Back to School, Back to Work

I've just spent a couple of weeks doing pretty much nothing work/knitting/craft/studio related and spent every waking minute with Julia and a few with The Farmer when his haying/our farmer's markets' schedules worked. Now it is September 1st and Julia is back to school and I am overwhelmed by all there is that needs to be done! I know all mothers feel this way when summer vacation ends. We'll all get through it - just remember to breathe everyone!

In my haste to keep up the blog a bit while I was away I forgot to share with you all one really exciting thing that happened to me! I already shared with you this...


It is my newest design in the Fall 2010 Vogue Knitting. Knit in my Julia Yarn, of course. One thing I forgot to share with you is an idea for customizing this design using the many extra charts in the back of my newest book Color by Kristin. You might wonder what is significant about this. Here's the thing - the design in VK has raglan shaping and is an easy fitting design in a large range of sizes. Most of the garments in Color By Kristin are straight with drop shoulders. So this design gives you another shape to play with all the extra charts that are included in my newest book. In the book, I give complete instructions for how to plug in and substitute different charts. If you are trying to spread your knitwear design wings, this is a great way to begin. The book is of course available signed on my website here.


So here is the big news...... As I told Julia I've been waiting for 25 years for this one.... There is a two page article in the new VK profiling me! It's called "Kristin Nicholas, In Living Color" and it is in their new section called "Knit Life." Isn't that really great? Wow - I am over the moon about this. VK has always been one of my favorite knitting mags so it is a real honor to be included. Thank you Trisha and all the other staff at Vogue Knitting for this great feature.


And here is some more exciting news. Vogue Knitting is doing a giant event in their hometown - NYC! and I've been invited to teach at it. I can't wait! The dates are January 21 to 23, 2011. Here is the link to VOGUE KNITTING LIVE - THE EVENT!

Hope to see some of you in Minneapolis in a couple weeks where I will be teaching at the giant "CREATIVE CONNECTION!" You can check out all that is to offer here on their website. What a wonderful roster of teachers they have put together for all kinds of
creative endeavors!

That's it for today.... Back to work - ooohhhh - where did the summer go?

Fall is A-Coming - The Knitting Mags are Arriving!

We interrupt the on-going report from my "Getting Stitched on the Farm Classes" for a little Fall Knitting News. Have you seen the new Fall Vogue Knitting yet? It's packed with some beautifully designed knitting projects in a great range of sizes and styles.


Here's a sweater I did for them for their "Home on the Prairie" story knit in my Julia Yarn, of course (from Nashua Handknits). The shape is an easy-to-wear raglan pullover with a very deep rib at both the sweater and sleeve edge. It is sized in a large range of sizes and the neckline is a very deep turtle which can be folded over or not. This is the kind of sweater I could live in all fall and winter long. Of course I would find it a bit difficult to be wearing a skirt like that working around the farm but I do love the patchwork look of it. That's what is so great about VK - they style their sweaters in an out of the ordinary way - making them "fashion-y" but then when you actually look at them, you can imagine them in your real life. At least that's the way I look at it.

I love the way it turned out, so much that I had trouble sending it off for photography in April. Here's a close-up of the colorwork stitch pattern I used for the central section on the sleeves and body. You can see the little bits of duplicate stitch embroidery and cross-stitch that I added to dress up the colorwork.


Here's a flat view of the sweater before I sent it away. Sometimes it makes it easier to see and imagine on "you" if you have a flat view.


Vogue Knitting has a great preview of their Fall Issue here. You can click on my sweater (towards the bottom of the page) and see some alternate views. I love this Vogue Knitting 360 feature. You can follow VK on Facebook. I do!

Thank you Trisha & CO. for including one of my designs in your very fine magazine. I am honored.

Creativity in Minneapolis in September! at The Creative Connection

In September, I'm going to Minnesota to teach at "The Creative Connection." I've never taught at such an event. It's because there really hasn't been any event quite like this out there. Here's how the organizers Nancy Soriano and Jo Packham write about it on their website:

THE CREATIVE CONNECTION will bring together women who are passionate about being creative in their lives as artists, business owners, bloggers, and more! Come learn, network, market, and create! Because the time is NOW. If you are a crafter, DIY person, or artisanal entrepreneur, whether you come for one day or all three, THE CREATIVE CONNECTION is going to be the place to launch your creativity and your dreams in Fall 2010.


I just found out that there are two speakers coming that will be really interesting to listen to:

Amy Butler
and
Mary Jane Butters

Hope I get to see those presentations!

Check out the Creative Connection website here. Here's the list of teachers including me! It looks to be a really great few days. I can't wait!

The event is being sponsored by some real powerhouses in the craft and media world. Do you know Stampington and Company? They publish quite a few great magazines including one I really enjoy called Artful Blogging.


Do you know the magazine Where Women Create? It's a fabulous magazine devoted to artists and designers studios and homes. Check out the website here. It is edited by Jo Packham who is co-organizing the Creative Connection. I love this magazine too!

Tiffany Windsor, daughter of the famous Aleene (of Aleene's Tacky Glue fame) is sponsoring the show and is interviewing many of the teachers on her Fave Crafts Radio. I'll be interviewed on May 23rd. I'll give you a heads-up reminder closer to the day.

So many great things are happening in the world of crafts, women, and creativity! Wow!

I'm A Rainbow? So They Say.....

I just received the newest issue of Knit Simple Magazine. This issue of Knit Simple is packed with lots of approachable projects that one could actually finish before it gets hot. Many of the designs look like they would work all year long in warmer climates. Carla Patrick Scott does a great job at making easy projects look good. I've been waiting for this package because I've been curious to see the article that Karin Strom wrote about me finally in print. Here it is.


We here at Leyden Glen Farm were not disappointed - it's a two page spread full of colorful photos of our farm, my knits from Color By Kristin, and a nice article entitled "She's A Rainbow." And there's a great introduction to my Classes on the Farm in the article! Yippee! This is just what I needed to get the word out to the general knitting public, besides all of you wonderfully loyal blog readers..... Karin came up to visit me at the end of last summer to research the article and this is one of the fruits of the visit.

Speaking of fruits, here is the new cover of Yarn Market News. Aren't these yarn tomatoes great?


Karin is also the Editor of Yarn Market News, THE magazine for local yarn shop owners. It's a great publication that I look forward to every couple of months. Although most of the material isn't exactly for everyday knitters, some of you may find it fun to look through Karin's blog to see what makes the yarn industry tick. I especially love the very creative covers the team at YMN manages to put together. Check them out here on their "cover gallery." As I was flipping through the pages of the magazine, deciding what to read first, I of course gravitated to the article called "The Color of Money."


This was a fascinating article about the importance of color and merchandising in yarn stores. As I further explored the article, I thought to myself, oh, there's that egg cup idea of mine, using a ball of colorful yarn as an egg. I took a photo similar to that and it's on sale in my webstore here as a postcard, shown below.

As I looked further into the headlines of the photos in YMN, I then realized that they used my yarn Julia for the little yarn eggs. Cute. Glad they chose my yarn instead of someone else's!





The popularity of eggs, chickens, and all things egg related continues to be a trend that pops up all over the media, doesn't it. Here's an article from The New Yorker which is just fueling the fire. I just heard that the City of Holyoke just south of here is looking at letting people raise chickens in their yards too.

I've been busy here - it's the time of year when the yarn companies and magazines are needing sweaters for next fall's collections. Just when it's getting warm and beautiful out and my yard is calling, I have to lock myself in to swatch and knit patterns. It will be over soon and then I can attack some outdoor projects.

So there's some behind the scenes info into the yarn industry for you this beautiful sunny Monday morning. Good week everyone.

Kristin's Peruvian Ch'ulla Julia Yarn Hat in Fall 2009 Vogue Knitting

The new Fall 2009 Vogue Knitting is out. There is a whole section on hats which I contributed a project to. It's a Peruvian Ch'ulla style hat with pointy earflaps and multi-colored pompoms. Here's the photo they took on the pretty model.


Here's the photo I took on the sidewalk at the Fedex office before the hat raced off to their NYC offices. I think the flat view gives you more to knit from. Feel free to print this photo out as your knitting guide if you decide to make this project. It is, of course, knit with Julia Wool/Mohair/Alpaca.


This is a relatively easy hat to knit (I made it in less than a day). The flaps are made by decreasing at the center of the cast-on stitches to form a V-shaped earflap. The Fair Isle Patterning is knit in the round and the shaping is made at the garter stitch pattern dividing rounds. There is minimal embroidery on the hat. After completing, I sewed on the earflaps and attached multi-colored pom poms.

I use a Clover pom pom maker to make my pom poms. They turn out thick and squishy and I waste less yarn. I have a very old one which I treat with extreme care because the plastic is easily broken. I know there is a newly redesigned Clover pom pom maker out there now that I have yet to try.

The nice thing about this hat is that besides being a quick knit, it also works for boys and girls and men. I frequently see teenagers wearing this style hat walking around town.

Which leads me to a question... Do you ever knit a project shown in a magazine or a pattern leaflet for a man if it is shown on a woman? Or vice versa?

I'm still working on the weekend wrap-up post. Taking longer because of all the photos. Turner's Falls Farmer's Market this afternoon! Hope the thunderstorm holds off!

Yarn Market News Visits Our Farm

Karin Strom, the Editor in Chief of Yarn Market News, came to visit our farm on Monday. She brought her wonderful husband Gabe with her. She's doing a story about me for the October issue of Yarn Market News. We had a great time talking together. Karin and I both have had similar career paths over the years and we figured out we have known each other for over 20 years.

We shared lunch at our kitchen table (which included leg of lamb sandwiches), trading stories and laughing a lot. It was a great day. You can read about Karin's adventure here on the Yarn Market News Blog. She and her husband are big proponents of buying farm-raised food. We sent them off with a half a lamb packed neatly in their cooler. They brought home a bit of our farm and we're hoping they enjoy the memories when they are cooking our lamb this summer.

I'll let you know when the real article comes on-line in October.

Inspiration Disappearing

The Farmer and I are very different people. I think that's why we get along so well. Besides the sheep farming and all the other farming things he does, he has run his own small business (somewhat connected to the construction trade) for the past twenty years. Things have been rather tough over the past three years. The economic down-turn that everyone is seeing now isn't a surprise for our household. We've been experiencing it for some time.

So it wasn't a complete surprise to me when I heard about Domino Magazine closing (read here about it in the NY Times) with the March issue. I was never a complete fan of Domino like so many people were - but I subscribed to it because there is barely a shelter magazine I don't subscribe to. Like many shelter magazines, I thought that almost every issue looked the same -- pretty young thing on the cover standing amongst some furniture. (I think I was a little too old for the demographic they were targeting anyway....) The last few issues have been a little more colorful and different, I must say. That said, I will really miss spending an evening looking at it the day it arrived.

Domino is only one of the magazines that are disappearing in this economic downturn. First it was House and Garden last year, then just recently Country Home, O at Home, Home, Cottage Living, and Mary Englebreit's Home Companion. The publishers are blaming the advertisers which I completely understand. It doesn't matter how many subscribers they have, if the ad revenue isn't there, it's trouble. They say it is because of the housing market but I'm not so sure I agree. There were probably just too many magazines and advertisers can only spend so much money. And tell me, how do the editors get away with stuffing Pottery Barn and Anthropologie in every issue when they never, ever advertise? If I was an advertiser, that would turn me off. Part of advertising is pay-off with editorial. At least that's how I think of it.

The sad thing is, no matter what, good times or bad, women look for inspiration for keeping their homes. I think that in bad times, they look even harder for creative, inexpensive ideas to refresh their spaces - especially in the winter. Living here in the country, I have to find my inspiration in pages of magazines. With dial-up, I barely look around the internet - if a site is image heavy, I don't bother because it takes too long to load. Losing these magazines, no matter how fickle it may sound, really does leave a bit of an empty spot in my mailbox.

I'm positive the internet and how it has changed how people get their news is another big reason publishing is changing. I think there are many more changes coming down the pike and it has me worried and concerned. Personally, I like to hold things in my hand - newspapers, magazines, books. I have don't like to be sitting at a screen all the time.

I really have to re-think things - about how I get the word out about my work out there. Our home was featured in Country Home in 2004 and it really did alot to increase my profile with book buyers (you can down-load that article here). Last September, our sunflower field was also featured in Country Home (see that here). I had an inkling that CH wasn't long for the world because I saw it changing and not in a good and creative way. I saw it becoming more corporate and losing lots of the spirit that former editors Carol Sheehan and Mary Emmerling put into it. But times change. It still makes me sad. I'm just hoping the rest of the magazines can hold on.

I always find it odd how men at publishing houses think they know what women want best. Please don't get me going.... If you read the masthead pages of many women's shelter magazines, it is mostly men pulling the strings. I think that is one reason Martha Stewart and her company has continued to succeed despite some infamous hiccups.

All that said, this post began as a thought of what The Farmer often says, "just show up." So I'm continuing to show up at the sheep barn and here are some new lamb photos for you to enjoy before you start the weekend. It was brutally, bone-chillingly cold this morning - so cold that my camera stopped working. I'm hoping it is the cold and not something else.

I like this photo with the two lambs in the front. In front of them is the feed bunker which The Farmer feeds grain in. Behind you can see a mama with a newborn in a pen built out of a thick wire hog panel. Behind them is the snow that is piled up along side the greenhouse barn.


I call these guys the "push me - pull you" lambs.

Here's one of the bottle lambs with a little drip of milk on the bridge of her nose. She is a real sweetie.


Oh, and back to yesterday's post about Disney... My friend Bob sent me this link.... Oh my goodness, it there anything they don't put their mark on to entice little children. Insanity!

Beyond Cold

This morning it is 2 below zero! This is the kind of day you lose lambs - even healthy ones if they catch a chill or perhaps fall into the water trough by mistake and can't get warm. Let's hope everyone survives the day.

It was stunningly beautiful this morning despite the cold. The sun was bouncing off the trees make the apple trees look like almost sureal. I love days like these but I am also thankful for the wood heat in our furnace.

Some of our cats barely venture outside in the winter. They prefer lounging on the blankets and wool throws that are scattered about. Once in a while, I will be looking for a swatch for a project I am working on. It will have disappeared and I become incredibly frustrated. Then a cat will go for a snack and I discover that one of the felines has been sleeping on the little swatch. So funny. Otto, our male red striped tiger, loves the cold. He stays out all night and prowls around. I am amazed he enjoys the cold as much as he does but he sure does have one thick fur coat on so I shouldn't worry.

I just got the newest issue of Vogue Knitting - Winter 2008/2009. It looks like there are a bunch of very nice projects in it - many of them relatively quick to knit so you could actually finish something before the season changes. I think Trisha and Joe and the rest of the team really got it right with this cover. The icy blue thickly spun cabled scarf certainly echos the winter weather here today.

I've got a cute pair of scarves in this Winter issue. They are the last project in the book. I love the picture of these two adorable kids. These scarves were knit of Nashua's Creative Focus. It's a loosely spun wool and alpaca yarn that is real soft and is available in over 60 colors. I think if you work hard, you could knit one in a weekend. And of course, you could change the colors and make something more bright and poppy!

Before I shipped the scarves off last year, I took a photo of Julia wrapped up in both of them. Here she is. Boy - she is a patient kid! It was pretty hot out and I had her wrapped up in a blanket and wearing both of the scarves around her neck.

Giveaway and Mothering Magazine Cover

First off, I'm holding a Giveaway every week before Christmas - this is my way of thanking all of you for reading my blog over the past couple of years. Make sure to stop back every week and sign up for the Giveaway. I'll try to have the contest posted by each Tuesday. You'll have to read through this post to hear about this week's Giveaway.

I was at the newsstand the other day and saw something that looked quite familiar. On second glance, I discovered that yes, it was indeed, mightily familiar. Here on the cover of Mothering magazine was a sweater of mine. A quick look inside on the Table of Contents and I found that the photographer had been credited but there was no mention anywhere of the book Knitting For Baby where the image came from. I co-authored KFB with Melanie Falick way back when in 2002. Ross Whitaker was the photographer and a great one he was and is.

The sweater shown on this magazine’s cover was one of my favorite projects from that book! I love Aran cable sweaters for kids or adults. This one had a lovely combination of cables that is easy to knit – even for beginning Aran knitters. The button closing works great for little kids because you don’t have to snug down a tight neck over a screaming little one’s head.

I called Melanie to check on the legality of the whole thing and she said that the rights had expired and that the photographer had sold the image to the magazine. I guess they can do that. I was a bit miffed – it would be nice to see our names and the book’s name in print, once again. But oh well, that is how these things go.

Over the years, I have heard from so many knitters about how they have made this or that project from Knitting For Baby. When Melanie and I worked on KFB, we both had just been through the baby raising time with my Julia and her Ben. We were so clear on what projects a mom would want and also what kind of knits would work well for a little one. We also planned the book so that it would be a progression from beginning knitter to advanced knitter. I think it worked rather successfully. Knitting For Baby came out in paperback last spring. If you’ve got a friend or relative who is expecting, KFB may be the perfect gift. You can order a signed copy from my website here.


This week's giveaway is:
1. One brand new signed copy of Knitting For Baby
2. Enough Julia Yarn to knit the easy garter stitch baby booties shown in this photo from KFB

Here's the rules - only USA and Canadian addresses. You must sign in the comments section here on my blog by NOON EST on Friday the 5th. I'll announce the winner shortly after noon each Friday before Christmas. Please make sure I can get a contact you through your "Blogger" account. If not, I'll give the present to a different winner the next day. (If this doesn't work this week, I'll have to change the rules.) Good luck and as always, thanks for reading! There will be two more Giveaways coming this month. Stop back to visit!

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.