The festival season is over for our business until March. Here are a few things we are working on this month to restock for next year. I am including a knitting update on my Mingling Daisies shawl.
Shawl and Hair Sticks
Jerry is working on a big batch of Shawl and Hair Sticks at the moment. He cut these to size and shape last month and at this stage it is tons and tons of sanding to achieve the final shaping. I don’t have a count on how many he is working on, but it has to be 300-400 at least.
We are restocking Walnut, Cherry, Oak, Osage Orange, and Purpleheart. We also bought a new species of wood, Padauk, to see how it works out. It is a vibrant orange, red color. The whole shop is completely coated in red dust at the moment. Jerry looks like an Oompa Loompa when he is sanding these, which is kind of hilarious. I wish I had taken a picture, but alas, I decided to spare him that indignity. I can’t wait to see these with the finish on them. I think they are going to look so pretty.
Yarn Boxes
While he is in the shop, I am getting the new batch of Yarn Boxes waxed and labeled.
These were completed in October, if I remember correctly, but we hadn’t gotten around to the finishing touches until now. I have all the Walnut ones done. The Cherry and Oak are up next. I usually work on them in small batches of 12-18 a day, in the afternoon after school and dinner are done. Buffing is hard on the arms and it’s best to not try to over do it or you have sore arms. :-)
Knitting
When I am not working on business stuff, household chores, or school work with my son, I set aside some time most evenings for knitting. Technically, even my knitting is “work” since it is usually booth samples, but knitting is one of my happy places no matter what it is. Lately, I have been listening to books while I knit. Reading is my other happy place and it great to be able to do both at the same time. I am currently re-reading/listening to Ken Follett’s Kingsbridge series. I am finally to the new release from this fall, The Armor of Light.
Here is my current progress on Mingling Daisies. The stitch count at this point is more than 450 I think. When I am done it will be 601. Despite the length of the rows it is coming along rapidly. It helps that I am have no other projects on the needles, so it gets all my focus. I still love the texture, which is what attracted me to knit it in the first place. I am motivated to complete it because I want to see how it changes after blocking.
I love the beautiful wood hair and shawl stucks. My daddy was a woodworker, I know the time, attention, and love that goes into each piece. I’ll always remember how special each piece of wood was to him.
Mingling Dasies looks great!
Thanks 😊
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That new wood sounds beautiful. Can the ones that “don’t make the cut” be turned into “one leg” pins. I actually prefer one leg. Your shawl is beautiful. Enjoy your time off.
Thank you! Yes, there will probably be some of the Padauk in singles, but those are only in my festival inventory. Maybe you can make it to my booth in the new year and see them. 🙂
I didn’t see you at Young’s Dairy Farm Wool Gathering this year. Did I miss you? Are you planning to come in ’24?
Yes, I am there every year. I have been vending there since 2007. Hope to see you this year.