Fall is coming???

As of this morning we are out of the heat and humidity, August held on for a few extra days it seems. September usually means cooler temps and some rain, and we generally need more of both at this time of year.

The Allegan County Fair begins this Friday, it is the largest county fair in Michigan. I love to go to see all the animals, watch the harness races and of course, eat the 'food'. When we were raising Registered Rambouillet Sheep and Registered Alpine and Oberhasli Dairy Goats for breeding stock, I would live at the fair in our travel trailer taking care of the animals there while Gene tended the flocks at home. I don't miss that much although it had it own perks.

Now my pre-fall schedule is to get the shop ready for the coming season of more knitting, spinning and felting. Two new hand dyed batts, Sapphire 'N Azure and Autumn Green 'N Gold, are on the website and in the shop. Plus we have a new supply of Merino and Silk top and synthetic sparkle, Firestar, both of these just pop with shine when used for hand spinning or felting. I am ready to do some felting and knitting of my own so I know many of you feel the same way.

more Suzanne Pufpaff e-patterns

We have two new patterns designed by Suzanne Pufpaff in a format that you can purchase and download them onto your computer. The first is another Entrelac design. Entrelac Triangle Shawl with Lace Patterns in the Rectangles. It can be used with any weight of yarn, her sample was knit with hand spun fingering weight yarn.
This is a close up of the entrelac design with lace insert.



Suzanne's other pattern is for Reversible Braided Cable Scarves, these are knit with sport or fingering weight.

Michigan Fiber Festival

Well, it is over for another year. I did enjoy my first trip there as a 'tourist', being able to watch the joy of others when they found the just right yarn or fiber was fun. You would think after being on the selling side of fiber festivals etc, for 20 years it would be boring - NOT!

I got to see people I hadn't seen for a year or had only 'talked' with online and spend more than a quick Hi with them. I was so new to this tourist thing though that I didn't think to bring a camera. Fortunately, some of the Ravelry members took pictures and posted them. Here are the pictures from CoggieTM blog and
Holly's blog Tim also posted some on Flicker

Thanks to all the people who also came by the farm shop and let us serve them here. Now it is back to checking out the garden and getting the website caught up with new things for fall.

God's Smile

A friend sent this picture to us and I thought others would enjoy it, too

We have had rain all day, soft and quiet, perfect for the garden and flowers. The rain lowered the temp and the forecast says the humidity will be down tomorrow. That is great news since last week we had temps in the high 80's and humidity in the high 60's, I don't do well in heat so spent much time inside. I wasn't inspired to knit but did get a few batches of black raspberry jam made. My DH braved the mosquitos to pick the berries.

Purses for Progeria

Sarah Strait of Michigan has organized a charity knit-a-thon, Purses for Progeria. Proceeds support The Progeria Research Foundation, dedicated to discovering the cure for Progeria, a rare, (at this point) fatal, "premature aging" diease that afflicts children, who die of heart disease at an average age of 13 years.

Sara recently met the Mother of a little boy in Stevensville, MI who has this disease and was encouraged to help raise funds by knitting a purse which the little boy's grandmother sells on etsy

The Knit-a-thon & Bake Sale is at Krasl Art Center, St. Joseph, MI on Saturday, August 2nd, 10 am - 2 pm.
Come with already knit projects to donate for the sale, come to help, or just come to sit and knit.

Happy Belated Independence Day

Hope everyone had as perfect a weekend as we did, beginning with the Wed before the 4th, the sun was out, breeze was light and temps in the mid 70's during the day. We stayed home and enjoyed the neighbor's fireworks.

I did get more of the knitting pattern pdf's added to our website. Now 3 of Suzanne Pufpaff's entrelac knitting patterns are available as well as the gorgeous Civil War Shawl.

Seven of Suzanne's knitting with roving patterns are also available now as a download, including one called Simple Projects which is a primer to learn to knit with roving. It has 4 projects in the one pattern of instructions.

I finished the Kalamazoo Knits wrap that I started two months ago, it really was an easy and quick knit but gardens got in the way. I will get a picture of it taken next week to show it.

Oxen-powered Carding Mill, a rare view of bygone era

The American Sheep Industry Newsletter this week included the above title: Oxen-powered Carding Mill, a rare view of bygone era It is reprinted from fibre2fashion.com

"The oxen-powered New Salem carding mill is all set to operate once again for the visitors who want to get a rare glimpse of how mills functioned before industrialization took over. President Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site is a reconstruction of a carding mill that existed in 1830s, where Abraham Lincoln lived for six years. This site is now managed by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.
Spectators can take a look of this once-in-a-lifetime event on only three Saturdays, June 28, July 5 and July 19. The whole ambience will take the visitors back in history. The demonstrators will be present at the site to explain the entire process of how raw wool was transformed into usable fiber. The spectators will be able to watch oxen walking on a large wheel to power a huge wooden shaft, which in turn helps the carding mill and the double carder machine inside to move. As sheared wool is pushed into the machine, a series of carding rollers straighten out the fibers. After this process, wool can be spun and woven into garment.
New Salem is the only functioning oxen-powered mill in the United States and one of the three in the world."

Already one opportunity to see this is past and I don't think I can make either of the other two dates but thought anyone in the area interested in fiber would love to know about this.