Snicklefritz Yarns: Back at Knit-One-One September 26th, 10am-4pm

Snicklefritz and the Gnomes will be back at the Knit-One-One studio on Saturday September 26th from 10am to 4pm for the monthly sale!

I will be rolling out a lot of new products:

Merino/Cashmere/Nylon roving: spins like a dream. I don’t know whether to knit with this hand-spun or just squish it!

Merino/Silk roving: available both in acid dyed as well as naturally dyed

click here for more info and directions

Natural dyed yarn & organics: done with natural dyes, including some incredible stuff with indigo and cochineal! Get those purples and greens before they fly off the table! Base yarns are really yummy and include merino and silk blends.

Washed fleece and locks from the following breeds: Blue-faced Leicester (gray/black), Wensleydale (black), Cotswold, Cormo, Manx Loghtan, Kerry Hill, and a few other surprises! Some of these are available in natural colors and some have been dyed. I also have a full fleece from a Castlemilk Moorit – tiny little guy, but it’s a lovely fleece and makes a wonderfully creamy yarn.

 

Snicklefritz Yarns at Knit-One-One!

My favorite skein of yarn just found a good home!

The yarn was a very new addition to the Snicklefritz line-up. It’s an incredibly soft and squishy Merino/Cashmere/Nylon blend. I decided to make a new colorway focusing on greens since I have several customers who have tons of green in their stashes and can’t get enough of it. So what is the new colorway called? “TEMPTATION” !! That’s because some of these same customers call me “The Evil Temptress” lol.

 

Snicklefritz at Knit-One-One: Berkeley June 27th, 2009 !!

Snicklefritz will be featured at the Knit-One-One craft sale on the 27th of June!

Details: the knit-one-one studio, 3360 Adeline Street Berkeley, CA, 94703

Come join us for a fabulous event! I’ll have lots of new yarns including some merino/cashmere in both fingering and sport weight, silk/camel, as well as some limited-edition Wensleydale and rare breed spinning fiber prepared just for the show!

 

Gnomes at the Cotswolds Farm Park: part 3

The Kerry Hill Sheep are another one of the rare breeds at the park:

There are just too cool!

and talk about GORGEOUS!!

 

Gnomes at the Cotswolds Farm Park: part 2

The Cotswolds Farm Park is a facility dedicated to rare breed conservation and is set within the Cotswolds hills. Their efforts have been instrumental in helping save many breeds of sheep and cattle that were on the brink of extinction. All the animals are in individual pastures with plenty of space to run around in and have a good time.

The first stop was to see the Soay Sheep:

Notice in the pics that many of the sheep have lost a lot of their fleece already. This particular breed sheds them naturally. Alternatively, they can be plucked rather than sheared.

The second stop was to see the North Ronaldsay Sheep. They are unique in that they originally subsisted on a diet of seaweed! They’ve since been able to adapt to traditional feeds such as grass and hay.

Next stop is the “Cotswolds Sheep”:

These sheep have a gorgeous fleece with a very long staple length:

The Hebridean sheep were next. They are another member of the primitive breeds that shed their fleece.

The Manx Loghton has an interesting history:

Was it the Gnome or the farm supplied “goodies” that attracted all the interest??

The Norfolk Horn is an extremely rare breed and in high demand from local spinners:

The Herdwick:

Black Wensleydale:

Portland Sheep:

 

Gnomes in the Cotswolds: Part 1

The Snicklefritz Gnomes are currently traveling in the Cotswolds. This is an incredibly beautiful area of England that is slightly to the northwest of London and lies in parts of Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and several other counties. The name “Cotswolds” is derived from the region’s sheep heritage: “cots” refers to the sheep enclosures and “wolds” refers to the rolling hills that the sheep graze on.

Today one of the Gnomes spent most of the day in the Gloucestershire area. The countryside is dotted with more sheep than you can count. This photo is a close-up however, so you only see a few sheep:

Here he is saying hello to one of his goat friends at the Cotswolds Farm Park:

Hey! Don’t eat the flowers in my basket! (the Gnome has a basket of flowers in his left hand)

Here are some cute piglets that escaped from their pen and are running around the Farm Park:

One of the piglets snuck up on the Gnome with the following result: “Help! I can’t get up!”

Most of the animals at the Farm Park are outdoors, but some are indoors so people can get a closer view:

“Sorry Mr. Sheep, those flowers are not for you!”

 

Cotswolds: Gnome doing the yarn crawl

One of the Snicklefritz Gnomes arrived in the Cotswolds yesterday evening. He is staying in Broadway which is often called the “Gateway to the Cotswolds”. It is a beautiful area with many charming cottages. It rained most of sunday morning but around Noon or so it cleared up and the Gnome went shopping:

The shop is called “Wool In Broadway” and is owned by a lady named Pat (aka “Patd” on Ravelry). Here is the Gnome in front of the shop:

Here is the Gnome inside the store, standing next to the skein of Colinette wool/cotton that he just bought. The colors are very pretty and he says it will make a nice scarf or shawl. Maybe he will go back to buy more!

 

Gnomes in Delft

After visiting Keukenhof, the Gnome took a short trip to Delft for the afternoon. Here is in The Hague waiting for a train:

There are no discounts on tickets for Gnomes. Even though they are small creatures, they still have to pay full price for a ticket. It was something like 3.6 Euros for the ticket.

Delft is a very charming little town, with some very old buildings interspersed amongst  modern ones. The Gnome visited “Oude Kerk” (Old Church) which dates from the 1200′s as you can see from the sign near the entrance:

Here are some views of the church:

After visiting the church, the Gnome did a walking tour. There are many famous sites along the canals. The Gnome visited the site where Anthony Von Leeuwenhoek used to work. This was the scientist who made major improvements to the optical microscope and was the first to observe single-celled organisms. Here is the placard:

Here are some views from the walking tour:

The second half of the walking tour got rained out, so the Gnome hung out in various shops and got caught up on blogging.

 

Gnomes in the Netherlands

The Gnome was very busy in the Netherlands. One of the first places he visited was Keukenhof, THE place to see Tulips:

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Here is the Gnome at the entrance. The crowds were a bit smaller than usual because it was a bit cold and rainy out. Fortunately the sun came out later that morning.

Tulips are everywhere!

There are more colors of Tulips than you can image. Here is a small sampling:

There are lots of smaller exhibits with particular types of Tulips on display:

…the park is dotted with many small streams and waterways. Here is the Gnome traversing a stream as he travels between exhibits:

What beautiful colors!

One of the indoor exhibits featured other flowers besides Tulips. Here is the entrance to an incredible display of Lillies:

Look at this one!

Gnome visited his friend the Owl while he was at the park:

 

Gnomes In Belgium

The Snicklefritz Gnomes traveled from London to Brussels on Tuesday via Eurostar and then took a separate train to get to Brugge. The pictures below show some of the places they visited. Details will follow tomorrow.