I’ve been hard at work with Morgan’s Fine Yarns. I’ve been dying up tons of new yarn for the Vancouver Island Fibre Festival, updating the etsy shop and working on a new website. And today is the day I can finally reveal it to you! I’ll blogging on both sites from now on, so please don’t forget to subscribe!
Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed to our indiegogo campaign so far…we are 85% funded! If you are still thinking of getting yourself some chickens, cheese or yarn now is the time. The campaign wraps up this Friday, February 15. You can find all of the info here.
For our final push to reach our goal of $4000 we have added one final perk – the turkducken special. For a $150 contribution you will receive one each of an organic, pasture raised duck, turkey and chicken in October 2013 – just in time for Thanksgiving. Turkducken assembly not included.
Cory, Kirsten and all of our happy goats and chickens thank you so much for your help. We are looking forward to installing our new milking parlor and can’t wait to show you videos of it in action!
First off, a huge thank you all of my lovely blog readers who have supported The Happy Goat’s indiegogo campaign. We are so close to reaching our goal and we could not have made it this far without you. THANK YOU! If you are still thinking of contributing and nabbing some chicken, cheese or yarn for yourself there are 20 days to go in the campaign.
I’ve been wearing my agnes sweater pretty much non-stop since I finished it. It’s just the thing to keep me warm in the chilly farmhouse. And during my upcoming voyage to Prince George in the northern part of our province. Anyone have any snowshoeing tips?
I consider it a house sweater more than anything. I don’t think it’s the most flattering garment, due to it being made out of bulky yarn. My first confirmation of this was when Cory was taking the photos of me and he suggested I suck in my stomach. I already was.
The beret is Hannah Fettig’s early morning beret, made out of leftover primo worsted from the baby blanket I made over the summer.
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you probably know that I live on a farm with my husband Farmer Cory. Together (and by together I mean pretty much Cory) we run a small goat dairy and raise the most delicious pasture-raised chickens. This year we have a lot planned, including expanding our milking parlour so that Cory can milk twice as many goats in half the amount of time…all with a view towards becoming a full fledged dairy processing facility making the most delicious goat’s milk cheese you will have ever tasted. As you can imagine this requires quite the investment on our end, and we could really use a bit of help.
Have you heard of indiegogo? We have started a campaign there to raise the funds needed to get things up and running. It was very difficult for us to take this step in asking for help, but we’ve done it in a way that we think everyone wins. We have some great perks for those of you who might want to contribute. Chicken and cheese for those of you local to us, and yarn for my knitting friends all over the world.
You can find details of the campaign here. The campaign ends on February 15, 2013. If you have any questions, you know where to find me.
My 2012 knitting resolution was to knit more sweaters than I did in 2011. That year I made two. Last year, I managed to knit seven, two being made entirely in the last three weeks of the year. Here is a quick look at the first five (I bet you will feel an urge to start singing Karma Chameleon once you see all that red, gold and green):
Clockwise from top left: featherweight cardigan, soay, selvedge cardigan, francis, middlefield pullover.
I joined the Plucky Classics club last year so that I would always have sweater quantities of yarn around. In September I received a 6 skeins of sport weight yarn in a gorgeous earthy orange color. I held on to it for a while, not sure what it would be. Then Knit With Me came out and I saw the empire cardigan.
It was perfect. I knit it like a mad woman, determined to finish it by December 31. Thanks to a snowy Christmas which gave me extra knitting time I was able to finish it by Boxing Day. The pattern is only available as part of the book right now, you can order it from the Quince and Co website here. You will get a pdf copy immediately and a gorgeous hardcopy book to follow in the mail.
I’ll share sweater number seven as soon as it’s dry…which should be about five days from now based on the temperature in the farm house.
There have been a lot of really great, independently published pattern collections lately. I’m currently knitting from Knit With Me by Gudrun Johnston, but before I share my projects from her collection I wanted so show you these. A long overdue look at my projects from Jane Richmond’s ISLAND.
I started with the rathtrevor mitts. I knit them in two days. I had the perfect yarn in my stash – tosh dk in glazed pecan. And I wear them a lot.
Next I worked on arbutus - a really curious tiered cowl. I used a special skein of hand dyed yarn from phydeaux that I had been saving for something special. I like this a lot, and I think it would look equally as fabulous in a semi-solid yarn.
Finally, I moved on to renfrew. A toque knit inside out to minimize purling. For this I chose my own yarn, Montgomery Singles Worsted. There are seven different colors available in the shop if you might want to make one yourself. This exact shade isn’t available, unfortunately. It was a bit of a one off.
I’ve gotten good use of this book in the short time that I have had it, knitting three out of its five patterns. In fact, I think that is the most I have knit out of any one collection. It is entirely possible that I will also knit the scarf and cardigan patterns too! Thanks Jane for a lovely collection!
We’re snowed in. It’s not that bad. We have a chicken to roast, lots of cats, Bailey’s in our coffee and a sweater nearly complete.
Hope you are having as happy a Christmas as we are, even if it isn’t exactly how you planned.
Head on over to morgansfineyarns.etsy.com to check out the yarn. We currently have two bases available. Glamorgan – a dk weight blend of merino, silk and alpaca and Brecknock Sock – a merino/nylon blend. Our single ply merino yarns will be added shortly. Enjoy!
I’ve been keeping something from you. I’ve started sewing again. With a vengeance. Sewing was my first love as far as crafts go, but we have been on a break for about 10 years. It all started again with the sorbetto top and a new janome and since then there has been no looking back. I promise I will share some of my projects with you soon, but for now I wanted to show you what I think could be my new favorite website…kollabora.
I really like that the site encompasses different crafts. Like ravelry, you can post your projects, see what others have made and ask for help or feedback. As the time I spent sewing increased, I was really longing for an online sewing community to join. I want to be able to learn about new patterns, see them sewn up and find out if people had any common challenges. Yes, I know there is craftsy, but it’s just not for me. I’ve tried to use it and like it, but I just can’t force it. My first impression of kollabora is that it is eye-catching and intuitive. I’ll let you know how it goes.
But then again, maybe I’m the last to know about this site. Have you used kollabora? What has your experience been? I’d love to know!
Thank you to everyone who visited our table yesterday! We had a great day yesterday at the Cowichan Fleece and Fibre Fair and received lots of great feedback on our yarn.
We got there extra early to make sure our table was just perfect.
Our neon yarns were definitely the favorite of the day. We took an informal tally and noted that the majority of people reached for them first.
Farmer Cory was an excellent helper…he managed to tough out the whole day. In fact, I think he was the only man working at any of the booths. Don’t worry, I took him out for a glass of wine at our favorite wine bar when all was said and done. He deserved it!
We are working hard to get the online store up and running…stay tuned!
