In praise of wool...
I've been remiss in writing for the blog lately. It's been very cold and very muddy here -- not necessarily at the same time, but frequently so. We made it to town fewer than once a week over the past couple of months, as there was more than a foot of mud on the road between our house and "the rest of the world." Thankfully both my husband and I work from home and we homeschool the kids, so our routines weren't interrupted all that much besides a bit of stir-craziness! (The kids may have benefitted -- this morning they were telling stories about Odysseus, Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and spring gardens.)
Our heaters have been acting up and our new, environmentally-friendly woodstove isn't installed yet, so we've been operating in "hibernate" mode. We have blankets made from Heavy Fulled Wool Flannel on our beds and as couch throws ("blankets" may be an exaggeration -- they're actually just pieces, not hemmed or trimmed in any way) and our slippers all have inserts made from Luxurious Wool Pile. It's so easy -- just trace a slipper and cut the shape out of the wool pile, pop it in the slipper, and ooooh, the difference it makes! A visiting friend, who loves to knit, was raving over our beautiful wool yarns (she particularly likes the Tweed Wool Yarn) and left having exhausted her yarn budget for the month but with a glorious collection to work with. She'd always thought she was allergic to wool, but was delighted to find that she didn't have any problems with the organic wools. And oh my goodness, have you felt a swatch of our Organic Merino Interlocks? They're absolutely luscious! We've also been wrapped in our alpaca/llama goodies, which are so light, soft, and cozy that they make even freezing houses somewhat more bearable.
I know spring's coming soon, and in preparation for that we've added many many new patterns and quite a few new fabrics as well, including Harmony's glorious Surrender knit. It seemed like every third woman I saw at the Farmer's Market this weekend was either pregnant or carrying a newborn; if you're surrounded by fecundity as well, you'll be glad to know that we've really fleshed out our Maternity and Nursing Patterns selection. And as always, THE Babywearing DVD is the perfect gift for new parents, especially when accompanied with a piece of fabric or gift certificate to buy their own.
Sad news to report -- the beautiful Danish fabric that I'd raved over in a previous blog entry suffered some mishaps in shipping, so there's nothing to talk about at the moment. On a positive note, that does give me more free time to enter other fabrics, patterns, buttons, merchandise, and more, so do keep checking back. Even when I'm not updating the blog (shame on me!), orders are still going out and business as usual is occurring.
As a final note, my eight-year-old wants me to share this poem tidbit, which he declares "just perfect for spring". It comes from Piping Down The Valleys Wild: Poetry for the Young of All Ages (though our edition is from 1971):
I like it when it's mizzly
I like it when it's mizzly
and just a little drizzly
so everything looks far away
and make-believe and frizzly.
I like it when it's foggy
and sounding very froggy.
I even like it when it rains
on streets and weepy windowpanes
and catkins in the poplar tree
and me.
--Aileen Fisher