Summer Starts and Gustav Stickley's Craftsman Farms

Julia and I have just spent a few days visiting my mom, sisters, and cousins in New Jersey. We had to fit in a quick visit before she started summer school today. We both had a great time and Julia learned to swim in my mom's heated pool without a floatie which is the best news. Last summer she was on the verge of swimming but just didn't have the confidence to take off the floatie. Last week, there wasn't a "bubble" available. She was nervous at first but then figured out she could do it and there was no looking back. It's too bad we didn't have a few more days. The cousins really spurred her on.

Usually when we're at Mom's with cousins and aunts, we don't do a lot except hang around and visit. But this trip, my sister Nancy and I decided that the kids needed a bit of culture. Gustav Stickley's "Craftsman Farms" is only about fifteen minutes from Mom's house. I had been there once several years ago but boy has it changed. If you aren't familiar with Gustav Stickley, he was one of the leaders of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the early 20th century in America. His furniture made by his company is widely collected and the ideas he spread with his "The Craftsman" Magazine (published between 1901 and 1916) are so current with the times we are living in. Amazingly, you can find the archives of The Craftsman Magazine on line HERE.

Gustav Stickley had big ideas and for many years his business prospered. He had his own building in NYC at 6 East 39th Street which housed his showrooms and a restaurant. He purchased 650 acres of land in Parsippany NJ and planned to build a school for young boys to learn life skills. On his farm, he also built several cottages, a cow barn, milking room, horse barns and grew produce which he used for his restaurant in NYC. Eventually, he abandoned his school idea and decided to build his family a home on the farm (shown above). This is the home you can tour today.

Craftsman Farms is a jewel - it sits very close to Route 10 in Parsippany and there is a very tiny sign mentioning its National Historic Landmark status. I'm sure most people who live in that area of New Jersey have never visited it. The tour is informative and generous and we really got the feeling of Stickley's ideals by seeing the rooms, furniture and textiles.

Sadly, Stickley went bankrupt in 1917 and the home and property was sold. Luckily, The Farny Family purchased the home, complete with all the furniture. They lived in it until the 1980's and kept it just the way Stickley had designed it with the exception of painting and decorating. The home was in danger of being destoyed for a townhouse complex but in 1989 the Township of Parsippany purchased it and a foundation was set up to preserve the home. The furniture had all been auctioned off but over the years, the Foundation has been able to purchase some and much has been donated.

My favorite thing about the house is all of the handmade touches that still remain. There are several hoods over the fireplaces and each has a hand-hammered saying etched upon it. My favorite is this one from Chaucer: "The Lyf So Short, The Craft So Long To Lerne."

A trip to this house museum is surely worth it if you are a fan of such places. Next visit to NJ, we're going to try to see Thomas Edison's house in West Orange.

Come and "Get Stitched" at Kristin Nicholas' Leyden Glen Farm

My big news is that I will be teaching a series of courses at our farmhouse beginning this August. Inspired by other book authors including Patricia Wells, Susan Hermann Loomis, Ricki Carroll, Denyse Schmidt, Joel Salatin and Natalie Chanin, The Farmer and I have decided to open our home and my studio up to a very small number of students. It's going to be really fun (if not a whole heck of a lot of work to prepare for). We're going to try to give all the students a real taste of farm life along with some great knitting instruction.

You can read all about it on my new descriptional blog/website - link below.

Kristin Nicholas Presents "Get Stitched on the Farm Classes."

Spread the word for me! If these fly, I'll be adding more to the schedule. I can guarantee you a memory you will keep for the rest of your life! As my mom says "Kristin, this place just is like no other."

Something's Brewing and Stewing!

There's a lot new going on around here besides kittens! Check back on Thursday morning for a big announcement. I'm not going to give any hints except to say that the project I have been thinking about for six months and working on for the past few weeks is coming together.

I can't wait to share it with you then.

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!

TNNA Blur and Color by Kristin

I'm back from TNNA in Columbus, OH. Oh, what a whirlwind full of old friends, dinners, selling yarn, talking about my new book and basically having a good old time. The whole experience brings me back to the days when I worked for a yarn company. Those years were full of travel, trade shows - both exhibiting and visiting to buy yarn, very long days and many nice dinners. I really don't miss those days too much - except for the dinner part - that I do miss. I love to try food in many different countries of the world and the USA. This past weekend I got to share many meals with publishers, designers, and yarn companies and it was great fun.

I had a small section of the Nashua Handknits Booth to set up to display the projects from my new book Color by Kristin. All of the projects were incredibly well-received and I have high hopes for the book too. The staff at Sixth and Spring has done an incredible job putting together this book. I can't let on too much because I want it to be a surprise for knitters. One thing I can say is that besides over 25 projects, there is also a lot of technical information on knitting that is timeless.

There's been much discussion about the cover of the book as there always is. The publishers always try to pick the one that will be the most tempting to buyers. I think they have gotten it right. Here it is for all of you to see:


I think it is beautiful. It speaks to knitters - whether beginners or advanced knitters. It also challenges the reader to look inside to see what else is in the book. I do know the yarn stores loved it as did many of the other industry folks I visited with.

Now is the time that your local yarn store is ordering fall yarn. If your LYS doesn't have my Julia Yarn, please give them a little nudge. I did sell a lot of Julia to many new accounts but not all yarn stores travel to a show like this. Most shops see sales reps in their store and place their fall orders with them. Ask them to order my Julia Yarn so that you will be able to knit the projects in this new book.

I've got some more exciting news but I'm going to wait until tomorrow to let you in on that!

Many of you have asked if I will be selling signed copies of Color by Kristin on my website. The answer is "YES - I SURELY WILL!" Color by Kristin will not be available until early November so I hesitate to put it on my website now for purchasing. The website is set up so that you can purchase through PayPal. As you know, when you order, the money is taken out of your PayPal account. This would mean you would be prepaying for the book several months in advance and I think most people wouldn't want to do that. What do you think? Would you like to be first in line to buy a signed copy? Would you mind prepaying? Just wondering? If I have enough of interest, I will get it put up soon. I sincerely thank everyone who does purchase my books directly from me. Those sales help contribute to keep this little old farm running - animals and people fed, clothed and sheltered. Thanks so much!

My Staff

A few weeks ago I got an e-mail note from a woman named Evelyn. She was knitting a teddy bear I designed for the book I wrote with Melanie Falick called Knitting for Baby and was having trouble with the shoulders. I was in the middle of one of the last crunches on my upcoming book - Color by Kristin - and just didn’t have the time to answer. So I didn’t, much as I wanted to. When you do what I do, you have to spend your time where it is needed most. Most publishers have a staff person or a tech editor on retainer that I can pass pattern problems onto. As far as I know, this is not the case with STC so I usually have to help knitters through problems they have with books I have written for them. Honestly, this is one of my least favorite parts of my job.

When I write and design for a knitting book, I give the publisher the instructions my knitters have made the projects from. Then the publisher’s tech editor puts those instructions into the house style (every publisher has a different style). At the same time, the tech editor checks math and tweaks the instructions so that they are understandable and hopefully perfect. Tech editors are the un-sung heroes of the yarn industry. They stay behind the scene, tidying everything up and making authors and publishers shine. They strive for perfection and clarity. A good tech editor is in high demand and most of them are extremely busy people.

After a book is laid out, the manuscript is sent back to the author for re-checking. This is a crucial spot for the author to find inconsistencies or mis-interpretation by the tech editor. It’s the part I really try to spend hours on because I want my books to be understandable and easy to knit from. I was at this point with Color by Kristin when Evelyn contacted me.

Evelyn did not give up. Two weeks later she contacted me again. My book crisis was past and I had forgotten about her e-mail – it was buried in my in-box. At this point, I had a minute to look at the pattern for her. As far as I could tell, there was no problem with the pattern. Most times, this is the case but a knitter is not understanding how the directions are written or how a project is made. It is a matter of interpretation. I could tell this was Evelyn’s problem because the little bear isn’t the most straight forward project – although it is darn cute.

I wrote Evelyn back, helped her out and here’s what she wrote to me.

“Dear Kristin,
Thank you so much for personally responding to my email. I am honored. I expected one of your staff persons to answer. I actually feel very badly now for having bothered you with my problem. I feel so dumb for not understanding the instructions (everything is explained in depth in that book), I apologize. I was getting so frustrated and couldn't figure out my mistake. I understand now that I'm to sew the stitches that were bound off which will become the shoulder. I am so excited!!!
Thank you so much for your kindness and time.
Sincerely,
Evelyn”

I was relieved that her project was going to work out. But I was in hysterics also. Evelyn thinks I have a “staff.” If Evelyn ever knew. I decided to write back:

“Hi Evelyn:
I'm still laughing that you think I have a "staff!" It's just me and my dogs, cats, sheep, chickens and actually, I am the only staff -- I'm their staff! I take care of their food and water and letting them in an out, so I suppose I am their maid and chef! Hope the grandbaby likes the teddy (or at least the mom or dad of the grandbaby!)
Good weekend,
Kristin”

This little back and forth has made me think about how knitters perceive “the designers” they look to for patterns and creativity. There are a lot of us designers out here and there are very few of us who have “staffs.” Knitwear designers who write knitting books are usually trying to juggle a million balls at the same time – designing, writing, promoting, teaching, doing t.v. gigs (when asked), writing blogs, and more. And then there is the normal everyday things that need to be done. Around here, if I think about it, my head spins. This week, we’ve already been to two farmer’s markets to sell lamb, along with doing all the farm chores, entertaining an out of town guest with a good meal, planting our vegetable garden, mulching the flower beds.

Today, I am off to TNNA in Columbus. I’ll be helping to set up the Westminster Fibers Booth on Friday. On Saturday and Sunday, I’ll be selling yarn for them. If you are there, stop by and say “hi.” I’ll have a mock-up of my new book with me (that I had bound at Staples last night) and some lovely postcards for a takeaway gift. Hopefully I will be re-connecting with old friends and meeting some new ones.


To tell you the truth, getting away for this weekend will actually be a bit of a vacation from my everyday chores. No chickens or chicks or guinea hens to feed. No kittens or cats or dogs to feed. No errant sheep to corral back into the pasture. No family to cook and care for. And I don’t even have to cook for myself.

Truth be told, I can’t wait to get back to all my normalness on Monday!

Leyden Glen Lamb Website

...... is live! There's still some pages to complete but it's a start! I'll let you know when I get even more helpful information added.

Check it out here! Thanks to Lori Gayle, my fabulous web guru for putting it together so nicely and fitting it into her overbooked schedule!

Everyone Likes Eggs at The Farmer’s Market - But Please Buy Some Lamb!

This past week, The Farmer, Julia and I did two mid-week farmer’s markets in little towns close by to our farm. We were asked by a friend who is in charge of the Agricultural Commission in a neighboring town if we would come sell our lamb. She had heard that we were now trying to establish a retail lamb meat business. We said “yes” without really thinking about what it would entail and then had to follow through on our promise.

The Tuesday market is held in the parking lot of The United Church in Bernardston. It is free for farmers (no booth charge at these markets) but as a farmer, you have to commit to packing a truck, driving there (20 minutes one way), standing and smiling for 3 hours – hoping some kind soul will buy our lamb, and then packing up, driving home, and unloading the truck at our place, moving the frozen lamb to yet another freezer before cooking dinner, getting the homework done, and then collapsing for the night.

In addition, we had to purchase a smallish chest freezer ($250) that could go to the market with us (the local Board of Health looks out for all of you!), a special adaptor for the truck to turn the battery into an electric outlet for the chest freezer ($59), and an extension cord ($10). I also had to pack up a calculator, business cards, promotional cards, pen, change box, some water to drink, and whatever else we all possibly need for three hours in the sun. Then we had to weigh and mark the meat with prices – since I don’t want to have to also haul the scale (which I bought on-line from Scales Galore for $150 plus freight - which by the way would make an awesome scale for anyone doing dyeing....), pack the meat in a cooler with ice to hold it while we drove in two separate trucks to the market. (The Farmer had hay down and couldn't stay and sell with us.) When we got to the market, we had to off-load all this stuff, including the totally unwieldy chest freezer that takes two strong people to get off the truck safely. I think if we had thought all this out, we might not have been so quick to say ‘yes, sounds like fun and a good opportunity!”

I’m posting all this stuff here for you to read for your enjoyment (Oh, yeah – are they nuts or what?) and for your education as to what it takes for a farmer to go to a Farmer’s Market. And none of these kooky details include what it took to birth the lambs, raise them successfully, get them to the slaughterhouse, drop them off safely, pick them up and transport them home successfully to our freezer, only to pack them up again and then take them to our local farmer’s market.

I am not writing this for sympathy. Aaaahhh, woe is me – This is all so much hard work….. I am writing this to get all of you, my loyal readers, to visit your local farmer’s market and support your local farmers! The Farmer’s Market Concept is becoming so popular and widespread now that many, many small towns are organizing them in church parking lots, town commons and other spaces. They are fun to go to by yourself, with your children, or with a friend. By visiting and buying from your local farmers, you’ll help keep the agricultural land in your area planted, productive, and green. You’ll have a direct input to your local community by keeping your dollars in local families homes as compared to shopping with huge “out of town” corporations.

Lately, I’ve been thinking there needs to be a Ravelry Group called “Knitters Who Eat Lamb!) What do you think? Would anyone join? I think about this a lot because as I travel around the country, teaching knitting with color or whatever I am most interested in at the moment, I usually include a brief introduction to where I live. I usually give a bit of a slide show – showing my family and extended family of animals. Inevitably, as I talk about our sheep, lambs, pigs, chickens, there is always a “cry-out” from many knitters in the audience. “Oh my goodness,” they say, “How could you eat them?” The easiest way for me to explain to people why it is necessary for us to sell our lambs for meat is to talk about the exponential growth that occurs in a flock of sheep. We started out with four sheep back in 1979. That morphed to 7, then 15, then 30, and on and on. We have literally birthed thousands of sheep over these past 30 years. No farmer, unless perhaps they are Paul McCartney or someone else with very deep pockets, could ever continue to feed and keep all the sheep that are born – year after year. Not to mention the work, the hay that has to be cut, the housing that needs to be built for the flock. It just doesn’t work that way. And so we choose to eat our sheep and sell them for meat.

I grew up in the suburbs of NY City – in northern New Jersey. My family didn’t raise our own food, except for some veggies. All of our food came from the local grocery store. Every night, we ate some kind of protein, whether it be chicken, beef, fish or pork. Never did my sisters and I have any realistic regard for the life that was sacrificed for our dinner, nor the farmer who grew it. Dinner was just expected – protein and vegetables with some kind of potato, bread or rice every night before we ran out the door to a high school extra-curricular meeting or homework before the t.v. screen.

No, the meat that America buys does not originate magically in plastic wrapped Styrofoam container packages. That meat has to originate somewhere. That animal that you are feeding to your family – whether it be hamburg (cow), chicken tenders (poultry), lamb chops (sheep), or pork tenderloin (pig) – all started somewhere – on someone’s farm (factory farm or homestead – they all begin somewhere). That piece of meat began as a baby animal. It grew into an adult that was of a size that was advantageous for the farmer to part with at a certain cost. That animal was released into the food chain and became packaged meat for your family to enjoy.

So what in the heck is the title of this post all about? I also brought a couple dozen of my hen’s eggs to the market. They were gone in a flash. I think shoppers are a little afraid of eating lamb. I’ll keep working on them though. Our lamb is tasty and delicious and healthy. I only wish my hens could lay three eggs each a day. Everyone loves farm fresh eggs, don’t they? They don’t have to think about the animal being slaughtered, they just think about healthy little chickens running around a farmyard!

Off to paint yet another sign – a Leyden Glen Farm sign to drag around to the local Farmer’s Markets!

It's Been Ten Years

My family and I have just celebrated the tenth anniverysary of living in our farmhouse. We moved here on May 21st, 1999. I remember the day precisely. It was a beautiful day – sunny, clear, and not too hot. Julia was ten months old. The Farmer and I had bought this place is May of 1998 – a few months before our child was to be born. We found our place through our friend Will, who happened to be a realtor. His family has been a friend of The Farmer’s family for many decades.

The Farmer is from “here” – that is western Massachusetts. He grew up on a dairy farm in a town on the northern Massachusetts line, just south of Vermont. That farm has been in his family since the early 1900’s. Me? I had always been a visitor “here” – not really belonging – but always wanting to. I first came to this area in 1979 on a trip back from college in Oregon. I immediately fell in love with the place, the hills, the farms, the vistas, nature. It was so different than from where I grew up in the suburbs of northern New Jersey.

In February of 1998 when I was five months pregnant with our only child, I got a phone call at work from The Farmer. He said that our friend Will had called and told him that “The Britton Place” was for sale. I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. All I knew was that he was telling me that we had to place an offer on this place and immediately - right then, over the telephone.

My Farmer has been known to buy a truck in about ten minutes. If he knows what he is looking for, he doesn’t waste time hemming and hawing about whether the decision is right or not. He just goes for it and deals with the consequences later. This trait of his is admirable but can be a wee bit frustrating to live with – especially when dealing with big ticket items like real estate. In the back of my mind though, I know he is almost always right, whether it is an instinct thing, or not.

And so, when he called me at work, pregnant and stressed, I took the call in the warehouse of the yarn company I worked in. He sounded determined and I asked him if perhaps I might be able to look at the place he wanted me to buy and live in eventually. Within a few minutes, he called me back. We were to see the place the next day in the early afternoon.

When I got home, I asked him what there was about the place that made him want to buy it. The Farmer said that his mom, Betty, too had wanted to buy the place one of the few times this place was for sale. It was the late 1960’s and her husband had just died. She was left with three boys ages 12, 8 and 4. This place, "The Britton Place" as it is still referred to by long-time locals, was for sale and she thought it would be a fresh start for the four of them. The three boys didn’t agree – they wanted to stay at the farm they had always known, a place that had been in their father’s French Canadian family since the early 1900’s . And so Betty, my mother-in-law, had bowed to the wishes of her kids and didn’t buy “The Britton Place.”

And so now it was our turn. We made an appointment for the next day and I skipped out of work early, not mentioning a word about where I was going nor what I was thinking about. We drove on the winding back roads from eastern Massachusetts, through southern New Hampshire and then back into western Massachusetts. The ground was thawing and “frost heaves” were appearing. For anyone who isn’t from “here,” frost heaves are giant bumps in the road, any road. They are similar to asphalt speed bumps, only they are made by Mother Nature. The frost heaves climb out of the road haphazardly… making riding in a car for any pregnant woman totally uncomfortable. As you drive your car along, you may find yourself flying over a jump at any time. I’ll never forget that ride – anticipation and frost heaves.


We made our way to western Massachusetts and then met up with our realtor friend Will. We followed him up and down the winding dirt roads of the hills. I was excited, as I always am when I am visiting a home – any home – whether I am thinking of living in it or not. It seemed a lifetime until we arrived. We climbed up a twisty, windy road, through a farmyard and then down the other side, past some ramshackle barns and past an old house with a driveway full of trucks, past a field dotted with decomposing farm vehicles... As I looked out the window, I could see forever – all the way down to Springfield, Massachusetts and Connecticut.


Slowly, we crawled lower into the valley….. Soon, we pulled up in front of a grey painted cape style house. I looked at the house and quickly dismissed it. It was like so many I had seen in New England – small and compact, set sturdily into the hillside. There was nothing grand about it – it just looked snug and neat and safe. And then I looked at the landscape – it was breath-taking.


I was captivated with the idea of living on the side of that hill. I sat there for a minute – looking at the hills, sensing the peace and quiet. I looked at my husband and said, “Oh, I see what you mean…. We can buy it.”


The rest of the afternoon was a blur. We went into the house with Will and we looked around. The house was definitely solid and sturdy. Will said it dated to 1751 although deeds from those days are so unspecific that it’s difficult to know when a particular house was built. There was a giant fireplace in the living room made of brick. To the right was a domed “bread oven.” Jersey girl that I was, I had never quite been in a house like this, except for house museums. It all seemed fine to me – nothing exceptional – but a place I might be able to make into OUR home.

It was the setting that was “it” for me. It was isolated, but not too isolated as to feel cut off from the world. The dirt road was curvy, steep and rugged, unlike any place I had ever lived before. And the view when you stepped from the door of the little cape was beyond beautiful. I could feel the wildlife stirring even if it was all hidden in the abandoned apple orchard that edged the overgrown pastures outside the front door.

We went back to Will’s house and I called my dad. I told him about the place and asked him what to do. He asked me “Well, Kris, do you like it?” (My parents and my sisters are the only ones I allow to call me "Kris"! I can still hear my dad saying it, even five years after he is gone.) I said “Oh yeah. It is just what we are looking for.” I asked him what we should offer. He told me not to quibble. If we liked it, give them what they wanted and be done with it. My Dad always gave me the best advice and for that day’s, I am very thankful. I hung up the phone and The Farmer and I put together a full-price offer with Will.

We drove back home to Pepperell, Massachusetts where we were living. When we got back home we had a phone call from Will that our offer had been accepted. I went to bed that night not knowing what the future held. I was just a couple months short of 40 years old, pregnant with my first child, and totally ensconsed in a creative job I loved. I doubt I slept a wink. You never know what the future holds, but that night it seemed all the more uncertain.

Now it has been eleven years since we bought our place and ten years since we moved here to live. I’ve grown to love our farm and our area more than any place I ever have. I’m glad we took the plunge and decided to change our lives. Change isn’t always easy but it is good. For us, we have found ourselves living amongst wonderful people, interesting community and beautiful nature. I’ve had a lot of people write to me over the years I have had this blog, asking me how we ever made the decision to move to the country and how difficult it was. Did we have any kind of plan? All I can say to all of you is, sometimes it’s not planning that shapes your life. Little decisions can end up being big moments. Things happen that you have no control over and you have to go with them – see where they take you.

Our move to the country was partly a financial decision – we had two homes and couldn’t afford both of them. We had a new daughter born with a disability (hydrocephalus) and I wasn’t able to go back to my full-time job because someone had to stay in the hospital with her frequently, take her to myriads of doctor appointments, care for her. We didn’t intend to move here as quickly as we did. We thought we would save some money and move here when Julia was about five.

Sometimes when things present themselves in certain ways in your life, you just have to go with your instincts and follow them where they lead you. Our instincts led us here, to this farm and what we are doing now. It’s been a great adventure.


So nice to have you all along for the ride…. Thank you all, my loyal blog readers, for reading and sharing our life on this farm for all these years.