We are getting SUPER close to one of my favorite times of year- not Fall, not apple picking time, not even Halloween, but GETTING THE SPRING SHARES BACK FROM THE MILL!!

With that in mind, I wanted to post a little update as to where your shares are currently.  Originally we were thinking we’d be getting the wool back in September.  That was WAY earlier than normal.  Like, crazy-go-nuts early.  Turns out it was a little earlier than could be managed in real life, so now we are expecting them in about a month, mid-Octoberish.  This is still really freaking early, so we’re very happy, but it does mean we have to wait one more month for all the soft, Cormo, fibery goodness.

We are so excited to get this yarn and fiber back, Caroline is already dreaming up what the custom dye options are going to be.  Since Susie is out on the yarn tour, Caroline will be taking over that particular duty, and I can’t wait to see what autumnal fun she comes up with!  I don’t know if you know this about her yet, but Ms Caroline has a pretty spectacular sense of style and design.

Once the shares are back in house to us and Caroline has figured out the custom dyeing options, we’ll post those options on the blog.  You will have the opportunity to either order custom dyeing through our shop, or you can do nothing and receive the yarn in its natural white.  One thing to note- we can only dye the yarn, not the roving, so the holders of Spinner’s shares will be automatically receiving their wool in its gorgeous natural color.  However, if you are ever interested in dyeing your own yarn or fiber, please check out this post on dyeing techniques.  The sale is old news but the tutorials are great!

If you have had a change of address in the last year and you’re not sure if you’ve emailed me about it, please do so at jenny at fiberfarm dot com.  We will be sending out an email at some point soon to double check on this too (please don’t mark us as spam!).

One note about the yarn tour:  If you are planning on going to your LYS to meet Susie, hear her speak, fondle the yarn and try on the samples, please be sure to contact the store or check their website ahead of time to make sure you are up-to-date on that store’s plan.  If there’s one thing we’ve learned its that every yarn store is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from every other yarn store.  They all have their own culture and traditions.  Some yarn stores are just having a happy little mingle, some have a structured schedule.  Some are requesting that you bring a can of food for a food drive in order to get in, and for some, it’s a full on event, where you’d need a ticket first.  We don’t want anyone to show up without whatever they need to fully participate, so please make sure that you check out the website or give the store a call before you leave.

Thanks, everyone- have a great Monday!  :)

You know, being a grown-up has a lot of advantages. We can drive. We have our own money. We can even see R-rated movies whenever we want. But there’s one thing grown-ups don’t get- sleep away camp. Total rip-off! I think it’s time we changed that, don’t you?

I am super-excited to announce Juniper Moon Farm’s very first Summer Camps- a series of weekend workshops designed to teach you new skills and take your craft to the next level!

The number of attendee for each workshop will be limited, so that each attendee gets plenty of personal attention from the instructor. And we’ll leave you with lots of free time to spend snorgling with sheep, getting to know Charlie and Churchill or just knitting on the front porch.

Each camp weekend includes all materials and meals. Check out the schedule below and be sure to click on each camp for the full details!

August 4th-August 7th: Culinary Camp

August 12 & 13: Photography Camp

August 19th-21st: Fiber Prep Camp

August 25th-28th: Hand-Dyeing Camp

November 9th-13th: Shepherding Camp 101

April 9th-14th: Shepherding Camp 102

Each camp is priced individually but they are all a great deal, especially when you consider that you’re getting a full-weekend of instruction for less than the cost of a farm stay. And all attendees will receive an exclusive Camp JMF t-shirt or tote bag!

If you would like to schedule a private retreat or camp session for up to 6 people, please contact Jenny at Jenny AT fiberfarm DOT com.

Are you planning to make a trip to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival May 7 & 8? We’ll be there and we want to meet YOU!

Join us for an early lunch Saturday and Sunday at NOON, beside the stage outside the Main Exhibition Hall. Bring your lunch and we’ll bring the desserts! We’ll also have some yummy, delicious samples of the brand-new, not-yet-available, JMF Yarn Lines and plenty of JMF Swag for all who attend.

Jenny, Caroline, Amy and I will all be there! Please come by and introduce yourselves to the JMF team!

We will also be at the Storey Publishing & FiberCrawl Afterparty on Saturday night after the festival. There are a HANDFUL of tickets left for the party at the Shearton Columbia Hotel. Tickets are $10 each and all proceeds for to charity, but GET YOUR TICKET NOW, cause once they are gone, they are gone.

See you next weekend!

Okay, let me start by saying that this event isn’t until May 16th. BUT- if you wait until May, or April, or maybe even March to order your tickets, you are going to miss out on this awesome event. And, Sugar, I don’t want that for you. Baseball and knitting? Together in one stadium? With some of my very favorite people in world? Trust me. You want to be there. *

And the tickets are DEAD CHEAP. Like, $11. Plus there are awesome goodie bags (sponsored by yours truly and others) and awesome door prizes. Here what my good friend Kate, the organizer,  has to say about the event, tickets, etc.:

“The game on May 16th will be followed by a free Fan Fest event. This includes lots of activities for kids (young and old) and free food (hot dogs, chips etc.).

Tickets are for reserved seats. We try to sit behind the screen (behind home plate) to prevent knitting related injuries from unseen foul balls.

Ticket are $11 each. This will include mailing of the tickets to you ahead of time and also helps to defray the cost of goodie bags or other shwag. There is no child price as these are reserved seats. Children under the age of 2 do not need a ticket, unless you want a separate seat for them to sit in.

Two ways to order:

1) Paypal $11 x the number of seats that you want to kateburke24@gmail.com. Please make sure that the address attached to the Paypal account is where you want the tickets mailed. If you want them mailed some where else, please put that address in the comment section.

2) if you would prefer not to use Paypal, email me at kateburke24@gmail.com. I can take your request that way and provide you with a mailing address so that you can pay by check.

Tickets will be mailed to you well in advance of the game. On the day of the game, there will be a Stitch & Pitch table just inside the main gate. This is where you can come to meet other knitters, drop off FOs to donate and pick up your goodie bag.”

Here’s the Rav group for the event.

I hope to see loads of y’all there. “Hope” because (*) last year Erin and I spent THREE HOURS driving around looking for the stadium. Don’t worry- it’s not hard to find at all. We just had really bad directions from Mapquest with an imaginary exit number on them. BTW- for those of y’all unfamiliar with the Northeast, Rhode Island, where this event is held, is about the size of North Dallas. Or maybe Plano. In fact, you can not drive for three hours and still be in Rhode Island. We had to turn around at the state line a couple of times! And- here’s the punch line- after THREE HOURS of looking for the stadium, we gave up and went home.

This year, I hope to be there, schedule and maps permitting.

P.S. One of y’all very sweetly asked for a downloadable calendar of events. Great idea. I’ll try to figure out how to make it happen soonest.

EDITED TO ADD IMPORTANT INFO FROM KATE: “I will be purchasing the first block of tickets on Monday, March 1st. If want to be assured of a seat in the “stitcher” section, get me your ticket requests ASAP! I can add on after that, but those seats may be scattered a bit, depending on what is available.

This morning we woke up to Day Three of being snowed in. Now, normally, I’d just as soon stay snowed in forever, but – in spite of some serious rationing on my part – we ran out of Diet Pepsi this morning. So I was thrilled when the county finally got around to plowing our road.

But my happiness was short-lived. As Erin pointed out, we still had to get out of our driveway, an impossibility without it being plowed first. See, everyone told us that it never snows much down here and it hadn’t occurred to me to arrange a plow service. (In my defense, they’re calling this a 20 year storm.) But I was determined to get to the market today in the way that only a woman separated from caffeine can be. I went on Craigslist to find a plow service but the prospects were grim. All the regular plow guys had posted notices about 10 hour delays. They were accepting emails but it was unlikely that they’d get to us today.

And then a miracle happened. A handsome young man in Carhartts rang our doorbell and politely asked if we needed our driveway plowed.

His name is Tosh.

He lives up the road.

And we are all a little bit in love with him.

]]> http://www.fiberfarm.com/2009/12/a-solstice-miracle/feed 37 http://www.fiberfarm.com/2009/12/sad-news-2 http://www.fiberfarm.com/2009/12/sad-news-2#comments Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:16:29 +0000 Susan http://www.fiberfarm.com/?p=4569

Due to the nasty weather heading our way this weekend, we’ve decided to postpone our Solstice Party until New Year’s Day. WE live in a super-rural area with windy, infrequently plowed roads, and we decided that your safety should come first.

Don’t forget we’re having our first Open Farm Day this Saturday. Come anytime between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and wear clothes you don’t mind getting muddy in. Boots are highly recommended due to all the recent rain

We are also excited to announce that our second annual Solstice Party! Last year was so much fun- in spite of the fact that it was sandwiched between two blizzards- that we decided to do it again in Virginia. Like last year, the party will be potluck and will end with roasting marshmallow and Peeps around the fire. We’ll post more details as it gets closer but mark your calendars for Saturday, December 19th.

Open Farm Days and the Solstice Party are open to all blog readers, not just shareholders.

Tune in tomorrow for some cool recipes and the winner of our Shepherding Camp Giveaway! And have a happy, happy Thanksgiving!

This weekend a group of shareholders from our ravelry group came from all over the country to spend a weekend on the farm.

Even though they were on vacation they insisted on working while the were here.

And of course there was a whole lot of knitting.

We invited some of our local friends to join us for lunch on the farm on Saturday. It was lovely.

I think everybody’s favorite part of the weekend was just hanging out with the flock.

It was truly a magical weekend. Seeing the farm and the animals through fresh eyes is so good for me! I feel incredibly honored that these amazing women took vacation days to spend with me. Y’all are amazing and I am humbled by your support. Thanks to everyone who came from near and far to make the last few days more perfect than I ever could have imagined they could be.

And for those of you who missed this weekend- no worries! We are to make the third Saturday of every month and open farm day when shareholders and friends can come and spend time with the flock. Bring your spinning wheel, your knitting and a picnic if you like. Children are welcome; dogs and other pets unfortunately are not.

If you’ll be coming from out of town, we can recommend the brand-new Best Western in Gordonsville. It’s about 20 minutes from the farm – the closest hotel by farm. There are many other amazing things to do in the Charlottesville area but I highly recommend a visit to Monticello or a trip to a local winery.

The only exception to the third Saturday thing will be this month, when open farm day will be 11/28.

Shareholder Kate Burke is organizing the 2nd annual Pawtucket Red Sox Stitch n Pitch. Erin and I will be going and I hope some of you can join us.

Stitch & Pitch 2009 will be Sunday, May 17th. Game time 1:05 pm

All seats are reserved tickets are $9.50/each. this includes ticket plus S&H; tickets will be mailed to you to request tickets, please email me at susie AT fiberfarm DOT com with the number of tickets you need and an email address. Kate will be bill you for your tickets via PayPal and your tickets will be mailed to you. Deadline to order with the group is March 14th. As in tomorrow. I know it’s super short notice (my fault!) but it will be a blast!

If you’re on Ravelry you can find lots more info about the event, busses going to the event from Boston, South County RI and the Cape and lots more here. If you aren’t a ravelrer and have questions you can send them to me (susie AT fiberfarm DOT com) and I’ll forward them on to Kate.

Hope to see you at the ball game!

Karen has a sweet recap on her blog. Read it here.