Lateral Swing Sweater

It's finally done! This sweater has been my nemesis for the past 2 years! Not because it's a hard pattern, but because when I wrote the pattern I figured my gauge out wrong. This was devastating to me since the original sweater I had made for my mother for Christmas ended up being 3 sizes to big for her. I then preceded to knit up another size with the same pattern I had wrote for the first. Due to my (still unknown) gauge discrepancy, it did not turn our right, very small in fact. I then understood to my horror that I had the wrong gauge. This is the 3rd time I have made this sweater and it now works, but one st per inch was all it was between gauges to make or break a sweater pattern I found out.

We do have this lovely pattern at the shop and on Ravelry now for sale! Take a look! Its an easy and fun sweater to make, and it drapes beautifully!

New LOCAL merino yarn

We have finally received our shipment from Zeilinger Fiber Mill in Frankenmuth, MI of our very own merino sheep! We had it blended with 25% nylon in hopes of creating our own sock yarn. Unfortunately it is a bit thick for socks... worsted weight... But will make glorious strong slippers or a sweater! It is nicely spun and I have high hopes of it not pilling very much. I will give you an update on that once I have it knitted up! We have dyed it into many beautiful colors and also have a bunch of the natural cream! the put up is 3.5 oz skeins that are approx. 200 yards.

Living window display

Felted Pottery!

Hollow wet felted pottery! The Tuesday and Friday knitting groups were intrigued by this idea and looked to me to come up with a class. I was excited by a challenge and found a ball went right home to try my hand yet again at wet felting by hand. After about 10 minutes (probably not long enough) of soapy water and wet wool that was starting to felt but still not looking like much, I was getting bored and irritated by how messy it seemed so I tied it into a lingerie bag and threw it in with the next (small) load of laundry. It worked great! I let it go through the whole cycle and when i took it out I cut the top off, popped the ball out and this is what was left! Tonight I plan on trying it again to improve my technique and make it thicker and larger... 4-square ball here I come!

Dyes are in!

We have received our shipment of Greener Shades acid dyes! They are metal free and have wonderful vibrant colors and countless color combination's and variations! We hope to be able to start some dyeing classes in the spring/summer months in our new (still in progress) dyeing studio at Ewetopia Farm in La Farge. http://greenershades.stillrivermill.com/