I saw Jane with Betsy walking through the Madrona marketplace, actually they were moving very fast and a guy with a big camera was standing on a ladder across from my booth filming it. Betsy left a 6-figure job with Kaiser Permanente for a knitting career. You go Betsy!

The written article is here.

I can't believe I survived and without help, I wouldn't have. February looked like this.

1.Dye wool. Have burner crap out. Friend sends 2 more usually used for cooking critters from a bayou. Achieve the melting point of aluminum in about 5 minutes and unintentionally felted 2 lbs of Silkie.

2.Fill living room, dining room, bedroom and kitchen with boxes of wool. Stumble over boxes for 4 weeks.

3.*Skein yarn until shoulders hurt. Repeat from *.

4. Take 6 boxes of wool to UPS store in Less Rural. Clerk is so stunned when I tell her they're full of wool, that she opens one to see for herself.

5.Drive 599 miles to Tacoma in 2 days ignoring the Mapquest directions to start on Forest Service Road 9847-McInnis Creek, which I know for a fact to be buried under about 10 feet of snow. Wonder why old logging roads are even in the Mapquest database. Hate 5 lanes of Seattle traffic in pouring rain.

6. Have a great time at Madrona and wonder if I can make my house look like the hotel. Ship 9 boxes of wool to Stitches West.

7. Drive to Portland to pick up more wool.

8. Drive 2 days back home.

9. Dye for 4 days, throwing paper plates and bread toward the children at semi-regular intervals. Stop eating.

10.Send children to relatives', load car and drive 3 days to Santa Clara via Grants Pass where I picked up more wool.

11. Had a great time at Stitches West.

12. Shipped 12 boxes of wool home.

13. Loaded car and drove to Grants Pass. Dropped off some wool and picked up 3 rabbits.

14. Car broke down in Portland about 2 miles from the dealership where I bought it in 2000. Handed service guy all of the cash from Stitches West. Did not cry. Bought books at Powells and iced tea from Starbucks. Thought "easy come, easy go" and laughed maniacally.

15.Drove to Boise and dropped off 2 rabbits.

16. Fell into bed in Jerome, Idaho.

17. Drove to West Yellowstone and had coffee with my dad.

18.Drove to Three Forks and dropped off last rabbit.

19. Drove to Toston and spent the night with my mom and stepdad.

20. Drove home.

21. Stumbled over 12 boxes of wool stacked 3 high on the back porch, collected the children, fed them and have been sleeping, more or less, since then.

Today: Discovered the merchant account processor has taken 33% of my net sales as fees. Vow to commit murder after I have a nap.

Pictures and proper posts later.

If I ever agree to prepare for both Madrona and Stitches West at the same time with only 10 days to prepare for Stitches West, someone please shoot me straightaway and put me out of my misery.

Nevertheless, I'm really happy with these yarns which are inspired by sea glass and sea life.

Seaglass sock yarn-Superwash Falkland.

One of my favorite fruits is the mango. I don't know how that relates to sea life. As Uncle Walt Whitman said, "I have contradicted myself? Very well. I am large."

More semi-solid and thoughtfully variegated sock yarns.

Now to fire up a pot of tea and set to skeining and packing boxes.

Eileen Fisher is one of my favorite designers. She has the most gorgeous textured fabrics like alpaca crinkle and silk whisper with lots of wool, organic cotton and linen. These are beautiful fabrics you usually don't see in commercial textiles, with a beautiful hand and drape.

Classified as sportswear, her clothes are some of the few that fit me perfectly right off the rack without alterations. Which is good, because by alterations I mean glue, staples and tape. Sadly, my mother, who is an excellent seamstress and ran her own tailoring business from the glassed in front porch that is now the yarn studio, was never able to teach me how to sew. We've tried many, many times, but I just can't get the hang of it. Also, I'm terribly afraid of sewing machines. Machinophobia? Puncturingfingersphobia?

At the monastery I was assigned to the sewing group, even though I respectfully asked to be on the gardening crew. The irony of the situation was not lost. The monk in charge of sewing quietly asked me if I would sew, not could sew, but would. I whispered back, "Do you mean without a sewing machine?" He nodded. "Yes, I can do that." Handsewing is afterall, just knitting with a very small needle, kinda. Even so, I managed to take 30 minutes to sew a cushion pleat to itself instead of closing the gap where the stuffing went in. The woman next to me was running a sewing machine and I guess the sound of it was making me jumpy.

I get Eileen Fisher's seasonal planner which beautifully lays out in watercolor and pen-and-ink sketches what the upcoming colors, fabrics and outfits will be from now until June. If there's one complaint I have, it's that there's not enough color in the collection. EF has a lot of black and neutrals, but the texture and cut of the fabric keeps the clothes from looking drab. And they are a perfect foil for handknits.

For early 2010 EF will have the usual black, 10 shades of gray, gray-browns and taupes, khaki and white, with a limited palette of clear watermelon pinks, oranges, and an unusual mustardy green she calls chicory and I would call bronze. You'll see many of these colors with my tweaks on the Butternut Woolens fine gauge sock yarns-Super Sock Bluefaced Leicester, Super Sock Superwash Merino and a new line of Super Sock Superwash Falkland.

Getting ready for two large wool shows at once looks like this: The cupboard where we keep all of our clean dishes.

Silkie ready to be labelled.

Homegrown wool from North America.

Super Sock yarn.

For the first time in several years, I'll be offering raw angora fiber for sale. This is prime German and German-hybrid angora with a staple length of 2 1/2-3 inches, grown by farmers in Oregon and California. There's white and colors this time and I have several pounds of it. It'll be available by the ounce.

The Butternut Woolens yarn store is now closed, and I'll re-open the first week in March with a limited inventory.

See you in Tacoma and Santa Clara!

Butternut Woolens will be at the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival at the Hotel Murano(go look at this link, this hotel is an art gallery) in Tacoma, WA February 11-14 AND at Stitches West at the Santa Clara Convention Center February 25-28.

Come see the new yarns and colorways and stop and say hi.

I'll be taking the online store temporarily off-line for the month of February beginning this coming Monday, Feb. 1. If there's anything you want to buy from the store, now is the moment you've been waiting for. See ya!