Turns out, the listing I chose is located in just west of where I live, and it's not just a shop, it's a sheep farm with a little boutique called Otter Lake Farm.
I texted a knitty-type friend, and we decided to make a day of it, grabbed some lunch and headed to the farm to check it out!
This is a small family-owned working sheep farm, and upon arrival we were greeted by a couple of the 'employees' who are in charge of security.
They were very good at their job!
Once inside the boutique, our enthusiastic hostess and farm owner, Kate gave us the quick tour of the little shop. Home-spun yarns from the farm's sheep, eggs from the free-roaming chickens, home-made soaps and lotions, and the Skacel needles that started it all! I picked up my order and added to it, of course!
The sheep - about 40 of them - were busy doing sheep things, specifically growing wool, eating grass, and taking naps on a summer day.
Likewise, the free range chickens were pretty much everywhere. They didn't mind submitting to a few photo opportunities.
It was such a pleasure to meet Kate and learn about her business and her dedication to her farm and the products she produces from her sheep to support sustainability one little farm at a time.
If you're a knitter and haven't tried the new Rocket-Squared needles, I highly recommend them. They are designed for comfort and they feel kinda funky (in a good way) in your hands. Supposed to be good if you've got carpal tunnel, too.
And I know where you find find just about every size in stock! *Wink!* (not an affiliate, just a fan)
In Other News
As for what's happening on my sewing table this week . . . I had a small bundle of pastel-colored batik scraps from some long-forgotten past project on that same notorious storage shelf we've discussed before. Since the pieces I had weren't quite fat quarters, worthy of their own storage space, I chopped them up into 1-1/2x3-1/2" mini-strips, and stitched four pastel mini-strips together side-by-side. Then added a darker 1-1/2x4-1/2" mini-strip to an end to make a4" finished size block (shown below).
I've already cut up the leftover bundle, then I broke into batik stash fabrics to make enough blocks. The result is a sorta-rail-fence block, ultimately to become a twin-sized quilt for Sleep in Heavenly Peace.
For a twin-sized quilt, I'll need almost 300 of these blocks. I'm about 1/3 of the way there with this stack. Oh, I also found some batik pre-cuts that wanted to go into this project.
Why not strip-piece?
As for construction for this ad hoc project, I started out making 1-1/2" strips from the pastels (the leftover bundle-bits that originally inspired this project) and strip pieced them, then cross-cut the strip sets. Then, after measuring and re-pressing the cross-cut pieces for the umpteenth time, I was reminded how much I dislike strip piecing. It takes way too much effort to get the seams pressed accurately for the entire length of the strips - at least for me. I find it's easier and faster and more accurate to cut the strips first, then sew them into the blocks. Crazy, right?
Am I the only one who gets the heebie-jeebies with strip piecing?
Happy Stitching!
Head Hummingbird
Hummingbird-Highway.com
Leave a Reply