Well, 80% of it, anyway. We are expecting the rest very soon, along with the roving for the Spinner’s Shares. We’ll start shipping the roving as early as Monday, along with the yarn shares that are to remain natural, i.e. undyed.

If you are a Spring 2011 Shareholder, you may purchase custom dyeing for your share. Here are this year’s color options:

Fresh Churned Butter- a pale yellow

Nantucket- a faded red

Pistachio- a very pale green (this one is Caroline’s favorite)

Sweet Potato- very autumnal

Lagoon- our most popular blue

And of course, you can always elect to keep your yarn natural. It’s a gorgeous, creamy white with just the tiniest whiff of sheepiness to remind you where it came from.

We will be custom dyeing each share in it’s own dye lot in the order that the dyeing orders are received. If you would like to receive your yarn undyed, please reply to the email you received

Please, please, please, if you are not SURE that you are a Spring 2011 Shareholder and you didn’t receive an email from us directing you to order dyeing, we beg of you to please check your receipt before ordering. This is the busiest time of year for us, and, as there are many of you and only three of us, we will not be able to check to see which share you purchased. We will refund purchases made in error but it won’t happen until after all the shares are shipped, so please do yourself (and us!) a favor and check to see which share you have before ordering.

Thanks so much for being a shareholder in our 2011 harvest!

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!  :)

Attention 2010 shareholders: it’s time to choose your colorways! I am so very excited about the 2010 colors. I think they might be the best collection we’ve ever done. I know I say that every year, but this time I really mean it. So, without further ado, I present:October, Sage, Wisteria, True Blue and Tractor!

October

Sage

Wisteria

True Blue

Tractor

I love each and every one of them equally and they will all knit up gorgeously.

If you would like to purchase custom dyeing for your 2010 Share, click here. Remember, all the shares are custom dyed in individual batches. It takes a little longer to get them done doing them that way but I think the results are worth it. That being said, the shares are dyed as they are ordered, so don’t wait too long to make your decision.

Just to refresh your memory, Half Shares will receive 3 skeins (worsted weight, 100 grams, 300 yards/each for a total of 900 yards), Full Shares will receive 6 skeins (worsted weight, 100 grams, 300 yards/each 1800 yards) and Double Shares will receive 12 skeins (worsted weight, 100 grams, 300 yards/each 3600 yards total).

Like last year, extra skeins are available for purchase with  your custom dyeing. Because we did the washing ourselves this year, we’re able to offer extra skeins at a slightly lower price than before. Each addition skein is $8.50 and you may purchase up to four extra skeins per share. These skeins are ONLY available to 2010 shareholders!  If you purchase extra skeins with your custom dyeing, all your skeins will be dye together in one dye lot.

This is Crush. Crush recently took a bad fall and broke her leg very badly. Surgery was required to set the bones- expensive surgery. Crush’s owner Pam is fantastic pattern designer  (remember Leda?) and she went straight home from the vet hospital and designed a pattern to try to raise the money to cover Crush’s mounting vet bills.

How sweet is this little sweater? It’s called ‘Willie’.

I mean seriously.

The tiny ear just about does me in.

I was so lucky to have so much help with my Sweet Lucy’s staggering vet bills back in January that I want to do something to pay it forward. I am going to giveaway one Half Share in Juniper Moon Farm’s 2011 Yarn (or Fiber) CSA. All you have to do is purchase a copy of Flintknit’s Willie. AFTER you’ve purchased the pattern, come back here and leave a comment wishing Crush a speedy recovery. On Monday, one winner will be chosen at random from all the entries.

Cool, right? You get a great pattern, a child you know gets a great sweater, Crush gets her vet bills paid and you are entered to win a half share in our 2011 Yarn CSA (a $100+ value). It’s a win-win-win-might win situation and you can get in on it for 6 lousy bucks. Don’t knit or think the pattern is too advanced for you? Buy the pattern anyway and consider it a $6 raffle ticket. Or- better yet-  give the pattern away to a friend.

On entry per person, please. Entries will close on Monday, May 3rd. Extra karma points for tweeting, posting on facebook and rav. The winner will be announced here on the blog and will have 24 hours to claim his/her prize. In the event that the prize is unclaimed, another winner will be chosen at random.

Good luck!

The Fall Shares are moving along and will be ready for distribution before you know it. But before we can do anything though, we must have your correct address.

If you have moved since your ordered you FALL 09 Share, please email us at: addresschange AT fiberfarm DOT com ASAP.

By the end on the week I will be able to let you know how many skeins/ounces of yarn/roving the share distribution will be. I will also have photographs of the colors available for purchase posted on the blog shortly afterwards. Dyeing will cost $16 per share this year and is only available for yarn, not spinning fibers.

If you purchased a knitting share and would like to switch to a spinning share, please email us at the address above. Regretfully, we cannot change spinning shares into knitting shares this season.

PLEASE make sure you have a FALL 2009 share before emailing us with questions or changes. We spend hours every year trying to sort out shareholders that are confused about which share they purchased. If in doubt, please search your Paypal account for the info before emailing.

Thanks!

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.

I am happy to announce that we have shipped about 1/3 of the Spring 2009 shares. Nearly all the Spinner’s Shares have gone out, along with a large portion of the undyed yarn shares. We are currently awaiting the rest of the Cormo yarn from the mill so we can finish shipping all the yarn shares out.

As for the dyed shares, we are slowly but surely working our way through them. So many more people ordered custom dyeing this year, and we can only dye about two shares in one pot, so it takes time to get them all dyed. As soon as the rest of the Cormo yarn arrives, we will begin shipping the dyed shares in order of payment date.

Thanks for being so patient! We’ll keep you updated here as soon as we know when the rest of the yarn is coming.

If you’ve been waiting to buy a Fall 09 Share today is the day. We’ll be taking down the listing tonight. Spring 2010 Shares coming soon!

This week has just been a whole knew kind of insane. I spent most of last week in Washington D.C./Virginia (more on this very soon), then flew home Sunday and met shareholder Suzy Q who had just flown in from Oklahoma at Logan airport. Then shareholder Lauria’s husband picked us up and whisked us away to the theater where Lauria was stage managing a musical about WWII.

After the show, Lauria’s husband whisked us to South Station so we could catch a bus to Woods Hole to catch the ferry back to the Island.

Suzy and Lauria came to MV this week to help Erin and I with the crazy amount of shipping we have to do ASAP. And thank goodness they did, because the two of them have completely streamlined the shipping process for us. We have shipped 99% of the spinner’s shares and the a good portion of the undyed shares will be going out today and tomorrow.

There will be a slight delay once we get these out, as we are still waiting for the rest of the Cormo to arrive from the mill. We were so anxious to get the shares out that we had them ship what they had ready last week.

For pics of Suzy and Lauria’s visit to MV, including Lauria running into the ocean fully clothed last night, see my flickr page.

This is a guest post from Lauria! I’m sitting on Susie’s couch curled up under a blanket and have been working on getting the goat essays up on the website for… something like 8 hours!! They will be up sometime tomorrow, but I wanted to let everyone know that we were working on them. I’ve been working on Susie’s laptop, so she hasn’t had access online all day. I’ve been having a blast at her house and enjoyed reading all the essays. I can’t imagine having to be the one to choose!

Suzy, Susie, and Erin have been working on the shares all day today. (Wait til Susie shows you how much we accomplished!)You all will not believe how wonderful the shares are until they’re in your hands! Computers do not do justice to the dye colors.

I’m just about ready to hit the hay as we’ll be up early to feed the animals and continue working on shares and the giveaway. Until then!

Lauria