand dyed yarn, organic cotton yarn and some baby stuff patterns.
Knitted samples.
Yarn Swifts and ball winders.
Other side of my yarn display.

See you there!

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One thing done

I am finished with the scarf I was knitting for my son. It’s all blocked and ready to pass on to him when I get a chance.

I am back at the afghan and will show you some more progress on that next time.

I am busy this week setting up my “booth” for the Carolina Fiber Festival Virtual event. It’s happening on March 12-14 and I will be online from 9 to 6 all three days. I’ll post a link to my booth page when it’s ready.

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New Pattern Shapely Mitts

Hey there, 👋

I know it’s been a little quiet on the blog lately. I am still plugging along on the afghan and making slow progress. I completed another color and have five more to go. That’s 30 hexagons for those of you keeping score.

Here’s the color I am working on currently.

I had a birthday 🎂 last week. Jerry took me out to our favorite place for pizza and local craft beer. I made one of my favorite desserts too, instead of cake, lemon meringue pie. Here’s my go to recipe for it. Works perfectly every time. You can thank me later.

You may recall last year that I was knitting a pair of fingerless mitts in my Classic Merino Superwash Sock yarn. I had a few requests for the pattern and I have finally gotten to writing and publishing it. I have it on Ravelry and on my website.

I am extending the special introductory offer that I ran last week from my social media. Beginning today and running through February 8, 2021, you can have the pattern for free with purchase of a skein of yarn to make it. I wrote the pattern for both fingering weight and sport weight yarn. I linked the fingering weight above and here’s the Classic Merino Superwash Sport yarn.

Lavender, Damson Plum,Midnight Blue, Sapphire, Winter Sky, Peacock, Robin Egg, Atlantic
Heather, Orchid, Quartzite, Pewter, Slate, Obsidian, Graphite, Earl Grey
Glacier, Ironstone, Emerald, Lichen, Jade, Honeydew, Fern, Marigold
Tea Rose, Cerise, Crimson, Garnet, Paprika, Sea Coral, Chamomile, Sea Oat

The special free pattern offer is good only on my website. Just pick your yarn and color and then add it and the Shapely Mitts pattern to the cart. Add the code SHAPELY when you begin the check out process for $5 discount. If you have any problems or questions please contact me at knittingnotions@gmail.com. Thanks for reading!

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Presenting…

Honeydew Lace Square all blocked and posing for the glamour shots.

This color is very hard to photograph because it really is a bit of a chameleon which changes due to light source. It is the Classic Merino Superwash Sock in Lavender. As I mentioned last time I used 4 skeins with 5g leftover using US4 needles.

Here is the original lace weight version along with the new version for fingering weight. I spent all of Saturday afternoon and into the evening editing and updating the pattern to include the new fingering weight instructions. I also made some corrections to the border charts and stitch counts for that section. The updated pattern is listed on the website and on Ravelry. If you already own the digital pattern, you will have gotten an update pushed to you. If you bought a print version at a festival and would like the update via email, please let me know and I am happy to send along the PDF. Contact me at knittingnotions@gmail.com.

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This Week’s Progress

I am getting sooooo close to the finish on this project. I am about halfway through with the final side. I got a fair bit of this knitting done last weekend when Jerry and I took a short overnight trip to visit my mother-in-law. It’s the most knitting time I have had in awhile, which explains the slow progress I guess.

On our trip home after an overnight in Evansville, we took a slight detour and spent about half a day checking out the Land Between the Lakes park. Jerry has wanted to try some off road trail driving in his truck and we discovered that they have some there. We tried that out and while it was a fun adventure we weren’t too impressed with their trail markings and didn’t want to get lost in there, so we didn’t go very far in. LOL! It was a fun experiment though. I got only one picture of the Bison. There are also Elk but we didn’t go on the drive where you can see them. I think it was still closed anyway.

Since we are on the subject of nature; here’s our yucca plant in full bloom this week. :-)

On the business side; I got all the Nostepinnes and Darning Eggs added to the website last week, and since I told you I would update you on that, consider yourself updated. :-)

  • Walnut Darning Eggs $25
  • Cherry Darning Eggs $25
  • Purple Heart Darning Eggs $35
  • Walnut Nostepinnes $25
  • Cherry Nostepinnes $25
  • Cherry Nostepinnes $25
  • Purple Heart Nostepinnes $35

We are working on a few ideas for new products at the moment that we are getting very excited about. More on that when I have something to show you. :-)

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