Surrounded by Soap and Squam Love

Posted on September 22, 2015 by shoelaceswitcher

The Squam Art Fair was lots of fun last weekend, although it went by way too quickly! Look how cute our sheep soaps were in their display:

Surrounded by Soap and Squam Love | Woolen Diversions

The sweetest, soapiest flock.

I wasn’t totally sure it would make financial sense for Sweet Sheep to go to Squam since it was a short show that involved a 6 hour round-trip drive, a pricey vendor fee, and paying for accommodations. But the Fiasco and I figured ‘what the hell!’ and we made a little weekend of it. Right after we set up our booth, a very nice woman came up to us and said something along the lines of “I’m not sure where you came from but it was probably a long trip. Take a moment, go down by the lake, catch your breath, find your center” and my immediate thought was OMG CAN I PLEASE LIVE HERE FOREVER?

Sereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeene.

That moment by the lake was lovely, and I wish I had more of it. Things were pretty lovely inside the vending space, as well. Funnily enough, there were not one but two other vendors there from Rhode Island, both members of the Rhode Island Spinners Guild: Katy, who makes great buttons, gauges, and other knitterly accessories for Katrinkles, and Allison, who owns Shetland sheep and sells fiber and knitting kits for Frogmore Farm.

Katrinkles!

Frogmore Farm!

Doing my thang.

All the vendors present were selling unique and beautiful things. There were some great upcycled fabric items, fun twisted pottery, beautiful photography, and incredibly gorgeous bags by Lisa of Red Staggerwing (I couldn’t resist taking home a wristlet).

Creative spaces.

But the best part of the weekend, for me, was getting our tired-and-achey selves up the side of a small mountain for a gorgeous view across the Squam lake region.

That view!

Side-eye, why?

Windy smiles!

I wish there had been ever-so-much-more of that, but alas, we had to return home. Now I am up to my elbows in work deadlines (oh joy) as well as soap deadlines, as I’m in the midst of filling a few large orders. I am looking forward to someday being able to sleep again. Maybe this weekend?

Finally, I’m happy to announce that if you live near Santa Clarita, CA you can shop for Sweet Sheep Body Shoppe products IN PERSON at Creative Ewe yarn shop! Christian, the new owner of the shop, is super enthusiastic and was wonderful to work with, I’m willing to bet that great things are in store for the shop! If you’re ever in the area, be sure to check it out.

Five Things Friday

Posted on September 11, 2015 by shoelaceswitcher

I am determined not to let another week go by with just a single, lonely blog post. However, I have not had time to take many photos this week; thus, today will be a list of random things with photos ganked from my Instagram.

1 – I have reached the waist decreases on my Rhinebeck sweater, and I have no idea what to do about them! I am modifying the pattern because I wanted more room in the hips but less room in the bust, so I thought decreasing about 3 inches for the waist and then increasing back out one inch for the bust might work for my measurements… BUT the fabric is an all-over ribbing/cable texture, so I am having trouble figuring out decrease placement that will allow for increasing back to a smaller stitch count than I began with, but still keep the pattern intact. WHY MUST I GET FANCY WITH THESE THINGS, HMMM?

ALL THE LIP BALMZ.

2 – My house has been an absolute mess for the last week or so as I’ve been nonstop making lotion bars and lip balms for a wholesale order and the fast-approaching Squam Art Fair. (September 19th in New Hampshire, will I see you?!) The Fiasco and I will be stickering and shrink-wrapping 150 lip balms tonight while watching The Cider House Rules on Netflix. Is that an exciting Friday night, or what?

3 – I have a very full head of fairly fine texture, wavy-curly hair that can be quite difficult to manage. I’ve been using Deva Curl products for a while now because their more natural, moisturizing, sulfate-free ingredients are supposed to be much better for curly hair and I really do like the shampoo and conditioner. Their styling products are nice, too, but I find they make my hair too ‘gunky’ the next day, and I only shampoo every other day so that’s not ideal. Anyway, they have a training program for stylists that teaches them to cut curly hair while dry so it flatters curly hair’s natural texture. I found one such stylist at a fancy city salon in Providence and I’m going to get a haircut tomorrow. I’ve been so bored with my hair and just generally unhappy with recent haircuts, so this is quite exciting for me. (It’s my blog, and I can naval-gaze if I want to!) Have any curly-headed ladies had luck with such haircuts?

HELP! FROZEN! AH!

4 – This morning, my Kindle screen tragically and strangely froze… just in the bottom left hand quadrant of screen. WHAT THE HECK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO ABOUT THIS? HOW WILL I LIVE?!?!?! I am quite distressed. How am I supposed to get my John Irving on with a screen like that?! What is happening? What should I do????

5 – This Sunday, my spinner’s guild is hosting a sock-yarn-spinning class taught by Amy King of Spunky Eclectic, who also teaches a Foundations of Spinning class on Craftsy and will be teaching lots of spinning-related classes at Rhinebeck. I am beyond excited about this. I haven’t had a proper spinning session since Tour de Fleece in July, and it’s high time I get back into it. I will be sure to report back with details on the class.

That’s all I have for you this Friday. Happy weekend, everyone!

Spinning & Spring Cleaning

Posted on April 13, 2015 by shoelaceswitcher

I hope those of you in the northeast were able to get outside and enjoy the first really nice weekend we’ve had in far too long! The weather was gorgeous: 60-ish degrees and sunny. On Sunday, the Fiasco and I went for our first little hike of the season. It was really just a stroll through old farmlands that have been converted to a wildlife refuge, but it was fun to get out and stretch our legs, see some shorebirds (ospreys! herons!), and watch fat tadpoles wriggling in the pond. (My apologies for the lack of photos, I took many but have not yet had a chance to upload them.)

#MegaSAL spinning!

I also had lots of time for spinning this weekend, which felt like a luxury. Saturday was the monthly meeting of the Rhode Island Spinner’s Guild and it was great to catch up with friends and twirl away on my Discworld-themed #MegaSAL spinning. The season of sheep and wool festivals is upon us and I am eagerly anticipating more group spinning in the near future. For those of you in the area, this weekend is the Great Rhody Yarn Crawl which culminates in a great little vendor marketplace on Sunday at Mt. Hope Farm in Bristol, RI. Grab a passport, get it stamped at some yarn stores, and enter raffles full of yummy prizes. The RISG spinners will be there hanging out, so stop by and say hello. (Unfortunately, the venue was too small for Sweet Sheep to grab vendor space, but I will be selling at the Mt. Hope Farmer’s Market the day before! Come check us out on Saturday 4/18 between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.)

Drinking the kool-aid.

The prettiest sock drawer in all the land.

Never gonna let it go.

In other news, I’ve been sucked in to the #KonMarie cleaning craze. Do I believe that folding my clothes carefully will impart them with an energized ‘sheen’ of love and respect (to paraphrase)? No. However, her system for folding such that each item is visible makes a good bit of a sense and I can honestly say that my sock drawer has never looked prettier. My clothing storage was due for an overhaul anyway since I’ve been focused on weight loss this last year and a half. I’m wary of throwing out all of my larger clothes since obesity is a lifelong disease and while weight can be managed and forced into ‘remission’ of sorts, it often comes back and I’ve been bitten before. However, since I’ve maintained a 60-lb weight loss for over 6 months now, I feel safe in donating some of the largest sizes. (Although I’ve discovered an unnatural affection for t-shirts from my college days. So what if I have a dozen of them, most of them holey and stained and too big? Keeping.) Six hours and three trash bags later, I feel happy with the state of things and look forward to tackling additional categories (books, yarn, papers, miscellany). I was inspired to give this all a try by reading more detailed thoughts on the process on the Nearly There and With Pointed Sticks blogs, you should check out their posts!

Last but not least, I was featured on Sherrill’s blog as a spotlight spinner! If you’re not familiar with her, Sherrill began the popular #spin15in15 hashtag on Instagram in order to encourage us all to spin for 15 minutes a day, and share it with others. She makes beautiful tags for handspun yarns and sends many out as prizes. I’ll be sending her some sample sized lotion bars to give out as prizes, as well, since I just love admiring all the pretty #spin15in15 projects. Follow her on Instagram (@baabonnybelle) and be sure to tag your own spinning posts!

And that was my weekend in a nutshell. How about yours? What kind of spring cleaning routines do you have?