Book Signing and Trunk Show with Kristen TenDyke

We got to know Kristen TenDyke last fall when she participated in our fall Yarn and Yoga Retreat. (By the way, our Winter Retreat is this coming weekend, February 1-3, Friday thru Sunday.  We have a couple of openings still so contact us asap if you would like to join us.)  FMI go to www.awrinkleinthymefarm.com

We learned that Kristen, who lives in Rumford, Maine is a designer of knitting patterns and her book "Finish Free Knits" was about to be published by Interweave Press.  We realized how her mind is able to see the math in just about anything you are knitting, and her gentle approach to helping others with their knitting is awesome.  She knitted some of the sweaters herself, and others she designed in the computer to be knitted by comissioned knitters.

This afternoon Kristen will be here at the Tesseract from 1-4 with a trunk full of the sweaters included in her book so you can touch and feel, and even try on the ones you like the best.  She will have books on hand (available for $20/each-cash/check), and her pen ready to sign one for you.

We have sweater lots available including natural ivory and colored wool.
Hope you can join us.

Who Said Farmers are less busy in the winter?

All is well with the sheep.  The lambs are nestled into their own space in the pole barn. Our old girls have a separate space from the larger group that we hope will have lambs come March and April.  The snow is beautiful, though rain and ice in the dooryard was not so welcome yesterday.  Spent the past two days dyeing yarn and working in the Tesseract with Meredith, who turned out 4 beautiful batts to spin, Cheryl who is an expert with color selection, and Denise, who has adopted Anita and comes twice a month to help with whatever needs to be done.

This Sunday is Simple Shrug Sunday, that promises that 15 people will go home with a good start on a shrug using farm yarn from the store, hence a reason to round out the yarn color wheel in the store.

 It all began when a year ago at our Yarn and Yoga retreat I was wearing one of mine (I have made 3), done in purple bulky wool and lavendar and purple angora.  It was a chilly weekend, but with the wood stove going I slipped it off and set it down on a chair.  Someone picked it up, and said, may I try this on?  It looked great on her slender body. She wore it for a while when another asked to give it a try.  It looked wonderful on her robust body...and so it traveled from person to person until I decided to write up the pattern. Soon enough people were wanting the pattern, so I wrote it up.  It is really pretty organic....use a variety of yarn including very some bulky wool, soft angora blend, alpaca, or mohair, big needles, knits up quickly....

Here is a display of farm yarn that was already here...noticed not much purple, very little blue, and no greens.


 








A nice collection of seafoam, turquoise, and blue spruce...

Into the dye pot a variety of 100% wool both white and gray to create more choices.





Tomorrow we will see what diversity we can create when 15 women gather to each create their own.

Specialty yarns like mohair blend, boucle, 100% alpaca, and some blues and greens to dye for....

Common Ground Fair 2012

We want to say thank you to the many people who came to our booth in the Fiber Farm Tent.  We had a very successful weekend including a first place ribbon in the Exposition Building for the framed needle felted art called “Waiting”,  a lighthouse scene.  We appreciate all the positive comments about the needle felted art we displayed.

Draft Horse

As always there seemed to be a constant stream of people eager to try it out at the demonstration table. It is so fun to be approached by new customers who are amazed when they try needle felting for the first time.  Comments often start with I could never do that and immediately change to “This is so easy. ...and Is that really all you have to do?”  

It was such a pleasure to have many happy repeat customers who enjoyed the Thyme Tile Needle Felting Kits they bought last year and came back to choose another project to do.  It is encouraging to hear comments like, “These kits really work”, “I tried a kit last year and once I got started I just kept going”, and   “ I really love your colors”.     We actually sold out of several designs including “Meg”, and the new “Draft Horse”. 

Mary Ann enjoyed spinning a little, watching the draft horse show that took place near our booth, and got information about horse logging and trail building. 

Our natural dyed yarns also attracted comments.   This year we had an exceptionally full display of worsted weight yarns dyed with black eyed susans, queen anne’s lace, jewel weed, madder root, and indigo. Each skein that was dyed with plants was identified with a picture of our sheep by the dye garden in front of our farm store, the Tesseract.

 

Marty is looking forward to Fryeburg Fair October 5, 6, and 7th where she will be dyeing on the porch of the Fiber Building with woad, coriopsis, marigolds, amarynth and more.

We appreciate the way our fiber community pitches in to help with assembling and packaging kits, dyeing, carding, skeining yarn as well as helping at our fiber events.  A special thank you goes to Cheryl, whose Felted Slippers are a hit and assistance with dyeing days is invaluable.  Thanks to Leslie, whose Colorful Baby Sweater Kits sold out (we will make more soon), and Meredith, who  makes beautiful carded batts in awesome color combinations. 

 We still have a few Fiber CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Shares available and welcome you to join our Fiber Community. Our fiber CSA's offer you participation in our fiber community in a variety of ways including, but not limited to, your choice of the fiber from our sheep.

 We look forward to having visitors that we met at the fair and their families and friends come to the farm to see our animals, take a class, or enjoy an afternoon of knitting on any Tuesday at 1pm.  For more information about Classes and the Fiber CSA please go to: www.awrinkleinthymefarm.com.