An Amazing Sight

My husband Mark spotted a large patch of wine colored trillium on the side of a dirt road about a mile from our house. We made a family outing of going to look for them along with a patch of sweetly smelling Mayflowers and delicate bluets. We are so lucky to experience these simple joys of everyday life in the countryside.

My new steamer

Little things really make my day sometimes. When I worked at Classic Elite, I had a professional steamer in my office and ever since I left - I have desperately missed it. I finally bought myself one to use here. I figured since this "writing book thing and designing sweater thing" seems to be how I am making my living, I should have my own steamer. I got my Jiffy steamer at Goodman's - Model J-2000M for $156.99 plus freight and it arrived in less than a week.

I mention this here because really good steamers aren't too expensive anymore. They are much better than they used to be - turn it on and it heats up in about 2 minutes. Pure hot magical steam floats out the nozzle. There's even an automatic shut-off for stressed out people who forget to shut it off. If you knit and stitch a lot, you really deserve one of these. They work wonders! I can massage lumpy fair isle into a flat, smooth, even fabric. I used to wash all my knitwear before sending the pieces to magazines. I sent many a damp sweater and paid postage for wet yarn going out the door. Not anymore.

With a steamer, all my lumpy, bumpy Fair Isle colorwork flattens itself out. My embroidery stitches become nice and even. A steamer is a miracle worker!

Three Proud Mamas

The ewes are still having lambs. We usually begin lambing in mid January. The gestation cycle of a lamb is five months. The majority of the sheep get bred beginning in August or September. (Sheep are seasonable breeders which means that they can only become pregnant certain times of the year.) The ewe lambs who aren’t quite mature in August usually don’t become pregnant until later in the year.

By April, our first lambs have already gone to market. Lambs from the younger ewes continue to be born. We had another just this morning. I caught this photo two weeks ago of three young mothers with their one day old lambs. If a mom is a good mom, she will carefully guard her lamb. These three watched my every move.

Springtime Memories

My dad Archibald Nicholas Jr. died the 21st of December 2004 (the day of the winter solstice). Last fall I planted 1000 spring bulbs in his memory in the lawn and gardens outside our farmhouse. Dad was a gardener so I thought what better memory to have of him every year than spring flowers. All winter, I have been anticipating their blooms - they are finally poppng! Here’s the first bouquet I picked.

My dad used to carry this poem in his wallet and read it to his friends. If you knew my dad from afar, you would be really surprised to know this. But then everyone has a side they don’t show, don’t they? I know that whoever lives on this land 100 years from now won’t know about my dad but they sure will enjoy the blossoms!

The Daffodils
By William Wordsworth (1804)

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Today is Tuesday – Auction Day

Today is Tuesday which means it is auction day. It’s the day we can “ship” our lambs and turn them into cash. I know this will upset many of you out there and if you are a vegetarian, you may want to stop reading right here. There isn’t a day when we load the lambs onto the trailer that we don’t feel very sad. But the honest fact of the matter is that if you have 120 ewes, the next year there will be at least that many babies. Exponentially, it can quickly become a nightmare (that’s also why we have 7 cats).

When I was in college I was a vegetarian for a couple years. I ate a lot of salads, eggs, rice and beans – tofu was barely available back then. I was asserting my independence. Then one day on a trip home from Oregon, I stopped in Massachusetts to meet Mark’s family and see where he was from. His mom Betty was a real Yankee. I have never since met anyone quite like her. She raised 3 boys by herself after her husband died (the boys were 4, 8 and 12 – yikes!) and managed to hold onto their legacy (“the farm”) while holding down a full time job and paying the taxes. You just have got to admire that. (And all 3 of the boys are happy she did.) I digress.

The first night I was visiting, she plunked down a large cut of beef in front of us, some kind of potato dish and some broccoli. Being a vocal 20 year old, I said I hadn’t eaten meat in 2 years. She looked at me with those wary eyes (who’s this chick my son brought home now?) and politely said to me – “This cow lived out there in that field. We fed him every day. He ate a lot of green grass and he had a really good life.” I ate the steak. That was the end of that.

Auction Day - Part Two

Mark and I took Julia this afternoon down to the auction. After the initial sadness of loading the lambs, we just couldn’t miss seeing how much money they would bring. It is very important for children to know where their food comes from and to learn the cycle of life - Julia seems comfortable with it. Most Americans think their protein comes from the store wrapped in plastic packages. We here at Cold Comfort Farm know better. We are fortunate enough to enjoy grass fed lamb and pork throughout the year thanks to the animals we care for and our enormous chest freezer.

When Mark and I first got our four Romney sheep almost 25 years ago, I was insistent that we do as much as we could ourselves. So when it came time to eat the first ram lambs our ewes had birthed, I decided we should take care of the butchering. It was a foggy cold November day in New England. Mark and I took his mother’s shotgun outside. It was quick. I burst into tears and ran back into the farmhouse. It took a while to compose myself and when I went back outside I found our poor little lamb hanging from the bucket of the old rusted yellow tractor. I had to swallow hard and get over it because my yet to be husband didn’t know what to do next. With our trusty “Raising Sheep the Modern Way” beside me, I managed to skin and take care of that lamb. I’m not sure what happened to Mark – he disappeared. But this suburban girl from northern NJ prevailed.

After that fateful day, we found a good butcher who kindly and humanely turns a few lambs into food for us. The rest go to the auction in Whately and if you live somewhere on the east coast, you may have enjoyed one for Easter dinner. I did learn something that day – most of all that I don’t mind paying a butcher. And secondly, that you can do anything you put your mind to.

Kristin’s really good grilled butterflied leg of lamb

Ask your butcher to butterfly a leg of lamb for you – preferably American raised. A couple hours before grilling, peel some garlic and cut the cloves in half. Make tiny slits with a sharp knife in the flesh and insert the garlic. Using at least a cup of nice Dijon mustard, slather both sides of the leg with the mustard. Generously sprinkle the meat with some coarse salt and some fresh ground pepper. Sprinkle about 1/4 cup of herbes de provence on both sides of the meat. Let it rest in the fridge til you are ready to grill. Light the grill and barbeque as per your usual routine. We prefer out lamb rare and this doesn’t take long. Butterflied lamb is good because the meat is different thicknesses making the doneness of the meat differ to fit all your guests tastes. Pull it off the grill a little early because it will continue to cook. Let it rest for about 10 minutes. Then thinly slice and serve.

The Daily Joy

I still can’t contain the daily joy I experience living on this farm – our little slice of heaven in western Massachusetts. One of the most delightful things to happen on a recurring basis is plucking a WARM egg from the meager little hen house my chickens call home. Do you know how exciting it is to discover it is warm? It means I arrived only seconds after the hen left her nest to eat some more grub which will in turn become an egg for me to eat in a couple days. Sometimes if I can spare the time, I rush right inside, crack it into my old copper pan and fry it up to eat on the spot.

Eggs are a perfect protein. They are reasonable to purchase (not so reasonable to raise when you keep the oldsters who haven’t laid an egg in several years) and make perfect breakfast, lunch or dinner. Here’s a recipe for a springtime fritatta which is great for a quick supper and even elegant enough for lunch time company. Pair it with some spring greens and your friends will be impressed and satisfied. It is even good the second day between a hunk of bread for lunch.

Springtime Frittata Recipe

Preheat the over to 400. Chop a couple onions and 5 cloves of garlic. Saute them in a large skillet (that you want to present the frittata in) with a tablespoon of olive oil til brown. Watch so the garlic doesn’t burn and become bitter. (I know this from experience). Add a pound of fresh asparagus chopped into pieces about 2” long. Saute for a couple minutes til the asparagus starts to cook. Add a good handful of chopped up thinly sliced ham. Cook a couple minutes more. Take the skillet off the heat. Crack 6 eggs into a bowl and whisk. Pour the beaten eggs into the skillet and mix it all up very quickly so everything is coated - don't overmix! Top with some feta cheese (about half cup crumbled) and if you have it, a little Parmesan grated. Throw it all in the oven and bake until brown (about 20 minutes). Serve with a green salad. That’s it – a really quick, springtime supper.

Double Pink

My kid is crazy about pink. It used to drive me nutty. When she was smaller and didn’t have an opinion, I dressed her in colors I like and sweaters I made using orange, red, yellow, chartreuse and more. She was my little paper doll and she always looked cute albeit covered with some kind of food (she has never been a clean kid). But then she discovered pink. At first I ignored it and thought it would go away. It didn’t. So I gave in and decided to have fun with it. I have learned from Julia that pink can be really pretty. There are all kinds of pink – pale pink (gets too dirty), watermelon pink, zinnia pink, dried flower pink, Indian sari pink. It’s versatile and I love to mix it with dark brown, orange, chartreuse and turquoise. Diana Vreeland said “Pink is the navy blue of India.” I don’t think she was wrong. There’s a lot of pink in my upcoming book - it's a new awakening for me.

I just found this great kids book called Double Pink. The eye poppingly bright illustrations by Bruce Ingman are indescribably cute and the story by Kate Feiffer gives me hope that a new color may be just over the horizon. I won’t hold my breath though.

Felting and Embroidering a Kitty Cat Sweater

Wool is my most favorite fiber to work with. It stitches up so nicely - whether sewn, knit or embroidered. All you have to do is hit it with a bit of steam and everything miraculously evens itself out.

When I was in college way back when, I had an extraordinary art professor named Patricia Sparks at Oregon State University. She was one of the forerunners of the American felting craze - virtually establishing it as an art form. I took a class with her on it and it has always been part of my fascination with wool - an art I revisit every once and again.

When I was working on my latest book Colorful Stitchery, I incorporated felting by recycling inexpensive wool sweaters and blankets I purchased from the local thrift store. I really enjoy the hunt of the old wool - digging through racks of old clothes to try to discover sweaters with enough wool in them to felt and light enough in color so I can dye them. Julia has been along on some of these thrifting "expotitions" and I think may be catching the thrifting bug.

It was on an occassion in Brattleboro that I discovered a woman's size large lavender wool sweater. I thought I would chop it up into potholders but my daughter had other ideas. She wanted it! So finally, after several months of it sitting on the floor in my studio already nicely felted, I got inspired to actually decorate this little gem with a bit of embroidery. It took all of one evening. Here it is along with a close-up of the kitty embroidery.

For the embroidery, I used Paternayan Persian wool and split it into single plies to work the cat. I placed my original cat drawing about 2" down from the neckline and centered it. I used the directions in Colorful Stitchery for transferring the design.

To make the sweater, I cut the sleeves out of the sweater. Then I cut up the sideseams and the armseams. The only thing that remained whole was the neckline and shoulder seams. I measured one of Julia's nicely fitting sweaters and cut the excess sweater body fabric off of it (so it looked like a square) keeping the neckline in tact. I cut the sleeves to the proper length and width. With my sewing machine, I sewed the sleeves into the top of the sweater, then sewed the underarm and sideseams. This took all of less than an hour (although there was several months of procrastination involved - now why is that?)

She's happy and so am I -- this project idea has been weighing on my mind for several months. It is now her favorite sweater.

Embroidery on Knits at Wool Connection

Here's my great group of students I taught last weekend at The Wool Connection's Ewephorbic Weekend. We spent 3 fun packed hours together learning about 12 new stitches. As you can see from their swatches, they all learned a lot and hopefully will use the techniques to decorate lots of plain knits.

It was my first time teaching at The Wool Connection's great weekend since Julia was born. Boy, has it grown - lots more students and excitement than the last time I was there. Everyone seemed happy with what they learned but slightly exhausted!