Knitters All Over the World

One of the lovely things about attending VK Live was meeting many, many knitters. And getting to share the way I see color and the art of knitting. It is a great priviledge to write a knitting book but to be down in the trenches with the real knitters - now that is fun of another kind! 

I never thought I would meet knitters from overseas at VK Live. I guess I really didn't think about it. I know I have blog readers from all over the world but I have never met any of them (except for one). In a few of my classes, I had students from Germany which was a pleasant surprise. Gives me the idea that in Germany, knitting must be up and coming again! To top it all off, one of the students - Martina Hecht - is a blogger! She writes "MaschenGold.". Her blog is available both in German and English! Wow - what a lot of work!  Here you can read a review of my "Joy of Color" class. It sounds like she "got" what I was trying to share. I hope she shares it with her fellow knitters in Germany too!

If you haven't had the chance to look yet, my new "Get Stitched on the Farm" website is up! Here's the link. You can poke around it. Check out the dates for the new classes! The banner below was one that didn't quite fit. Too bad - it was too tall.

2011 Classes with Kristin at Leyden Glen Farm Announced Today

I've finalized the dates for the 2011 classes this morning. The new website is up and you can find it here. Even if you can't come to the farm, check out my new website designed by the students I worked with at University of Massachusetts/Amherst.

Note that due to much input from former students, I am adding a new feature. If you would like to put together a group all your own of six to ten students, I will be happy to host you here at the farm. I can custom design a class just for you. This option is also open to yarn stores and knitting guilds. If you would like further information, to schedule a custom class, or to discuss anything further, please e-mail me.

As always, I thank you for your support of our farm and my creative life which I so enjoy sharing with you.

Continuous Cycles

We've had a continuous pot of chicken soup going on the stove since the week before Christmas. I don't know about where you live but there's been a bit of the nasty cold thing going around. I was lucky enough to get it twice. I am recovering but now my family is down with it. More chicken soup is simmering away.


Late in the day yesterday, The Farmer and I sorted out the last of the 2010 ram lambs from the flock of lambs that have been in the pasture in front of our farmhouse. We've got our last appointment at the processor until probably sometime late in the spring or early summer. Marrying supply with demand while working with nature (sheep begin breeding in August and there is a 5 month gestation cycle) is a constant struggle. We have pretty much thrown up our hands and are just going with the natural flow of the life cycle of the earth and the sheep.

Supply and demand of our lamb meat is one giant problem we will never completely be able to overcome. It's not like when I was in the yarn business and we just had to make sure we got our orders in on time for prompt delivery. Most consumers just do not think about where their meat comes from. They totally disconnect the plastic wrapped, styrofoam-trayed meat in the grocery store from the animal that it came from. I know because I was one of them. I never thought anything about lifecycles of animals, birthing, slaughtering, diseases, grazing, graining or anything else I have learned so much since we began our flock of sheep many, many years ago. I feel it is kind of my job now to educate customers at the Farmers Markets about life cycles and supply. I personally don't think most customers are at all interested - they just want their lamb stew in the winter and their ground lamb in the summer. But I'll keep trying.

Speaking of, do you have any Winter Farmers Market in your area? Here in the Pioneer Valley, there are quite a few (we are doing the Amherst Farmers Market at the Middle School a few times a month). CISA has organized 3 special markets in Greenfield, Springfield, and Northampton. They are fun because they are inside and have a festive atmosphere (music, prepared soups and coffee). Check out your local winter markets if you have the opportunity. It's amazing how many veggies are available all winter long!

2010 was a wonderful year here at our farm. The photo above shows the two big accomplishments - the growth of our Leyden Glen Lamb business and the studio/porch addition to the Farmhouse where I ran my "Getting Stitched on the Farm" classes. I thank all of you for coming on this journey with me and for being so supportive. A special thanks to all the wonderful students who braved our dirt road and spent a few fun-filled days of knitting, color, and farming with us.

I'll be announcing the upcoming "Get Stitched" classes on Saturday, January 15th. If you are one of the people who has e-mailed me, check back then.

Kick in the Butt

Early last winter I needed a kick in the butt. I was feeling like I was going nowhere and floundering. I had ideas floating around in my head but that was it - they were just floating. Somehow I heard about a consultant named Allen who came bi-weekly to the local Chamber of Commerce in Greenfield. It is a service provided by the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center Network's western regional office and it is free.

I took the leap and signed on for an appointment with Allen. We met several times and he got me on track to further my plans for my Get Stitched on the Farm classes. Basically I think Allen thought I was a bit loopy. I told him about our farm, about my books, about my designing. I don't think he had any clients quite like me. At one point he looked at me and he asked me why we bothered to have sheep and birth lambs. I told him he wouldn't understand and that it was just what we do. We kind of left it like that. I kept visiting Allen for a few more months and I got my business on track. I learned a lot from Allen and I really should go visit him again. He gave me some ideas I never would have thought of. He isn't stuck in "my industry" so he thought out of my box which was helpful.

Allen asked me if I would be interested in working with UMASS students. (University of Massachusetts/Amherst is about 45 minutes from here and he is a Professor there.) He said that sometimes his clients work with the Isenburg School of Management as test cases. In particular, he offered hooking me up with a Professor who teaches website design and marketing. He said if I was interested, he thought perhaps the students could build me a website for my Get Stitched Classes. Me, I'm always on the look-out for help since I am a one-woman show (with some fab help from my tech editor/webmaster Lori and other good friends - it's hard to do anything without good friends). And then I waited and waited. None of the students were interested in my business. Oh well.... I thought .... this business is always misunderstood. I'll just keep plowing forward on my own. We ran several successful classes this summer and I learned some more.

And then Allen emailed me this September. Did I still want that free website? Oh yeah. Enter Sarah, Xiumel, and Cherry. We met in late September here at the farm. They were so excited and personable. Like with so many younger people, nothing was impossible. I love that energy! I became their client. I had to write the copy, organize the whole darn thing, sort through thousands of photos, burn CD's, review a "site map." Lots of going back and forth. I designed two different banners because the first didn't work. There was lots of driving to the town hall to look at the faux website because it wouldn't load on dial-up. We've been working on the website for a few months now and unfortunately, it isn't ready to be announced to the world yet.

Basically this post is just a big old tease. But not really. Last night my family and I went to The Isenberg School of Management to Room 129. There we watched all of the business students present their websites to the professor and their fellow students. I waited in anticipation knitting away in the back of the room. I knew what our site looked like and I knew I liked it. But it was really interesting to see what the other students had developed, to meet the other small business clients, to hear more about SEO, SWOT, and all the other terms that were thrown around which basically I know nothing about. Sometimes I really miss school..... Julia sat there intent, listening, she even started taking notes. She turned to me a few times and said "Boy Mommy, this is really interesting." My heart swelled.

And then it was our site's turn. The lights went down and the PowerPoint began. The girls described me, my business, our house, and the Get Stitched Classes to the other students (mostly boys around 20 to 22 years old). They did a fabulous job with the site. They worked so hard - I can't imagine how long it all took and how they fit it in with all their other classes. Here's the banner that you will see in the future.


The girls had urged me to come to the final class and they said I should bring a cheering section. They said that the sites would be voted on by the students and that one site would win. I could tell they wanted to win. Me too. I guess I took them seriously because I brought the family. After all the presentations were complete, the Professor finished up some odds and ends of Class Evaluations (boy, when I was in school we never got to evaluate our teachers!). And then the votes were tallied. And guess what? "Get Stitched" was the winner! How cool. Noone will know this except for the 20 or so kids in the class and my family and now you. Here's a photo I snapped of the girls before we left the room. Aren't they the cutest?

The website won't be up for awhile officially but I will surely let you all know when it launches. But what I wanted to share with all of you was the experience of the past few months. I get lots of e-mails from women out there who want to become designers. They ask me for help, advice and guidance. Mostly I can't answer them in depth. I don't have the time nor the energy. But what I do do is write this blog and try to sometimes share with you all some of my experiences as a writer, author, and small business person.

Today's lesson is to just go for it. Get yourself out of your comfort zone. Seek free help - it is out there once you start talking to people. Think about what you want to do with your knitwear or art career and start talking to others. It is a business just like any other business. You have (or will soon have) a product. And then you have to market it. There are plenty of people now working out of their homes who have successful businesses. I'm not there yet but I'm making progress. There are untold challenges ahead. But you have to start somewhere so as the old Nike ad said "Just Do It!"

And personally, the best thing out of this entire experience was this: As we were leaving Classroom No. 129, Julia turned to her dad and I and said "Can I go to college?" You all don't know how big a statement this was.... This is our daughter who constantly says she is never going to leave home. A child who has health issues, learning disabilities, and motor issues. A child who we worry about constantly, who just started riding the school bus this year. Oh, she is growing up and last night I could feel the future. It was a wonderful night.

Thank you Xiumel, Cherry and Sarah. And thank you Allen and the MSBDC.

Happy Thanksgiving

As Americans throughout our continent and throughout our world celebrate Thanksgiving, I wish you and yours, the very yummiest of days. As a Thanksgiving tradition at our dinner table, we go around the entire table and everyone, young or old, shares with the rest of the family what they are thankful for. It is always a lot of fun - some of our family members' thoughts are very serious and some are very funny. I especially love to hear what the kids have to say.

So today, on the morning of Thanksgiving, I want to say to you all that I am incredibly thankful for all of you out there who encourage me by reading and commenting on my blog. This blog has become a very special part of my life - way more important to me than I every thought it would or could become. You all give me a reason to remain motivated to create new projects, develop new knitting and stitching patterns, and to compile and write books. You all are helping to support our farm and for that my family and I are very grateful. Many of you have participated in our "Getting Stitched On The Farm Classes" which is really a dream come true for me. To put it out there in the universe and to actually have knitters come to our farm is something I never could have imagined would ever happen here when we bought this old farmhouse and abandoned orchard back in 1998.

Through this blog, I have stretched my artistic boundaries. You have encouraged my photography immensely - another thing that I could never have envisioned happening. Never before would I have taken the time to walk around for hours through the fields and along our road capturing the little bits of beauty before me. Never would I have thought so much about how much nature inspires my sense of color - nor documented it so often.

For those of you who often write to me for advice on how to begin a career in knitwear, (or for those who are itching to write but perhaps can't find the time) - all I can say is "just do it." You never know until you try what failure or success you will have -- but you will learn something none the less.

And so Happy Thanksgiving to you all. Our best from all of us at Leyden Glen Farm for a wonderful day!

October Giveaway #2 - Julia Yarn and My Book Kristin Knits via Knitch Magazine

Wow, one contest isn't finished yet here and I'm already announcing another one. A busy October here at the farm and on the blog! October Giveaway #2 is really great. It is being sponsored by the fine folks at Knitch Magazine, YarnMarket.com, Nashua Handknits and ME!

Here's what you can win this time:
12 skeins of Julia Yarn (any of the colors that YarnMarket.com stocks)
An autographed copy of my book "Kristin Knits"

This prize is worth over $115! As The Farmer says "SWEET!" Can you imagine him saying that? Julia and I are still laughing at him - He learned it from his young, hip friends at the Farmers Markets.


Today's prize is rather easy. But there is a question you have to answer.

1. First off, read the article by Deb Knight about her trip to the "Get Stitched on the Farm" classes that she attended this past summer. Deb chronicles her visit to the farm and her entire farm experience here. She is the editor of the on-line knitting and crochet Knitch Magazine!
2. Check out the Julia page on the YarnMarket.com site and COUNT the number of Julia colors. Here is the link.
3. Send an e-mail to

JuliaYarn@Yarnmarket.com

In the subject line, type Julia Yarn Contest
In the body of the e-mail, give the number of colors of Julia that YarnMarket shows on their Julia page.

The winner will receive an autographed copy of Kristin Knits and 12 skeins of Julia Yarn (colors of your choice).


The contest ends Midnight October 31, 2010. A random drawing from all the correct answers will take place on November 3, 2010 and the winner will be announced on the YarnMarket.com blog Shear Bagatelle. (I'll let you know who wins here too!)

p.s. How do you like the new photo of my Julia Yarn in the egg cartons? I'm working on a postcard to give away at Stitches in Hartford in a couple weeks. What do you think?

p.p.s. If you have trouble getting to the Julia Yarn Page and you have already read the article, the answer is 33 colors of Julia Yarn.

October 2010 Get Stitched on the Farm Weekend Class Wrap-Up

The last "Get Stitched on the Farm" Weekend Class of 2010 happened this past weekend. We had a wonderful group of five knitters from Virginia, Minnesota, Arizona, and Boston. These women were so eager to learn from me and absorb as much as they could. I gave them all I could and was plum exhausted for two days! I'm hoping they were exhausted too. I don't have too many photos to show because I totally spaced out taking them - I was so involved in teaching and sharing.

Here we are on our Farm Tour first thing in the morning on Saturday. The Farmer is getting better and better at explaining how and why he farms the way he does. The dogs got into the act by herding the sheep into a second field. Our visitors even helped to set up the fence.


Everyone always loves to watch the dogs work!

After the sheep I shared the rest of the farm - the gardens, the chickens, the farmhouse.


Then we went to work in the studio. This space is so great for a class like this!


All during the weekend, there was lots of amazing food prepared by my friends Linda Pratt and Cathy Payson. I am so, so, so lucky to have such great and talented friends!


The highlight of my weekend is always the hayride. Here are scenes from late Saturday afternoon's trip around our world.


The days are much shorter now so we had to leave earlier in the afternoon in order to get to see everything.


The view from the top of the hill.


Whizzing by some bales of hay.


Lovely late afternoon early October color.


On the way back to the farmhouse, we stopped to watch the dogs move the ewes around the field they were grazing.


It was once again a lovely weekend. Every group of knitters I have had have been warm, interested, extremely talented people. It is a pleasure for us to open up our home and share it with them. I'm pretty sure they left knowing more about living on a working sheep farm. I know they left with lots of new knitting knowledge to work on through the winter. Thanks for coming and traveling so far Meg, Elizabeth, Judy, Pam, and Robin!

Student Project - Cynthia

Cynthia is a "repeat offender" at my "Get Stitched on the Farm" classes. She was in the first session last July and couldn't wait to come back this year. Thank you Cynthia for coming back!

Cynthia chose a Trumpet Vine Flower to work off of. Trumpet Vine Flowers are exquisite things. They have a striped interior and light yellow pistils and stamens. They are little works of art in their own.

Cynthia is a knitter and chose to work her flower in the round. She made my "Pacific Socks" last year from Kristin Knits and was able to combine the technique from them with her flower.


(Photo from Kristin Knits by Kevin Kennifick.)

Cynthia chose to knit her flower in the round on double pointed needles. She combined the striping with the increases and ended the flower with some massive increases and a bobbled edge.

Here is the inside of Cynthia's flower.

Here is Cynthia's flower after felting.



Cynthia is going to combine this flower with her other felted flowers she brought and make herself a scarf. Fabulous job Cynthia! I hope you send me a photo of the finished scarf!

There is still one more space available in the October 2/3 Class at the Farm. You can check it out here.

Student Projects - Karin

Karin came from NJ to the "Celebration of Color and Flowers" Class at our farm this past weekend. Karin's Cockscomb Celosia inspired this colorway. You can see the flower she crocheted to the left. Karin is both a knitter and crocheter but she chose to crochet all her flowers. That was a good plan because they go much faster than knitting.

Here's the close-up of her crocheted Cockscomb Celosia. After this photo was taken, she added a stem, glued on a piece of felt and attached a pin. Her plan is to wear it as a brooch next winter. It is possible to knit a flower like this but would be much more time consuming than crochet.
Here is the pillow design she came up with. Her base yarn was Tahki's Donegal Tweed so every flower and the background felt has that nice tweed fleck to it.
Karin's huband came along too and he was driving home. I sent her off with sewing thread and needle and she was going to finish the pillow top on the way home on her 5 hour ride. I hope she finished it!

There is still one more space available in the October 2/3 Class at the Farm. You can check it out here.

Student's Project - Diane

Diane was the most local of students. She has an interesting crafting background and knows how to both knit, crochet, bead, sew and do all kinds of crafts. She too decided to crochet her flowers. Here is her "Moulin Rouge Sunflower" before felting.

Here it is after felting. Front view.....
Back view....
Diane left early and didn't stay for dinner because she wasn't feeling well. We missed her but understood. She didn't sit idle at home though. Look what she brought back - a crocheted coleus leaf.
Diane's pillow design is based with a periwinkle blue wool felt. She will probably add a few more leaves to it.

Diane's skills blew us all away! There is still one more space available in the October 2/3 Class at the Farm. You can check it out here.

Student Projects - Deb

Deb came from Ohio to the "Get Stitched on the Farm Classes." She has a varied crafting background and said she spent many years as a sewer. She told us she has not been knitting for too many years. She brought with her felted strips of handknit garter stitch fabric and a white pillow top. She was able to cut up much of her fabric and sew it quickly into her chosen flowers. She made a beautiful Calla Lily that somehow I didn't get a photo of.

Here's the cosmos she found in the garden with a ruffled edge.


Here's her felted and sewn cosmos. Awesome.


She also made a bunch of knitted petals which we felted and then she sewed into multiple flowers.


Here's the pillow design she roughed out and was going to finish when she got home. How pretty.

What a great job Deb! She had to run off early to get a flight back to Ohio but I'm so glad I got to spend some time with Deb and learn more about her background and how she got involved with yarn and knitting.

There is still one more space available in the October 2/3 Class at the Farm. You can check it out here.

Student Project - Debi

This is the fourth or fifth class Debi has taken from me this year. She is a passionate knitter, very precise and totally in love with her craft. She also has a passion for antiques. Over the past few months I have watched Debi grow in her knitting skills. It has been a pleasure to help her gain more confidence.

Debi arrived with a massive collection of handknit and felted flowers and a henna colored Julia pillow top.


While she was here at the farm I wanted to make sure she also stretched her skills and learned to think on her own. She loves to follow directions but I wanted to see if I could get her to break free of it. She was inspired by a little geranium flower and knit up a single petal which I unfortunately don't have a photo of. She wrote down the directions as she went along and will hopefully finish it up sometime soon.
Debi's goal was to actually finish something and although she didn't finish her pillow top she was way on her way to completion. Here is how we laid out her flowers.

It is going to be a beautiful project to have in her home. Thanks for coming Debi! I'm sure I will see you again.


There is still one more space available in the October 2/3 Class at the Farm. You can check it out here.

Flower Weekend on Our Farm Day Two

I've got so many lovely photos and knit and crochet flowers to share with you. I've decided to split the post up into individual student's work and spread it out over several days. There are just too many incredible photos to blow on one post!

By Day Two, everyone was in sync with my design methods. They were all ready to get going on their work and kept creating flower after flower. I was amazed at the confidence they had developed overnight. It was kind of like they slept on it and understood it all and they just couldn't wait to get going.

Here we all are - happy with our creations and happy creating. From left to right: Debi, me, Karin, Deb, Diane and Cynthia in front.


Diane had left early Saturday evening because she was local and wasn't feeling well. She actually went home and knit and crochet all evening. She blew us away with her crocheted coleus leaf she brought back to us.


I just can't sit around and watch people knit and crochet. I decided to take up my needles and see what I could make. Here is a pile of work from my workspace.

(Thanks Alice for taking many of these photos!)

I stayed up very late on Saturday evening so I could actually become a class participant. Here's the "trumpet vine flower" I knit and then felted.


Over the next few days, you will be treated to all the student's beautiful work they created. I am very happy with how the projects turned out and I will definitely run this class again next year. The farm setting, the flowers in the garden, and the new studio all added to the "creative vibe" we all felt. It would be impossible to run this class in a hotel room and get the same results. At least that is my feeling!

Here's photo of Diane, Cynthia, Karin and Julia just as they were leaving. Oh, I miss you guys! Thanks to everyone for coming to The Farm.

Flower Weekend on Our Farm - Day One

Finally getting to posting about last weekend. I had a wonderful group of guests who were motivated to absorb the farm atmosphere and learn about color. We began the day with a tour of the farm led by The Farmer and then headed on down to the new studio.


The title of the class was "A Celebration of Color and Flowers." It was a new class I had planned and I wasn't sure how it would go. I had a schedule in my mind and goals on what I would teach the students but so much of throwing a class like this depends on the individual students. I was so pleased with how they responded to my ideas.

We began with a color exercise that everyone had lots of fun with. We all plucked flowers from the garden and brought them back inside.

Each student made up several colorways using my stash of Julia Yarn inspired by their flowers. Here's the table in disarray full of beautiful colorways and natural inspiration.


Here are some more of the student colorways. This is an easy exercise to do but also very enlightening and a visual learning experience that everyone understands and learns from.


The rest of the afternoon was spent knitting and crocheting and creating individual flowers inspired by the student's choices from the garden. By the end of the afternoon, everyone had finished their flowers. Here they are all laid out and ready for felting. Some of the flowers were brought from home as "homework." The students were provided with Olympia's Felted Flower Pattern and asked to do as much as they could depending on their schedule and life.


It was finally time to stop work for the evening. The Farmer arrived with the tractor and haywagon and we all climbed aboard. Here's the view from the top of the hill where you can see forever.

We continued on - in the distance you can see Mt. Monadnock.


Then we stopped at the blueberry field to see how the low bush berries grow.

On the way back to the farm, our neighbor Debbie gave us some blueberries for dinner.

We ate a fabulous dinner prepared by my friends Linda and Alice who wowed all of us with meals throughout the weekend. Unfortunately I have no photos of their amazing meals. The dinner was a lovely end to the first day of the weekend. The guests went back to their B&B's and we all collapsed into bed.