Shawls, beautiful shawls

About a year ago, while at the New Hampshire Spinners and Dyers Association meeting, Linda came up with the idea that we all make the same shawl, and wear it this year to their Fashion Show in the Spring.  Sue and Linda came up with a pattern and distributed it to those interested. Turned out that six of the spinners from Sugar River Spinners accepted the challenge: each one made the shawl from their own homespun yarn, some from fleece from their own sheep.  Then they knitted it.  The variations in the shawls are most interesting, just derived from different spinning techniques and thicknesses, different fibers, and different needle sizes.

And as these things go, other things came up and they didn’t get to the fashion show after all, so it’s a good thing they modelled them at the meeting at Candy’s house in March.

Spring is coming!

One of the tasks of late winter is finishing up projects.  That means finding all those bags with yarn, needles, half finished garments and often patterns as well…some are under the bed.  Some are at the store, under counters and tables.  In any case, all of us have several of these projects just waiting to be finished, in preparation for the Spring season of shows, where we need stuff to sell, and just to clear space in our homes, and maybe even have something new to wear, come April when the snow starts to melt.

AND, there’s all that new yarn that comes into the store in those luscious spring colors, that we have to resist buying until we make room in our homes for it, by finishing up a lot of those projects that are underway.

Last week, Sue went through some of her projects and started bringing them into the store to work on between customers. Betty’s been working on sweaters started and not finished: two sweaters and one poncho down, two sweaters and 3 shawls to go, not to mention socks, socks, socks.  Cindy’s bagged up her projects and vowed to finish one a month. In between she will make new stuff.  The list goes on…

This is as close to Spring Cleaning as many of us ever get!

As promised…

Here is a photo of the yarn of the month, which is called Atacama, is made by Arauconia, is 100% alpaca, comes in 50 gram balls, 110 yds, recommended size 7 needed, in 11 color ways. 20% off of usual price of $8, means it’s on sale for $6.40 a skein. In the photo there is a small hat made from one of the colorways. Sue will mail this to you, if you are prepared to pay for postage.

The Adventure continues…

Yesterday, I got to Hodge Podge early, and a few minutes later Rooterman showed up. (The local rotorooter).  It seems the tree in front of the store every couple of years, blocks the sewer pipe by sending roots into it, and these guys are supposed to fix the thing once and for all, through inserting a “bladder” into the pipe and that will seal it from tree roots. (Why do I doubt this?)  Anyway, they showed up on a Tuesday morning.  Sue was not happy.  “They can’t turn the water off today!  Not when there’s a group expected!”  Brian came in (who happens to be Shari’s grandson), and said, “Wait, wait, we’re not turning the water off today; we have Tracey and Paul with us and we need to take them down there to snake out the sewer pipe. (Tracey and Paul are DJ’s on the local country station, and are running a “take this job and LOVE it” campaign.  They are going to local jobs, on request, and trying them. The object is to get them to say they don’t want to do the job, and then you win prizes.  So, in the cellar of the store, we could hear laughter and “ew’s!” It seems they were trying out a plumber type job.  I went down and caught this photo of Tracey snaking out the sewer pipe.  “Ew, it’s wet..”says she.  Duh!  It’s a sewer pipe. To make it more amusing, Brian phoned up from the basement and had us flush the toilet, resulting in a flood of water coming out the pipe.  There’s always SOMETHING interesting going on at the store!

Here’s a photo of Tracey and her “snake”:

Apparently, they are coming back (rooterman, not Tracey and Paul) late this afternoon to do the real work.  So, if you are going to the store after 3, there will be no running water, i.e., no bathroom.  Forewarned is forearmed!

By the way, on my way in I noticed that Sue has started her new program of “yarn of the month”. There was a rack full of some kind of lovely variegated, handpainted, sort of, yarn, I think it was an araucania product, and don’t know if it was llama or alpaca: looked like alpaca, but since I’m allergic to alpaca and llama, I didn’t spend much time at it.  It was 20% off. Since I’m going back to the store this morning for an hour or two, I’ll check on this and let you know.  That’s a nice discount.  Check for updates later today or tomorrow a.m.

Always an adventure!

You never know who you’ll run into at Hodge Podge! Last week it was Winter Carnival in Newport. There was a parade…and after the parade, Shari brought her friend, Neah, into the store to meet people.

Soon it will be lambing season.  Quite often there will be a little lamb or two running around or spending time in a playpen in the back office.  Frequently, there are dogs.  Henry, the store dog, is there most days.  We promise you, if you come in, we will not shove ANY of these animals in your face, but you are welcome to greet them, if you want to…

A Slow day!

Yesterday, at Hodge Podge it was a slow day…which was nice for a change. For the past couple of weeks, it’s been insanely busy with very little time to sit and knit. So, yesterday, I got to wander around and see what appealed to me. Here’s what I found: some wonderful Araucania sock yarn, 75% wool, 25% polymide, in lovely colors:

The same colors come in worsted weight and chunky (or is it bulky? Hmm… one up from worsted, not the big fat stuff!). The question is, which to buy…especially after promising myself no more yarn ’til I finish the stuff I have sitting in piles around the house: two sweaters, two shawls, two pairs of socks, and lots of yarn in bags!

Sue has been playing around with these little bunnies, the pattern for which she found in a recent issue of Creative Knitting. They are stuffed with wool:

I wandered around the book section, always amazed at the sheer number of books Sue has in the store: here’s about l/2 of them:

Well, that’s the end of today’s “virtual tour”.  Have a good weekend. Stop in if you’re anywhere near Newport, N.H.

Back again…

I’ll bet you thought we disappeared, or the store closed down, or something…well, it didn’t and we didn’t. However, it’s been a crazy Fall and early Winter, and Betty, who usually did the blogging, fell down a flight of stairs and broke a bunch of bones and spent the last three months healing. So, here I am, back again, with my New Year’s Resolution to keep up on this blog and let you know what’s up at the store.

We’ve all been busily spinning and knitting. There’s been a bunch of people in the store, visiting and working in the back corner where the couch and chairs are, set up for people to come in, kick back, and knit. Here’s Shari and Phyllis: Shari is working on a scarf using some of her alpaca fleece, I believe, mixed with something else…silk? Not sure. Forgot to ask her. And Phyllis is making a triangular shawl using up all her leftover yarn scraps.

Sue has been busily making socks in between other projects. Here she is finishing up the third pair this week.

I stopped spinning my first spindle of homespun yarn since my accident, but forgot to get someone to take my picture, so you’ll just have to imagine it!

Meanwhile, one of Sue’s New Year’s resolutions was to get rid of a lot of old magazines that haven’t sold, to make room for all the new yarn she keeps ordering. (The store is running out of room; we may have to use the second floor!) So, all those old magazines, knitting and crochetting varieties are in a rack by the door, with a sign on them that says: “Free, take me!”

So, when you next visit the store, be prepared to pick up some freebies chock full of patterns and interesting articles.  Hope to see you there soon: in Newport, New Hampshire, turn left just past the Common (as they say in New Hampshire!) on Belknap Avenue: it’s the BIG red barn on the right down one block.

New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival

We know, we know…it’s been a while, and you’ve all but given up hope ever to see another posting on our site. Sorry! Sue and Tom have 56 live lambs, and another 40 sheep. It’s been a busy spring to be sure. Aside from feeding the few bottle babies, attending births, feeding animals, improving fencing after that fox got in, (didn’t get anything, but still…), we have been revving up for the New Hampshire Festival. That means Betty’s been weighing fleeces and labelling them, Sue’s been washing and dyeing fleece and rovings, and Betty I’s been up to her old tricks of watching tv at night while creating (as the spirit moves her) the most remarkable Irish fisherman’s knit sorts of sweaters out of her own sport weight romney/border leicester fleeces.

We set up Friday night, and were ready to go at nine a.m. Saturday morning, when the crowds arrived. It was not a raw fleece festival…usually we almost sell out of raw fleece. It was a rovings festival. We sold a LOT of rovings. And a few other things. It was great to catch up with Marianne and Josie and lots of other folks we see generally only at festivals. We all brought fleeces to send to Zeilingers (the big romney/border leicester/corrie type fleeces) and we brought some jacobs to Pogo at Friend’s Folly Farm in Maine. (She was at the festival: we didn’t drive to Maine!) Pogo and friends have recently been to Scotland and told us about the great time they had. We bring jacob fleeces to her because somehow she manages to streak the black and white fibers so that they aren’t all homogenized into grey. She also does a great job on the icelandics and shetlands, AND makes small batches of yarn, something a lot of the other mills won’t do.

Okay, today, we unpack all the ’stuff’ and put it in all in the places it goes until Memorial Day weekend, when we pack up Betty’s truck and Sue’s van, and head down to Cummington, Mass. for the Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair. There, we’ll see other friends and fellow vendors we don’t see between shows. That’s part of the fun of these shows: the relationships forged over the years, the sense of cameraderie, the laughs…Betty remembers, years ago, a woman who doesn’t “vend” at Cummington anymore, had animal crackers and her little dog with her. She ate all the animals crackers except the cats, which she walked along the edge of the table, saying, “Meow, meow, meow” and then threw the cat-cracker to her dog, who heard the signal and stood at attention, waiting for the treat. A bizarre memory, perhaps, but now Betty buys animal crackers and does the same thing for Margaret: she gets all the cat crackers in the bag…saves a few calories, anyway, huh?

That photo above, by the way, is our booth at the festival. Do you see that sign for Hodge Podge? It is a sweater made for the boyfriend of one of our Sugar River Spinners’ daughters. It was made and felted, but obviously, was made way too big! So, Sue and Deb M. made it into a sign, by needle felting the “Hodge Podge” on it, and adding felted slippers and a sheep. It was quite an attention getter. We are thinking that after the show season, we might have to send it to Harry Potter for Hagrid!

One of the neat things at the festival was a group of three felted hats, one worn by the vendor, and two others. Out looking around, Sue convinced Betty (doesn’t take much) to buy one of them. Deb C. saw it and bought the other. They are quite unique: we can’t decide if they look like they are minions of Genghis Khan(would be more effective if we had swords and horses), Tibetan sherpas, or teletubbies…or maybe a Dr. Seuss character…no doubt, the pair of them are both characters! Who else would wear a hat like  this?

Okay, time to get to the store, open it up for business, and put away the truck and van full of fiber, fleeces, tables, knitted goods, and yarn, so that when you come in to visit the store, there’s stuff on the shelves!

Remember Daisy and Duke?

Well, they are growing like weeds! Mama still doesn’t seem to have enough millk to satisfy them, so they are being supplemented twice a day with bottles…and as you can see (her mouth open because she’s “baaing” for milk!), Daisy is thriving.

Shearing day at Victorian Acres!

Victorian Acres is Sue and Tom’s farm, located about a mile from Hodge Podge Yarns and Fibers.  Yesterday David Hinman came to shear a lot of their sheep.  They have already started lambing, so there were little “baas” interspersed with more of the foghorn variety.  A lot of the fibers in Hodge Podge come from various commercial yarn companies, but a lot also come from the sheep of local shepherds, include Sue’s and Tom’s sheep.  Yesterday, several icelandic sheep were shorn, mostly to get them cleaned up for lambing and get the winter, hay contaminated fleece off them.  A lot of those fleeces were too short to keep, but now, as the sheep get ready to go out on pasture, where they are not likely to get so much veggie matter into their fleeces, they will go out with new clean haircuts, and be shorn in late fall.  Several shetlands were also shorn, along with some lovely border leicesters, a couple of black welsh mountain crosses, and jacobs.  Those fleeces were then taken to the skirting table where Shari, Betty, and Sue took off the poopy bits, pulled out the heavily contaminated bits and any cotted (felted) bits, and rolled the fleeces up, put them in bags, and separated the bags into those going to the store and eventually, the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival for sale, and those going to the processor to be made into rovings.  It was a pleasant day and no one had lambs while we were all gathered…but that morning, two ewes had given them two sets of twins.  Later in the morning, Jerry and Cindy showed up.  They have a farm in nearby Sutton, raise sheep as well, and are considering moving south and farming full time.  They’ve been busily reading Joel Salatin’s “You Can Farm,” a good choice for those considering farming.  Very readable, practical, and full of helpful hints and ideas for making farming work and be profitable.

Here’s a photo of David surprised, while shearing, with Tom looking on, ready to sweep the plywood clean after each sheep is shorn.