BFL/Shetland hand-dyed in the wool yarn is up on the website. Get it quick! Very limited quantities available. 

I've been feverishly working the last couple days on up-ing my yarn game and you all get to get first dibs. I'll be putting the newest yarn up in the online shop on our website tomorrow (Friday) night. Saturday will be a day of posting all the spinning fiber stock that is leftover after OFFF. I'll announce shop updates Saturday so shop early!

I had a great day on the spinner today and had to run back into the shop this evening to see how the first batch of yarn is turning out. No patterns or programs; today's yarn weight, draft, twists per inch (tpi) and rpm speed on the spinner were all determined by me. Phew! It took about 10 yards of spinning for me to lock down what I wanted, but my first glance at is has me very happy (picture of it on the spinner below).

I also started the next batch of Romney/Alpaca/Silk. It is fresh out of the picker (the machine that opens the fiber locks and blends) and is ready to be carded up tomorrow. I have included a sneak peak of it in all its fluffy glory this evening (above).

For anyone close by, we do still have spots in our Long Draw Spinning class that is this Saturday. I was a short forward spinner prior to taking the class myself and I fell in love with this style of spinning. More loft to my yarn and I am able to spin at least twice as fast. All the details and registration are on our website.

Look forward to seeing you in the shop either online or in person!!!

I'm back! I swear I didn't forget about the blog. I got a little crazy prepping for Oregon Flock & Fiber last week and was gone all weekend at the event. 

Lots of fun happened at the mill leading up to the festival, including success at the first yarn blend I dreamed up. My first 3-ply also and I am in love!!! And I'm not the only one. I took the skeins to OFFF and they were scooped up by a woman who said they were the first thing she had seen that day that she couldn't walk away from. Aaaaw! She made me so happy!
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More is in the works this week, in fact October is "make yarn" month at the mill as I now start to prep for Vogue Knitting Live in Seattle. This is a big event for us in early November as we will be putting our yarn out there to the world at a big intimidating event. I'll be sure to keep you updated with pics and will put a few skeins up on the website with you all having first dibs - I'll let you know here on the blog first.

The festival was amazing! A fantastic turn out and the most perfect weather made for a truly fun event. Our booth turned out just as I had hped and we sold a lot of fiber and other goodies as well. I met some amazing people including vendors, shepherds and visitors alike. I didn't arrive back home on the farm until 8pm last night and my head was buzzing. The intention is to take the next few days off. The reality is, I have so many yarn ideas, I just want to back to work! My house does really need to be cleaned though. Hmmm...I'm sure I'll figure out something.

Thanks for following the Ewethful adventures. I'll be back soon!...

I feel like last week was a marathon of making and meeting. We have had so many visitors to the shop the last couple weeks, it has been very exciting. Last weekend we were a part of The Traveling Ewe fiber day tour. We were the last stop before their return to Portland. It was  a whirlwind of activity as I gave tours of the Mill and Kathy showed a bit of her dying technique. Then there was a flurry of shopping and they were gone in a flash. So fun to have them. If you haven't heard about these tours, check out their website. So much fiber fun and totally stress free! 

Last week I also had the pleasure of showing off the Mill and talking about what I do and the great community I live in with Lara Dunning. Lara has a travel blog that focuses on small towns in the PNW. Follow the link to check out her page for great ideas of places to travel on your next trip. Small Town Washington

This week I had all sorts of visitors to the store. Two were Instagram followers/friends. The first was Jessica who is from Australia and started following Ewethful on Instagram. She is in the states with her husband and children on holiday and detoured over to the Mill for a quick visit. It truly made my day to meet her and see her reaction to the shop. Next Instagram friend came in Saturday. She is wildhair_homestead on IG and her business is tanning sheep pelts. We've been following each other for several months. It was so great to meet her! Talk a little shop and find out she has family right here in Halsey. She has a very interesting life and is a fun person to follow. Check her out!

We also had lots of marketing fun this week too with Friday bringing a young couple named Danielle and Walker of BarnYard Saints Art. We are now carrying their "Skein Scarves" in the shop! These are super fun and hip hand-dyed and spun fiber jewelry. It was a two fold visit as they also came by to do a videotour of the mill with me. I'll be sure to let you all know when the video is done! A super cool couple, we had a great time talking fiber! Check them out via the link provided.

Finally Saturday brought Shannon Welsh of PNW Fibershed. She came to both the farm and mill to film a video for their "Producer Stories" series. PNW Fibershed was founded as an affiliate of Fibershed and seeks to support and develop regionally grown natural fibers. I had a great time with Shannon and she even left the shop with some of my handspun from my first boy Tweedle! I'll of course let you know when this video is out as well. 

Hope your week starts out wonderful and if you are around tomorrow, Monday September 18th, we are having our monthly fiber group at the mill from 3-6pm. Grab your current crafting project and head our way for some good company and a slice of pecan apple cheescake!

My gears have shifted at the Mill as Ewethful is vending at the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival which is next weekend, September 22nd & 23rd with classes starting on Friday Sept 21st. This is one of my favorite festivals: lots of animals from rabbits to sheep, goats and llamas, amazing classes of fiber crafts I've never even heard of, tons of wonderful vendors, good food and all in a spot that feels agriculture based with lots of character and good vibes. And if the weather is good all the fiber-ists sit outside in circles enjoying the festival and good company. Follow the link to find out more about OFFF. http://flockandfiberfestival.com/

Now back to preparations! This is Ewethful's first year vending at this event - I've gone to classes in past years - and we have a double booth which means I need to have a lot of fiber and other good products to fill the space. I've been slowly building the stash for this, but the next week will be the final push. I'll be breaking a lot of wool top to make some beautiful colorful batts and roving in addition to lots of breed specific naturals and even some washed fleeces. Pictured above is what happens when it gets real in the mill. Fiber of all sorts and yes, even a bra has been tossed - on my behalf it was a warm day and sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. Hahaha!

Hope to see you all there! I'll be outside and always enjoy the company! If you can't make it, lots of our product is up in our website shop in limited amounts. Follow the link below to shop our site.
https://ewethfulfiberfarm.com/collections/products

It was a big way to start the week today! I had three goals for the day at the mill:

1. Wash some alpaca fiber.
2. Get some qiviut ready for dehairing tomorrow.
3. Ply, steam and skein the 1000 yards of BFL singles I had spun up. 
Oh, and not stay at work into the wee hours of the night! I still had to cook dinner and do some housework afterall.

1 and 2 were easy enough. 3 was where the learning curve begins. Plying is a piece of cake (or so I thought). I did manage to get 4 skeins of BFL plyed up. The steamer took some time to learn. It is set up so that the yarn is pulled thru it and wound onto cones. I watched numerous videos on how to load the steamer up and get the first cone started. In the end, I did get the first cone started, but the steamer was puddling water instead of steaming yarn, so I went to plan B. Skein straight from the bobbins, wash/soak, spin them out and let them dry - old school style. The skeinerwinder machine was easy enough to figure out, although my skeins were VERY tightly wound on it. As most of us know, that much tension on yarn is never a good thing. A combination of that and what appears to be a bit of overplying - my first BFL yarn is a little kinky. And instead of a 2-ply fingering we are at a 2-ply sport. But still, an amazing day of accomplishments and learning. It can't be perfect at first try right?! I did also manage to skein and wash up some Shetland yarn I completed last week and it faired much better. 
Mitch has taught me to focus on the positives and learn from the negatives. So tomorrow will be another day. A little less tpi (twist per inch) on the yarn and playing with the skeinwinder to see if I can get it to slow down a bit. I'll leave fixing the steamer to my dear husband! What would I do without him???

Time to put the animals to bed and hit it myself. As of late I go to bed thinking about yarn and wake up ready to make more...

P.S. no housework got done. Whoops!