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!

Lines of Beauty

I am featured on a blog that a friend of mine Louise writes called "Lines of Beauty." She is also a knitwear designer, etsy proprietor, and mom of two lovely girls. It is a blog mostly about women and aging. Here's how she describes it: "Embrace your age, instead of dreading it. Join the conversation."

Check it out here.

Thank You to All of You!

Wow - I just heard from my new friend "Oliver at Wikio" that "Getting Stitched on the Farm" has made it into their top 20 of needlework blogs for the past month. The list goes live tonight. I want to thank you all for following me and reading me as this adventure of life, family, knitting, sheep, stitchery, books, and local food unwinds. It is an honour to have all of you interested and I so appreciate your comments, notes, and interest.

I have decided that to celebrate the blog - which actually means all of you - I'll be doing some great giveaways over the rest of the month of October. October is my favorite month of the year. It is my birthday (the 1st), my Mom's (today - the 8th), my niece Olivia's (also on the 1st), and was my grandma's (on the 27th). Besides all the birthdays, October is the very nicest month weatherwise too.

So pop back in next week to see what I'm doing. And thank you all for reading this little old blog. You can use the list below to find some other really interesting blogs. I know I'm going to the next time I get some free time at the library! And sorry about the space - can't seem to get that to go away. There's also a second post for today if you look past this list.

1	Posie Gets Cozy
2	Foxs Lane
3	Myrtle & Eunice
4	Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing
5	all buttoned up.
6	Hoppo Bumpo
7	tikki fabric addict
8	Crazy Aunt Purl
9	Crochetqueen: Royal Ramblings
10	cosmicpluto knits!
11	The Hook and I
12	ScoutJ
13	Getting Stitched on the Farm
14	mama urchin
15	Grumperina goes to local yarn shops and Home Depot
16	My Button Jar
17	Elliphantom Knits
18	house on hill road
19	Mean Girls Yarn Club
20	january one

Ranking made by Wikio

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.

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.

Listen to Fave Radio Crafts this Sunday

I'll be on Fave Radio Crafts this Sunday 5/23. Check it out here. I think you can call in and ask questions.

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.

Olympia the Lamb as Art

Just when you had thought you have seen it all...... Kristin presents.....
Olympia The Lamb bedecked in her very own Floral Felted Wool Knit and Crochet Lei.

Olympia the Lamb with a Handmade Felted Wool Lei

Olympia the Lamb looking Sideways with a Wool Floral Lei

Olympia The Lamb with Wool Floral Lei Baaaaahhhing

These images are also available over on my website for sale as postcards on my shop page. The Lamb in a Wool Lei Series comes packed 12 of one design or assorted 4 each of the 3 designs in the shop now.

Sheep as Art? What do you think? Hop on over to my store to support the Sheep As Art Project just in time for the arrival of spring. A pattern for your very own Lamb Lei coming soon.

p.s. The ©2010 Kristin Nicholas isn't on the images on the postcards.

Lamb in a Striped Sweater on Op-Art Backgrounds

I've been having a bit of fun lately - amusing myself with the photographic images of our lambs wearing sweaters. My amusement has now morphed into this little series of three Op-Art Lamb in Sweaters on Different Backgrounds. Just in time for sending out for Spring's Arrival.

Here are the three versions of this one cute little lamb:

Lamb in Sweater on a Floral Op-Art Background

Lamb in Sweater on a Polka Dot Background

Lamb in Sweater on a Checked Background

These images are available in sets of 12 of a design or assorted - 4 each of the three designs in the Op-Art Sheep Series. You can find them on the Shop Page of my website.

The lamb is of course wearing her "Lamb Sweater" which you can make for your favorite pooch (A Dog in Sheep's Clothing) - an easy to knit pattern also available on my Shop Page for instant gratification PDF download.

Enjoy.

Out-Takes of Sheep in Sweaters and More

Just want to let you all know that the Sheep in Sweaters Cards are back in stock. You can order them on my website here. I'll be working on the back-orders this weekend.

Like I said before, getting the 4 photos that I deemed printable was a long challenging process. Although I have deleted most of the rejects because they take up so much space on my hard-drive, I did find these few that I thought I would share with you today.

Don't these two look like they are having a conversation? I'm thinking it goes something like this?

Black Lamb: "Who made your sweater?"
White Lamb: "The woman over there with the big black thing she is pointing at us?"
Black Lamb: "Oh yeah, me too? I think she has lost it. What about you?"
White Lamb: "Definitely. I hope spring comes soon so I can take this thing off."


Here's Number 10 modeling the little striped sweater. Sort of puts the whole thing into silly perspective, don't you think?


Has anyone finished The Dog in Sheep's Clothing Sweater yet for their 4 footed friend? If you send me a 72 dpi photo, I would love to post it here on the blog. I'll give you credit, of course.

For those wanting to knit their pooch a sweater, here's the link to purchase the PDF downloadable pattern.

The Giveaway for Gail's book "Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece" ends today at 3 p.m. so if you haven't had a chance to sign up, click on this link.

This Friday (as in tomorrow!) I'll be at RJ Julia in Madison CT for a talk called "The Joy of Color". You can check that out here. Guess what I'll be doing tonight? Hope to see some of you there.

I'll be back later on today with the name of the winner of Gail's book!

Upcoming Happenings and Another Crazy Lamb in a Sweater Photo

Back from a few days away for Julia’s school vacation and now plugging away at all those postcard and book orders you sent my way. You guys are awesome. Thank you so very much. And The Farmer and Julia thank you too. You know, I must say, I can never quite figure out what will resonate with my blog readers. I probably should not admit to this but it is the truth. I thought the lambs in sweaters idea was a cute one but boy, was I surprised by all the excitement. I’m going to give you some of the details behind taking the photos later in the week but let’s just say it wasn’t the easiest project I have taken on with my new interest in photography.

I want to alert you all to some things that are happening very soon. On March 5th, I’m going to be speaking at a fabulous bookstore called R.J. Julia down in Madison, Connecticut. The talk is on a Friday night at 7 p.m. The title of my talk is called “The Joy of Color” and it’s going to be a very fun slide presentation and Q & A. Please tell your friends – anyone who knits, crochets, quilts or sews will enjoy what I have to offer. I promise the talk will be worth the drive if you have a long distance to drive. Also, if you are a knitting or quilting guild member or own a yarn store, let your friends and customers know about the talk. I would love to have a good turn-out. It’s a long drive down and a long drive home late at night and Julia will be in tow (another school day off). We would both like to meet whoever comes. There is a nominal fee of $5.00 and you can sign up on the RJ Julia website here or pay at the door. The cost of the talk can go towards the purchase of Color By Kristin. Please spread the word. There will be door prizes too. A really fun night out.

This coming Sunday, I’ll be giving a class at Knit or Dye in Brattleboro. I’m pretty sure there are still spaces left in the class. You can call Rachel at Knit or Dye to sign up. All of the information is linked on my sidebar.

On March 13th, I’ll be teaching 2 classes down in Ridgefield, CT at a fabulous Yarn & Gift Store called Nancy O. The information for that class is on my sidebar at left.

On March 20th, I'll be teaching 2 classes in Harvard, MA at the fabulous "Fiber Loft." Reba has been trying to get me to come down and teach for years. Last year, the class didn't fill and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this year. You can check that out on my sidebar at the left.

Over at Craft Gossip, they are running a giveaway for Color by Kristin. The deadline to sign up is February 25th so hop on over.

Today, I leave you with another "lamb in wool sweaters" photos. Like I said earlier, taking these photos was one big adventure. I had to photograph lambs that were only a couple days old because they were the only ones who would fit in the sweaters (lambs grow very fast). One of the first days I attempted my project, I dressed a little white lamb in the pink sweater. There was snow on the ground and it was a bright and sunny day. (I actually prefer taking photos on gray days.) The little lamb in the pink sweater was extremely active and try as I could, it was really difficult to get a good photo in the snow and away from anything brown (and that would be just about everything in the barnyard). I was actually taking photos of two lambs at the same time and had just put the first lamb back in the barn after "undressing" it. Trying to get two lambs in a photo - that was a complete failure. The Farmer called to me and said "you've got to come here." I ran out of the greenhouse as he doesn't often sound excited about anything especially when slogging about feeding hay. He pointed and I couldn't believe my eyes. There lying down on top of our giant 200 plus pound Romney ram was the little white lamb in the pink sweater. I snapped very quickly and in a second the lamb had jumped down off the ram. I did get this photo. It really does show the scale and size of all the animals, doesn't it? The medium sized ewe is at the left, the giant ram taking up almost the entire photo, and the little two day old lamb, wow! Cute, huh?



If you are really astute and paying attention to details, you will see that this isn't the exact pink sweater that I showed you the other day (photo is up on the left on the sidebar). Originally I only made and attached 3 crocheted, embroidered flowers on the sweater. Immediately upon looking through the camera at the lamb I could tell that if I made a wreath of flowers at the neckline of the sweater, it would look much cuter. Back to the crochet needle, the yarn and the embroidery and a day later I was at it again, working on the photos. These photos took a crazy amount of time to get right and if I wasn't determined and slighty nuts, I would have given up.... (or maybe if I was smarter?)..... The Farmer just kept looking at me with amusement and bewilderment, I will admit. "What will she do next?," is probably what he was actually thinking and if you all hadn't been so supportive with buying the cards, he probably wouldn't be quite as patient as he will be now if I decide to dress any other sheep in outfits.

You can purchase the postcards of the lambs in sweaters here on the shop page of my website. And don't forget that the "Dog in Sheep's Clothing" pattern is availble IN EIGHT SIZES for download on my website. For all of you with different shaped dogs (big necks, long backs, short legs.....) I have enclosed a page on how to customize the pattern to fit your particular dog. Enjoy your day......

Colorful Feet from Color By Kristin

First off, let me thank the lovely Anne of Knitspot for being part of my blog book tour. You can read her review of my book and an interview she did with me over on her blog post today. It seems that Anne is heading to is a big knitting retreat on the other side of "the hill" in Williamstown that I was not aware of organized by the brilliant Clara of Knitters Review who also has a new book out. (The Hill is the mountain range between here and there commonly referred to as "the Berkshires.") Oh, I am so out of the loop and in my own little world.... Maybe I will get to go one day.

That said, back to my world. I know knitters are starting to think about Christmas gifts and what they can make quickly for all their special people in their lives. Which leads me to the lastest project from Color by Kristin -- The Family of Slipper Socks.

Here's the back-story on this project..... When I was a little girl, my grandmother always made us Christmas presents - handmade nightgowns, crochet vests, lace choker necklaces with embroidered beads. Gram wasn't much of a knitter - in fact if you asked her, she would say she couldn't knit. And she really didn't knit much at all - except for one particular pattern for garter stitch slipper socks. I remember the first year Gram knit me a pair of her pom pom trimmed slipper socks for Christmas in a beautiful maroon color to match my bathrobe. I put them on and didn't take them off.... Every night, I wore them to bed and I credit those slipper socks for my habit of always wearing socks in bed! I loved them to death.

Many years ago, when I was working for TYC, I went on a yarn buying trip to Greece. It was a whirlwind trip full of adventures and misadventures (so much so that it could be an entire chapter in that memoir of mine.... just joking about the memoir). I had the chance to visit produce and bric-a-brac markets and pick up Greek made crafts. At one of the stalls in the antique market, I found 3 pairs of ancient, handspun, moth-eaten slippers.

I snapped them up, brought them back to the States and quickly stashed them in my freezer for safe keeping (so the moths in the US don't get at them). These handknit slippers are one of my favorite things in my textile collection, I must say.

Those Greek Slipper Socks are shown above. Knit at about 9 stitches to the inch out of very tightly handspun wool, I always wonder who made them. The other thing I wonder about it how they survived so long. They really are beautiful little works of knitting art.

For Color By Kristin, I wanted to include an easy version of The Greek Slipper Socks, designed at a friendly gauge of 5 stitches to the inch in my Julia Wool. This project is given in 5 sizes from infant to man's average. Surely you have a loved one who would like a pair of these to snuggle in all winter long! The project begins with garter stitch for half its length - what could be easier! Then it moves on to a little bit of colorwork. I finish the toe with a very easy what I call "mitten shaped tip" that works beautifully on a project like this. I could see adding a giant multi-colored pom pom to a pair of these. For the book project though, I wanted to keep it simple so that it wouldn't be too intimidating for newbie color knitters! Below are 3 of the slipper socks I knit for the book.


And lo and behold when I went to the mailbox the other day, I had a package waiting for me from my friend Therese Inverso. I love Therese's packages - they are always filled with some little textile treasure that she thinks I should add to my collection. In her latest envelope was two pairs of slipper socks. A red and white pair....

And an orange and black pair.

Both of them have little bits of embroidery on them. They seem to be knit of a handspun wool. Therese said her friend Camille knit them for her. Camille is from Iran. Don't you like the center point shaping and the band of colorwork around the upper sole? How lovely. And how lucky am I? Thanks so much Therese!

So you see, the slipper sock thing goes around the world, doesn't it? Make up a pair or two for a Christmas gift if you can fit it in. In fact, I think I'll try to make my little Miss Julia a pair. Poor kid - she's like the cobbler's children with barely a handknit item anymore, now that she is getting bigger.

Enjoy the day! And all of you knitters on the other side of "the hill," have a great time with Clara and crew! As always, don't forget you can order a signed copy of my book from my shop or purchase it at your local yarn store.

Planet Purl Tonight and Deborah The Jewel

Time is very short for me today. I have a deadline looming and I am behind. What else is new here at Leyden Glen Farm? Don't forget to call into the Planet Purl interview with me tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. I would love to talk to you. You can find the information on the post below.

There's a lovely post about my friend Deborah Newton, the Author and Knitwear Designer, over on this lovely blog Knitting New England. Since I have no time to write today, I would love to point you over there. And yes, Deborah is the Jewel. She has been a friend of mine since my early days at Classic Elite. Deborah is one talented designer, illustrator, and genuinely lovely person. Pick up her book Designing Knitwear because it must be in EVERY knitter's collection!

Happy Day!

p.s. Thanks to Marly at Yarn Thing for the interview last night on her call-in radio show. It went nicely and I'm beginning to understand the call-in thing. Whew!

Live Interviews with Kristin this Tuesday and Wednesday

I'm doing TWO live audio interviews this week via the internet. I'm not sure how all this works but some of you may know and are way more tech savvy than me. I'll be using my corded telephone in my studio to talk to you all - just picture that!

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 17TH
10 p.m. to 11 p.m EASTERN Time
Yarn Thing with Marly Bird on Blog Talk Radio

Or feel free to call 347.539.5589 during the broadcast to ask a question.
Marly says the Chat Room opens 15 minutes before airtime.

Click here to listen or call in.
The show is also available as a podcast later via ITunes.

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 18TH
8 p.m. Eastern Time
I'll be a guest on Planet Purl doing another live interview.

Click here to listen in or join in that chat.

I'll admit that I am such a newbie on this type of thing. I've been on many a podcast but they have always been taped. I'm happy to be learning about this "new" way to get the word out about my books, yarn, and work. Feel free to call in and ask me about my knitting, art, farm, or whatever!

Thanks to Tara at Soho for organizing all of it!

Hankering for Yarn and Cora Reappears

The lovely Noreen Crone-Finlay, an author of many books, writes a blog for Bliss Tree called Hankering for Yarn. On it, she writes about her many projects - most of them fiber related. She really is a multi-talented designer. I know Noreen mostly for her beautiful, creative dolls.
Here's a link to Noreen's website.
Here's a link to her blog post about my book.

Noreen has some great PDF patterns for her different doll patterns for download which you can find here. Her self-published books are also available on her site here. You all should have a look!

Here's the line I like best from her review:
Prepare yourself to enter into a world of intoxicating color and texture!
Isn't that a lovely sentence?

Noreen's post is the start of the Blog Tour that the lovely Tara from Soho Publishing has organized for my new book Color By Kristin. I'll be posting links to the blogs as the reviews appear. Most of the bloggers are asking me questions and I'm answering them. It's been really interesting to see what they are interested in. I've had to think about the different questions - some more than others - before I respond.

If you are interested in being part of the blog tour, contact Tara at Soho. She is in on Thursdays and Fridays (she's a student also.) Tara is looking for blogs with reasonably high traffic. Her e-mail is:

tara@sohopublishing.com

I'll leave you with this photo of Julia and Cora. We took a nice long walk last Sunday. It was an amazingly warm day for November. As with most of our family walks, the sheep are somehow included. We had to hike way, way up the hill to see them. I get such a kick out of Cora. Every time Julia comes along, Cora steps out of the crowd of 200 plus sheep and has a little snuggle with Julia. It's amazing. Never have we had such an affectionate sheep. It's most amazing to us because our sheep are out on pasture 9 months of the year. Individual sheep don't get special attention, unlike a "backyard flock" which many shepherds keep. Cora is pregnant again so Julia is anticipating her lamb. Lots of the ewes are beginning to look pregnant. The Farmer is expecting early lambs - mostly likely sometime in mid-December. You know what that means here on the blog - lots of lovely pictures of little lambs coming soon!


Good weekend everyone!

Kristin Nicholas Sock Yarn from Nashua Handknits

The title of this post kind of says it all. This is my big news! I've designed a sock yarn for Nashua Handknits in my very own color range. They've named it Best Foot Forward - or BFF for short. There are 8 lovely color combinations.

My sock yarn had its debut at TNNA over the weekend and it was such a huge hit. It was the first time I had seen it except in the presentation materials shown here. This page is the lay-out as the yarn is shown in Nashua's Look Book that is mailing to all their current wholesale accounts this week. Doesn't it look great?

Here's what the label looks like. Lydian, the graphic designer at Nashua, took some of my spot art I found recently and used one of my flowers on the front of the label. Then she gently squeezed in a small photo of each of the colors in a knitted up swatch. I think this is a great idea so that sock knitters know all the variations that are out there and can keep coming back for new colors.


The put-up is also knitter-friendly. It comes in 100 gram balls so one ball is enough to make a pair of socks. The yarn is composed of the standard sock blend - 75% wool and 25% nylon - so it will be long lasting and wearable. The yarn was spun in Italy and there are 459 yards in each ball! I've got to find some size 1 sock needles and start a pair with the couple of balls I snagged from the Nashua trade show booth!

I designed the sock yarn's colorway so that it mimics my Fair Isle designs that I usually knit in my Julia yarn. I combined solid stripes of color with some "faux" Fair Isle bands. The Fair Isle Bands were designed to look like Ikat fabric. Ikat fabric is one of my favorite fabrics made by hand-dyeing warp threads before dressing a loom. There are many ethnic cultures who still make ikat fabric. When I was in college and grad school studying textiles and weaving I made my own ikat fabrics. It was incredibly difficult to do and I marvel at the precision that textile makers in other countries still do to produce such incredible patterned fabrics. Have a look at this website if you are curious. I've got a few of these fabrics in my textile collection and I really treasure them!

As with all sock yarns, depending on the number of stitches and the width of the sock, your socks will vary from the photos on the label. But at least you get an idea of the color range and the finished product.

If you are a local yarn store (and I know there are plenty of you reading out there since I met so many of you this weekend), make sure you ask your Nashua/Westminster rep about my new sock yarn Best Foot Forward. Nashua is running a special - if you buy one bag each of the eight colors, you'll receive a free sock for display. But place your order quickly as sample socks may be limited. The yarn is due to ship to stores in the middle of July.

Look for it then!

For your Reading and Viewing Pleasure

A while back, I was sent a bunch of questions to answer for an on-line magazine called KnitchMagazine. It is put out by the fine folks at Yarnmarket.com, one of the on-line sources for my Julia Yarn. The interview came out yesterday and you can find it here. Deborah, the Editor, asked me some questions that I have never really been asked about in an interview so you may find it somewhat interesting.

Still working away on stuff for the book. The other day I had to photograph a bunch of older work for upcoming products and stumbled upon some old spot art. Thought you might enjoy the colors in this piece on this lovely spring day. Good weekend, everyone!

Never Say Never

I said I wouldn't do it again. I said it was over. No more, never again. But there I went - again.

It has been almost ten years since I left my job at Classic Elite. It seems a lifetime ago. Although I loved that job as Creative Director, the time came to change my life, move on, try new things. That's how I came to live here on this farm with The Farmer and Julia. Am I happy now? Yes, I am. Are things perfect? No, they never are. But we are happy with our decision to uproot ourselves from eastern Mass and try something new.

I've learned a lot living here - about the idiosyncrasies of life in the country, the communities that make up the Pioneer Valley, the weather, living in a rural community and on a working farm. Every day, I know there is more to learn and that's good. Never stop learning - one of my mottos. But sometimes it is hard to do it - you have to break out of your comfort zone and try new things.

If you have gotten this far with my blabbering on, you're probably wondering where I am going. So here's what I have been learning the last month -a computer program called Adobe Indesign. Yikes - I was a wiz at a program called Quark XPress - I could desktop publish in my sleep. It'a a lot of what I used to do - put handknitting patterns together, design ads, produce marketing materials, the list went on and on. But I don't own Quark and Indesign came with my Adobe CS2 package. It's all I have and I felt like I had to give it a go.

Last year I made it a goal of mine to start selling some downloadable patterns on my website. It has taken longer than I thought - doesn't everything though? But over the last few weeks I have been working in earnest - trying to figure out Indesign. It isn't very friendly, if you ask me. Where is that shortcut to jump a page? It was Control J in Quark. Why can't I find it? Now I remember why I used to curse frequently at my computer....... I still haven't mastered Indesign yet - I am far from there. But I did figure out text boxes, lines, using color a bit, dumping in photos.

And here you have it...... my first newly produced "Kristin Nicholas Design" available exclusively on my website..... Click on over to the Julia page to see some more photos and read some descriptions about the pattern.....


Then click on over to the Shop page to order the downloadable PDF.

So there you have it, one of my new ventures. Trying to develop some new products to make ends meet here on this little farm. We just got our health insurance bill and the renewal is sky high. But we need it for Julia and all her health issues. There are more patterns in the works and I am hoping they don't take as long as this one did to produce. Many thanks to my friend Lori Gayle who proofed all of this and helped make it happen technically..... And thanks to Julia who endured the photo shoot in December during the crazy beautiful ice storm.

So I can honestly say, the moral of the story is.... Never say never......."

Piles of Yarn and Knit and Crochet Today Goodness

I’ve been knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting some more. I’ve been topping it all off with duplicate stitch, French knots, chain stitch and more. There are piles of swatches. It began a couple weeks ago and finally ended last night with a trip to the last minute Fedex annex in Hatfield where they take packages up until 7 p.m. Thank goodness for them even if it does take me 35 minutes to get there. So there you go – my last bit of swatching is done for my next book and I can just sit here and wait to hear how the photos of the swatches turned out. Fingers crossed for that photo session in NYC organized by the indomitable girls at Soho Publishing.

(In between it all, I taught two classes at Webs in Northampton on Saturday. It was so nice to meet all the fabulously talented knitters and introduce a bunch of them to my creative embroidery techniques. Thanks for asking me Pixie!)

All that knitting and I have nothing to show you right now except for a pile of colorful threads that have been littering the floor in the kitchen, the studio, and the library room. Yesterday we had a very large snowstorm (for March) with 8 inches of powder dumped outside our snug little farmhouse windows. Pretty to look at but I was too busy knitting to partake in the late winter wonder. Julia had the day off from school and she was under the weather with a bad cold which if you want to know the truth was good for me so I could keep knitting and sit next to her on the couch and say kind mommy what-nots to her. The Farmer built us a warm little fire in the fireplace and if I hadn't been knitting under pressure, it would have been one of my dream days. (Under my breath.....Knit a row, take a breath - knit another row - can I finish this on time? Just one more swatch - what colors am I going to add for the embroidery? Take another breath... Have another cup of french roast.... How am I ever going to get that darn 3 x 4 foot bulletin board into a box for Diane and get it to NYC on time?)

During my knitting madness, I stayed up late, late, late – watching t.v. but not really concentrating on it. I was flipping through the channels Sunday in the wee hours of the morning and what did I find but Knit and Crochet Today – the PBS TV show I taped last April in Detroit. It was on PBS’s Create Network which I am now receiving with the advent of digital TV. I had heard it was showing on that and watched with trepidation – not being the kind of person who really enjoys watching herself on the tube……. But I did okay - even if I did say yeh 8000 times. (Gotta watch that if they ask me again.)

I’ve been hearing from lots of folks that they are enjoying the show immensely. I’m glad – that was the point of putting myself through it all that make-up, wardrobe, jittered nerves, and travel. I’m hoping that my no nonsense approach to knitting (and crochet) comes through on my episodes - I taped 12 episodes for 2 seasons that will air slowly. I think that Brett Bara is an excellent host – putting a nice spin on the needlecrafts. (Not to mention that she is a lovely person to spend time with.) If you haven’t watched it, make sure you check out your local listings.

Which leads me back to this project – my crocheted granny square blanket. Click here to receive the free pattern for my granny square afghan via the Knit and Crochet Today website. I started it while on vacation in Maine a few years ago and got enough done to show on the TV show. I still have more squares to add to make it larger but it is a very fun project for knitters just exploring crochet.


If you don't receive the show locally - contact your local PBS station and BEG PLEASE! You can also buy the DVD direct from Candi Jensen - the producer of the show. Candi has been a friend of mine for 25 years and she is the reason I got into the whole mess. (Just joking Candi.) Click here to buy the Knit and Crochet Today DVD.


That's it for today - I've got to clean up this messy house so we can find what we need underneath all the partial balls of yarn laying about. Oh - and the book --- next November. Stay tuned here as I let you in on little bits of book progress.