Somehow, getting ready for my second Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival seems like it will be more challenging than the first.
First, I am not currently certain whether I will have yarn or not for the show. With three weeks to go, it would be helpful to know if yarn is happening or not. The issue is that the owner of my mill recently had surgery, and I know from experience that recovery is pretty variable, so we don’t know if he will have time to process my order or not. I am hoping to bring the fleece to sell raw if spinning can’t take place, but it’s all up in the air at present. This is not a complaint or an indictment of anyone- it’s just the way that cookies crumble when you’re dealing with small businesses owned by real people, and I know that.
Second, I am hoping to have sausages back soon from the lambs I dropped off a few weeks ago. The slaughterhouse told me that they had run low on casings, so I await them awaiting their casing order. I will not have sausage for sale at the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival. The logistics of bringing it and the insurance and licensing implications thereof are too much to deal with. If you want some sausage (and you do, based on the deliciousness of the last batch!), contact me now.
Third, with uncertainty about yarn hanging over my head, I’ve been madly processing all of the non-yarn fleece into batts for sale. I now have a cellar full of beautiful natural-colored and hand-dyed batts. I will confess that I am scared because I’m a newbie dyer and I have a persistent nightmare about getting mountains of phone calls about dye washing out of finished knits! Here’s hoping I didn’t mess it all up too badly. Does anyone know of a way to test a dye-job that doesn’t chew up too much of the dyed material?
And Fourth, I learned recently through helpful Facebook crowdsourcing that brochures are hopelessly old-fashioned and that post-cards are the way to go. It’s likely that friends of the farm saved me a fair $100 on printing costs while also updating my tastes. Thanks, friends! I designed what I hope will be a very attractive card with some charming sheep photos on it and a list of available products.
