Beth Smith's Blog, page 7

Free Knitting Books

Yes, Free. I want these to go to a home where people will appreciate them. The only cost to you is the cost of shipping and if I have t buy a box or something to put them in. People in Canada, the shipping might be prohibitive but if you live in the continental US then the cost will probably be very affordable.

Here are the rules, You have to take all of the books in the group. I won’t split them up and I’m not going to show more photos of the insides or anything. Since these are free to you I need to make it as painless for me as possible. These books are in good and/or new condition. One book – the Maggie’s Ireland book is signed to me by Maggie.

Leave a message in the comments to claim a group and send me an email with your address so I can get a shipping cost for you. All shipping fees must be paid by Paypal so I’m going to add a tiny bit on to cover the fees there.

OK?

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Maggie’s Ireland reserved for Amy, Fun and Chunky Knitting pile is pending for Betsy

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Weldon’s reserved for Denise

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Socks, Socks, Sock Pile is Pending for Melanie

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Sock Report reserved for Denise, Knitting on the Road reserved for Kris

Cleaning and Straightening

Currently I have a tiny break from looming deadlines and for the past 4 weeks since I’ve been back from PlyAway (which was a lot of fun) I’ve been getting a whole lot of nothing done. Remember not very long ago when I did that blog post about how I’m having a hard time planning? And then not very long after that I wrote about the book I was reading called Growing Gills? Well, I’m still in the ditch. I have a lot of things I’ve planned to do and a lot of things I should do and some things I think I want to do but ‘m not sure.

One thing that is bothering me is my “work” room. I put that in quotes because I never actually work in there because it’s a room that looks like it could be on the show Hoarders. But really, I need almost all of it. I just haven’t been able to figure out how to put everything in a place that makes sense and is easy to put back so it always is clean for a minute and then if I have to get ready to travel it just devolves into a giant heap again.

So, here are the before photos that are actually from February.

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So, Miriam (do you know Miriam? If not, you should get to know her, or at least her work) told me to get some vacuum bags as a first step and put the fleeces in them. So I started to do that last week but the room was such a mess that I couldn’t even do it. So on Friday I took almost everything that was on the floor and moved it to the dining room. I forgot to take a picture of that nonsense when it was all out there.

Anyway,

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That’s many of them. and I began putting some of the coned yarns in the spots that were freed up.

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And I did take some of the books from the shelves that I haven’t looked at in years. I offered them to my Patrons first but I still have a lot left so I’ll probably see if the Library wants them for their sale. There are at least 40.

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But I have a chair now and a place to roll around.

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I still need to clear the desk off and there’s all that stuff still in the dining room….My goal is to have it all back together by Friday or Saturday.

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After that I can put my computer in there and my journals and actually get some work done at the desk. And maybe I’ll get a fresh legal pad and write down everything that I should do, need to do, want to do and all the stuff that is stuck to my brain.

 

Come and Play with Me at Rhinebeck

We’re about 6 months out from the upcoming Rhinebeck Retreat and there is still space. Have you looked over the description? Do you have any questions?

Let me answer a few of the questions I’ve gotten.

What are the benefits of coming to this retreat?1. Home made meals. Kat will be coming for us and I happen to know that she is an amazing cook. If you have allergies no worries. I’m a no gluten, no grains, no sugar girl and Kat is more than willing to help me with that so don’t worry.
Personalized classes. I have big plans to reach you everything I know about wool: breeds, buying, scouring, processing. In addition we have 3 to 4 evenings of hanging out so there’s plenty of time to ask questions and I’ll be happy to help with anything you’re curious about.
Private rooms. Are you an introvert who needs space at night? Do you run out of words at 8pm? You can go to your sanctuary and rejuvenate.
All inclusive price (except for 2 lunches). We did a lot of math and ciphering and figuring.  4 days with one fill and two half days of classes, meals, lodging (have you seen the hotel prices on that weekend? I know it looks like a big number all in a lump like that but if you add it all up it’s actually a pretty good deal.

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What will we learn?

The full day class will be my favorite way to do a breeds study. We will sample at least 5 breeds and take those samples all the way to fabric using knitting needles, crochet hooks or small handheld looms. Getting all the way to fabric is the best way to know for sure whether or not you love that wool. While we work I’ll also talk about my favorite ways to scour sometimes based on wool category, how I decide which processing and drafting method to use and how I make decisions about what to do.
On Saturday morning I’ll review the things I look for in a fleece such as weakness/breaks, how much is too much VM, will a certain staple length work for my project. Then we will head out after breakfast and spend a few hours in the fleece barn at the Fairgrounds where I’ll help you choose a fleece for a project and answer all of your wool questions.
On Sunday morning we will play with color and learn how to turn the three primary colors into the whole color wheel just by using some simple math and a tiny scale. While we learn about blending I’ll talk about how to use this new knowledge in a larger project and the differences between hand cards and drum carded fiber.

And finally, Can I make payments?

When I was setting up my new website at the same time as I was rolling out this Retreat I couldn’t figure out an easy way to set up payments. I can, however do it using Paypal. So, if this is something you’d like to do and would like to make payments please contact me and we will work it out together. The only requirement would be that the final payment would be no later than September 28th. bethsmithpink at gmail dot com is the best email address for me or use the contact page on this website.

There will be a great goody bag with an extra special hand made gift for those people who are Patrons of mine. And did I mention the food and the friendships and the fun?

The Cost of Fleece

It’s fleece buying season again – some people think of it as shearing season. I have been buying a lot of fleeces every year for the last 10 years. I used them to sell when I owned a spinning store and I use them now for class materials. For the shop I generally had about 55 breeds and over 300 fleeces in stock at any time. All of this to say that I’ve had a lot of experience buying fleeces. Most of the time I was happy with the wool I got and sometimes I was highly disappointed in the quality. That’s another discussion.

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Today, though, I just want to talk about the cost of keeping sheep and in turn the cost of a single fleece. I have several friends who are shepherds and so I consulted them for my numbers.

Many of the shepherds we buy wool from have small flocks and so we’re going to focus on a flock of around 10 sheep.

Grain costs about $4800 per year – $480 per sheep

Hay costs about $700 per year – $70 per sheep

Registration costs $35 per year/sheep

Shearing is about $15 per sheep

So now we are at a cost of about $600 per year for each sheep at a minimum.

That isn’t even taking into account the cost of the vet calls that begin at $100 per visit and the cost of constantly repairing fences.

If the sheep ar coated there are even bigger costs involved in changing the coats and repairing and replacing the coats on a regular basis.

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Now yes, if the shepherd is raising sheep for meat also, there is some recoup of cost there and if they can sell a lamb to another farm there is also a recoup there – but lambs don’t usually sell for more than $300 to $600 so there is not really profit and almost alsways a loss in that case.

The reason I bring all of this up is during fleece season I see many people wanting perfectly pristine fleeces at bargain prices. The majority of breeds I buy sell for around $16 per pound. Let’s say the skirted fleece is about 10 pounds just to keep the numbers round and easy. I’m going to pay $160 for that fleece. That cost is about 25% of the cost of keeping that sheep for the year.

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The shepherds who are keeping these small flocks and selling their fleeces are doing it because of love of the sheep and the wool. They truly love these animals. So, if you see a bit of poop that was missed during skirting, or some hay or some bits of grass in there that you need to pick out as you spin please, please, please remember that there is a person doing their best and with a little bit of work you will have an extraordinary yarn that you can’t get any other way than starting with a raw fleece.

I feel gratitude to these small farmers who are raising sheep and sometimes saving these breeds from complete extinction.

 

 

Broken Spindles

I don’t talk much about spinning with drop spindles around here. I do it. I like to do it. Maybe it’s something you guys would like to hear more about?

But this morning I was thinking about my spindles. I have recently broken two of my favorites and I’m super sad. I have one that’s been hanging around for years waiting for me to send it in for repair and I keep forgetting to take care of it.

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This Bosworth spindle was broken because I set it on the couch for a minute while I was doing something else. Ryan decided to climb on the couch next to me and he kneeled on it. Tragedy.

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This is a beautiful Golding Spindle was in a small project bag with the fiber I was going to spin on it. A couple of weeks ago I got the bag out when I was looking for a project to take along with me to an appointment and it was broken. I’m not sure how that happened but it’s pretty unuseable now.

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And this Greensleeves lovely went with me to PlyAway in my carry on bag. I didn’t have it in a protective case or anything because I’m a dork. I also didn’t take a spinning wheel with me because I was going to use this spindle for the class I took and I was borrowing a wheel for the classes I was going to teach. When I started to spin with it it was super wobbly and not spinning right so I looked closer. Another one that needs to be repaired.

Now if these were all from the same maker I’d box them all up today and send them with a pleading note and promise to pay plenty of money to have them fixed. But they are all from different makers which means more work and so…maybe I’ll send them next week. Remind me, ok?

 

Loose Ends

This morning I hemmed some of the kitchen towels that I finished weaving in March.

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There was that little contest too and so I packaged 2 towels and got them ready to ship out today. With a little extra gift.

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Yesterday I photographed and posted all of my give away books on my Patreon Slack page. There are some great books in there. Many are out of print.[image error]

If you are part of my Patreon check out all of the books and claim the ones you want.. If you aren’t a part of my Patreon maybe you’d like to check it out and see what fun is going on right now.

And the last thing I want to mention is that there is still space in my Rhinebeck Retreat. It’s going to be a super small group and I’m going to tell you almost everything I know about wool.

Cutting My Way Through

I began this morning with a blog post about my trip to PlyAway last week and I was having a bit of trouble finding things to write that seemed interesting. It was an interesting week and I learned some things and they aren’t the things you might imagine so I’ll just talk about that today and process the other stuff to share later.

I’ve been in a sort of funk recently. It began around January…although Jillian said it’s been going on longer than that. But I’ve been sort of hiding in my house since January. Avoiding friends. Not really talking about what’s going on. Struggling with what I have to do, what I want to do and how to tell the difference and figuring out what is more important. It’s been hard and it’s been sad. Some side affects of that have been procrastination, stagnation and difficulty making choices. My planner pages have been almost empty and my goal setting is nonexistent. So there. I said it.

I had lunch with some really great friends this week. Janine Bajus, Marilyn Van Keppel and Greg Cotton. I told them a little about my struggles and Janine started talking about a book that Sarah Swett had recommended back in December. Janine read it and it helped her make some decisions about ehr business that were hard but she said she feels much lighter now. So, before lunch was over I had bought the electronic copy of the book and downloaded it. By the 5th page I had a little cry because it was everything I had been feeling.

The book is called Growing Gills by Jessica Abel.

There is a workbook that you print out and exercises to do and I’m working on the first one today which is to keep a log of what you spend your time on for 2 weeks. It will be revealing in some ways and not surprising in others I think. Of course I’ll work on the other exercises while  fill in my calendar.

This week is also the week to get caught up on things I promised before I left. I’ll be sending out the dish towels to the contest winners and photographing the books I’m giving away in my Patreon group.

Stay tuned to hear more about my progress with this book. I have high hopes for it.

I Forgot Again

Today is March 26th. I’m headed to PlyAway today where I will take some classes and also teach some classes. I’ve been packing for days and then I spent another 2 hours this morning with the last minute stuff and I just remembered a couple more things to pack.

Anyway, I was getting myself ready this morning and my darling came into the bathroom and said he had something to tell me.

“Happy Anniversary” Lol. Once again I forgot. Today is the day that we got married secretly in Las Vegas at the Candlelight Wedding Chapel across the road from Circus Circus.  It isn’t there anymore and I have no photos of us on that day.[image error]

It’s been 23 years so I don’t really keep it a secret anymore. My parents found out about 10 years after we were married. I don’t think Lou’s parents ever knew.

I’ll try to make it up to him on our next anniversary which is June 3. Yes, we got married twice the same year and only about 10 weeks apart.

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It’s kind of a boring story about why we did it. Let’s just say, I am a girl who lives my standards and LouSmith couldn’t wait to marry me.

Ok. Off I go. Tomorrow I have an all day class with Deb Robson! Super exciting. She’s an awesome teacher who knows a ton of stuff.

Kitchen Towels

Last Tuesday I finished weaving the never-ending towels. We had a contest to guess how many towels were on the beam and I said that I would put all the correct guesses together and choose one person to get one of the towels.

Well, there were only two correct guesses. The number of towels on the loom was 15. Nancie McCraw and Leslie Ardison were the correct guessers. I can’t just choose one so both of them will get a towel sent to them. I’ll be contacting them today. Thank you so much to everyone else for playing along![image error]

Now I need to finish getting ready to go to PlyAway on Monday. I’m only teaching for three of the five days so I am actually getting to take a couple of classes this year. The first is a class with one of my favorite teacher, Deb Robson. The other one s a photography class with Bernadette Emerson who is the photographer for Ply Magazine.

After I get back from that I will be focusing on getting ready for a super busy October with some new classes.

October 5-7 I’ll be back at Webs for their Spinning Summit. It’s a ton of fun and there is also so much shopping!

October 18-22 I’ll be hosting my very first Rhinebeck Retreat. Included in the price is 1 full day class and 2 half day classes, entry into the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival, almost all meals and lodging with private rooms. I’m super excited about this and I hope you’ll join us. There is only space for 10 people so sign up soon.

And then October 25 – 28 I’ll be back at SAFF!

My family is going to miss me in the Month of October but I hope I’ll get to see you.

Now I’ll get to the book giveaway that will be happening on my Patreon page.

Books and Towels

There are two things happening right now and both of them involve free stuff!

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First! I have been going through my book shelves to make some room for new things and I have decided to get rid of some of my knitting books and I decided to just give them away to the people who are Patrons of mine. Here’s how it will work. I’m going to put the books in groups of 2 or 3 and offer the bundle to my Patreon people. The only cost will be the cost of shipping which I will calculate and ask people to pay through Venmo or Paypal Friends and Family.

If you think you might like some free knitting books you need to be a Patron of mine. I will begin posting pictures of books on Monday I think so I have time to group them and take photos.

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Second! A contest. Yesterday I finished weaving the kitchen towels. Woohoo! I did not write down how many towels I warped for and the warp ended up to be longer than I thought. So here’s the contest. Guess how many towels I wove. The above photo is the towels before I cut them off the loom. You need to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or subscribe through a blog reader to get updates about my posts. After you are all set up, comment with your guess.

I will take all the correct guesses and enter them into a random number generator. The winner will get one of these kitchen towels. Of course it will be all hemmed and finished before I send it off to you. Please, only one guess per person. I will chose the winner on Sunday evening at 7PM eastern and announce it all over the place.