That Color is SO "you"!

Everyone knows someone like this. The person who just loves a certain color. When they start a new project you are never surprised to see what color yarn they have picked out. Its the same color you'll see if you open their closet door or take a peek in their den. For my mom is chartreuse. For Shanna its pink. And for one of our customers, Sephrenia, its red. This customer stopped by our booth at SAFF and I was ashamed to be unable to offer her anything in a strong, true red. Oh we have plenty of burgundy, brick and wine. But very little that is really, really RED. So as soon as we got home I knew I had to do something. So let me introduce you to our newest colorway-- "Sephrenia" - fire red with hints of blue, yellow and orange.

As soon as I reskeined it this evening I had to take a photo to post immediately. Unfortunately red is the hardest color to photograph, in my opinion, and I'll need to wait for the sun to come out to get a really good photo. So for now, this photo will have to do (and no-- there is NO magenta, thats just the camera flash!)

ETA: Better picture!

Bunny Needs a Name

My husband and I have decided that Honeybun, though a fine "baby name" for our new rabbit just isn't quite right as her 'real' name. Shes going to be a big rabbit, which is fitting since she already has a big personality, and Honeybun just doesn't seem big enough. Chris thinks that she needs a "drag queen name" (his words). But we just can't seem to come up with the right name. So, I'd like to hear your opinion. What would be the perfect name for this little basket of trouble? 

Introducing....The Rubber Ducky Club!

The Rubber Ducky Club is now open for new members! Every other month, starting in December, members will recieve a skein of handpainted cotton and a bar of handmade soap. And, off course, they will color coordinate :). You can sign up anytime for as many shipments, or as few, as you'd like. And you have the option of paying for each shipment on its own, or for paying for three shipments at a time and saving 13%!

ENJOY!

In Memory

Laura and I had a really nice time at SAFF. Our favorite part was meeting the people who enjoy stitching with Unique Sheep yarn. Well, at least that was my favorite part. Laura's favorite may be the acquisition of Honeybun. :)

Unfortunately upon arriving home I found out that we had lost our little Min Pin to kidney failure on Friday. We had no idea he was that sick, as he had been mostly normal up to a week and a half ago when he got a bout of diarrhea that would not go away. We never considered kidney problems as he has been on organic dog food most of his life.

DH and I are devastated over losing our little guy. We are the type of people who consider our dogs to be part of our family. They travel with us, are allowed on the furniture, and even sleep with us. Spike was 13 yrs old so was an integral part of our lives.

So it may take a little extra time to ship some of your orders. I am trying to get back to work, but do need a bit of time to grieve over the loss.

In Memory of Spike (AKA: Peeky)

Rest in peace my little guy......

Ravelry Buttons

You know those "Hi My Name Is" Ravelry buttons that are so hard to get b/c they are always sold out? Well guess what-- we just got a big bag full of them! And they are all for YOU, our lovely customers, for FREE! All you have to do is add one to your cart when you place an order (this page can be found under "accessories"). 

 This offer isn't valid with orders for PDF patterns or club memberships, sorry! 

More photos from SAFF

We are back home now after spending the last 4 days at SAFF. It was so great to see our customers in person and to meet new ones! We've sent a newsletter out to everyone who signed up to receive it, but some of the email addresses were hard to read. So if you signed up for our newsletters but don't receive one tonight check your junk mail box and, if its not there, send me an email with your correct email address so I can fix it!

Now that we are back home we are ready to take your website orders, sign you up for one of our clubs or get you in touch with one of the many yarn shops that carry our yarn. Many of you mentioned that you wished your LYS carried the Unique Sheep. We'd like to encourage you to have your LYS owner to contact us at kelly@theuniquesheep.com to get a free wholesale packet with information, prices and yarn samples.

We were pretty terrible about taking pictures because we were so busy with the booth, but we are having fun looking at the photos that everyone else is posting on their own blogs and on Ravelry. One of the only pictures I got of Kelly and I with any of the great people we met is this one of us with Charlene Schurch (author of the Sensational Socks series) and Beth Parrott, co-authors of The Little Box series.


And I also have a few photos to share of my new baby--Honeybun! Honeybun is a 2 month old German angora hybrid that I purchased from Millennialway. She is my first bunny and I have a LOT to learn but thankfully the angora group on Ravelry has answered many of my questions already, and pointed me in the direction of more information. I'd welcome any more suggestions of books or websites I should check out. The husband is still undecided about whether or not he likes Hunbun, I think, and the dog is very concerned that the bunny is going to become our new favorite pet. She has been unusually clingy, refusing to get off of Chris's lap even, since I brought Honeybun home. Hopefully she will relax soon and they will become friends, or at least comfortable aquaintances!

SAFF

Today was the first day of SAFF- the Southeastern Animal Fiber Festival and it was tons of fun. We got to meet so many customers who we'd only talked to online before, and made lots of new friends and customers! We are pretty proud of our little booth. Its not as impressive as some of them, but its our first show and I think we have a pretty nice, albeit little, set up! 

The Autumn Gold shawl got a lot of attention today, and I'm hoping to show off the Lacey Yug more tomorrow. 

We even came home with a new Unique Sheep mascot- Honey Bun! She is a baby German angora and she is all mine! I luuuuuv her. If you are at SAFF stop by and say hello-- shes absolutely adorable and silky soft. Unfortunately my cell phone battery was dead so I couldn't call my husband and ask his opinion, and I was afraid she might be bought by someone else, so I just had to go ahead and buy her....oops!

Autumn Gold Reformatting

We just got the reformatted Autumn Gold pattern from the designer. There weren't any errors in the original pattern, but there were some typos and some parts needed more explaining. So we've cleaned it up a bit. If you have purchased a copy of the Autumn Gold pattern and would like an updated version, please email me at laura@theuniquesheep.com and I can send you a PDF. 

Introducing...Moonshadow!

Lace in a midnight garden! This lengthwise-knit stole features beaded edges and borders, conjuring images of enchanting waves of moonlight. The lace pattern is easy enough for beginners, while intriguing enough for seasoned lace knitters.

Moonshadow was designed by Sivia Harding and, like most of our shawl patterns, calls for 3 skeins of any of our fingering weight yarns. The sample shown was knit with Leili. 

Unique Sheep Gear

A while ago I set up a cafe press shop to make t-shirts and aprons and things with the Unique Sheep logo, just with myself, Kelly and my mom in mind. But whenever we wear our shirts we have people ask us where they can get shirts of their own! So, if you'd like one, they can be bought here. We don't make a profit off of selling them or anything (Cafe Press's prices are high enough on their own), but we certainly would love seeing our friends and customers sporting the Unique Sheep logo! 

Introducing the Miss Austen shawl

Even though I consider myself primarily a knitter, I've been getting into crochet more and more lately. Patterns like this are part of whats been driving me to become more crochet savvey. This stunning circular shawl, named after the literary figure, is crocheted on a size E hook using Tinsel Toes. The combination of the open "Love Knot" stitch pattern, the smooth drape of Tinsel Toes and the satisfying weight of the beaded edging makes this shawl a delight to wear. Unlike most lace shawls it even looks great in heavily variegated yarns! I think I'm going to make one to wear over a little black dress for holiday parties this winter! 

Another Baby Cardi

The All-in-One Baby Cardi by Charles is so much fun to make. This time I used Pima Petite in a new Gradiance color way called October Breeze. The finished sweater is incredibly soft.

The only problem is that I have no baby around to wear it!! We will have to just have it as a model until Laura and Chris decide to have children!

I think Pima Petite would work great for all types of Baby items and even adult projects, like the Into The Woods scarf.

Kelly

New Shawl Pins

We have a new style of shawl pin available, and I think you are going to like it. These shawl sticks are shorter than our others which makes them perfect for delicate lace shawls that can be weighed down with heavier shawl pins. The twisting design carved into them isn't just decorative-- it gives the sticks "grip" so that they'll hold your shawl securely. 

Treasure Hunt

We've decided to do something to make recieving packages from us even more fun. Every time we reach a certain amount of sales we will stick one of these little sheep charms into a kit or attach it to a skein of yarn. If you are the lucky person to end up with a charm, you win! What do you win? You win a gift certificate to The Unique Sheep! We'll be sending one of the new charms out in the next couple of days, so keep your eyes open! If you find a sheep charm email us at laura@theuniquesheep.com to get your gift certificate!

ETA: at the request of my husband we are going to call these charms the "Sneaky Sheep" :)

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star...

My husband saw these cuties blocking and said "These are some cute Star Bellied Sneetchs you've got there."

If you too want a star bellied sneetch outfit (otherwise known as Twinkle) we'll make it easy for you. Instead of having to buy a whole skein of each color, now you can buy a kit with just what you need of each color. Right now the kit is available in brights (left) or pastels (right), but I hope to be adding some other color options in the future (Got a color combination you'd like to see? Let me know!). The yarn is Super Wool because its perfect for babies (soft, washable, easy to knit with and care for, dyes up in vivid colors, wonderful). The kits are for the smallest size because that seems to be most popular for this pattern, and because the larger sizes take enough yarn that buying a full skein of each isn't as wasteful. Enjoy :)

Guess who finally finished her Autumn Gold Shawl?

That would be ME! And I love it. It took me forever because I kept getting interrupted by other projects, but here it is! Of course, its uncommonly hot outside right now but its supposed to cool off this weekend. I have dinner plans on Saturday evening and I plan on debuting it in public then!

Free Computer Wallpaper

Even when I'm not dyeing or knitting or playing with my stash, I still like to be surrounded by the colors and texture of yarn. Are you like that too? If so, you might enjoy some of the computer background/wallpaper that I just posted. I've been using these photos as the background on my computer's desktop for a long time and then suddenly realized that other people might like them too. Enjoy!

Sheep Soap Now Ready!

A week or two ago I blogged about making our liquid Sheep Soap and promised to post when it was ready. Well, its been tested and cleans well, smells good and doesn't leave a residue, so I'd say its ready to go! We have two fragrances available right now. Our "Original" fragrance is a blend of essential oils known to repel moths-- Rosemary, Lavender, Tea Tree, Eucelyptus and Citronella. The other is a special seasonal fragrance blend- Autumn Harvest which is mildly spicy and yummy. Both can be ordered in the 4 oz or 2 oz size. The 2 oz size is good for sampling different fragrances or for giving as gifts-- its great for secret pal type swaps! Because being "green" is important to us, we want to make our packaging as earth friendly as possible. So we encourage you to send your bottles back to us once they are empty to be refilled-- in fact we will give you 50% off your refill! Once you have an empty bottle just email us at laura@theuniquesheep.com for return instructions.  

Big Foot Skeins

Sometimes 100g of sock yarn isn't enough, but buying 2 skeins is just too much. For those times, we have Big Foot Skeins! Now you can buy a skein and a half of your favorite sock yarns, saving you money and reducing the amount of partial skeins of sock yarn taking up space in your stash! 

Into the Woods Scarf

We had guys in mind when we asked Merike Saarniit  to come up with the Into the Woods pattern, but this scarf would look great on ladies too. The scarf features a tailored edge and a stitch pattern she invented.

The body of the scarf is knit so the middle 3rd of the scarf will fold nicely around the back of the neck making it a very neat and tailored scarf to wear .

The model scarf used 200 grams of our House Blend yarn in a Gradiance colorway called Lichen. Any of our DK weight yarns would work with the design, but the Alpaca and Silk content in House Blend give the scarf a beautiful drape.

Vacation Time!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm taking the week off. I'm spending the week visiting family and old friends in my hometown. "Home" is only an hour and a half away but because of my schedule and my husbands we don't got home as often as I thought we would. So I am taking advantage of everyminute I get to spend with these loved ones that I don't see nearly enough. Unfortunately, dyeing isn't very portable so I won't be able to get any orders dyed this week. I got caught up on all my orders before I left on Sunday, but any orders placed since then will have to wait until I get back next week. Sorry about the delay, I hope you understand! I do have access to internet and my laptop, though, so I'll still be getting your emails and reading your posts on Ravelry. I'll also be posting about my vacation on my personal blog, in case you are interested in keeping up with the ridiculouslesness that is my family. Thanks for understanding!

Lacey Yug

I took a break from my other knitting projects this week to knit a quick and easy Lacey Yug. For those of you who don't know, a "Yug" is a yarn hug- a shawl that is designed to wrap around you in a cozy, hug like way. Its sort of triangular, but more rounded. And like any good hug its easy, easy, easy. For a long time we've had the original Yug made our of our mohair boucle, Lamb Loops. Now we have a heavy weight version using Twizzle. Making the original Yug with Twizzle turned out way too heavy and thick, so we changed the pattern to incorporate a very easy lace pattern to lighten it up. The result is the perfect shawl for chilly winters. The alpaca/wool boucle makes it a seriously warm shawl. This is no delicate little wisp of a shawl, this shawl means business! 

Contest for Free Halloween Yarn

Have you had your eye on a skein of one of our new Halloween colorways? Well you have a chance at a free skein from Wool Girl by simply leaving a comment saying how much you love The Unique Sheep. Ok, you don't have to say that you love The Unique Sheep, but it would make us smile if you did. 

ETA: oops, looks like I wasn't very clear. You need to go over to the Wool Girl blog (follow the link above) and leave a comment to enter! Sorry about that.