The Weekend is Almost Here and Nicki the Great Dane Puppy!

It is Friday morning here at Leyden Glen Farm and the last day to do anything on the three page list I have made. Yikes. Not a prayer it will all get done. But whatever..... Here's the scene out the porch windows with the fog lifting and the light filtering through it.


The students will be arriving tomorrow morning and we'll be spending two days together knitting away. I hope they all have a nice time and I look forward to meeting all of them. There is still some room in the August 14/15th class if you are interested.

I'll leave you with this awesome photo of our neighbor Patty's Great Dane PUPPY Nicki. Isn't she beautiful? I asked Patty if she would mind me photographing Nicki with a floral lei around her neck. Nicki is so incredibly well-behaved and trained. I can't believe how BIG she is getting. Thanks Patty!

You can purchase the pattern for Olympia's Knit + Crochet Felted Floral Lei here on my shop page.

Faina from The Designer's Studio just posted an interview with me here. Do you know her blog? It has all kinds of fun interviews with many knitting and crochet designers. Check it out.

Good weekend everyone. I know I will be having a fun one.

Screamin' Pumpkin and More Floor....

The Screamin' Pumpkin VCT flooring arrived at the distributor down on the Mass/RI line Tuesday morning. My brother-in-law David gave his daughter Celia the task of driving down there from Jaffrey, picking up the tiles, and then driving them all the way out here to Aunt Kristin. She arrived, 65 lb. box in hand of Screamin' Pumpkin tiles. We opened the box up and they were indeed worth the wait -- a beautiful color.

Yesterday Kevin, Rory and I spent the day installing the Armstrong VCT tiles on the studio floor. Kevin had never installed this type of tile before but he is always game to learn something new. I love that about him. Nothing is ever impossible. The first time he ever installed tile was on my mudroom floor eleven years ago. To tell you the truth, I think he looks forward to the things I throw at him. We read the directions on the "glue" and went at it.

Here's my palette - 9 shades of bright and zingy Armstrong VCT tiles.


They troweled the glue on and I handed them the colors.


It went surprisingly fast.


We did have a good time - especially me. I love to orchestrate this kind of project and it was so much fun watching the floor grow before me. I shared my color theory with Kevin and Rory because they were trying to figure out what kind of pattern I was using. It was kind of cute that by half way through the day, they were suggesting colors and double-checking that I wanted a certain color next to that color. "Are you sure Kristin?"

We worked our way out the door, ate some lunch halfway through the day. (If I was a perfect hostess I would have made them lunch but I couldn't get that together.)


Then Kevin put on the primed baseboard and finished up his punch list. They packed up the truck, the ladders, the saws, the tools and left.


They are finished and just in time for the upcoming weekend. The bottom of my legs are covered with tile glue and I'm wondering how the heck I will get it off. We had to be careful because it was really easy to get your shoes stuck in the glue. I felt like I was in some kind of movie with tricks (like Home Alone).


I just love the floor and can't wait to get the studio up and going and organized. I'll let you know how it holds up. It will be getting a lot of traffic on it including lots of in and out to the garden.

Porch Floor

Last Friday, my nieces Celia and Camille drove the Belletete's delivery truck on over and delivered the flooring (minus the Screamin' Pumpkin tile). I spent a lot of time angsting over my choice for the upstairs porch. Everyone told me to pick something that would not be damaged if water got on it. I listened because sometimes I go for aesthetics and make not the best choices (even if they are very pretty at first). My sister Nancy and I spent a stressful (for me) afternoon in the Belletete's showroom looking at all the choices. I was just overwhelmed with all that is out there to purchase.


What I really wanted was Vermont slate but just couldn't afford it right now. I chose an Armstrong cushion step vinyl that you lay down and don't glue. It sounded easy and practical (I can mop it easily not that I will). The pattern is called Amalfi and I chose the black color. It was quite reasonable for the look it gives and feels good on your barefeet when you walk on it. Kevin was here bright and early Monday morning to put it in. It went down so quickly I couldn't believe it.


After he left, I put one more coat of Spar Varnish on my fir beams but I had to use a drop cloth. I am a rather messy painter so I didn't want to ruin the brand new floor. I'm glad that is done because Spar Varnish stinks something awful.


My porch furniture has been under a blue tarp outside on the patio since the beginning of May. I untarped it all and gave it all a good bath. Here it is waiting to be moved in through the window which we didn't install. The furniture is way too big for any door in my house so this was our only choice. The cats are going to be very bummed because they love jumping out the open window opening.


It's getting closer to being done and I can envision every piece of furniture in its place and hosting lots of great dinners along with eating breakfast out there every morning. Fact of the matter is, we have been sitting on chairs at one of of portable farmer's markets tables for over a month now. It is an absolutely lovely space.

Getting to the Finishing Touches.....

Life has been moving along in “Studio Renovation Land" at Leyden Glen Farm with barely a camera out and available. It’s down to the wire for my first class of 2010 this coming weekend. I haven't had a minute to breathe nor blog. I’ve finished painting the studio – almost. Lovely ten foot ceilings but boy, I haven't been up on a ladder in years and lately I've been spending my days on a really tall one. Have to finish bits and bobs on the doors, windows, nooks and crannies and painting the stairs.


We’ve had a bit of a hold-up on the flooring for the studio. I have gone really functional with Armstrong’s VCT line (vinyl composition tile). It is available in some lovely bright colors, along with all the almost invisible colors you see in every supermarket, hospital and school you visit. Somehow I knew this wouldn’t be easy. Order 10 colors and hope they are all in stock. I wasn't in the yarn biz that long to know I was asking for trouble with inventory! I’m driving my brother-in-law David nuts, along with the distributor of the the tile in eastern Mass.


I chose 9 colors and plan to make them into a random colorful patchwork floor. Eight colors are here in our farmhouse but the Screamin' Pumpkin is on a truck coming from the Midwest somewhere. I'm hoping it arrives so we can get the floor down before Friday..... I guess I could do the floor w/out the pumpkin but I just love orange. Sounds like a giant patchwork quilt or book project, doesn't it?

My electrician Dave and his lovely wife Marsha were here all day Friday getting the lights and plugs in the studio going. They are just the nicest people and get here very quickly. It's hard to believe after all the horror stories you hear. They always check with me so I get exactly what I like. I love the overhead lights I got. I was looking for that industrial factory feeling but with a bit of warmth. These lights are "brushed nickel" looking but were really reasonable. Nine of them - wow! We don't have any rooms in our house with this much overhead lighting - not a one..... The wiring isn't quite done yet but we have made progress.

I am currently obsessing about the bulbs. Any ideas anyone? Dave says I should get the fluorescent/ daylight which I am testing out. Any experience in crafting/art land there anyone? "Wattage?" which isn't really wattage on these things new fangled lights? I'm looking for a light that simulates daylight - sort of like the OttLites do for nighttime painting.

A B-Day Tomorrow and My New Model Lorelei

My sweet daughter Julia is turning 12 tomorrow. As I was painting, painting, and painting the new studio space, I spent a long time thinking back to her arrival in the world and the years her Dad and I have spent with her since. The last days of July always make this happen. I'll save those thoughts for another day though. As any mother knows, the life of a child goes so fast when you look back on it. I will admit, when I was going through those early years, I wondered how I would ever get through it all - the different phases of baby, toddler, and childhood. But now it is almost over and we are on to other phases like summer crushes, lip gloss and the like.

To top it all off, my little girl doesn't want to model for me anymore! I have to beg and beg and I've got to face it, Julia is just too old to be darn adorable. I was lamenting this about a month ago to my friend Diane and she said she would love to have her daughter be a model for me. Yay! Early one morning in July, Lorelei and Diane arrived at the farm. We hopped in the truck and headed up the road to a field that I thought might make a nice setting for the shoot for Olympia's Felted Flowers.

Lorelei was such a trooper. She listened with intent, taking her modeling job very serious. I knew I was getting some lovely photos and that it would be hard to pick just one for the new pattern. When I downloaded the photos later in the day, I called Diane to let her know she would be getting some awesome photos of her little girl.

So today I am sharing some out-takes of that beautiful summer day in the field of grasses and wildflowers.


Lorelei is showing off the flowers she picked that day.


Then she climbed up the hill.


And walked down our dirt road.


I think the Felted Flowers on a basket would be the perfect choice for a knitter who needs a special basket for her Flower Girl, don't you?

This one is my favorite. I love her little smile....


Thank you Lorelei for doing such a great job! And thank you Diane and John) for bringing your beautiful little daughter into the world and sharing her with all my readers.

You can buy the PDF downloadable pattern for "Olympia's Knit + Crochet Felted Flowers" here on my website. Thanks to all of you who have already ordered it. I hope you are having fun making the flowers and leaves!

p.s. I have added Olympia's Knit + Crochet Flowers to Ravelry. Here's the link if you want to "favorite" it. Thanks.

Come for A Walk with Me, Phoebe, and Nessie

Sheep on the Move.....Again

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Fleece Sale last Saturday. It poured down rain in buckets which was sorely needed. I hope the fleeces are working out for everyone and they have started washing them and spinning.

Early this week, the sheep grazed our neighbor's old orchard directly across from our farmhouse. This orchard is no longer tended and it is growing up into a mass of wild roses amongst the old trees. The sheep stayed there for 3 days and ate everything they could reach, including the leaves from the roses. How do they do that? Eat the leaves without getting rose thorns in their mouths? Amazing.



Here are a few of the sheep with their coats off. They look like goats when they are without their coats, don't they? I think the lamb on the left with her fleece still on is Olympia although we are not really sure. I suspect because of the shape of her nose. Olympia has become part of the flock and no longer craves any human attention. We don't shear most of our lambs. We run out of shearing time and they do fine because their fleeces are not very long.



The grazing on that orchards was done and on Tuesday morning, our friends Matt and Alice came over to help us move the sheep up the road for more grazing. Matt is twelve and loves to help out with our farming chores. It helps to have extra hands so the mass of animals doesn't go too far astray.



This bale of hay proved very tempting.


It took about a half hour to move them to their new space. We'll be able to leave them there and rotate the pasture every day with the electronet fence for the rest of the summer. They'll leave their droppings and the land will become more fertile. It is an amazing and wonderful cycle of nature.


I'm reading Anthony Bourdain's new book Medium Raw which I borrowed from the library. I loved reading Kitchen Confidential years ago and I am loving this one too. I enjoy how he tells it like it is, not sugar coating anything. You might like it too if you are interested in food and the restaurant biz.

p.s. Hope to see some of you tomorrow at Colorful Stitches in Lenox, MA for the class I am teaching!

Life in the Country - All Sweetness and Beauty?

A mixed up post here for sure.

I finished up "spar varnishing" the 110 v-groove boards for the ceiling of the porch. What a job that was. Here they are on the ceiling of the porch. You can see Rory behind the fir beams working on the tippy top of the ceiling. I love how they look. I think it was worth the hours and hours of varnishing.


On the east wall of the porch, I had to cover up the junction between the old house and the new porch. I chose 1 x 12" pine boards to be nailed horizontally. After they were up, I put on two coats of semi-transparent white stain. I'm hoping the knots will show through soon. Looks just like I wanted.


In preparation for the upcoming "Flower Celebration" Class August 14/15 I decided to make my vegetable garden partly into a cutting garden. My plan is to have lots and lots of different shapes of annual flowers to inspire the attendees on their quest to knit and crochet flowers. I purchased six packs of many kinds of flowers and planted half my veggie garden to the flowers. In a few short weeks, there should be lots and lots of blooms for bouquets. Here's what some of the rows look like now.


I use a technique for weed control which seems to becoming more popular. I call it cardboard and mulch and for me, it was all free. About 2 weeks after I planted my garden, I went into heavy duty mulch patrol. The weeds were growing fast. I left them all where they were (you heard it - I didn't remove any of them) and covered them with cardboard boxes from the windows I purchased for the studio. Using a utility knife, I cut the boxes into 3 foot wide pieces. I spread them over the weeds which were about 4" high between my rows. Then, I begged two giant round bales of hay from last year's crop from The Farmer. I broke them down (a big and messy, dirty, dusty job) and lay the hay in thick piles on top of the cardboard. Voila - no weeds. It took me two full days of spreading mulch but now I will barely have to weed at all - only in the rows where the mulch didn't go.


We have a well and a few weeks ago when it hadn't rained in a while, I was fretting about my plants. I never water our garden with water from our well because I would rather use it to do the wash and run the dishwasher. Our neighbors happen to have a free flowing spring in the woods near their house with a hose hooked up to it. The Farmer and I drove the farm truck down there and let it drip into an agricultural water tank which we use to bring water to the sheep out in the fields. It took several hours to fill but later that night I was able to water my garden. We repeated the task 4 more times so that plot should be good for awhile. I noticed that the tomatoes and the squash really responded to the gallons of water I poured by bucketfuls on them.

We've been toiling at the sunflower field in the heat. It is coming along but it is constant work. Several of the rows The Farmer planted are in dire need of weeding. It's a daily chore which we are finding it difficult to fit into our lives. If we weed the rows just once, the plants will shade out the weeds and in September there will be a field full of flowers. Here's what it looks like now.



Man, it is overwhelming to think about weeding this thing. We'll do our best....

The other day I heard an ad on the radio sponsored by CISA. I listened as a woman farmer described her day in an upbeat, jovial saccharin sweet voice. She gets up, waters her 17 sheep and lambs, feeds the chickens, gathers the eggs.... You get the picture - all sweetness and light and beauty. Yeah, yeah.... Oh to be a Farmer, what a wonderful, relaxing job taking care of cute animals that never get eaten or leave the farm, never get sick or die, always look pretty...... It kind of made me barf, to put it bluntly. Farming isn't all pretty pictures nor cute animals, nor sweetness and light. It is hard work getting dirty all the time, dealing with so many things that nature throws at you. Okay - off my soapbox for now...... Just had to get that off my mind. Support your local farmers if you have the chance. They work very hard to bring food to your plate.

A parting shot of Julia's Playhouse Door with her initial "J" written out in Olympia's Felted Flowers. Thanks for all the orders you guys! Hope you are having fun with the pattern which you can buy in my Shop HERE.


ONLY THREE SPOTS LEFT in the August 14/15 Knitted Flower Celebration Class At The Farm. Check it out here. It's going to be a great time.

Gotta go get painting the walls in the studio and then pack up the truck for the Northfield Farmer's Market. My dial-up connection is down AGAIN - happens every summer - something about the bees building nests in the telephone lines. Aaaaahhh, life in the country.

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.