At last we are done lambing, having had a total of 54 new wee wooly ones born! It has been an overwhelming time, with 35 born in the same week!

The Cat and Crow continues to be a great place, with more interesting things happening every week. Just this morning I brought in new, beautiful, tweedy grey lambswool yarn from the Four Crows flock that is exceptionally soft, and would make a great sweater.

We got a new shipment of Winnifred's Washable and Lumpy Bumpy from Farmhouse Yarns; both have been a favorite of customers. In addition, we have new handmade items for sale, including scarves, a vest, and new needle-felted items from Lulu, of Lulu's Stabby Critters.

We had a great felting workshop last Saturday that has inspired me to make a series of wet-felted scarves...this is a very fun workshop that we offer every 5 months or so.

Please come by the store and visit! Have a look at our website at thecatandcrowonline.com for information on our vendors and classes.

The new shop, The Cat and Crow, is getting to be more fun everyday, usually when something unexpected happens.  It might be a local llama farmer stopping by to see if we want yarn that they've had made (we do!), or a woman dropping off her gorgeous naturally dyed yarns.  

This week we got interesting and beautiful handmade baskets from Juliana Clausen, including a very clever design suggested by our good friend, Jo Winkler-Bley, that can be hung near your favorite knitting chair, and has a hole in the bottom through which your yarn can run.  

Our favorite new yarn might just be a bulky weight 60% alpaca, 40% merino yarn from Angel's Kiss.  It is soooo soft, lofty, and felts fabulously!

We also got a shipment of 'Winnifred's Washable', from Farmhouse Yarns, which is dyed with the usual expertise of Farmhouse Yarns in bright vibrant colors that would be perfect for baby items. It is 55% Merino, and 45% acrylic and feels like Merino;  she chose this yarn after comparing the environmental impact of making wool washable to the impact of acrylic manufacture. It costs $22.00 for 450 yards.  Come in and see, and touch!

On the day after Thanksgiving, we are having a 'shop and craft' event, where for $5.00, you can create a small gift or ornament by knitting, needle or wet felting,  or felting over soap.  

We will have something for everyone!

Yarn shop in Mt. Horeb

On October 3rd, a friend and I will be opening a new yarn and fiber shop in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin.
The Cat and Crow is its name, and our mission is to provide an outlet for locally produced yarn and fibers, offer classes in knitting, crochet, spinning, dyeing, and felting, as well as being a gathering place for fiber artists of all levels.

Our address is 205 E Main St. Mt. Horeb, WI 53572. E-mail us at thecatandcrow@mhtc.net, or call us at 608.437.1771.

We hope to see many new faces, and lots of old friends there!

Yarn shares on the way!

We are thrilled to announce that yarn shares will be available for sale beginning in September!

We loved the CSA model for getting fiber from our farm to end users directly, and wanted to expand what we could offer; in addition to gorgeous roving we will be offering shares for yarn.

Our wool clip this year looks great, and currently some is off being spun into a heathered grey worsted weight that I will over-dye. The yarn shares will include both solid colors and hand painted, as well as a bit of hand-spun. The details are still to be worked out, and full information will be posted here soon.

Welcome to the Four Crows Farm blog

In the next few weeks you will see much more of us here, and we hope you enjoy it!

We are a small family farm in southern Wisconsin, raising sheep for their fiber and just because we like them! They spend most of the year here, going to summer camp where there is more pasture. They don't do so well at the crafts at camp, but do enjoy sleeping outside.

All the sheep have names, and have lived most of their lives with us. They provide us with a lot of beautiful fiber. We particularly enjoy designing color ways to dye the wool, which is then carded into roving.

As we are moving toward a more sustainable life-style, we were drawn to using the Community Supported Agriculture model for delivering our fiber to you, the end user. Our initial offering is limited to 50 shares, to make certain we deliver the best, and most beautiful fiber to you. The shares will be available through our Etsy store, which is currently under development. We will let everyone know when it is ready.

We are selling shares in our wool harvest for $125 each, which will provide you with 3.5-4 pounds of fiber, in the form of roving. You will receive this in 5 deliveries, spaced 2 months apart. In the next year, we will also be offering yarn shares.

We hope you will enjoy getting our 'fresh produce' that is the pride of both our farm, and our artistry!