New Bags and Bike Rides

Hello friends, and happy Friday. I write to you from the rainforest that is currently forming in central Indiana. The garden and pasture are thriving with the recent monsoons and warm weather. Summer will not be denied! I tolerate this because I ate my first BLT sandwich of the year and the ingredients were 100% from our farmers’ market.

There is more news about our market below, but first, a little business.

After working through a bunch of my old fabric stash (thank you, dear knitters for enjoying the previous project bags I’ve made), I decided it was time to explore new fabrics, and I am here to bring you the cutest storybook farm animals!

Don’t they make you long for a little bookshelf full of Little Golden Books? I made two variations of project bags with this fabric. There are a couple that are full panels of just these animals, and some more with patchwork panels including a fabulous bee pattern.

There are also new bags with hazy summery butterflies, and a couple of very scrappy farm prints.

All the square bottom bags are made with quilter’s cotton and are fully lined. These are pictured with two 100g skeins of yarn, but they will hold more! I use mine to transport my sock WIPs to the market, and I really do love how functional and cute they are. I hope you like them too! You can see all the current bags here.

That’s all the business! Well, my tiny inventory of undyed yarn did catch my attention yesterday as if to say, “you remember me, right?” And I do! I am grateful to you all for understanding my summer hiatus, and I feel a lot of gratitude knowing that you’re still interested in what we’re doing, even if it doesn’t involve wool at this moment. Much love to you!

This is my cargo bike. It is a Yuba Boda Boda that Bill electrified. It has a “go fast switch,” which means that I can make it move by just pushing a button, but I primarily use the electrification for the pedal assist. That is, when I pedal, the motor engages and makes me feel like I have the strength of Superwoman.

I think the bike weighs 80 pounds (like, actually 80 pounds. Not 80 pounds as a rhetorical device). I will admit that I am often intimated by riding this massive thing. But, riding a bike to our weekly market is way, way more fun and satisfying than driving our truck, so I am being super brave this summer. Especially because we are now bringing produce to the market, which requires me to tow a trailer.

I hope that, by the end of the market season, I will be writing to you with confidence about hauling eggs and tomatoes by bike, and the trepidation of riding it will be a distant memory. But until then, friends, know that I am determined to do this thing, even though it scares me. If you have a similar challenge and need any of that energy in your life too, please tap into it! I’ll be there cheering you on.

Until then, friends - please be well. Thank you again for staying in touch.

Much love from
JoAnna, Bill, and the bagels

New Project Bags!