Tag Archives: everything else

This isn’t really a real blog post.

It’s an excuse.

Or an I.O.U..

Or maybe a cry for help?

I have been a really terrible blogger lately. Seriously. The WORST. There are a few reasons for this:

1. Last September I met the man of my dreams and fell crazy in love. If we are Facebook friends you have spent the last few months being nauseated by  treated to many adorable status updates and pictures of our relationship and I apologize for that   am sure you’ve enjoyed them! I won’t go on and on and on about how amazing this man is, and how indescribably happy he has made me but I will say that it has been really nice to focus my attention and time on my little family for a while.

2. (And this is the main one, so it probably should have been #1) I am working really hard to get the book I am doing for Sixth & Spring finished. The book is scheduled to release this Fall, and it has been a crazy push on everyone’s part to meet the schedule. What I’ve learned so far about making a book is that I had NO IDEA how complicated the process is or how time consuming! There are so many actors in play, so many people who actually know what they are doing, and all of them have been incredibly patient and supportive with me through this process.

The main thing I’ve learned about writing a book is that it is very stressful. (I should say here that I’m not doing too too much “writing” for this book; mostly I’m taking all the pictures, etc.) When I am not actively working on the book, my brain is bouncing around like a crazy pinball machine, worrying about deadlines and the quality of my work. Publishing a book is a lifelong dream of mine and I really don’t want to screw it up!

Lauria and Amy have been a champions during this crazy-rocky-stressful time and have kept the ball rolling here but I promise that I will be taking the reins back from her just as soon things settle down, which should be very soon. We will get back to animal posts and cooking post and “Living-with-Susan-is-like-an-episode-of-I-Love-Lucy” post ASAP. I promise!

For those of you who maybe new around here, a Goose Eating a Pumpkin Day (or GEAP) is Juniper Moon Farm code for a day in which I ask that you treat yourself with kindness, get off your own back, and behave towards yourself as you would towards your best friend.

You can get the back story here, and here and here. There’s even a logo, so it’s OFFICIAL.

I know that a few members of the JMF family are going through some difficult things right now. Financial things. Personal things. Things that make a person wish that some grown-up would come along and take all of this in hand, get the train back on the track and make us some damn cinnamon toast.

The important thing to remember at times like these is that that grown-up is already on the scene. She is inside you and she can handle all of this.

I am giving you some homework. Watch this video. Watch it right now and listen to what this brilliant, young, Taco Bell-obsessed woman has to say. There is wisdom here.

Now go make yourself a cup of tea, a stack of cinnamon toast and practice a little self-love today. It will definitely be the most important thing you do all week.

This article that I read from my New Yorker friend Ruth about Tavern on the Green in Central Park being a sheepfold before it was a famous tourist trap led me down a rabbit hole of all kinds of historic sheep and knitting interests.

Boston Common was once grazing land (in addition to being a public garden, and where hangings and drills and parades took place), allowing sheep and cows to graze until 1830. In November of 1931, Boston Commons hosted a sheep shearing competition, according to a Lewiston Daily Sun story. The winner from Texas sheared a sheep in 4.5 minutes.

The newspaper story mentions a “Wish it with Wool” campaign where people take a pledge to give three people all (or mostly) wool gifts for Christmas that year. It sounds an awful like the “Give Handmade” pledge, doesn’t it? I found an article in the Prescott Evening Courier urging people to support the local Arizona wool market! I wouldn’t think of Arizona as being a great place for wool-growing, since the summer I spent there it was 112 degrees for a week, but when they mentioned Mohair, it started to make a little more sense.

Our Angora Goats (where Mohair comes from) are not well-suited to cold climates, so they might fare better than the sheep in the heat. Apparently, automobiles used Mohair in upholstery!

I love reading about the history of shepherding in the US. Are you reading any good historic articles or books?

I am having a spectacularly bad week, y’all. The hateful, frigid weather has delayed an event that was already stressing me the hell out (the photo shoot for my first book) and I wound pretty tight right now. Next week’s forecast is looking similarly sucktastic!

In between checking the 10 Day Outlook every 20 minutes, I stumbled on this lovely blog post about a golden retriever taking care of a motherless kitten.

You know what? Seeing these pics made me feel warm for the first time in weeks.

Hope you are staying warm where you are.

We haven’t done a TMSGT in ages and ages! What good things are happening in your world? And how are you staying warm during this arctic blast?

I am of two minds when it comes to this cold weather we are having. I have absolutely no tolerance for the cold. In fact, there was a time in the not too distant past in which that I carried a hot water bottle with me wherever I went to avoid my tatas getting cold. (Cold tatas are the worst! Amiright?!?) A recent trip to REI during which I outspent the GDP of some emerging nations on outerwear has ameliorated the need for the need for heated accessories but only just. (Since I know that my fellow cold sufferers will want to know I bought this vest and this coat. Both were on sale, and I’m an REI member, so they weren’t as expensive as they seem. Also, the vest was perhaps the greatest purchase of my life. I have worn it every. single. day. since I bought it. I’m wearing it right now as I type this post. If you see me between now and May, I will have it on. It’s heaven.)

On the other hand,  Susie the Shepherd is thrilled to pieces to have the temperatures dip below freezing for days on end because all that cold will help ameliorate the parasites our flock of sheep and goats have to deal with come spring time. So, you see,  there is a silver lining to all this hateful, wretched weather.

But wait, there’s more! If you live in one of the areas that is experiencing bitter cold temperatures right now, you may be able  harness that cold to make sure your stash of woolens is moth-free going into 2014. You’ll just need a safe, covered area to place a bin of your finest wool garments and or yarn stash, a plastic bin to put it in and a cold-front that keeps mercury below -4 degrees Fahrenheit (that’s -20 degrees Celsius) for one full week. According to Lisa Stockebrand, JMF’s resident textile archivist and moth-proofer, it’s better to put your wool in several smaller bins or bags so that they will cool faster. Once you’ve removed everything you are moth-proofing to nature’s freezer,  ”take everything else out of the closet/shelves/area and clean it. Vacuum the crap out of it – paying special attention to floor baseboards, corners and other cracks where dust accumulates then seal and throw away the vacuum bag.”  That way, any eggs containing moths-in-waiting will be removed before they can hatch and lunch on your yarn and/or sweaters.

Those of you who are lucky enough to live where the temperature doesn’t often get below zero should thank your lucky stars and check out Lisa’s original post for more helpful tips.

We were on JetBlue Flight 57 Boston to Dulles at 6:27am Monday, January 6th. Bleary-eyed, I sat with my knitting, trying to keep calm while we took off. By the time I noticed you, half of our 1 hour 30 minute flight was over, you had headphones in and there was a sleeping man and an aisle between us. You were wearing black, had your ipad out and were knitting on what looked like a shawl made of a blue variegated Kid Silk Haze, using a bamboo circular. I was knitting on metal Quicksilver needles with black Juniper Moon Farm Sabine yarn, wearing a hand-knit sweater and bags under my eyes.

Had the fates not been against us I would have loved to talk knitting, pattern, and yarns. But alas, by the time my seatmate removed himself from his chair, you were long gone, nor did I see you by baggage claim. (Although to be fair, I was focusing on getting my checked bag which contained some of the samples for our upcoming photo shoot, anxious that it wouldn’t come around the carousel. I needn’t have worried; it was the fourth bag out.)

May the knitting gods with be with you, lady in black.

PS – Something is up with the sock club yarn inventory. I’ll need to check it out and see if we’re out of stock or not yet. So if you’ve emailed me in the last few days, I’ll get back to you later today. Yesterday was a doozy of a day!

As you sip champagne at midnight with your friends, family, or sweetie, or just give a little snore from your bed, know that we’re wishing you a bright and joy-filled 2014. We’ve had a lot of exciting, crazy, happy, sad, stressful things happen this year – Buster passed on, new lambs were born, we moved our farm to our temporary headquarters, I started working for the farm full-time, Susan threw out the first pitch in Seattle as well as the trunk show tour to the PNW, shipping 2013 share yarns and The Shepherd and The Shearer with all it’s amazingness and craziness surrounding it, starting our book with Sixth&Spring, Susan and I both getting prolonged sicknesses, introducing new yarns like Moonshine and Tenzing and expanding other yarns like Findley and Herriot.

We can’t wait to see what 2014 will bring for the farm. We have some exciting projects in the works and new yarns that we’ll get to show off in just a few short months.

P.S. If you’ve waited to get a 2014 calendar, ours is still available!

My friends, Lauria and I are both just completely SPENT right now. Dealing with all the craziness that followed The Shepherd & The Shearer and shipping all the blankets and CSA shares has completely dominated the past four months of our lives. Unfortunately, it didn’t negate the need to keep up with all our other work, like designing our next two collections for Spring/Summer 2014 and Fall/Winter 2014-15, planning the photo shoots, answering a never ending stream of emails and blogging everyday.

So, in the interest of saving our collective sanity, we’re taking a little break from the blog until 12/26. Please don’t think this means that we are anything but excited about sharing our daily lives with you all. Nothing could be further from the truth! That’s why we will be leaving Lambcam up and running through the end of the month! Maybe even longer if you tell us that you are watching it and want to keep it. So when the holidays get to be too much for you and you’re feeling over whelmed do what we do– take a minute to watch the flock.

You may be excited to know that we do have a super-limited number of The Shepherd & The Shearer kits available now. Lauria will be happy as a clam to ship one to you after Christmas.

Until then– from myself, Lauria and the entire flock– have a lovely, peaceful holiday!

P.S. We will be emailing Shareholder’s Certificates for any last minute gift buyers.