Will There Be More Yarn?

The Much Longer Answer . . .
In 2022 I got divorced.  For anyone, it’s a difficult decision.  For me, it was especially difficult because I knew I would have to sell my farm as part of the divorce.  I had owned my Stockton farm for 19 years (long before I had met ex-husband), plus my Winslow farm for three years before that, so I had a total of 22 years raising sheep. I did not want to stop raising sheep.  But when it got to the point where I felt my children and I were no longer safe in our home the decision was suddenly very clear, and I chose to sell my farm to keep my family safe. 

The divorce started in January of 2022 and took a grueling nine months.  That August my sheep were moved to the farm of my friend Kathy of Frivolous Ewe, and in September 2022 the divorce was final and my children and I moved off the farm and into a cozy house in town.  I miss the daily interaction of tending to my sheep, but it has been wonderful to watch my children thrive and stretch their wings in a quiet, peaceful, and safe home. 

My sheep were sheared before they moved off my farm in 2022.  In 2023, 2024 and 2025 they were sheared at Frivolous Ewe.  The owners of Blackberry Ridge, the mill I had been using for over 20 years to wash, card and spin my wool into yarn, were in the process of retiring and ran their last batch of my wool in 2022.  In 2023 and 2024 I sent my raw wool to two different mills, but unfortunately I wasn’t happy with the quality of either batch and have decided not to sell it.  Blackberry Ridge agreed to do one more batch of my yarn (the 2025 shearing).  I am pleased to say it is the same high-quality that I've always received from them, and that is the yarn I have available now in my Etsy shop. 

And that, my friends, will be the very last batch of yarn that I will sell.  The truth is that tending the sheep is more fun than selling the yarn, so I am retiring from yarn selling after this last batch is sold.  I’ve asked Kathy to keep the shearings from 2026 and going forward for herself.  After my last batch of yarn is sold, you will still be able to buy wool from my sheep by contacting Frivolous Ewe through Facebook at www.facebook.com/FrivolousEwe and asking for wool from “Suzy’s Flock” (although she doesn’t sell finished yarn, just raw wool, roving and top that you can spin yourself).  You can also see photos of my sheep anytime on her Facebook page – she has MANY sheep, but only my sheep wear blue ear tags.  My sheep are thriving at Frivolous Ewe, where they are very well loved and spoiled with regular chin scratches, so while I miss them I am happy with my decision to move them to Frivolous Ewe.  

My goal was to keep my children safe, but it turns out I am thriving, too.  My divorce was so awful that I never even considered dating again.  But I started hanging out more often with a long-time friend, Todd, who I had known for almost 30 years.  Our friendship blossomed, and I married my friend in April of 2026.  Todd is an outstanding man who treats me the way I want my daughter to be treated by her husband, and how I want my son to treat his wife - but he is 100% a townie and would never have survived life on a farm as a shepherdess's husband!  So perhaps, everything happens for a reason. ;)

I will continue to sell my yarn, knit goods, and historic pattern kits on my Etsy page until it is sold out.

Thank you for supporting me and purchasing yarn from me for the past 20 years!

Wear wool, 

Suzy the Shepherdess, Emeritus
Suzy Beggin McKenna