As I’ve been told by many of you, I haven’t had a newsletter out in a long time. For this I am sorry. Business has been very good, bad for my “spare time”!!! I do have a few things to let people know, so this is a necessary newsletter…besides being extremely late.

I hope everyone’s summer was a pleasant one. The temperatures in Oregon were wonderful, not too much rain, lots of sunshine and, of course, I was in the shop most of the time so didn’t enjoy nearly enough of it. I got many days when Anna (my daughter-in-law) came over with Eric (new grandson). She worked in the shop and I had Grandma time. Yeah! I finally found something I’m really good at! There were times when the children were growing up (mostly teenage years) when I wondered why we were putting ourselves through this…believe me, grandchildren makes it well worth the time and effort it took to let your children live! Ha! I LIKE this next phase in my life!!!

We’ve done some renovating in the shop…moving machinery and such. After getting the fiber washer almost a year ago, I have not used my old mode of washing fiber. We have 6 large coolers and two smaller coolers that have been fitted with drains in the bottom of each. At this point, they’re only taking up room here so we’ve decided to sell them. The larger ones will be $10.00 each and the smaller ones, $5.00 each. If you have any questions about these, please email me or call. Thanks.

There is good reason for us rearranging things. We’re getting another large carder. It was supposed to be here in September…well, it’s not here yet and now we’re looking at the begging of December. Along with this, we’re getting a steamer that will steam and set the twist on yarn. We will have an introductory offering…when we get this in…will let you know when it gets here. Also will be getting a new cone winder, one that will wind two cones at the same time…which brings me to another item for sale…our old cone winder. It’s an old one that was in a textile mill back east years ago. It works just fine for one cone at a time, but we’re getting more requests for yarn on cones and it does take more time to do one at a time. We’re not sure, but we think the cones we have (pointed like an old fashioned ice cream cone) won’t work on the new machine, so the cardboard cones will go with the winder. This will go for $100.00. We have the cone winder on a cabinet with the motor in the cabinet…the cabinet will go with the cone winder/motor.

On to new products…we have a new line of Opal yarn…Elemente. There are 10 different color combinations…I made the samples, but need to make myself some socks for winter and these new colors are great! By the end of this week we should have the new solid colors in Opal. There are 10 regular colors and 4 special ones…if you have yarn left over from socks you’ve already knit, this is a good way to utilize it…solid color heel and toe or, if you wear them is shoes, how about toe, foot and heel solid color and then the fancy patters in the ankle/leg portion to show off! Opal yarn runs $15.00/skein for everything except the handpainted color combinations which are $17.00/skein. Call or email me for information on which lines and colors we have in stock at the moment…it changes continually.

Want to remind everyone about the potential for Christmas gifts here at the shop (sorry, it really isn’t too early to think on these lines!). We have most of the Merino Lanolin Skin Care products on hand. Of course there are the many fragrances of hand made soap that we carry. These run $2.50 and $3.50/bar. Call or email for the fragrances currently available. Another great idea is our Soy Candles. These candles burn evenly, without the “hole” in the middle and have wonderful, long lasting scents. The scents we have on hand right now are:

Baby Powder (16oz./$13.00)

Mountain Berry (13oz./$11.00)

Fresh Flowers

Fresh Cotton

Rain Shower

French Vanilla

China Rain

Mountain Lake

Vanilla Walnut

Pet/Smoke Odor Neutralizer

Spiced Pear

Carabbean Breeze

Red Raspberry

Lemon Poundcake

Hot Apple Pie

Strawberries & Cream

Macintosh Apple

Cinnamon Sticks (10oz./$9.00)

Cucumber Melon

Mulberry Mist

Sugar Cookie

Green to Red—Watermelon (10oz./$11.00)

Blue to Red—Blue Raspberry

Yellow to Red---Cherry Cheesecake

Phew! That’s quite a list.

If I’ve misspelled a word or two in this newsletter, please excuse me. My laptop computer crashed last week and while patiently (?) waiting for a new hard drive to be installed, I’m using the computer in the back of the shop (work room) and it’s just off a little from my regular keyboard to really mess me up…but then it really doesn’t take too much, right? Ha!

I hope many of you made it to Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival (OFFF) in September. There were more vendors than ever before and a venue of classes that had many people excited. Of course, there are the animals in their on going shows along with the fleece competition and the fleece parking lot sale. Many things for the fiberholic in all of us. We were very busy and had a great time visiting with many current customers and welcoming many newcomers.

Must tell all of you that I played hookie for a week this month (October). My husband and I celebrated our 30 th anniversary in September and celebrated with a week in Hawaii. Believe me, it’s a miracle that we actually came back home. MMMM…wonderful warm sunshine (the temps didn’t even go below 70 at night!). Now it’s back to reality…cold, wet weather and a shop full of fiber! Ha! The shop did stay open Monday through Friday while I was gone. A big thank you goes out to Myrna and Jackie for keeping things going in my absence. Now that I know it can happen, maybe I won’t wait for another 10 years!!!

Besides the things I’ve listed for sale for myself, here are a few others:

Ashford Traditional Spinning wheel--$200.00

WooLee Winder for Ashford with 3 bobbins—barely used--$175.00

Bread rack with 12 trays for drying fiber--$50.00

For one or all of these items, contact Jackie at 503-2=632-3298 or Jackie@bctonline.com . Jackie is here Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30-3:00 also if you want to talk to her during those hours.

Well, it’s time to go again. If you know of someone that hasn’t gotten this newsletter via email, please print it out and give them a copy. A lot of my email addresses died with my hard drive so not everyone will get this. Thanks. Hope you have a wonderful fall season. Take care & God bless.

Janell