Candy Box for All + A Melanie Falick STC Giveaway

Easter is coming soon and when I think back to the holidays of my youth, it seems there was always a box of Russell Stover's candy passed around the Sunday dinner table. My sisters and I would look longingly at the lovely chocolate covered confections in dark and milk chocolate, trying hard to decide which ONE we would eat. It was a dicey decision because we were only allowed one. If we picked the wrong one, one that had one of those icky fillings, you were stuck. Eat it or leave it. I usually ate it. As the box sat aging on the bureau in the dining room, the candies would slowly disappear. All except the odd flavors that none of us liked. Those candies would be left in the box, one small bite out of each, to age until my mother got sick of looking at the box and it would be thrown out.

Many of the lambs that were born this winter have been eating hay for awhile. They still look to their mothers for milk, but their diet is becoming what an adult sheep eats - hay and baleage. Baleage is "pickled grass". The Farmer harvested it last year and it has been wrapped in white agricultural plastic fermenting and waiting to be fed to the sheep now when the grass isn't growing.

The Farmer uses his tractor to bring a new bale of either dry hay or baleage to the feed bunk. It helps if I am around because these things are really heavy (500 to 800 lbs). The little lambs are always just waiting to dive into the hay and my job is to make sure the bale doesn't land on any of them. It's rather dicey and scary because it doesn't take much to squish a lamb. After plopping the bale down, it is time to unwrap the bale and see what the feed looks like. For the sheep and lambs, I liken this moment to unwrapping that box of Russell Stovers candy from the holidays.

They start picking at it, looking for the bits they like. Sheep are all about the feed. I can tell that some bales taste better than others. They just smell better - sweeter and pungent. Some of the bales seem to disappear quickly and then others hang around for a couple of days. Hay is made up of several different kinds of forage including timothy, blue grass, fescue, alfalfa, and red and white clover.

It's good exercise peeling the hay away, unwrapping the preserved grass that is wrapped circularly like a giant scroll of paper and feeding it out down the line. The mature mama sheep are on one side of the feed bunk, ravenously waiting, never mind that they always have feed in the field - they want to try the new bale! The lambs are on the other side, picking at the hay before we can unwrap it. 

 

It takes about a day or two to go through a bale. As the lambs continue to grow, we will go through more feed. We always hope we have enough to make it through until the grass starts growing. Then the sheep and lambs will transition to fresh green grass.

All this talk about candy boxes of all kinds.....  Have I got a grown-up candy box for all of you creative types! My friend Melanie Falick, Editor of STC Craft Books has donated four of her newest book titles in honor of my 5th blog anniversary! All of Melanie's books are creative maker's eye candy. But although drop dead gorgeous - they are not just fluff. They are full of great how-to instruction, well-thought out book construction, and stylish book design. STC published Knitting For Baby, the book Melanie and I did together just after we both had our children back in the early part of this century (wow, does that sound weird - the century thing, that is).

Here's what I've today for you as a giveaway. Thanks to Melanie and the other fine folks at her publishing house STC for donating the following books. I wish I could enter! They are all incredibly wonderful titles!
Crafting a Meaningful Home by Meg Mateo Ilasco

Oliver and S Little Things to Sew by Liesl Gibson - a beautiful collection of sewing patterns to sew for children

Stitch Magic - A Compendium of Techniques for Stitching Fabric into Exciting New Forms and Fashions by Alison Reid - a very creative sewing book from a designer in the UK

And lastly........

A Knitters Home Companion by Michelle Edwards. Here's a nice video interview with Michelle. Do you know her writing and illustrations? Check out her blog - it is truly beautiful. I really wish I could keep this one!

Here's how you enter: Answer the following question in the comments section: 
If you had to pick one book that changed your life, that helped you to change course, or that you can't imagine not having on your bookshelf forever, which one is it? The book doesn't need to be a knitting or craft book - just any book that you adore.....

Please, don't forget to leave me an easy way to get a hold of you! Contest ends at midnight on Thursday. I'll let you know who wins on Friday.

Contest is over. Thanks to all who entered! If you get a chance, read through all the comments. There are some really great book ideas! The winner is Ellen. She said:
Robinson Crusoe - when I was in second grade we moved outside of easy walking distance to the library, so I had to dig into the set of classics we had at home. Been digging ever since!

Penny's Lentil and Lamb Soup - A New Recipe and a Story for You!

I've been cooking lamb since we first began sheep farming over thirty years ago. Now, with the development of our "direct to consumer" farm plan, I'm finding that consumers really need help in deciding what to cook with our lamb. It has taken me a while (let's just say I started this project over a year and a half ago) but I'm finally getting some recipes written down, cooked and photographed.

Taking photos of food isn't easy. Especially when it is brown food that is what I consider totally unphotogenic. Recipe writing and food photography is another one of my blogging journeys. I've discovered some good food blogs. Wow - is that another world as compared to knitting blogs. Here's who I like so far: David Lebovitz, Joy the Baker, my friend Janis's Bite Me New England (Janis is a great lamb customer and frequently blogs about cooking our lamb!),  Dorie Greenspan, The Sweet Beet, Michael Ruhlman, Matt Bites. There is even a food photography blog on the NYTimes website. The food blog world is huge! And it seems to be a big money generating world - unlike the knitting blog world which I seem to be segmented into. There is a food blogging convention! And Food Blogger Camp! It seems like a big pit that I could get sucked into if I let myself. I will just look in from the outside, for now! If you want an inside scoop on it, check out this post by David Lebovitz. It makes us knitting bloggers look like chump change. If you have any favorite food blogs my readers and I might like, leave them in the comments if you will! 

Now where was I? Oh yeah, Penny's Lamb and Lentil Soup, that's right. The back-story..... The Farmer and I lived in Colorado while I was in grad school at CSU. We pretty much had what I would consider no money. We lived on my grad school assistantship stipend and what he made doing whatever job he could find. We weren't married, much to the chagrin of my mother and father. In fact, she was so upset that even though she adored "him" she never would ask about him nor mention his name. (Remember that Mom?) My Dad, being the kindest Dad in the world, would once in a while send me a check so I could pay for my car insurance. 

 

Whatever.... Mom has gotten over it and here we are - still together almost 30 years later. She didn't have anything to worry about. I remember those days with such incredible fondness. We lived in the basement of a small little yellow house on Whedbee Street with my sheltie cross Haida. The Farmer said we were "worms" because all we could see out of the basement windows was the dirt ground above us. I was studying textiles, writing my thesis (on "Wool Production from Small Flocks of Sheep" - boy some things sure do not change!), and learning how to cook on a budget.

Considering that there were two of us living on a very tiny income, I had to learn to cook cheaply. Meat was a splurge and so we existed on a semi-vegetarian diet (much to The Farmer's dislike but hey - he wasn't cooking, was he?) I have always had a love affair with soup. I will admit, I grew up on Campbell's Soup - out of a can. I used to eat it for lunch every Saturday. My favorite was Scotch Broth with Cream of Tomato a close second. In the little basement kitchen, I had a couple of cookbooks -- a paperback copy of The Joy of Cooking for basics and  "The Moosewood Cookbook." Boy, was that cookbook the thing back then! I cooked my way through it for sure. I just loved those handwritten pages and funky little drawings. Still have it, still cook from it.

Colorado is where I learned about lentils. I had never eaten a lentil growing up. My mom wasn't big on cooking with beans except for her post-Easter "split pea soup" she made with the leftover ham-bone. I latched onto those lentils and turned them into soup. I would make a big pot of lentil soup and we would eat it all week long. Let's just say I overdid it! Nah, Kristin doesn't over do anything, does she? By the fourth night, he would look at me with disdain. I guess I don't blame him but to tell you the truth, I can still eat lentil soup five days in a row. I just love it.

Later on, when we both had jobs and were doing a little better financially, we took a memorable couple of trips to France on my frequent flyer mileage. We were in food and wine heaven, visiting so many fabulous little inns and restaurants. The places we visited would fill a book so I will stop reminiscing and tell you that in France I discovered the lovely little LePuy Lentil. Ahhhhh, a lentil that wouldn't get mushy and was a lovely shade of olive green. When I got back to the States, I found them for sale and I haven't stopped buying them yet.

Enter Penny Vurgulopolous. Penny was a Greek woman who worked in our mill store when I worked at TYC. Penny had a thick Greek accent, a wonderful loving Greek American husband named Chris, and in her basement, she had a SECOND KITCHEN that Chris built her so that she could cook and bake for the different parties she threw and church functions she attended. Penny came to work dressed in Chanel suits, dripping with gold jewelry, hair coiffed just so. Mind you - this was a dirty yarn spinning mill and she was selling close-out yarn. She was quite the picture! Penny was an awesome knitter (she wrapped her yarn around her neck to tension it) and an even more awesome cook. She constantly brought in her homemade Greek delicacies to share with the office staff.  I'll never forget the spanakopita, the baklava, the moussaka, the melty soft long roasted leg of lamb, the traditional deep red Greek Easter eggs.......

When Julia was born, I used to bring her to work with me when she was an infant. Her health was fragile and it was best she was with me. She was a good baby and would usually lie on the floor under my big office table playing with one of those dangly overhead baby entertainment things while I tried to figure out what was going on at TYC. Penny loved babies and she would beg me to let her hold and swaddle Julia. She would sing to her in Greek, play finger games. She was just so darn wonderful with Julia. Whenever Penny was working, Julia would "go to the store" with Penny. She would sit in her little seat next to the cash register and Penny would entertain her. One day I went over to check on her. Penny was feeding Julia some of her lentil soup. I almost died. Julia hadn't had a bite of any solid food yet and there she was sucking down the soup. I went with the flow and Julia survived! It was pretty priceless now that I think back on it. Whenever Julia was going to be at work, Penny would make her lentil soup.

So that's where the name for today's recipe comes from. Sorry for the long, convoluted trip it took to get here. This is a recipe that has evolved over the years..... from the first days of lentil soup in the basement apartment in Fort Collins to our farmhouse here in western Massachusetts. Now I fortify it with ground lamb or lamb sausage. It seems so natural considering the connection with my Greek friend Penny's lentil soup and the Greek people's love of lamb.

Penny's Lentil and Lamb Soup
PRINT THIS RECIPE

1 pound lentils (preferably French Le Puy)

¼ cup olive oil

5 cloves garlic

1 medium onion

1 small can tomatoes (14 ounces)

3 carrots

2 bay leaves

½ teaspoon oregano

1 pound ground lamb or lamb sausage removed from casings

3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Peel and mince garlic. Chop onions into small dice. Heat olive oil in a soup pot. Brown onions and garlic taking care not to burn the garlic. Remove cooked onions and garlic and reserve. Brown lamb in soup pot. Drain off extra fat. Return onions and garlic to pot. Add the tomatoes, and lentils and cover by one inch with water. Bring to a boil, then turn to simmer adding herbs. Cook for thirty minutes. Peel and chop the carrots, cutting them on a diagonal so they are largish. Add carrots and cook the soup until the carrots are done to your liking. Add the vinegar. Let the soup sit if you have time so the flavors will mingle. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Note: Substitute 3 Tablespoons wine vinegar and ½ teaspoon sugar if balsamic is not available. The key to this soup is the vinegar!

Brutal Honesty!

I am a honest person. If I don't like someone, I usually just ignore them.  If I screw up, I admit it. I may be sometimes flowery with my words but it is honestly how I think and write. I enjoy writing this blog because I am writing it for you and for me. I'm not trying to make a big company happy because I don't work for one. Goodness knows, no big corporation would put up with the assortment of things I write about. The Farmer and I work for ourselves, our family, our farm, our land, our art and craft, our animals and for the future of this patch of earth that we are caring for. Most people would think us nuts. Sometimes I agree with "most people" but I just keep going.

Many of my friends work on the fringe of the real world. Some own their own businesses, however big or small they are. They plod along, doing their good work, keeping at whatever it is they are trying to do for the world. Some of my friends are farmers - their dedication is to the future of the earth and to feeding their neighbors good and healthy food. Some of my friends are artists - their dedication is to the beauty of their art. Some of my friends are teachers - their dedication is to their love of learning and showing their students their way.

And then there is my very good friend Candi Jensen. Candi is a knitting and crochet designer and author. Candi and I met over 25 years when we were both working for yarn companies. Candi is passionate about her craft and about sharing her craft with others. That is why she began her PBS television show Knit and Crochet Now. Candi is the reason I am on the show and I thank her for the opportunity.

I doubt most of you know how these PBS shows work so I am going to let you in on it. A producer comes up with an idea and finds corporate sponsors to fund the production of the show. The producer has to pay a PBS station to tape, film, edit, pay for the "experts" to fly in, feed them, and then pay for all the post-production. If there is any money left over, the producer may be able to pay the host, the experts and take a profit. Let's just say that no one involved in K&CN is making anything off of it. The bare minimum to produce a series of 13 shows is $125,000. And this is bare minimum - everything done on the cheap.

Money is really tight for everyone now as if you didn't know. Candi's source of the corporate funding has pretty well disappeared. She is still out looking for corporate underwriters to support the knitting and crochet show and time is running out. She wants to tape a new season so that she can keep spreading the knitting and crochet love. It is an incredibly expensive proposition to say the least.

When the show gets aired on PBS, the individual PBS station does not pay Candi to air it. How crazy is that? The money you give your local PBS station goes to staff the office, pay for the airtime, the satellite feeds, whatever it is that makes t.v. happen. It's all a mystery to me.

Candi produces this show because she wants to keep the knit and crochet world inspired. She has devoted her life to the crafts of knitting and crochet. She wants to spread the stitching love throughout the television world so more people will pick up needles and stitch. It is a huge goal for her. She works alone out of a home office. She calls on friends to devote their time and skills to her cause (that would be me and the other "experts"). Designers donate their projects to be shown on the air. Maybe I get some publicity out of it all but that's not what it is about for me. I do the show to help Candi and so that viewers can better their skills of the crafts I am teaching. I hope that they will pass their skills on to their friends, neighbors, children and grandchildren so that the textile arts will endure for future generations.

So now I would like to ask you to help Candi out! If you have the means and desire, send the show some money so that it can go on. There is a PayPal button below. Click on it and donate what you can. Any amount will help. If you have a blog and would like to add the Paypal code to your site, email me and I can get you set up. Please SPREAD THE WORD!

If you prefer to send a check, send it to:

Candice Jensen Productions

708 Gravenstein Highway, #231

Sebastopol, CA 95472

And if there are any corporate people out there who are wanting to sponsor the show, please e-mail me privately and I will tell you how to get a hold of Candi.

Thank you all for whatever you can give.

A Break from the Farm and Lambing

It was Julia's winter vacation this week so we made plans to visit my sister Laurie and her family who live close to Boston. Julia and I both love to spend time with my sisters and their kids. But boy, are the burbs of Boston different from our lives on the farm. It was a trip that was not without a bit of guilt on my part for leaving in the hectic lambing season. On top of it all, The Farmer came down with a vile bug. Luckily, through this blog, we have met Terri who lives in the town next to ours. She is a delivery room nurse and wanted to help us out with lambing. It has been a pleasure to teach her what we do and she and Addie have been a god-send to us during this busy season. Both Terri and Addie helped The Farmer get through his bug and his days alone.

The highlight of my trip (you notice I say "my" not "our") was a visit to the new American Wing at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. This Wing opened in November and I have been dying to see what they built. Many of the paintings that are on display were there before but now they are shown so gorgeously. 

I haven't been to the MFA in quite a while and the thing I noticed most was the number of people walking around looking at their smartphones. It was epidemic. Julia brought her iTouch with her and she took lots of photos. I can't believe how much this statue looks like it is texting!

We ate lunch at one of the new restaurants. It was lovely and we felt like we were on vacation in a foreign land.

And because it is never quite possible for us to get away from the farm and the sheep, we noticed many nods to agriculture and sheep from days gone by. This oil painting which I have yet to find on the MFA website and didn't jot down the name of ......

A Shepherdess and her Flock at Sunset by Jean-Francois Millet. When I looked closely, I could tell she was knitting.

The Belated Kid by William Morris Hunt. This is a beautiful oil painting and although they say it is a goat, it looked like a sheep to me!

And we were really excited to see a floorcloth in the new wing beneath a beautiful table setting. This floorcloth was designed and painted by our friend Lisa Curry Mair of Canvasworks in Perkinsville, VT. 

I'll be back next week with some more farm and sheep related posts. I thank you all for your kind words about our loss of our dear larger than life cat Lily Pons.

The Addie Connection

My father's brother Uncle Harry married a Norwegian woman from Lake Telemark, NJ named Adelaide before I was born. They lived an interesting life - first in Germany where he worked for the U.S. government in the late 1950's and then as the Press Secretary for a few different congressmen. Later, one of his bosses Barber Conable became President of the World Bank and Uncle Harry traveled the world as his advance man. Uncle Harry, Aunt Addie and my three cousins lived outside Washington, DC for all my life and we would see them a couple times a year when they came to visit Gram. When I was a teenager, they bought a farm in upstate New York not too far from Saratoga where my sisters and I would visit during the summer.

Addie was a beautiful woman with thick, strong hair. She was tall and slender and always looked well put together, almost in a Audrey Hepburn kind of way. Addie was extremely intelligent and probably the first woman I ever knew who was an intellectual. And Addie was a needleworker. At almost every family occasion, she would be knitting. I remember being envious of her kids' beautiful handknit sweaters covered with intricate cables. I loved to watch her knit and she was always encouraging to me, passing on the wise words that "Yes, Kris, you can do this too." I will never forget that. Addie was always extremely kind to me, in her stand-off-ish Norwegian way. When we first began our sheep flock, we named one of our first lambs Adelaide after her. As Addie got older, she developed emphesemia and had to tote around an oxygen tank. She developed a fondness for lavender. She grew it and made woven lavender wands that she carried with her. She said the lavender helped her breathe easier. 

Addie was always interested in history, politics, the arts, and wool and all kinds of textiles. She spent all her summers on their farm in New York - she loved it and the real country life. She loved to "junk" before it was popular and furnished her farmhouse with antiques she bought at local auctions and yard sales. When The Farmer and I got into the sheep business, she was fascinated and once again encouraging. One day I got a call from her, saying she wanted to buy some sheep to help her graze her lawn in NY for the summer. By this time, Addie was using her oxygen tank. The Farmer gave her advice on what kind of sheep to buy and the portable electric fencing she would need. My brother-in-law David, the Dairy Farmer, had a side-line fence business and she struck up a telephone relationship with him. One Saturday she arrived at the farm, oxygen tank in tow, to pick up her fencing. We were up in the woods working and I heard a loud noise. Up the path roared David on his ATV with Aunt Addie and her oxygen tank in tow. I will never forget the site. We all sat around and talked about farming, fencing and sheep. Soon, Addie left the farm with her fence and oxygen tank. She got two sheep that summer and they grazed outside her farmhouse all summer long. I always had the best time in my mind imagining Aunt Addie in her slim pants, beautiful thick gray hair and her oxygen tank moving her fence and sheep around their pastures and lawn. We got letters from her about her sheep that I still have somewhere. 

Addie passed away a few years after her sheep summer. When Uncle Harry was cleaning out her things, he gave me an antique wooden wool winder and some of her lace-making and tatting tools. Every time I stumble upon the tools in my jewelry box, I think of Aunt Addie, the kind words she used to share with me, and her late in life sheep. 

This past fall, The Farmer met another Adelaide at a farmer's market. She grew up in northern Vermont and has lived here in the Valley for over a decade. Her partner Dan and she run a business called Real Pickles in Greenfield. They recently were awarded a national Good Food Award. But Addie is interested in raising sheep. She worked on a sheep ranch in Idaho for a few months. This winter she is helping out with lambing chores and learning along the way. She comes to the barn a couple mornings a week. Last week, I was there too, taking some photos for you. 

Here you can see the greenhouse barn that we use for lambing. It was a beautiful day full of blue sky and cold sunshine. You can see that except for the lambs and ewes in the pens, the sheep are outside. Sheep prefer the outdoors - even in a snowstorm. 

Here's Addie putting an elastic tail band on a day old lamb. 

 

We use a tool called an "elastrator" and thick green rubber bands. Lambs are born with tails that are about eight inches long. In a couple weeks, the bottom part of the tail will fall off. We do this as a precautionary measure. In the summer, if a sheep has diarrhea or the poop doesn't fall away from the sheep, flies will lay their eggs on the sheep's butt. In a day, the eggs will become maggots and they will eat away the sheep's flesh. We really have to watch this in the summer. A sheep can die in a couple days if the maggots happen and they aren't attended to. Not a pleasant sight to say the least.

After the tail is docked, we spray-paint the sheep with its Mama's number. Green numbers mean the lamb is a twin, blue numbers mean the lamb is a single. The paint wears off as the lamb ages and it will wash out of the wool. Addie also puts eartags in the lamb's ears. Each lamb gets the number of its Mama and it helps to keep everything in a bit of order. Addie is really enjoying working with the lambs. Dan, her partner, isn't so sure about the manure on her boots when she comes home.

So here's the funny thing. I got an e-mail the other day from a woman named India who is a faithful blog-reader. Here's what she wrote:

"Hi Kristin- Would you consider mentioning in your blog Warm Hats Not Hot Heads, the knitters' campaign to restore civility in politics? There's a group on Ravelry and we're also on Facebook. The idea is to knit hats--which embody the concept of every stitch working for the common good--for every member of Congress and every Senator, to illustrate our desire for our representatives to put down the poison pens and take up the business of crafting solutions to the various problems and challenges facing our country. This campaign was begun by your fellow knitbloggers Twinsetellen (http://twinset.us/) and SpinDyeKnit (http://spindyeknit.com/). Thank you! India

p.s. Thanks, also, for mentioning Real Pickles a few months ago. My niece, Addie Rose Holland and her partner, Dan Rosenberg, are the people behind the pickles. 

I try to keep the politics out of my blog. It's not something I like to include so I was a little reticent to say yes. But I delved into the website a little more and discovered that this wasn't a political statement as much as a statement that politicians should listen to both sides of the story and perhaps meet in the middle. I promised India I would give the project a shout-out here.

Last night, I listened to the "On-Point Interview" with Tom Ashcroft about knitting. And who do you think was the first caller? It was India! Tom gave her the chance to talk about the Warm Hats Not Hot Heads Project. Awesome. If you didn't get a chance to listen to the show, you can find it here.

I guess I could have said this all shorter.... but it wouldn't have been so much fun for me.... Harry marries Addie and they live outside DC. Arch marries Nancy and I am born. Addie encourages me to knit. I do - and have a career. The Farmer and I get some sheep and name a lamb Adelaide. Aunt Addie buys fence and grazes summer sheep late in her life. I start writing a blog. A young woman named Addie comes to our farm to help out with lambing. A blog-reader named India asks for a a little publicity help with her project Warm Hats Not Hot Heads and happens to be Addie's aunt. I hear India on NPR.

That is my "small world" story of the day. Check out the Warm Hats Not Hot Heads project to sign up here. Good day everyone!

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.

Before the Storm

Whenever there is a big storm coming, the animals know intuitively that something is up. They must feel it in the atmosphere, in their bones, in the air. All the cats head indoors about a half day before a storm hits. The chickens make sure they finish all their grain and whatever else I throw their way. The sheep eat copious amounts of hay. Unlike the animals, we humans listen to the radio obsessively, trying to determine if the storm will actually make it here. Lots of times, the big storms hug the New England coast and don't get this far. Wednesday's storm sure did arrive - we got about 18" of beautiful, fluffy, diamond encrusted snow and we are still digging out.

The evening before the storm, I went out to walk around in the sheep pasture knowing that soon only snowshoes would work. I took both Julia's iPod Touch for the Hipstamatic camera and my DSLR. Nice thing about the Touch - it fits easily into a pocket. Can't say that about the big camera with a telephoto lens on it.

This week, as I have been fooling (and I will admit, slightly obsessed, depending on who you ask) with the Hipstamatic settings on the iPod Touch, I have become totally frustrated. I guess it has been awhile since I have tried to learn something new (message to self - keep trying to learn something new). And this camera is completely wacky and unpredictable. I guess that's what kept me interested. I kept trying to get the images from the Histamatic that I thought I was seeing. With literally a flick of the finger, the lens changes, the film effect changes, and the flash changes. It is pretty much pure genius, as I'm sure many of you have already seen when you tried it.


But, it is a very different camera. What I have learned this week is that even with a DSLR or whatever camera you have, it helps to take a different look at things. Don't just stand there Kristin. Bend over, kneel on the ground, lie on the ground on your back, on your stomach. Everything looks different from a different perspective. It's so easy to just stand up and shoot, isn't it? Set up the tripod often and keep changing the heights even if you can't see what you are getting because it up against the wall and you can't get your body behind it. Change lenses. See what happens.

When I looked up in the sky as I was walking through the little bit of snow in the pasture on Tuesday, I saw the most beautiful clouds lit by the sun as it was slowly setting. (What do you call those clouds, anyone? Is it a mackerel sky?) It was just darn spectacular. It was so awesome that it made me think that the sky, the clouds, and the sun were telling us that something... and that we should listen.... that something big was coming.


And then I looked over at one of the lone trees in the pasture, a tree I love to photograph. It is an old apple tree that is being smothered by a giant grape vine. Every year, the grape vines grows wilder and wilder, full of beautifully shaped big leaves. The sheep love to rest under the tree and the vine for shade. Now it is bare and looks so alone. I walked around it to see how it looked from the other side. It was just so beautiful with the clouds and light behind it - mass of branches making its own beautiful painting against the sky. I started snapping, not knowing what I was getting. I can't say the photos turned out quite as good as the moment but oh well. I tried.


That's the thing with taking photos, it is really hard to capture the exact moment and to have the photo exactly replicate the image before me. I think that is what keeps me interested. I've got a few more days of Hipstamatic images and then I promise you, I'll stop with it for a little while. Next week, I'll also share the pre, during and post storm images that I took with my DSLR.

Next week, I'll be down in NYC at VKLive teaching six classes in three day. What was I thinking? I am going to be plum exhausted. I know the classes are sold out but anyone can go to the market and I'm pretty sure it will be fab. I'm looking forward to VKLive immensely - to be in the big city where I worked just after college, to see good friends that I never get to visit with anymore and to meet lots and lots of knitters. It will be overstimulating to say the least. The roster of teachers the Vogue Knitting staff has lined up is amazing. I look forward to sharing what I know with the students I meet and meeting many teachers who I have never had the pleasure to say hi to.

Either tomorrow or Sunday, I'll be launching the new "Get Stitched on the Farm Knitting Retreat" website and announcing the classes for 2011. Pop back in if you have the chance and have internet access. Good weekend everyone!

Storm Preparations

Spent the day on Tuesday getting ready for the big snowstorm of 2011. We don't always get what they promise but this one sounded like we should be prepared. We heat our farmhouse with a wood furnace (it also uses oil so we can decide how hard we want to work). When it is really cold, wood keeps it warmer. Although The Farmer used to cut all the wood himself, he has resorted to buying it from his brother because he just doesn't have the time. At least we are keeping the money in the family. Most of the piles look like this.


Covered with snow and about to be covered with more snow. At Thanksgiving, my family helped us stack some of it so it would be dry.


I spent the day Tuesday hauling in piles of wood and kindling for the next couple days. Being the frugal person I am, I saved all the odds and ends of wood from last summer's construction project for kindling. Those big Ikea bags work great for collecting the kindling.


We're ready for what comes - axe and shovel.


The farm animals always seem to know what is coming. My chickens "helped" me with the wood and seemed particularly energetic - flying around and perching in the trees. I gave them extra grain knowing that it could be awhile until I got out the door to feed them on Wednesday. They will stay huddled together in the coop.


Julia and I will spend the day inside and The Farmer will venture out to across the mountain to feed the sheep at their winter quarters when the snow slows down. He stocked up the hay so the sheep have plenty to eat since he's not sure when he will get there. We don't bother moving too fast and going anywhere in the snow because it is plain stupid. I know. I've been in a couple of snow-induced wrecks and totaled one truck a couple of years ago - not my fault but consider Julia and I very, very lucky. Now, I just stay home. Have plenty of food and everything will be cancelled anyway.


We've got this dry pile of wood along with a few others to keep us warm. As long as the power holds, it will be a Winter Wonderland with a capital "W". I'll try to take some photos during the blizzard if I feel like going out in it.


I hope you all are home safe and warm and enjoying a snowy day. Are you knitting? or baking? or eating soup? That is our plan for the day.

p.s. This Hipstamatic camera is tough - you don't get what you see through the viewfinder. Wrap your photo-taking head around that one. Total unpredictability. It's fun though and I think it is making me think a little differently about taking "regular" photos with my DSLR.

New Discovery! Hipstamatic Weekend and Week

We had a lovely snowstorm on Friday night/Saturday morning making for the perfect opportunity to not go anywhere. I love those kind of weekends, don't you? Especially after all the running around of the holidays. A quick visit to the library to pick up some movies and a mad dash to the grocery store.

Somehow, we here at the farm are catching up somewhat with the rest of you. With the arrival of the "air card" we all are feeling a little more connected with what most bloggers take for granted. It is good and it is bad. I got Julia an iPod Touch for Christmas knowing that she is going to have an extremely long bus ride to school next year. Some days though, I'm making "internet free" days to restore the balance.

This weekend I discovered the photo capabilities of Julia's gift. I downloaded the basic "Hipstamatic" camera app and have had a really good time exploring some of the possibilities. There was a lot of "Mommy, it isn't yours!" "Yes, I know Julia, but it is so much fun!"

This week, my photos are going Hipstamatic. Anyone want to join in? You will need an iPhone or iPod Touch. The download is $1.99 and there are extra lenses and flashes available for $.99 each. Haven't bought any of them yet. (An aside, is the Hipstamatic available for other non-Apple devices?) I'm going to take photos of domestic scenes around the house and outdoors. Nothing groundbreaking. But it is just plain fun to see what happens because the camera is random. What a fabulous feeling - no f-stops, exposure, ISO, shutter speed. You can learn more about the development of the Hipstamatic here. (It is a fascinating story.)

Yesterday Julia and I baked our favorite Reine de Saba from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.


For the first time, it didn't work and I'm not sure why. I used cheap chocolate leftover from some Christmas baking. And the other thing was I was letting Julia do everything herself and the folding of the egg whites and mixing of the flour didn't go too smooth. She ended up mixing it with the mixer and I'm pretty sure that is where it failed. Good learning experience though I must say.


We will try again another day. What we got was a pretty thick chocolate/almond pancake that still tasted good. To tell you the truth, for us, it is just the process of making the cake - it isn't about the eating of it.


Back to the knitting.... And did you see the Op-Ed on KNITTING in the NYT on Saturday?

If you are going to join in the Hipstamatic Week, leave a note in the comments of the blog so we all can check out your photos. Thanks!

ADDED: Check out Alicia's gorgeous Hipstamatic Photos on her blog today!

Short Days

I am relieved the holidays are over and life can return to a somewhat normal, slower pace. From the late spring, through the summer and into the fall, we run, run, run to get everything done. From the Farmers Markets, to the sheep, to the sunflowers, to the library.... the days are long and it is easy to just keep running from chore to chore, venue to venue.

And then December comes and the days are frightfully short. It seems like it is impossible to get anything done before the sun is low in the sky and gone. I'm sure that is one reason the holidays happen when they do --- it gives us something to do here in the northern hemisphere when there is no sun shining or crops growing. A chance to catch up with family and friends.

January is a wonderful month for catching up. Catching up on the piles of magazines and books that have gone unread, watching those movies that have been recommended by friends, and knitting - lots and lots of knitting and ideas for projects germinating. Add to that the seed catalogs that come in and the dark days are filled. I'm even making myself sit down and read the NYTimes on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Those are my favorite days - Food and House and Home. This week's NYTimes had an article by Andre Aciman that made me cry - thinking of what is to come in a few years when Julia is off on her own. Read it if you have the chance.

Another gem I'd like to share (from the NYT) is this new find - Saffron Marigold, an importer of Indian fabrics made into bedspreads, shower curtains, table linens and more. There are some lovely patterns and some nice bright colors. I used to find lots of good Indian bedspreads at Urban Outfitters but sadly they have gone in another direction (most of the prints are way too hip (ok, just plain ugly for me). U.O. - bring back some nice prints PLEASE! I bought this bedspread last summer there and used it for the backdrop for one of my patterns. Sadly, it is gone now from their pages but at least I got it when it was available!


Over the years, I have amassed quite a collection of Indian bedspreads - some from flea markets, some new. The new ones fade to a lovely antique look in several washings. I find them incredibly useful as tablecloths. They go to all the Farmers Markets with us. I've made them into duvet covers (a different print on each side giving me two choices to rotate on the beds). I cover our daybed in a different design each week. And of course, they work great as props for photo shoots. Does anyone know of any other good sources on the web for Indian bedspreads? I'd love to hear!

We're expecting a smallish snowstorm here this weekend. Hope to get some nice sheep photos in the snow! Good weekend everyone.

Am I the Last Person

Maybe I am the last person in the world to see this?




Pretty funny. I would love to go to India one day but for now I will suffice with Conan O'Brien's trip.

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.