Silhouettes

As an American woman who has lived her entire life in the United States of America, I am thankful for all the opportunities this great country has afforded me. I am (partly) a second generation American. My Gram Frieda came from Germany in 1911 as a ten year old child - just the age Julia is right now. Gram met another new immigrant from England in the factory she was working in when she was done with grade school. She married Archie in 1921. Several years later my Uncle Harry and Dad Archie Jr. were born to Frieda and Archie. I consider myself a second generation American because Gram was the one who helped to raise us, cared for us when Mom had other obligations, and instilled in my sisters and me her hard-working German habits and non-sensical attitudes.

I know this story is so similar to so many of you reading this blog. The USA has offered us the opportunities that are not available in so many other countries in this world. Tomorrow, as you and your family, and my family and I celebrate Thanksgiving, may we wish for - and work towards - the continuing prosperity and promise that the USA has always offered in this giant world of ours. Things are not always easy - nor should they be.... New people come, old people go.... Nothing is quite right or wrong.... There is always another way to look at things. Stay open and ready to accept the new, whether you think you want to or not.

I have had the great fortune to live in the Pioneer Valley in western Massachuestts for the past 10 years. It is a place rich in beauty and land and spirit, although not in monetary opportunities. Our house is said to be built in 1751 - several years after the Pilgrims we celebrate Thanksgiving Day landed upon our continent. Almost every day I marvel that I am so lucky to be living in a building that was built so long ago. And every day I thank my lucky stars (and My Farmer who introduced me to this beautiful place) that I can try to make the world a better and prettier place - whether through our gardens, sunflowers, knitting, embroidery, pastures, animals or this here virtual blog!

I am also so thankful to all of you - my faithful blog readers and sometimes commenters. You give me a place to express my views, share my passions, and write without being edited to bits. And oh, my goodness, I didn't mean to get so philosophical here - but holidays do have a way of making me think about how life is and what it brings.

The Farmer, Julia, and I (and our assorted critters) wish you and yours a Happy and Beautiful Thanksgiving wherever you are in this world.

Socks on the Brain

Ever since going to Stitches East a couple weeks ago, I can’t help but think about socks – the knitters who knit them and the yarn that goes into them. As I was walking around the show, I saw vendors simultaneously knitting socks while answering questions, selling books, and yarn, dressed with little yarn purses on their wrists. They were knitting on short little circular needles, clicking away in simple ribs – keeping their fingers busy – perhaps to keep a zen moment going in their head amidst the hysteria of the market floor. I was mightily impressed!

I saw tons and tons of sock yarn hand dyed in luscious colors, tempting the knitters with curiosity. No knitter knows how an individual hand-dyed skein of yarn will work up. I think there’s a bit of mystery hidden in each skein – perhaps that’s a big reason why sock knitters purchase these hand-dyed beauties.

As I was running out the door, I picked up a Think Outside the Sox Contest Brochure being run by the folks at XRX/Knitters Magazine. There are thousands and thousands of dollars of prizes. And there are so many great categories to enter into. Wow - What a great opportunity! A few years ago, I judged the first sock contest sponsored by XRX. It was fun to see what people entered. I urge you ------ if you are the least little bit of a creative knitter ------- to enter the contest! Everyone really does have a chance to win – and with so many categories – it gives so many people a chance! Check it out.


For all you sock knitters out there – or friends of sock knitters, I’ve got an easy Christmas gift for you. I just painted two sock illustrations that I have had made into postcards. They are available over at my shop on my website now. Made for all of you sock knitters by me for you to give – and an easy, very reasonable gift for any knitter on your list.

A Week of Chaos

Things have been out of control here in our little corner of the world over the past couple weeks. I’ve been mired in photo shoot preparation while The Farmer has been dealing with animal crisis after crisis. I try not to put on too romantic a front to this farming thing because most days, it is anything but. We’ve been in the process of moving trailer loads of sheep down to their winter housing. Most of the adult ewes are pregnant – at least we are hoping. It’s time to start getting them settled into the dilapidated -- but still functional -- greenhouse barn (sheep don't care what a shelter looks like as long as there is a roof over their heads!). The grass up here on the summer pastures we use is still green but there isn’t much left to eat.

A couple Sundays ago, the day after I returned from Stitches in Maryland, we were loading the trailer with sheep. It’s a slow process because they don’t want to go onto it, no matter how much grain you coerce them with. The Farmer, the two dogs, and I were slowly having a bit of success. With a few sheep on the trailer, we were trying for more. And then I looked down to see Phoebe, our older Border Collie limping – her back right leg definitely hurt. On Monday we took her to the vet only to find out that it wasn’t broken but the ligaments were badly torn. We have no idea what she did to herself. The vet didn’t give us much hope saying that it was the worst injury he had ever seen of that kind.

For the past couple weeks, Phoebe has been on pain pills and anti-inflammatory meds. She is totally happy, eating, answering and trying to get outside as much as possible. We’re trying to keep her quiet and confined to one floor. We decided not to partake in the option of a $5000 plus operation with no guarantee of a successful outcome. Our human physical therapist friend Alice told us it takes about a year for a human to get over this kind of ligament damage – so we are waiting and seeing what happens with Phoebe.

The following day, the coyotes penetrated the electric fence at the winter sheep headquarters. A dead lamb was the result. Jeremy, our guard llama was there. He seems to have no effect on the coyotes anymore – since he got hit by a speeding car two summers ago. The Farmer worked on the fences – trying to discover where the coyotes got in.



The next day, he arrived to find the coyotes eating another lamb they had freshly killed. More fence fixing and hoping. A few days later, The Farmer arrived to find two young bald eagles feeding on the lamb carcass. Wow – that is a first and something I would love to see one day.

This Monday, after trying to get Eeyore to participate in the photo shoot (and failing), it was time for the new donkey’s trip to the greenhouse pasture to try to keep the coyotes at bay.

This morning there were no dead lambs and Eeyore, Jeremy the ex-guard llama, and their flock of sheep were happily picking at hay and what’s left of the grass. We’re not out of the woods yet – still more fence fixing and hoping those coyotes will leave the sheep alone.

It was 15 degrees last night – I’ve got to get the peonies my mom sent me into the ground before it’s too frozen to dig. We’re not quite ready for winter yet but it is coming whether we like it or not.

P.S. Attention Fans of Children's Books - On Saturday, the 22nd of November, the real Holly Hobbie will be signing book her new "Fanny" book and her classic "Toot and Puddle" series at our local book store - World Eye Books on Main Street in Greenfield, Mass. In addition - her kids Nathaniel and Jocelyn will be signing their "Priscilla" books at the same location. Come if you can!

It Takes A........

...... whole lot of people to make beautiful photos for a book.

It's been quiet on my blog the past few days. That's because there's been so much activity and madness here at this little old farmhouse. On Sunday, part of the crew arrived for the photography for my next book. After a quick scouting of locations, we headed off to The People's Pint for a prep meeting for the upcoming two days. Good food always seems to help out the rather chaotic situtation.

An early call of 7:30 a.m. put this sleepy household into overdrive. I've been burning the candle at both ends finishing up projects til the wee early morning hours for days now. The Farmer has been extremely patient with all the preparations, take-out dinners, and sheer lack of normalness. He is the kind of guy who really does crave normal. It's a good thing he had lots of stuff to do because there was not an inch of normal around here for 3 days.

On top of it all, Julia got a bad sore throat and cold. I couldn't send her to school because I knew I would get a pick up call and I didn't have a moment of extra time to spare. So, I gave her my camera and asked her to document the shoot for you all. Please excuse the blurriness of some of the photos - she was trying her best.

Hair and make-up by Elena.


Julia was fascinated by all the products she dragged through the door.


Julie Hines, the Fashion Stylist.


Julie found such great stuff to really put a nice spin on my knitted projects. My studio was packed to the gills with clothing, coats, boots, rolling racks and boxes direct from NYC. It helps to have lots of choices to sort through. On a location shoot, you never do know what situation you are going to portray. So more is definitely better than less.

Diane Lamphron, the Art Director, kept us all organinzed and on track.


John Gruen, my favorite photographer, didn't disappoint. Here he is giving Julia some photographic pointers.


Sean, John's Photo Assistant, made sure the light was bouncing the right way. Here he was wrangling the two little girl models who weren't so sure this was as much fun as they thought it would be.

Now that almost all photography is done digitally, the computer sure does make things instant and fun. And there are no more polaroids and polaroid trash to dispose of.

Here I am still knitting some finishing projects for the next day's shoot. I'm surprised I have such a nice smile on my face considering the pressure I have been under to get it all done AND clean up the house.


I'm not showing the female models on purpose - I want to keep you guys guessing about some things!

Hard to believe anyone could sleep through any of this but it did happen. Tommie, one of the kittens fell asleep on Diane's clipboard. He was never far from the scene of action, whether asleep or not.


Phew... That part is done but there's much more I've got to take care of. The book won't be out until next fall so I'm sure you'll be hearing more about it in the upcoming months. Back to the regularly scheduled blog posting, I hope.

Knitted Color Style

Here's a fun colorful project I designed last year that came out this fall in Pam Allen and Ann Budd's Color Style.

It's a hooded scarf with a great big tassel knit in my Julia Wool/Mohair/Alpaca. Once again, I mixed up the patterns - a simple diamond Fair Isle with some embroidered flowers. Striped edges are easy and fun.

Look for it at your yarn or book store.

Here's a detail of the embroidery......


Have a colorful weekend and hope to see some of you at Webs on Saturday night - 5 p.m.

Out of the Closet and Onto the Air

Where we live, we have a favorite radio station. You know, the kind you put a bumper sticker on the back of your car and maybe win a prize. Not that we have that bumper sticker on our car….. My bumper sticker says “No Farms, No Food.” But we do enjoy this radio station immensely – great mix of music and funny interviews. I used to be an avid NPR listener but when I had Julia and she became a toddler and could actually understand what they were saying on NPR, I stopped. It was too much about WAR and rather violent. I didn’t think a 3 year old needed to know about it – there’s a lifetime left for her to know about wars and people not getting along around the world.

All this said, Julia has become a bit of a celebrity with the DJ's at WRSI. The first time she was on the air she was interviewed by Rachel Maddow – who used to be the host of the Morning Show on WRSI. Yes, that Rachel who is now on MSNBC and Air America. She was absolutely hilarious every morning and such a smart person to listen to and wake up to. One time, she went to my brother-in-law’s milk room and interviewed him as he milked his cows. Julia and I met Rachel when we brought her some eggs from our guinea hens. What a gracious woman and of course, she put Julia on the air. It was her first radio piece and it was really cute. I think she was four or so.

Julia doesn’t know that the person speaking through the radio isn’t her friend. She thinks they all are. Kelsey Flynn, the next morning show host (and a fellow Jersey girl), became fast friends with Julia. Julia called her multiple times and Kelsey always got some lovely little tidbits of wisdom from Julia. I’ve got a bunch of audio tapes of those precious little kid moments – like the time she called Kelsey all concerned because Eloise was going to lose her home at the Plaza Hotel – Julia was incensed that The Plaza was going to be turned into condominiums. Who knew a 4 year old knew what the heck a condominium was. Here she is doing a Christmas promo for The River's Charity drive to collect toys for kids a couple years ago.

Now Monte Belmonte is the charming and funny host of The River’s Morning Show. Julia befriended him a while back. He has a lovely wife Melissa and two cute kids - Atticus and Enzo - and we often run into around town. He's a smart, funny and fun guy. One day, Julia brought Monte some bacon from our pigs and he has been forever grateful.

Because I’m going to be doing a Booksigning at Webs in Northampton, MA this Saturday at 5 p.m, I thought I should pull in a favor from Julia's friends at WRSI. Julia and I delivered some Julia Yarn to Monte a couple weeks ago. You see -- the guy CROCHETS! He talks about his crocheting all the time. He picks it up during Red Sox and Patriots games and he crochets scarves like a mad man. So the gift of yarn was not an odd one - it was appropriate.

And so, I was out of the closet. Monte and Kelsey found out I wasn't only Julia's mom but I was also a knitwear designer and had a yarn line. Yesterday, he interviewed Julia and I and the little radio interview ran this morning on WRSI. Click here to listen to it. It's actually pretty funny.

Thanks Monte for the interview and the radio spot. Thanks Lori for figuring out how you all can listen to it. Thanks to Webs for hosting the booksigning this Saturday. But mostly thanks to my cute little girl Julia who has taken me places I never would have gone if she wasn't in my life.

Hope to see some of you on Saturday evening - 5 p.m. at Webs.

Back from .....

Stitches East..... I am back from a successful trip to Maryland to Stitches East. It was quite a bit of fun to meet many readers of this blog although I am sure I missed many of you. I was booked to teach classes for the majority of the time I was there. I had a lovely group of students in each class and I hope they took something home from what I was jabbering on about.

The market was a buzz of excitement. I don't get off the farm much -- so to see what is out there for sale was quite interesting. I didn't have time to visit each booth so I just skimmed through the aisles. I did a couple of booksignings and then ran away to teach a class or two. I did get to go to the Fashion Show on Friday night as a guest of Westminster Fibers. The garments that go into the show are supplied by the vendors of the market. It gave me an overview of what these folks thought was hot and knittable. There were a lot of lovely things.

On the way home in the plane, I was thinking the whole trip over and I focused on the Fashion Show. I must say - I don't think there was one garment that was knit in my favorite Fair Isle (or stranded) knitting technique. What's up with that? Is everyone afraid of knitting two colors in one row. The other really evident trend - and perhaps it has been done to death by now - was the multi-color hand-dyed yarn trend. Booth after booth of hand-dyed yarn lined the aisles. Is that the only kind of yarn people knit with these days?

And socks - wow - is that the only thing anyone knits? There were gobs and gobs of different hand dyed sock yarns too. I may have been extra sensitive to this trend since I had to prepare an opening day speech on Thinking beyond the Sock. Five designers were asked to tell the crowd what else you can do with sock yarn. Maybe I will report on what I came up with one day here on my blog, once I find out what the Knitters' people are going to want from me for publication. I did see a lot of sock yarn knit into lacy shawls which were quite stunning.

Me? I don't have a lot of interest in knitting a bunch of multi-colored socks. I must be the only one though. But oh well - you gotta do what you wanna do. Let me stick to my multi-color knitting in a worsted weight yarn and I'll see what that kaleidoscope that swirls around in my head can dream up.

I did discover these lovely leather handles and purchased a few of them for upcoming projects. Lovely colors and styles and very nice quality leather. Check it out!

I must say, I was quite happy to get home to my little family. We took a lovely walk on Sunday up to the top of our world to look for the sheep who had escaped the electro-net fencing. There they were with their new buddy way up on the top of a hill. What a beautiful day it was.


And isn't Eeyore the funniest. Someone must have taken a lot of photos of him. Every time I point the lens towards him, he poses or acts silly. He's been paid for now -- so I guess he's staying.

Helping me....

Yes, Jennifer – you Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood. You, my dear, are helping me to Keep My Sanity. I remember my mom talking about keeping her sanity with five kids – me I’m only trying to keep my sanity with one kid, a husband, 30 chickens, 12 cats, 196 sheep (current count), 1 llama, 1 donkey, and 2 border collies, a trip to Stitches in Maryland, and a book photo shoot in a little more than a week.

I’ve been knitting a lot for upcoming projects and I am loving Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood’s Podcasts over at Craft Sanity. Jennifer's interviews are so good to knit or fix dinner by. Jennifer definitely gives a fabulous podcast - the interviews are long, detailed, and really fun to listen to. I like listening because she helps me find out what makes others in similar fields tick.

And yes……. I forgot – the other day, I was interviewed by Kathy Elkins on the Ready, Set, Knit Podcast. You can listen to it via Itunes - it is #103. I probaly didn’t say much new to anyone who reads this blog but it is always nice to add another podcast to my sidebar…….

I am so going to need a good nap this Sunday when I return from Maryland - like our sweet little kitties Tommie and Pippi.

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.

Explorations in Color

Like most people, my first explorations in color began as a child. I can still remember opening up a new box of crayons - the 64 pack from Crayola.

I remember the sharp points and the waxy smell.

I remember hoping my little sisters who I shared them with wouldn't break them. I remember wishing I could have a perfect, unused box all to myself.

I can still feel the anticipation I had of combining the colors into one big beautiful coloring project.

But mostly I remember the pristine look of the virgin crayons - ahhhhhh - what a site.


I remember the rough paper wrappers printed in black ink that had all the names of the colors down at the lower flat end of the crayon. Now they are in three languages - how cool. What a great way for kids to learn another language early!


I remember my favorite crayon color was red violet. What was yours?

Do you have a special color memory? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Granny Possibilities

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

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

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

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

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

Gray November Days

The Farmer absolutely hates the month of November. I've asked him why and he says "because it is so gray." Guess I'm not the only one in this household who craves color. For me, November is about getting used to the shortening days, colder weather, and being inside more than I really like. For him, I suppose it is that the grass stops growing and his hay harvesting - with either his tractor or his sheep - comes to a slow stop. His days aren't as crazy as when the grass is growing. I know it depresses him. He hates to be inside because frankly, he feels like a caged lion. He paces across the floors when it is dark outside. He can't find anything he wants to do except perhaps read. And he's an active guy -- reading only does so much for him.

By the end of November he settles in and is used to the lack of crazy outdoor schedule. By early January, lambs are arriving, it's freezing cold and he's outside again - loving it - whether it is below zero or not.


All that said, I don't like November gray because I know everything is going to look like this until April. That's a long time of grayness - no leaves on the trees except for what's left hanging like the beech leaves and of course the all too dependable everygreens.

This gray November day, I'd like to introduce you to our new bit of gray.

We've named him Eeyore. I know - not too original. We are big fans of A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh around here. (I must admit, before I had Julia I had never read Winnie the Pooh. Once I started reading him to Julia, I realized what all the fuss was about. What a mesmerizing cadence of rhythm every line is!)

Eeyore is on a trial basis now. One of our neighbors bought him at the local livestock auction and we're trying him out for coyote control. Although we were cautious at first, he seems to be fitting into the sheep flock. He definitely hates dogs (canines). Whenever Phoebe and Nessie come too close, he torments them. We're hoping he'll do the same to the coyotes. I must say, he adds a new dimension to my sheep photos. He is quite photogenic and I look forward to taking more shots of him soon.

When I was up the hill the other day taking these photos, I got this nice shot of our new Border Leicester ram. He is quite handsome and his fleece stands out because it is longer than the rest of the sheep. It has been breeding season since August and we're anxious to see what kind of lambs this guy produces come January.


Late this afternoon, I was driving down the road, on the other side of the mountain, to go to pick up my Sunday Times. I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It looked like a flock of wild turkeys. I always like to watch them when I get the chance. I stopped the car and backed it up. No, it wasn't at all wild turkeys. It was five coyotes romping around. Wow - that was a pack. I've seen plenty of coyotes in my time - but it is always a lone one running across the road. This pack was out in broad daylight. It made my day even if they do eat our sheep.