Linda Perman's Little Crochet and a Fab Book and Julia Yarn Giveaway!

I met Linda Perman when she was editor of Adorn, the now defunct cool sewing and craft magazine that was out a few years ago. I did a project for them and have kept in touch with Linda as she has moved around the USA - first to Montana and then to Texas, two places that sound great to live! During it all, she got a two book deal with Potter Craft and we have kept in touch. Linda writes the great blog "Lindamade."

I must admit, I don't crochet too much. I know the basics and I love a good granny. I've never had the desire to become a crochet designer but I'm glad Linda Perman did. Her books are colorful, clever, really fun, and very, very stylish. Her new book is Little Crochet and it is full of amazingly sweet crochet projects for babies and toddlers. The photography is drop dead gorgeous and the instrux look clear and well written, just as her first book Crochet Adorned was.

There are 24 fabulous projects for babies and toddlers up to 4 years old. I am really in love with the cover booties. Are they just too much? Little stars inset into the top of the bootie. Linda says you can whip up a pair in an evening.

Amazing Links about Knitters/Crocheters and Coco + Chanel

Here is a very heart-warming video about Barbara Finney, a woman who lost her fingers to a blood disease but still knits and crochets. See it here.

On Saturday I met a woman at the Amherst Winter Farmers Market who knits "stump socks" for American War Veterans. She is a member of the Granny Peace Brigade in Philadelphia. Their mission is to work for peace in Iraq and Afghanistan and to bring home the troops in good medical - physical and mental - condition and to jobs. The stump sock pattern is available on line Here on Google Docs.

I've just heard about an upcoming knitting retreat being held near Hartford. Janet Bristow and Vicky Galo are the original founders of the Prayer Shawl Ministry and travel nationwide to present their ministry workshops. Both are graduates of the Hartford Seminary’s Women’s Leadership Institute, and are authors of The Prayer Shawl Companion and The Crocheted Prayer Shawl Companion. It is April 2 from 10 to 3. Check it out here.

And because there can't be a day without a sheep or lamb photo, here are Coco and Chanel dozing on one of our Persian rugs via the Hipstamatic.


And another of them smiling for the camera.

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.

FINALLY Available - Olympia's Knit + Crochet Felted Flowers and Leaves for PDF Download NOW!

Back a few months ago, I went a bit nutty knitting, crocheting and felting flowers and leaves out of my Julia Yarn. Then I dressed up last winter's bottle lamb Olympia in a Floral Lei made of the flowers and took some photos. I guess it was a long winter! Lots and lots of you ordered the postcards I printed up for which I was very thankful. But I also got a whole bunch of requests for the pattern for Olympia's Floral Lei. Never did I think that would happen. You guys always surprise me......


I have finally gotten it together to finish the pattern called Olympia's Knit + Crochet Felted Flowers. This one is a great pattern (if I do say so myself!). You will have hours of knitting and crocheting fun. I have included both knit and crochet flower and leaf patterns. You see, when I began the project I made the flowers in crochet. Knowing my customer base (mainly knitters), I knew I also had to work up several different knitted flowers. These flowers are not hard to knit. There are several fun, if a bit odd, knitting techniques to try. (I know how you all like to try something new!)

Best of all, Olympia's Flowers are great for summer "take along" knitting and crochet. Small, portable, and you'll be able to knit them even in the heat. In the pattern I have given you oodles of photographed ideas for how to use the flowers. Is 16 oodles? I think so. Sure took me a long time to make and photograph them. I will try to preview more of the ideas as we go along this week. Here's Julia wearing a flower in her hair.


Isn't she getting old? Oh my - twelve in 2 short weeks!!! Where has the time gone?

The pattern costs $6.00 and includes 42 photos (WOW - no wonder it took me so long to prepare this pattern) including 16 finished product shots. It is available here on my Shop Page. Here's one of the ideas for a flower corsage to wear on your winter coat when the depths of winter arrive again (and that time will roll around before you know it!). Holiday knitting too, don't you agree?


If you have never ordered things by PDF download it is such a great way for some instant gratification. Order via my website, pay via Paypal, and your pattern will be automatically sent to you no matter what time of the day or night, no matter if you live in the States or Overseas. It is just the coolest concept, don't you think? No waiting, no shipping, and you can print out only the pages you need.

If you "don't do Paypal" I will be happy to take an order via US Mail. Just print out my "printable order form" and write down the name of the pattern. When I get your check, I will email you the pattern. That's easy!

As always, I appreciate your support of my work. I have tried to price the pattern reasonably so it sells well. Less than two cups of cappucino and just a bit more than those fluffy coffee drinks I see people ordering at Starbucks. (I have never succumbed to one of them - I'm afraid it would be a slippery slope to addiction.)

If you like the pattern, please pass the word around. I'd love to see an "Olympia Flower Trend" happen. How do you I/we do that?

You can order the pattern on my SHOP PAGE HERE and learn all about the specifics of the pattern here. As always, my family and I thank you very much. And finally, if you really want to learn how to knit flowers (plus lots and lots more fun), come to my August 14/15 "Get Stitched on the Farm" class. You can read about that here.

Waiting for Spring and Anticipating Summer

Subliminally, I must be tiring of winter. It's almost over here. We still have a fair bit of snow in our fields but every day it is warm, a little bit seeps into the earth. The sap is running and maple farmers are harvesting sap. The sugar houses that dot the countryside were all boiling sap this weekend and we took the ubiquitous trip to one this weekend where we all enjoyed a bit of the super sweet. Pancakes have never done it much for me and the syrup wreaks havoc with Julia's diabetes. But it's once a year that we go and then it is over until the next year. No matter how hard I try, I usually guess wrong with the amount of carbs to plug into the insulin pump.

For the past few weeks I've been playing with Lesley Stansfield's 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet. Man, is this a lot of fun. This book is so well done - lovely straight forward, simple photos where you can really see what you are knitting or crocheting. The instructions are fine and there is a lovely selection of all kinds of flowers. I have tried a few of them. I can't get real excited about knitting the flowers. The crocheted ones go so much faster and I think crochet naturally is a better medium for making flowers. I'm trying to stay open about knitted flowers but they just take longer! I'm an impatient person, I must say.

Here's a crocheted (sort-of) sunflower.


Makes me pine for these.


With the days getting longer, it's not going to be long before we have more than we can handle doing outside. I know in some parts of the northern hemisphere, things are growing like nuts but we're still a couple months off.

I have decided that I prefer a lot of the crocheted flowers I make to be felted. It just makes them softer looking. I love how the stitches disappear into the mass of fibers that develop in the washing machine. To me, the process of felting is very similar to loading up a kiln full of ceramics, turning the heat on and then waiting to see what the finished pots look like. There is such anticipation in waiting for that buzzer on the washing machine to ring.

Here's what the above pseudo sunflower looks like felted.


I think it would be great with a little embroidery added to the brown colored disc.

Have you tried crocheting flowers yet? If you are a knitter, is this something you might like to learn crochet for? I'm just wondering because as I develop patterns for my website, I worry about turning people off with added crochet bits to the patterns. Any help you can give me in this market research is very appreciated.

A Free Early Christmas Gift for All of You (OR What You Can Do While You Are Recovering From Turkey)

Here's a little project I designed for the Newsletter Readers of the t.v. show I am on PBS called Knit and Crochet Today/Now. Each issue of the television show's newsletter features a free project and a show "expert" connection. I'm the featured "expert" this week. I was asked to design an easy project and the Snowflake Embroidered Ornament Set is what I came up with.

The set includes two snowflake ornaments - one crocheted and the other knitted. I used my Julia Wool/Mohair/Alpaca Yarn in Spring Green, Natural and Geranium, of course. I think they would also be fun in many different colors. You'll need some Elmer's Glue and some cardstock to mount them on.

I knit and crocheted all of these in one night so you can tell this isn't the hardest of projects. The embroidery was completed on all six ornaments in less than an hour.

Download The Snowflake Ornament Collection now and make a few of them while you are recovering from your Thanksgiving Turkey dinner!

Crochet Flower Tutorial

The response to my first French Knot Tutorial was very positive. Thank you all. Today I introduce to you my next video tutorial attempt. This week I bring you my "Crochet Flower Tutorial." In it, I show you how to make a small crochet flower like those shown above. This is also the crochet flower used on the mittens in my new Winter Wonderland Pattern I revealed on Friday.

Look hard and you'll find French knots on the flowers in the top photo. You can find the French Knot Tutorial here.

French Knot Tutorial

And now for something totally different….. Last weekend I was at Webs teaching Creative Embroidery on Knits to a wonderful bunch of women. We had a nice afternoon, even if they did walk out a bit exhausted trying to take in all they learned. They left with beautiful little samplers of many stitches.

It seems that one of the most frustrating embroidery stitches to learn is the French Knot. There are always complaints – “I can’t do it.” “My knots always disappear.” “My knots look like a little speck.” I never let anyone leave my class without knowing how to do this really versatile stitch.

For you all, my loyal readers, I have made a little French Knot Video Tutorial since you weren’t at my class. Enjoy! And please spread the word to any of your friends who have experience French Knot Frustration……

In My Face He Is

Eeyore, our donkey, continues to amuse us. We got him to act as a "guard donkey" which he has done reasonably well at (except for last fall when - I think - a pack of coyotes distracted him while the rest of the coyote pack killed lambs and full-grown sheep during a wickedly awful few weeks). Knock on wood, the coyotes haven't been killing lately - I'm hoping they will stay away for a while.

We know Eeyore hates canines. A couple weeks ago, The Farmer took Nessie, our younger Border Collie, down to visit the sheep. It was a big mistake - between the Mamas stamping and Eeyore charging, it was more than bedlam - noone would put up with her and she came back to our farmhouse very dejected. She really misses her flock in the winter when she can't move them around. Chickens and baby lambs aren't quite it for her - she likes to move the masses.

Here's Eeyore yucking it up for the camera. He's quite the personality......


Check this out. And this too! If you are into color, you'll love it. Beautiful Colorful Work Kar and Lucy.

Never too early to start....

Christmas decorations that is. A few months ago, Brett Bara, the Editor of Crochet Today, asked me to make some simple crocheted, embroidered and felted Christmas ornaments. Here's what I came up with.

These are so very simple. If you are just wanting to learn how to crochet, this might be the project for you.

You'll find the crochet ornaments in the current November/December issue of Crochet Today which is on newstands now. (Photos below courtesy of Crochet Today website)


I really should make up some of these for our tree. They would also make great little tags for the top of a Christmas gift box.

Granny Possibilities

After a life time of working with color, it is still amazing to me how much more there is to learn. The way colors combine can make me feel happy or sad, melancholy and introspective, excited and adventurous. Color is one of the world's greatest marvels. I can't get enough.

After years of designing colorful knitwear, I recently rediscovered the joys of crocheting – a craft I learned from my grandmother when I was ten. My reawakening to crochet began with a vacation to Maine and a bag of assorted broken balls of many colors of Julia yarn which were left over from editorial projects. I quickly grabbed the bag of scraps as I ran out the door. A quick stop at a northern Maine yarn store just before boarding a ferry to Swans Island yielded me a size H crochet hook. With those two things I was off.

On Swans' Island, amongst my good friends and family, I crocheted away. During breakfast, during cocktails on the ocean, during dessert of apple pie, I kept crocheting. I was obsessed. I couldn't stop. Each little square became a color exploration. Every piece was different than the last. On the car trip home I crocheted. At home, I would pick up my hook and yarn and whip out a few squares when ever I had a free moment.

Little did I know that my little foray into crochet would turn itself into a television appearance. Last week on PBS stations airing Knit and Crochet Today (Season 2), my vacation folly made its t.v. debut. How cool is that? Here's the link to my free Granny Pattern which is available on the Knit and Crochet Today website. From there you can download the list of colors and how I made the afghan I demonstrated on t.v.
I'm still grannying away - making more squares because I'm hoping to make this a double bed size afghan. It will take me a few more years, I'm sure. I find grannies soothing to knit and mindless to make but rewarding in their own little colorful way. You should try it one day. You might be hooked too!

Our new litter of kittens have certainly enjoyed the afghan. It's amazing how kittens and cats appreciate good fibers - if there's ever a swatch of mohair, cashmere or wool lying around, they will take a little nap on top of it. When I'm looking for a missing swatch, I always have to remember to look under the snoozing cats.