Home of Oregon Soakers Socks and Yarn
I’ve put my sock inventory in my ETSY store. They are listed according to sizes. You can follow the links below to see what is still available.
That’s it for the remaining inventory. As always I can knit your socks from my own yarn but I am booked and would not be able to get them to you until after December 25th.
I always forget how living on the Pacific Coast dictates how I feel. We’re in Bend Oregon and I spent yesterday vending at the SunRiver Holiday Traditions Festival. It was a nice event, many talented folks. Two friends I made in Shaniko in September invited me to share their booth space. The bonus was our condo was right out the back door of the vending hall. We set up in the morning and I spent the day demoing on the sock machine and selling socks.
This morning I am parched. The fan in our condo ran all night long and I swear sucked out all the moisture in the air, my lungs and skin. I feel like I am stranded on a desert island. So I ran the tub full of hot water and sat in the bathroom and breathed. Ahhhh… Ok, enough complaining.
Here are some images of this past two days.
A bit of snow on the pass by Crater Lake
The booth. These gals have it down pat. I liked how they used PVC poles in umbrella bases to set up a black curtain divider. It provided a nice backdrop to our booth and separated us from the lady behind.
So it was a good day. I met my goals and I have some new great ideas for next year.
Now we’re off to a real mall to do some shopping. Talk about sensory overload. I hate mall shopping. When the only shopping opportunities you have is Wally World and Home-Boy Depot, a mall is very intimidating.
On Tuesday I’ll be putting all the socks I have remaining in my inventory up on my store. Check back then if you are looking for a great gift or stocking stuffer.
This past Saturday I spent the day with my good friend Linda vending at the Brookings Holiday Bazaar. This is the second year we’ve vended this show. There were 100 different booths set up in the High School and Jr. High.
Here is our very small 8 X 8 booth. See the 72 pair of socks on the left? And my sock machine right in front of that.
Once again it was a learning experience. Things I learned:
1. No matter what you sold last year at a specific event, you will sell something totally different this year. Last year was purses and socks, this year was gloves and hats and socks.
2. The Brookings Bazaar is a nice event with very nice people. Other than the guy who was behind us that made a very snide remark about me being a fattie just like him. Jerk
3. You have to do your own thing as far as pricing goes. I felt a bit sorry for a gal who had a booth just down from us. She hand knits socks for $45 a pair. This my blog buddies is a great price. Considering it takes about 12 hours to knit pair of socks. But I undercut her price by $25. I sell mine for $20 a pair.
4. Rain does not prevent folks from coming out. In fact I think it helped. We had alot of traffic and I did better than last year.
5. You have to start preparing for Christmas in August. My goals were not met as far as inventory. Next year I’ll do better.
I know there were many booths that didn’t sell a thing. It wasn’t that their items were not quality or unique, the public is fickle.
The worst item I saw for sale. What you may ask is it?
A peeled carrot with a 1/2 inch wide piece of pvc pipe with a rock glued on top.
A 1 carrot ring. Ugh!
The Holidays are coming, get your yarn to me soon to save your place in our production line. We are currently two weeks out for orderes received in October.
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Socks Knit From Your Yarn |
Fernwood Woolworks will knit socks from yarn provided by you, the customer.
We need a minimum of 350 yards sock weight yarn per pair of socks.
(Examples: Opal, Regia, Wildfoote, Trekking weight yarn)
For socks for men and women shoe size great than shoe size 11, we need 400 yards.
How it works:You mail your yarn with a note including your mailing address, email and phone #
Payment is made when your order is complete through Pay Pal or by Money Order
Attach a note to each skein of yarn specifying the shoe size.
We can accomodate requests of wide or narrow foot just include that information also.
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Socks Available |
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Women’s Socks shoe size 6 - 14 Crew length socks |
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Men’s Socks shoe size 8 - 16 Crew length Socks |
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Boot Length Socks in above sizes requires 400 yards yarn per pair |
Pricing is as follows:
1 - 5 pair $12.00 each
6 - 10 pair $11.00 each
11 - 15 pair $10.00
The above prices include shipping back to you via USPS first class mail.
(Canadian and European add $3 - Shipping is USPS First Class International)
To place your order or for more information contact me through my by email.
This being Eye Candy Friday and all I choose the image of the Superior Fiber’s booth at the Shaniko Wool Gathering. I sat right across from her, looking down into her booth for 3 days. The colors were like eye candy.
So what to do ? I purchased 3 fleeces from the ladies behind her and gave them to her to process into roving! I can hardly wait!
She also gets the gold star for ‘hanging in there’. She and two others reserved a room at the Shaniko Hotel. Unfortunately it came with one bed! “We were Girl Scouts” she said, “we’ll make do”. You go girls!
Note to you all….if you’re coming to the Wool Gathering next year on September 6 & 7, they only have 2 rooms with more than one bed. If there is a group, reserve the bridal suite….it has enough room to sleep 8 with air beds. (No shower though, just a big honking jacuzzi tub.) I guess newlyweds don’t shower. 
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The last day of classes at Shaniko were a HUGE success. I came away knowing the students grasped the process and would be successful using their wraping boards. So here you go….the last day of classes.
Working on their wraping boards learning how to unwrap a skein after dying.
Finished dyed skeins….beautiful! If you would like to purchase 350 yard Superwash Meino Skeins o 350 yard knit blanks to Dye Your Own go HERE. Need to knit socks for winter or Holiday Giving? Go HERE |
As promised here is the first day pictures of the Dye It - Socks class in Shaniko.
I was given the Fire Garage for the class. This is used as a multi-purpose room for Shaniko because it is large and insulated. I told the class the one requirement for me teaching there is if the bell rings, we all have to don the garb and ride on the trucks. Just kidding but I could just see the panic in some of their eyes. Save the yarn first!
I was so prepared. In fact went the night before and set up so everything would be ready.
It never ceases to amaze me the color combinations students come up with. This is one of MY favorite things, taking pictures of their dye jobs for my reference later.
Here they are…the whole gang camping it up in front of the Shaniko Hotel. The weather was great, the company enjoyable and the outcome stunning. Great job gals!
My biggest fear once I found out that the Shaniko Preservation Guild was going to go ahead with my Wool Gathering idea is that no one would come. After all, as I’ve said before, Shaniko is in the middle of nowhere. Two and a half hours from Portland, 2 hours from Bend and a couple hours from Idaho.
The reason for Shaniko is because of wool. In the early 1900’s they were known as the Wool Capital of the World. In fact the reason Pendleton is located where it is is because of Shaniko. The railroad would leave Pendleton and travel to Shaniko where is would pick up thousands of tons of sheared fleeces from the wool barn.
It might not look like much now but that barn in the background was once 2 football fields long. It is half it’s size now with 50 foot ceilings and has the feeling of a haunted tyrolean castle.
I didn’t know what to expect last Friday morning as we walked into it for the first time. It was….empty, vacant, echoing but remarkable did not smell like an old barn.
You could say I had no vision. I could not see how the above cavern would come to life with wool, fleeces, yarn, felt batts, spinning wheels and people. But it did. It started with a trickle of vendors. As they walked in they had a much better vision of what it would become.
It bloomed, it was amazing. When I walked in that night a 9 pm to help close up the barn….this is what I saw.
Wow!
Tomorrow….dying day one.
Yesterday the family crammed ourselves into my Yaris and made the 1.5 hour drive to Shaniko. I will be vending and teaching at the Shaniko Wool Gathering in 2 weeks and I needed to ‘touch base’ with the town to see where I will be teaching the sock dying classes.
A brief history…I visited Shaniko in June of 2006on the invite of a resident that maintains a weaver’s workshop there. I was kind of an artist in residence for the week. My sock machine meshes nicely with the town and early 1900’s era. Since there is no TV, radio or other distractions, we did alot of talking. I made the comment that they should have a Wool Gathering to celebrate the history of the town. (You see if there were no Shaniko there would be no Pendleton wool factory. Shaniko was the end of the line for the railway. All the sheep ranches brought their wool to Shaniko which was then moved by train to Pendleton.)
The town people (all 23 in the winter) took the idea of a Wool Gathering and ran with it. In two weeks the first Shaniko Wool Gathering will be held. So in a sense, I am a part of the committee…just from a distance.
The good news is I will be using the ground floor of the fire house. This is good because it isn’t outside and if I catch something on fire I’ll be at the right place. Unfortunately I did not get to see inside the wool barn. But after talking with the venue coordinators they decided to put me on the stage (gasp!). Initially when the venue was laid out, we decided to allow vendors a 10 X 12 foot space. But after actually standing inside the barn it was decided that 8 X 12 would allow for a better flow of customers. This created a problem for me as my booth is built around a 10 X 10 easy up frame.
So the kids visited the penny candy store, original jail
and the ice cream store. I sat and talked with Judith and Deborah about the gathering and we left via the town of Antelope. It was an interesting drive for the kids. 
We stopped at the Mountain Indicator and saw lots
of interesting rock formations. Finally back home at 5:30 we were whipped.
The heat and dryness of this area just sucks the life out of us. Check out KT’s hair. It will take weeks to get it back to normal. Both their faces are showing the effects of sun and chlorine pool water.
I am so happy we are going home tomorrow to our damp coastal climate.
Well the long and short of my trek to Black Sheep is…we didn’t vend.
But I did take a few (very few) pictures and here you go.
A walk through the animal barn gave alot of good information. I especially liked this board which showed the fleece and what it looks like after spinning.
Lots of very nice sheep…here is Linda doing the big naughty…petting a sheep! (When you walk in the barns there are signs that say do not pet the animals). Actually this was one of her lambs that were being shown by it’s new owner.
I saw this - gotta love that roman nose.
There were lots of these, Jacob Sheep with nice sets of horns…
and the reason for the whole Black Sheep Gathering is this…
and this…
Finally this very nice needle felted wall hanging.
Monday I’ll post what I bought.
Today I have to make a few calls to see if I can still get in the Artists 4th of July show/vending at the Cultural Center. Since not vending at Black Sheep I have to drum up some business. I’m also going to check out the Farmer’s Market this morning and see what that traffic is like.
Oh well, the best plans are often not reality.
