Double Facepalm...when one facepalm isn't enough!

To quote myself:

Despite the busyness of October, however, I do want to get at least two blog posts written up, with loads of pictures of the Trio, Shearing Day, and maybe some of my handspun!

Yes...and now it is November 4th...

Well...October flew by in a flurry of fiber, which was totally awesome and fun! But my blogging has taken a huge nosedive, so my apologies for that. I will try to do better in future! For now, let's talk about October!

On October 9th we hosted our first Farm Day at Blaine Fleece & Fiber. I had advertised this opportunity to the homeschool cooperative that we "belong to" (I use quotes because there isn't really a membership or a joining of this co-op - it's just an opportunity for local homeschooling families to learn about classes, extracurricular activities, etc.), and although there wasn't a tremendous amount of interest, we had one family come out to meet our flock - and the cool thing was that I had previously worked with the mom, so it was a chance to catch up with a super sweet lady! Both of my kids gave talks about various sheepy-topics - my daughter discussed specifics about Black Velvet, Mikey, and Panda Bear, while my son talked about sheep care and gave a tour of the Trio's barn and pasture:

I was so proud of them both - public-speaking is never easy, and neither of them had taken any kind of speech class (which is one of the reasons I'm doing Farm Days - to give them these kinds of opportunities), but they did a great job! I talked about Iceland and how the Icelandic breed came to be, then did a short demo on preparing the fiber for spinning. And, of course, the Trio came out to meet their guests!

The next day was Shearing Day, so I'm really glad that the kids who came to Farm Day got to see all of that beautiful wool-on-the-sheep!

Shearing Day was kind of crazy - it was my first time transporting the sheep myself, and because we don't have a trailer, they rode in our Toyota!

They did just fine, riding in the van, although Panda Bear REALLY wanted to come up and sit with Elise and Iain...she didn't get to, and instead, jockeyed for position between her brother and sister most of the way! But we all made it safely to Lee's - the Trio got their haircuts and pedicures - and we made it safely home...carrying the same amount of wool, but this time, it was in bags in my front seat rather than squished in the back! Panda Bear still wanted to be up with the kids, but they held her back!

The next October event was my first Craft Fair - the Autumn Arts and Crafts Festival in Pullman, Washington. I won't go into a great deal about this particular Fair - there were several things that happened that were disappointing, but it was an awesome learning experience! I sold a few things and got to spend time with Lee and our boothmate, Monica, so I consider it two days well-spent!

So what's in store for Blaine Fleece & Fiber now? Well, I am currently offering the 3rd installment of my Vikings art batt club - for more information about this, please be sure to check out our group on Ravelry! The Vikings Club is only offered through Ravelry (not my Etsy shop), so don't miss out if you're a fan of Ragnar, Lagertha, or pretty BFF Batts!

Vikings, Episode 1.3 - Dispossessed

Another fun offering is my Doctor Who series of BFF Batts, representing Doctors 9-12 (including the War Doctor)...these batts will be previewed over the course of the next several days, and when all 5 have been revealed in the Ravelry group, I will list them in the Etsy shop - on November 15th to be exact! So if you're a fan of the Doctor in all of his recent incarnations, mark your calendar! The Trio is very excited by this...they LOVE Doctor Who and think bowties and fezzes are cool!

Well, my Dear Readers, if you've stayed with me this long, it's time for you to get a prize! I have a coupon code JUST FOR YOU to use in my Etsy shop - just plug in BLOGREADER when you check out to take 15% off your purchase. This is good through November 30th, so you could use it after the big update on November 15th if you would like! I will also be adding some lovely handspun skeins, so I hope you'll take a look at what my Etsy shop has to offer!  Thank you for reading!

Blaine Fleece & Fiber on Etsy