Cyber Monday Sales!!

For all you bargain hunters out there:
Cyber Monday Sale in Serendipity:
20% OFF ALL PURCHASES!

Free Shipping on all purchases $50 and over!
Also, any purchase of both yarn AND needles will include a free tote bag (perfect size for a small project!).
Sale ends at 12AM Pacific Time Tuesday morning.

I know I'll be hunting for some bargains myself! The past few years I have done almost all of my shopping online. It's easy, quick and you don't have to deal with all the traffic and stress involved with going to the big stores. So have fun and let me know if you find any good deals, I'll post some myself if I see anything really good!

Black Friday Sale!

Hello all, I hope everyone had a nice holiday and was fortunate enough to be able to stuff themselves silly and spend time with family members and loved ones.

Some updates in the Shop:

1st up is our Black Friday Sale:

10% OFF ALL PURCHASES AND FREE SHIPPING!

Also, any purchase of both yarn AND needles will include a free tote bag (perfect size for a small project!).

Sale ends at 12AM EST Saturday morning.

Free Shipping will continue through the weekend as well!

Also, Serendipity is now on Facebook, so please stop by our page and become a Fan!

Happy shopping to those venturing out and please remember the true reason for the season!!

Craft Show in the AM

Well, I have no pictures because my camera is currently shot (no pun intended!) but first thing in the AM Serendipity will be at the Valley Central High School Holiday Craft Festival. Stop by and get some holiday shopping done, (wouldn't it be nice to avoid all the crowds!). It is from 10am-3pm.
Hopefully tomorrow night I will get some serious blogging done (is any of it really "serious"?!?) and upload some pics I have sitting here (Rhinebeck, anyone??).
Also, be sure to check back on Wednesday for the upcoming sales in the shop for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I have lots to be thankful for and will be passing that appreciation on!

Rhinebeck in pictures:

This year's Sheep & Wool Festival was last weekend and I was there both days.
There were alpacas (but the pictures came out blurry). So this is all I have :(


Some majestic llamas said hello:

Sheep competitions:

A yurt (which was very warm inside!!)

Some sheep (which I thought looked like they had alpaca faces) apparently (according to the sign near them), they are Border Cheviots (so cute!):

I loved the face of this ram, I took a bunch of pictures of him but he kept moving, finally hejust sat his face on the fence as if to say, "here, cheese"!

A goat trying to escape:

A nice man, knitting with some BIG sticks!

Lots of crowds:

With pretty fall colors:

Mmmmm....gyros for lunch:

And a nice bunch of new purchases!
How was your Rhinebeck?

Yeah!! It's almost here!!

Rhinebeck, that is! Two more days until tons of knitters, crocheters, spinners, and so many more will descend upon Rhinebeck, NY for the very large NYS Sheep & Wool Festival. My mother and I will be going both days this year to enjoy all the fibery splendor, though I am hoping the weather moves itself along since I live nearby and they are calling for very cold days and, get this, snow!! I will not be a vendor this year but am looking into possibly having a booth for 2010, thoughts??

The problem with that, of course, being that I won't be able to see or enjoy as much if I am stuck in the same place! I am very excited to be going this year as I could really use the break in life that this little getaway brings. I wish I had had more time to finish a large and fabulous project, like a new sweater, or somesuch but family obligations and business work has taken precedent. Thinking about this the other day it occured to me that I have many of the yarns I bought at last year's Rhinebeck and was wondering how many of you do the same? This was brought up in a chat room on Rav recently as well. What's the consensus? Are we all hoarding our coveted Rhinebeck purchases??

And in Serendipity shop news, I am running a sale now through Sunday for 10% off all purchases made online. So be sure and check it out. I am posting more yarns Thursday and Friday as well and will combine shipping on multiple purchases.

Also, if you happen to see me at Rhinebeck (I will have on my Rav pin with my name LILM4105 on it), say Hi and I will be sure to give you a card with a coupon code for 20% a purchase in the Etsy shop. So don't be shy!!

Hope everyone's enjoying fall and the changing colors, better hurry the snow's on it's way!

Endless Mountains Fiber Festival Review

Serendipity Hand-dyed and Hand-painted Yarn & Roving had it's first show booth at this years Endless Mountains Fiber Festival in Harford, PA. It was a lovely show, perfect size if you ask me. You could walk the show in one day, decide what you like the most and go back around to buy, which many people did! I met lots of great people and got lots of great feedback on the yarn. We sold all but one of the roving so I will be dyeing more of that in the very near future!


There was plenty of fiber (and lots of alpaca) for everyone but it wasn't crowded at all like some of the larger shows have become. There were some animals like these llamas who were across from our booth:

And some colored goats that were for sale (aren't they adorable!):

The weather was a bit iffy the first day with off and on rain but that made for a good bunch of people who showed up knowing it was inside a barn and would be covered, second was nicer. I had lots of fun and will definitely be going back again next year. I would recommend this fiber show to anyone who can make it.
In Serendipity Shop news, I have to be out of town this weekend but next week will be posting a large amount of new colorways and with this chill in the air, will be running a little sale.

Loss: Acceptance: New Beginnings

I know I've been neglecting this blog but life has been very hectic and I'm still not sure how to put that out there for the world to see.

On July 28th, my puppy, Smasher passed away. He wasn't really a puppy, at 4 years old, but he certainly wasn't ready for the fate that awaited him. My brother, who was here visiting, woke me around 3:30am to say something was wrong with Smash's breathing.

After calling the animal hospital we got his 102lb. self in the van and raced off in the dead of night......he died on the way.

The vet worked on him for about 30 minutes and then called it and at 4:38am told me my dog had died of what was most likely bloat. I had no idea what that was but apparently, it's very common.

After I collected myself, filled out some papers, paid and left the vet, I somehow made it home though I don't remember the ride. I climbed into bed and all the kids joined me and I told them what had happened. We all cried together for a good, long, time. To be honest I just couldn't believe how much I was going to miss him.

It took me a day or two to really gather myself because I really felt as if I had just lost my best friend. I just kept thinking how great he was and how irreplaceable in my family he had become. He was a german shepherd-dobie mix and weighed 102 lbs. but he was a big, sweet baby. He would bark like crazy to scare people and protect us but wouldn't hurt a soul.

When I was pregnant with my daughter, my husband was working nights and I would go and sit on the living room floor in the dark with him. He would lay his head on my belly as if he knew she was in here and just peer up at me, like he was telling me I was safe; I wasn't alone.

When she came, he was her personal protector. He would bark like crazy and come running if she tried to climb on the counter or went on the front porch or anything he thought she wasn't supposed to be doing. She would lay on him and watch tv and he would just lay there no matter what. Whenever anyone would cry, he would come running and sit there with his head in your lap, raising his eyebrows as if to say, "it's ok, I'm here now". I always felt safe alone because he was always there watching out for us.

Christmas morning last year.

After a few weeks had passed I noticed that our house felt so empty and that my family was always going to be a dog family. I began looking on Petfinder.com and craigslist and emailed tons to my family, but I wasn't truly ready. So in the beginning of September my family and I were out running errands and they suggested that we stop at the shelter, just to look. I wasn't feeling terribly well so I wasn't really up to it but gave in anyway. Once there we looked at some pups and there was a litter of very young puppies who had just arrived. The kids were at the fence petting them all except 1, who was sitting all alone, by herself, waiting patiently. She was the smallest one of all, the runt as they call them. Now it is my experience (mostly proof from my family!) that the runts are the toughest. I walked up to the fence and she walked straight up to me and put her paw to my hand through the fence. In that moment, it was decided. My DH looked at me and said "well, she just picked you" and we filled out the adoption forms. Four days later she was spayed and we brought my new baby home!

Along with a kitten (!) that my oldest refused to leave without! They had both just come into the shelter and decided that our family was to be theres.

I will never forget my Smasher and all the trials we faced together.

However, I know that my family is able to love and give a home to someone special (or two someones as in this case!). If anyone reading this has lost a pet they loved, I send you my sympathies because I know it hurts something awful. But I also know that it slows and dims over time and the happier moments begin to shine through. So if you can, when you're ready, please go to a shelter and take home a new friend. I promise you, they'll let you know how appreciative they are and who doesn't love having someone to come home to? :-)

PA Endless Mountains Fiber Festival

Seredipity Hand-dyed and Hand-painted yarns will be at this weekend's PA Endless Mountains Fiber Festival. It is Sat. 10-5pm and Sun. 10-4pm. If you're able to, please be sure and stop by, (mention you read about it here on the blog and receive 10% off your purchase). So, if you can, come on down ( or up as the case may be), pet an alpaca, check out some yarn and say Hi. I'll be in booth #30.

And then there were four....

Broken needles that is. I have NEVER broken a knitting needle and I have knitted quite a few socks. I have only ever used some kind of wood (usually bamboo) so I was excited to get these needles (Knit Picks Harmony DPNs) but now, not so much. I have been (very slowly) plugging along with the Classic Socks and then night before last this happened:



I have NEVER broken a knitting needle before these and I have knitted quite a few socks. Two of them were broken when I was on the ribbed edging at the top of the cuff (my sister and daughter were playing and landed on them, no injuries just 2 broken needles!). I was able to knit with one as long as I only used one side, then a 3rd broke WHILE I WAS KNITTING and a 4th snapped (along with my patience) while I was checking how far along I was against my leg. Needless to say I am not happy about it. Since I very obviously could not use these for the rest of this project I have switched to some bamboo dpn's and have been continuing along just fine.
Hopefully, I will finish these sometime in the near future! I really like the pattern and the way they are turning out but they seem to be taking forever. The pattern is written to be done two at a time but I (stupidly) decided to do them on DPNs and now have to start all over again with the second sock (Arghhhh!). I keep reminding myself STRESS FREE Summer of Socks but am beginning to wonder why I didn't start my Rhinebeck sweater instead! Any idea what to do with these??




I have no words...

Finally, knitting...

It's not much but I have been working on my Summer of Socks list. These are the Classic Socks that are way past due (they should have been a Christmas gift!). Pic is an awful phone camera shot:

I will be posting more yarn in the Shop tomorrow and am going to be having a sale coming up this weekend to celebrate the 4th of July. I had planned to have more on and to have dyed more but my mother was in the hospital over the weekend and family obligations took precedent. Back to the dye pots in the AM. I will take some pictures this time! For now, so tired...must sleep! Buenas noches!

Summer of Socks 09 & A Sale

So I sat down last night and made a list of socks I would like to (try and) complete for this years Summer of Socks 2009. The theme is stress free, so to that end I decided I would like to finish up some pairs I have laying around that have a bit of second sock syndrome.

Twisted Tulip Socks-1 fully finished, second to go.

River Ripple Socks-needles, pattern and yarn are in bag ready to be cast on.

The Classic Sock- First sock is almost at the heel turn (this one was supposed to be a Christmas gift last year but got so put off!)

Roger Sock- Great new pattern from KnitSpot, have to pick a great variegated color.

Angora House Socks- If I'm lucky I will get this far, but here's hoping.

Embossed Leaves Socks- I have wanted to do these and have had the yarn for a year now.

Sprucey Lucy Socks- still need to pick some yarn for these...hmm...

I think I better stop there since I will be surprised if I get half of those done. I am not a terribly fast knitter and am going to be spending tons of time dyeing yarn, etc. so I will have to be sure and steal some time for myself in the evenings. I dyed 28 skeins yesterday and have listed some new things in the shop that were dyed last week such as this one (great for the upcoming 4th and summertime):

Bomb Pop-Hand-painted superwash merino wool.

I've got lots of other fun, summer colors being listed over the next few days and I'm running a School's Out SALE!! to help kick off summer. You can take 10% off all purchases now through June 30th, 2009. No coupon code needed.

I think that's going to be it for tonight (not much, I know, but I'm working on it). I have lots more dyeing to be done in the AM and listing on Etsy as well. I am trying to get as much work done as possible this week since I would like to take a "day off" from everything this weekend and take my kids fishing or some such fun-ness. We went strawberry picking recently and it was great to just get the kids out without any stress. So, til next time ciao!

Montgomery Farmers Market

Every Friday, in the Village of Montgomery, is a nice farmer's market from 11-5pm. Last month, while picking a strawberry plant for my daughter, I thought it would be nice to have a stand there to sell my Serendipity yarn & roving. So, for the past 2 Fridays I have set up a small stand there and it seems to be well received.

I have gotten a few "what are you selling?, oh, yarn?" but there have also been some knitters and crocheters as well. I'm hoping that word will get out a bit that I am there and more will stop by and check it out. It's a nice group of people and the weather has (for the most part) cleared on market days lately.

I will be there again this Friday from 11-5pm with hopefully even more yarn and roving. The market has also been good practice for my first fiber show, which will be the PA Endless Mountain Fiber Festival, Sept. 12 & 13, 2009 in Harford, PA with LOTS more fiber.

Also worth noting is the Summer of Socks 2009 that has kicked off and this year I made sure to join. I saw it last year but things were so crazy I decided to skip it. This year things are just as crazy but I figured if I joined I would maybe actually get some knitting done and I have to tell ya, the projects are starting to pile up! Plus, I really do love to knit, especially socks, so it will be good to have some pressure on me to relax and knit a bit (ironic, huh?). I tend to work better and faster with a deadline, which is a good thing because I'm also going to have to dye a boatload of yarn and roving for Sept. as well. [Note to self: no more procrastinating!].

I will be listing more yarn in the Etsy store for the next few days and my kids will out of school soon, so hopefully there will be more to write about. So, til next time...adios!

Victory Garden.. wait it gets better!

This year I decided I was going to do a Victory garden (and by I, I meant everyone in my household!). I, of course, decided this in the dead of winter when there was about 2 feet of snow on the ground and the only signs of life were the chickadees on my birdfeeders (of which I have 10 or 11). I decided I was going to grow all my veggies and strawberries for the next 6-8 months. I read online about how lawns were wasteful and started in the Victorian Era as a decoration in yards of the wealthy. Everyone else used every plot of land they could to grow something or raise some type of livestock. So I thought in this day and age, no one has a right to keep a huge lawn when, (even if we didn't need it- which we do) there are people starving in our towns and schools. Not to mention the care and cost of a lawnmower- the oil and gas it requires, etc. This year I was going to be a responsible person and dig up the whole yard and put in a Victory Garden! (This was in Jan.- by March the Victory Garden was everywhere, go figure!) I also seemed to ignore the fact that actually putting it in cost quite a bit as well. So, of course, when it came time to do all of the work, I seemed to have forgotten my very vigilant ideals and we are still mowing a lawn every weekend. However, we did manage to do our part with this lil' bit:

I think I like this picture better with the sunlight streaming in...

That's corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, basil, broccoli, green peppers, green beans and snap peas.

In this one below there are zucchinis, watermelon, summer, acorn and butternut squash.

They look a bit bigger in real life and the plants are definitely doing well, with all this rain we've gotten! I still have more tomatoes and peppers on the deck and a pumpkin patch I would like to start, as well as strawberry plants my 3yo picked out at the Farmers Market. I will get those in as soon as I figure a way to keep them from getting eaten by critters. She's already eaten 4 or 5 ripe fruits so they may just stay on the deck. I think all in all it's pretty good. We amended the soil as little as possible, used all organic seeds, plants and soil, laid newspaper and straw down to inhibit weeds and now we wait. it's not exactly a Victory Garden but it's a start in the right direction. Til' next time....ta-ta...

Not exactly tomorrow but...

I know I haven't written much on here because, to be honest, I'm not sure what to write. I'm not sure how personal I should be on a blog without being too personal. However, I have come to the conclusion that I have to become somewhat inclusive and let people have a glimpse into my life a bit and see who I really am, or this will never be successful (as far as blogs go). The truth is, I don't think I know how to write about my life, or even the shop, without being totally personal, the good and bad! So, I will try it and hopefully some of you reading this will comment and let me know what you think. (Hopefully, the blog visits have not all been my mother!) I am going to write about my new endeavor, my business- dyeing yarn and roving, my knitting and my (sad) attempt at gardening. I'm also going to write about my family (a bit) and the events of my life because they are sometimes mind-boggling (I have been told countless times that my life should be a tv show- "you can't make this stuff up!"). I hope I don't offend or turn anyone away and I truly hope and implore you to, please, use the comments link to tell me what you think. I've always been one to do things a bit different, let's see how it goes....

Just a quickie!

I will be writing more in the very near future but I just wanted to pop on and say that I am doing my first stand at the Village of Montgomery Farmers Market tomorrow. I will be sure to take pictures to post. I will also be a vendor at the PA Endless Mountains Fiber Festival this September. More about that tomorrow!

Some quick shop talk....

Some quick news about the Etsy Shop:
The shop was featured on the showcase blog Best of Etsy and I have added a 10% off coupon code (just type "best of etsy" in notes to seller at checkout). The blog is a new showcase every week with items from Etsy that are spectacular but have little or no sales, please go check it out.
The shop was also featured in a Treasury West. Big thank you's to both for including us!
I was very excited to open those emails!
With all this excitement, I went ahead and extended free shipping through April 30th, as well. So please go check it out and let me know if there's something you like, or don't like. I can't improve without critcism (be gentle!). I will be ordering more yarn this week to dye so let me know if there is a color you would like to see as well.
More funness: We were able to go over and see the new kids at Hudson Valley Fiber Farm last Thursday. I was able to hold a few of the new baby goats (so, so sweet). There have been many more born since then. The kids (mine) loved it as well. The oldest wants chickens and the younger was chasing the goats and gathering them around like a border collie. We all can't wait to go back.
That's about it for today, not much substance but lots of info.

Easter Eve

Not quite used to posting yet, I have to remember to take pictures as I'm doing things I guess. Anyway, I spent sometime in the dye pots the other day and when they were dry today we had this:

Some are a yummy alpaca/wool blend and the others are 100% alpaca and some superwash wool for socks. I should have them reskeined by Monday so they can be listed in the shop this week. I dyed more last night as well so those are hanging to dry. Will post pics soon.

Today was a very busy day running out to the store, etc. so no new progress knitting wise unfortunately. I feel like I haven't knitted in a million years since I started dyeing yarn. It's funny though the other night I picked up my needles on the socks I'm working on and I realized how nice it felt! I'm not sure if it was because I was taking time for myself or what but, I really LOVE knitting! I'm not by any means a method knitter because I like to really accomplish something and the idea of ripping things out drives me crazy. I'm of the belief that it WILL fit SOMEBODY. However, there's something so calming about it at the same time. I knit to relieve stress since I have fibromyalgia and need to find ways to relax. So in the coming weeks I am going to try and set a goal to knit a bit daily, we shall see how it goes ( I wouldn't hold my breath if I was you).

A fun thing to mention: We have shares of the Hudson Valley Fiber Farm in Hopewell Junction, NY and I along with many, many others have been watching the lambcam on Ravelry eagerly awaiting the birth of the many goat kids. Today the first was born! I missed it but it was apparently very exciting. I was planning on heading over there today but decided against it since it was raining until the mid-afternoon. Hopefully, we will get over there this week and see some babies! I will post pictures, if I can remember to bring the camera!

Tomorrow is Easter so I have to go and spend the night baking pies now (Chocolate Cream for the kids and Maple Pecan for my Momma). Will try to blog more in the future. Happy Easter!

To firsts!

Well, I never really understood the whole blogging thing but here I find myself typing away to no one and everyone all at once! I just opened a shop on etsy.com (another first) and found time and again the suggestion to have a blog, so here I am. I will post mostly stuff for the shop, hand-dyeing & hand-painting yarn & roving and maybe some of my knitting. I will try not to be too boring and will write when my very crazy life allows. I'm a stay-at-home momma so you would think life would be boring but not so much. I actually dream of a day when everything would just be relaxing and go as planned, again....not so much. So, until next time....