When Will All the Flowers Begin????

I keep singing that song in my head with these words..... All around the blogosphere, I keep seeing flowers. We are still getting snow! In the last 5 days it has been white twice. But the snow did give me a chance to take some wintry photos of a pattern I am working on. Julia isn't quite as obliging as she used to be when I am taking photos. I've got to bribe her with money and then it is pretty torturous for both of us. Do you see the snow ball in her hand below? You can only imagine where it landed - at least it wasn't on my camera. Hard to believe it was April 1st, isn't it?

I received the prettiest little thing in the mail the other day from Robin in Minnesota. She came to the October "Get Stitched on the Farm" knitting retreat.

And a beautiful letter.

Dear Kristin, Attending your class in October of last year was one of the highlights of my year. It was so much fun! I've had more fun playing with color and feel a lot more confident. I've been knitting a lot, but I keep getting distracted with flowers. Here's one that reminds me of your sunflowers. Robin

What you can't see is Robin inserted a wire into the stem and the flower is totally bendable. It is exquisite and is cheering me up sitting in a little vase on my windowsill above my sink as I wait for something green to begin here. I was really tickled to receive this flower. As she was spending time at the farm last year, I could see her brain being turned on and a real creativity developing in her knitting. Robin is an accountant by training and letting loose doesn't come easy to her. As I sent her off into her knitting world, I could tell she really was taking away a lot of good information and that "I had gotten to her." To receive this little gift was truly special for me as a teacher. Thanks Robin!

I'm teaching the "Get Stitched Flower Class" in September here at our Farm. So far, there are no takers so I may have to cancel it and try something else. Or maybe the date is just bad. Or maybe noone wants to come.... There are only 2 spots left in the October 2/3 class so if you are on the fence, think about signing up soon.The July class is completely filled with a group of friends from Maryland. I'm looking forward to all the preparations, cleaning up the garden, airing out the house!

If you are looking for a nice Spring, Easter, or Passover gift to knit for friends, I must suggest my "Olympia's Knit and Crochet Flowers" pattern. (That is the pattern Robin used although she improvised a bit - yay Robin!) Who wouldn't like a knitted flower for a hostess gift or a centerpiece. I think maybe I will use my rustic basket with felted flowers as an Easter basket this year. 

The felted flowers also look beautiful when decorating a grapevine wreath. They are so quick to knit and totally addicting. A nice "carry around" project when it gets too warm to drag around big bags and heavy wool.

The pattern is available for $6.00 on my website via PDF Dowload here.

Don't forget to add your question to "Ask The Farmer." Either you all are too tired of reading the blog or don't have enough time in the day..... Or you are still working on your taxes like we still are. I've got a really busy week this week and next and I am hoping The Farmer will fill in for some of my posting.

Handknit Prezzie Idea for Valentine's Day, MORE Lambs

We interrupt the birth of the lambs for a little bit of knitting. I might as well join in with all the crazy Valentine's Day hype. Can't get away from it, can you? I've just knit up a new version of my Knit It - Felt It - Zip It Bag.

It's a Valentine's Day gift for Julia. We need a way to reign in all those markers that fall on the floor of the car all the time! In pink, of course - her favorite color. You can find the pattern available for PDF download on my Shop Page and read a little more about my project on my Julia Yarn Page here. The triangle pattern is included with the pattern (even though it isn't photographed on the pattern page). In fact, I have added 3 bonus charts for you to try. They are all photographed before and after felting. There is also a section a "how-to" section on choosing colors for working with two colors. I think this pattern is a real bargain at $6.

One little trick I'd love to share.... if you look close at the triangle motifs, you'll see that there is a difference in the rows of darker triangle colors.


I was running out of my Velvet Moss Julia and I wanted the triangles to be dark. I striped the triangle motifs using both the Velvet Moss color and Steel Grey shade. Each triangle row is a different color. Look close! It is barely noticeable but got me through the project.

Here's a second photo showing a different color variation on the triangle motif.

This pattern is really versatile because it is sized in 4 different sizes - these are the small and medium bags. There are also smaller and larger bags included too! It really is an easy project to whip up if you are familiar with two color knitting. Instant PDF downloads really do make this possible! See the idea on the web, grab your odds and ends and you can begin this evening! I love it! If you have trouble understanding the rectangular pick-up at the beginning of the bag, see this post.

And since farming never stops, have a look at what The Farmer brought home the other night.

What is it you ask? It is a bucket of cow colostrum. His brother is a dairy farmer and had a cow that freshened (calved). When his cows have babies, he machine-milks the mothers separately so that the colostrum is saved and fed to the calves. (Most dairy cattle do not raise their young - the babies are taken off them immediately and a farmer hand feeds them with a bottle.) David was kind enough to share the "colostrum wealth." It is going in the freezer in yogurt containers and we'll use it to feed bottle lambs whose Mamas aren't able to give them colostrum. All this talk about colostrum...... maybe some of you don't know what it is..... It is the first milk that comes from a mammal mother - sheep, goat, cow, human..... It is thick, sweet and full of nutrients. When a lamb is born, it is really important for it to drink this first milk as it also helps guard them against disease.

Here are some photos of this weekend's new arrivals.


This baby is so darn cute.


And this one --- aaaaawwwww!


One week til Valentine's Day - get knitting. I am!

Meet Coco and Chanel

Our new little bottle lambs went down to the barn on Sunday to begin their transition to "sheepdom." They were not happy. By the time Julia and I had arrived, their baaaahhhs had developed a sense of urgency and they ran up to us.

Pleeeeeease...... take us away from here!


Julia decided they needed names and since she is currently into fashion (as opposed to the last two years when it was Hannah Montana all the way), she crowned the bottle lambs Coco and Chanel. Coco just would not give up baaaahing and pawing at our legs so Julia caved in, picked her up and to quiet her, I told her to put her finger in her mouth. It acts as a pacifier, just like with babies. Both Julia and Coco were happy.

Chanel is not quite as forward and she just looked from afar, unhappy and noisy.

The fashionable new bottle lambs are "going to work" every day now. (With these names, I'm going to have to knit them a Chanel suit. I'll just add that to the list!) And in the evening, they fall asleep in front of the woodstove. Quite the life for a sheep.

FYI: Julia's hat pattern is available by PDF Download on my website here. It is called the "Cozy Cap and Pullover" and includes an easy cap and pullover.

And We Begin Again

Stopping in for a brief moment to wish you all a Happy 2011. Our best to you and your family and may you all have a safe and fulfilling coming year.

And to share with you our Christmas Eve Day gift.


Cora delivered 2 bouncy baby ram lambs that day. One white.


One black with a funny little white beard and white top hat.

Enjoy the first weekend of the New Year and I will be back in a few more days. (Julia is wearing my Quarters Cap PDF Downloadable Pattern.)

Christmas is Closing In + a New Website for You

I'm in the throws of printing calendars from my PDF Downloads that are available for sale here on this blog. Just mentioning in case you are desperate for a present, can't get out and have a decent printer and some time to spend printing and doing a little hole punching.

In between ordering print-runs and ordering them, I started looking for a website I heard about when I was at Stitches East. It is Alexis' current project (as in Publisher and Photographer Alexis from Knitters' Mag). All I can say is I am totally blown away. Go on over and take a peak at Crechemania.com!

There are plenty of things to keep you busy on Christmas afternoon (and some for free!).

Great job Alexis! Merry, Merry to all of you!

Odds and Ends and Some Good Knitting Links

Some quick updates for today. I know many of you are stuck inside with piles of snow outside. But what an opportunity to sit still and KNIT! Lucky people, you! Amazingly, the storm has missed up -- we have sleet but no snow. Here's a photo of Julia in her new "mommy-made" for this season Quarters Cap. The pattern is available here on my shop page for PDF download.


When I was at Stitches East in October, I ran into Marlene from CT. Marlene thanked me for this Quarters Cap PDF Downloadable Pattern. She said she had made this hat so many times, she gave up counting. I told her I too loved the pattern because it is easily memorized. It is great for using up odds and ends of yarn. I wrote the pattern for many sizes - from toddlers to adults making it a quick go-to pattern for gifting. Because the cap is worked in 4 parts, when I sit down to knit, I tell myself I AM GOING TO FINISH ONE SECTION of the cap. Then I can figure out how long it takes to knit a total cap.

Tell me everyone.... Do you do that? Time your knitting so you can figure out how long it takes to knit a row or a cable or color repeat? I find it really helpful when knitting on deadline so I can carve out a chunk of time to be finished with a project on time? What about you? It's a good thing to do with holiday knitting deadlines looming!

I asked Marlene for a quote about the Quarters Cap and here is what she sent to me..... "Kristin's Quarters Cap is so much fun to make and goes very quickly. Each one I have made is unique because of the color choices. And this pattern is very addicting! Every man that has tried this on has loved it - and most have “suggested” that they would like one. My teenage grandson reacted when I asked him to try it on so that I could check the size. He rolled his eyes, but did put it on - and then smiled! Soon after he said “if you make one for me, it will need to be in dark colors”!"

This photo gives you a look at the top of the cap. It does a cute little twirl and almost resembles a chocolate kiss. Click here to see how many of these darn caps I have made and gifted not counting the others I never got photos of!

Back in early October I designed a pair of slipper socks for The Boye Needle Company to be featured in an ad for their new SLIPPER SOCK BOTTOMS. Check out their website here - there are tons of sizes.

Here's the finished project in a photo I snapped before they left our farmhouse. I love how they turned out.

I haven't seen the ad yet but I can give you the link to the FREE pattern on the web..... Here's a close-up of the colorwork border showing the French Knots added.

That's it for today. Stay warm everyone! Happy Birthday to my sister Nancy (even though she doesn't read this blog!)

Elves, Gnomes, Wizards, Trolls, Santa + Leo Tolstoy - A New FREE Pattern for Holiday Knitting from Kristin to YOU!

I've been busy as a little elf. And what have I been making?


Another Christmas Gift from me to you!

Grab your No. 10 needles, your odds and ends of Julia (or any feltable worsted weight wool) and go! Knit in the round, the little guys begin with i-cord and then are worked completely in the round. I felted them in my washing machine and then embroidered the eyes and noses. For the beards, I used raw washed wool from our sheep. If you don't have any handy, use a thick single ply (like Lopi) and unspin the yarn to turn it back into fluffy fiber.

Now these might look like Christmas ornaments (which is what they started as) but after living with them and photographing them, I decided that they have all-season appeal. Perfect little finger puppets for Harry Potter and wizard fans. They make awesome toppers for a wine bottle that you are bringing along to a dinner date, don't you think?


Call them what you may - elves, trolls, gnomes, Santas.... But while I was making them, I watched the movie The Last Station with Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer. Do you know what? The little guys started looking just like Leo Tolstoy to me.

Here's Christopher as Leo.... You see? Don't they look just like him?


So there you have it - Little Leo Tolstoys, Santas, elves, or whatever for you and yours! You've still got time before the holidays to whip up a few! From me to you. Have fun! And Happy Holidays to YOU ALL!

Available through Ravelry here for members.
For all of you who are not Ravelry members, click on the Download Now link below!

download now

Finally..... and ...... Loving......

All of you regular readers know that I live way away from anywhere. Two years ago, Verizon came through town and strung some DSL lines. 70% of the residents of the town were able to connect to high speed internet service for $20/month. Five roads in the town were not serviced and you know who lives on one of them.

As beautiful and remote as our farm is situated, high-speed internet service is probably not going to happen in the near future. I have been on town committees, gone to see the governor, and I am still hoping. But I finally gave in. I went to Verizon and bought myself an "air card." I had been holding out, against hope, that our residence would someday get high-speed internet access. But frankly, I have given up for the short term. I will continue to work towards "fair internet access for all" but man oh man, I can't believe what I have missed.

Like Dianne of Sheep Dreams who is doing a fabulous Kristin Knits/Julia Yarn Giveaway..... Check it out here and enter before Wednesday evening.

Or Kieren Dutcher's blog "Tyger Voyage."
And these incredibly beautiful Harris Tweed Bags from Kit Mitchell.
And "Dot Pebbles."
And "Farmers Weekly Interactive."
And "Canal House Cooking."

More to come, I'm sure. Tonight, I will leave you with this photo of the lambs in the lower orchard just before Thanksgiving. It's deer hunting season now and I'm not sure I would feel real confident walking down through there except for a Sunday.


This black ewe lamb is quite beautiful.


And I love this guy with curly horns.


And is hard not to love Olympia - star of "Olympia's Knit + Crochet Felted Flowers" and her own series of postcards available on my website shop page. Can you believe how big she has gotten? Chances are she is pregnant now and will have a lamb(s?) by spring.


Olympia's Flower Pattern would make some great quick knitting and crochet projects for the holidays. As a brooch on a coat.....


Or as a bow on a present


that can turn into a barrette.....


Happy Knitting and Crocheting Everyone!

Something FREE from ME to YOU....

It seems to me that my blog has become a constant sales pitch. I truly apologize for that. I tremor every time I update the card and calendar dates so they stay at the top of the blog. But this is the time of year when most people spend money and I'm no different than most retailers - you've got to take all the opportunities you have to promote and sell. It's exhausting thinking about it all.

That said, it's also the time of year when I want to thank all the people out there who support me and this blog. Since I don't know most of you personally, but I do know that many of you knit, I'm giving you an early Christmas gift. I've designed a really easy, quick to knit pair of triple stranded fingerless mittens and the pattern is available for free via Ravelry. Here is the link to the Ravelry page. If you hit the link below, the PDF file should be available to everyone - Ravelry member or not.

download now

I whipped these up just before Thanksgiving - knowing I would have some extra adult sized hands around to photograph. The Fingerless Mittens use one strand of my worsted weight Julia Yarn and 2 strands of my sock yarn Best Foot Forward. They are a really quick knit - I have made two more pairs since I finished these. Sometimes I just need a really simple project to fill a couple hours - especially as the stress of the holidays becomes closer.

My 17 year old niece Celia was kind enough to stack some wood......

and dig in her parent's garden while modeling. Thank you Celia!

I am under the understanding that you do not have to be a member of Ravelry to download the pattern. I'm not very clear about this, to tell you the truth and maybe someone can clear that up for me. If the link above doesn't work for you because you are not a Ravelry member, please let me know. It will be several days until I can get a second link done for my site so fingers crossed it will work for all!

And while I am talking about FREE, here's the link to Download The Snowflake Ornament Collection I designed last year. It's another super simple project and has instructions for both knit and crochet ornaments. Happy stitching!

Answering Questions on my Leyden Glen Farm Calendars

I've had a few e-mails from people wondering how the months of the PDF calendars that I announced last week are set up. When I was designing these in Adobe® Indesign, I wanted them to be easy to print out on a normal home 8 1/2 x 11" calendar. And they really are. Each month prints out simply as one page. At the bottom half of each page are the days of the month. On the top are the photographs. Here is the month of January on the "Animals of Leyden Glen Farm" Calendar. In the middle is the name of the month.



As you can see there are no boxes around the numbers. I was thinking when I designed this calendar that it would be for a work cubby or one of those calendars that you hang somewhere to reference. It is not one of those huge workhorse calendars - that wouldn't have worked in this format and would have made it way too complicated to print!I Hence this format which is really easy to print.

Above is the month of February from the "Scenes of Domestic Life". Any more questions, I'm happy to answer. Here's the post with the ordering information. And as always - thanks so much for reading....

2011 Leyden Glen Farm Calendars - Available exclusively by PDF Downloads

I hope everyone in the States had a Happy Thanksgiving full of turkey, family and fun. We're continuing our Thanksgiving Holiday, spending today at my sister Nancy's in New Hampshire - eating leftover turkey and doing a Christmas craft. Today I want to share with you something I have been working on for a few weeks.

Over the past few years, I have had many requests for calendars made from my photos of our farm. I have hemmed and hawed over it but this year I bit the bullet and spent several days editing photos and building a set of calendars. They are a little different than your normal calendar. They are available EXCLUSIVELY HERE on my blog via PDF Download.

Once you buy the download, a message will be sent to your inbox with Download Instructions. (Make sure you download the calendars within the specified amount of time - otherwise you will have to contact me for further downloads.) Each calendar comes with 12 pages of months, a cover and a back page. When you buy the download, you can print the calendar out as many times as you want - either on your own computer or at an office store. If you are so inclined, you can use the files to make calendar presents for your friends and share a bit of our Animals, Sunflowers, and Domestic Scenes with them. You can keep one at your office and one at your house.

There are 3 calendar versions and each costs $6.50. Each calendar month prints on a standard 8 1/2 x 11" page making it a calendar which would fit nicely in an office cubby or near a phone. The photo is at the top half of the page and the days are on the bottom half of the page:

Animals of Leyden Glen Farm

12 months of sheep and lamb photos following the cycle of the year here at Leyden Glen Farm.

Animals

Sunflowers of Leyden Glen Farm

12 months of sunflowers. I thought this might be fun for you all to gift to friends of yours who could care less about sheep or yarn or wool but who might like to be introduced to our farm and the blog.

Sunflowers

Domestic Scenes of Leyden Glen Farm

12 months of pretty photos. This calendar also includes 2 bonus months - you can choose which image you want for April and September. The bonus months are 2 photos of sheep which are not included in the Sheep Calendar. This calendar also includes two of my favorite cookie recipes.

Domestic Life

Calendar Bundle - Buy all 3 calendars!

You can also purchase a CALENDAR BUNDLE. You will receive all 3 calendar files for $15.00. The email you receive will give you 3 separate download codes so that the file sizes are much smaller than if it was a giant multi-page file.

Leyden Glen Farm 3-Calendar Special Offer


I went to Staples and had them print them out for me so that I could show you how they look if an "office store" does the printing for you. The Sunflower Calendar (below right) is spiral bound and included a clear plastic cover, a punched hole and a cardboard cover. Here it is next to my telephone (below right). My version of "The Animals of Leyden Glen Farm" Calendar uses an office clip and I have it hanging on the door of my computer cabinet (below left). It is easy to un-do, change the month, and re-hang. My version of "Domestic Scenes of Leyden Glen Farm" is put together with my Julia Yarn (center). I punched two holes in the same spot on each page and then threaded the yarn through all the pages. It is easy to flip the pages on this one too.


In order to preview the calendars, I made up some little videos of the images. Sort of like the back of a calendar that you look at in a store but via video on your computer with music! Check them out!

The Sunflowers of Leyden Glen Farm Calendar:



The Animals of Leyden Glen Farm Calendar:



The Domestic Scenes of Leyden Glen Farm Calendar:



The Farmer, Julia and I sincerely thank you for your support of our farm and creative pursuits. It is a pleasure to share glimpses of our life on our sheep farm with all of you throughout the blogosphere.

p.s. If you don't do Paypal or order on the web, you can fill out the order form on my shop page here and send a check to my PO Box. I will then e-mail you the files. (Please make sure you send your email address on your order form!)