Columbus was Hot!

I am back from TNNA in Columbus. What a whirlwind. I set up my little booth all day on Friday and got it looking ship-shape. Here's what it looked like before it started getting picked apart by sales presentations.

It was fun to be back on the trade show floor. I didn't get to leave my booth and look around for fear that I would miss a possible contact or customer except for two really quick lunches. On Saturday, I taped a t.v. segment for Knitting Daily which will air in the upcoming year. It was very nice to see many of the good friends I have made from around the world during the 24 years I've been in this business.

The two days I spent in my little booth were very gratifying. I met so many shopowners that loved my new book Kristin Knits. They had all done very well with it and were contemplating ordering or did order my Julia yarn from Nashua. Hearing this from yarn storeowners made the show and trip very worthwhile for me. Toiling away in my little basement studio without a lot of human contact makes me a bit odd.....


It was also really great fun to see so many faces that are attached to the internet world. Here are just a few new and old friends I got to share some words and laughs with: Robyn, Drew, Drew, Maggie, Amy, Jillian, Carol, Franklin, Marly, Kim, and Annie. I only wish I met more since I know they were there.

But honestly, the best part of the few days was meeting all the owners and employees of the local yarn shops throughout the USA and Canada who ventured to the market. Owners of Local Yarn Shops are the hardest working people in this industry. They have to do it all - from hiring and firing, receiving yarn, paying bills, emptying the trash, cleaning the bathroom, organizing class schedules, teaching classes, making bank deposits..... The list goes on and on for these totally unsung heroes of the yarn world. TNNA trade shows are the perfect opportunity for these women (and a few men) to make friends with fellow LYS-owners throughout the continent, swap ideas, learn about what is new. They are such undervalued individuals that it makes my heart hurt.

Next time you go into your LYS, thank them for being there. They don't have to be, you know. And boy, wouldn't you miss them?

My Big Lilac Bag

I'm a pretty symetrical girl where my knitwear design is concerned. I know it has to do with the way knit stitches are lined up on a graph - you've just gotta follow that grid. For me, knitting in two colors and following a symetrical knitting chart is relaxing and almost (I'm saying almost here because I've still got to follow that chart and establish the motif with the two colors and the needles!) meditative. Most of my knitting charts are based on quadrants - I draw one quadrant on a piece of graph paper and then I flip it around 3 more times to create a symetrical knitting chart.

But in life, I'm nowhere near symetrical - I'm not at all easy to pin down to dates and appointments. I like to live on the edge, not knowing how things are going to turn out. And in my art - it's all about not knowing what's going to happen when I get out the brushes or camera. It's all so organic and loose and fun.

That's what I love about embroidering on knitwear. I can have a mental picture in my head of how a piece of stitchery is going to turn out. But then I take up the needle and the colored yarns and wow --- something else starts appearing before my very eyes. It is such a blast!

The other day I was out taking photos and I took this close-up of a bunch of lilacs. My goal was to capture the colors and the blooms and how they looked against the knitted, felted fabric below. When I got to the computer and actually started examining the images, I was struck by the construction of a lilac bloom. The total effect is breezy and voluptuous and smelling of springtime beauty. And then you look close at the make-up of the bloom and it's built of all these little symetrical four petaled flowers. But then nature puts them all together into a great big showy bloom in crazy abandon and they turn into a lilac. So glorious, those flowers are, aren't they?


Way back, a long time ago, Jillian and Amy asked me to do a "Big Girl Bag" for their More Big Girl Knits book. I have been anxiously awaiting the release of their new book. For me, the most satisfying part of doing a project for a book or a magazine is seeing the printed page with my knitwear on it. They wanted something bright and cheerful and big.

So here it is - my Big Girl Bag. I channeled Julia's favorite colors of pink and purple. These shades are a real departure for me. But I love the way the bag turned out. Knit in Julia, it was then felted in the washing machine. After the hot water worked its magic, I added lots of embroidered flowers in my favorite stitches of spider web, chain stitch, french knots and lazy daisies. After that was all over, I lined it in a light green gingham check.


And then lo and behold, the bag came back to me along with my copy of More Big Girl Knits just as my lilacs were blooming. I couldn't resist filling up the bag with a giant bunch of flowers and hanging it on a fencepost near our orchard.

Sheep in Massachusetts, Wales, and Spain

Our sheep are looking like they are living in Ireland. The grass is so green and lush and almost electric looking at different times of the day as the light shifts, shines, and fades.


I just finished a fabulous book by Horatio Clare called Running for the Hills. It is about a young boy and his brother growing up on his mother's sheep farm in Wales. The writing is so beautifully phrased and the story is brilliantly told. If you have a fascination for farming and escaping the rat race, I highly suggest it. Even if you don't, you will still love it. I didn't want the book to end. Interesting review here.


These sheep are so quietly grazing somewhere in a lobby of a building. How funny they are constructed of phone cords and rotary dial telephones. There's a whole flock of them here. I think they may be in Spain but perhaps someone can tell me. Via Make:blog.

Embroidered Kitty Love

Sometimes I really wonder why I write needlework books. It certainly isn't for the pay - don't let anyone tell you craft authors get rich. But money isn't everything to me - personal satisfaction and creative fulfillment have a lot to do with why I do what I am doing right now. My sisters and friends are begging me to go back to my pottery because they miss collecting pieces. Unforunately, I don't have a dirty studio for my wheel right now. With pottery, a dirty studio is necessary. Fabric, yarn and clay really don't mix. Maybe someday, somewhere. Painting with oils and gouache - yes, that calls me on other days. But there's a whole other set of marketing challenges.

So for now, I toil on knitting and stitching. I've got a reputation that I have built over the years and it seems a shame to throw it away. One of the reasons I fell into this author gig is that it fits in with my current life of raising a little girl out in the boonies and tending to bunches of farm animals and farm activities. My family is the most important thing in my life - work has got to fit around our little family.

I do get a certain sense of enjoyment and fulfillment proposing a book, designing and making the projects, working with my knitters and editors, and seeing the book in the printed form. By the time I am done with one book, I usually have an idea for another and so I just go on. My books are like giant art and craft projects and you know how fun that can be. At least for now....

And then there are days like the other day when I found this post written by Susan of Making Do. Her daughter Shaylin made this adorable felt kitty using instructions in my book Kids' Embroidery. I contacted her and asked her if it would be alright to write about her project. Susan said Shaylin made the entire kitty herself and has plans for more kitties. Her favorite part was tying on the whiskers. This just made my day. It's one of the reasons that I do books. Sharing my skills with others in book form helps me spread the stitching knowledge I have enjoyed for my entire life. When I see such success and know that Shaylin may stitch the rest of her life, that is better than a million dollars.

Knitting for Baby - Re-Issued in Paperback

Knitting for Baby, the book I co-authored with Melanie Falick, is out in paperback! I’ve got them in stock now if you want to order one, hop on over to my books page for signed copy or buy here from that big place.

Knitting for Baby was the first book I authored after I left my job at the yarn company. Melanie and I had become friends through her book Knitting in America (now called America Knits in paperback). We met when she proposed the idea of including a profile of me in her first book. When she began working on Kids Knitting, she asked me to do the illustrations for her and to design a few projects. Kids Knitting was first published in 1998 and in that summer, we both had our children. Julia was born in July and Melanie's Ben in August.

When I was starting to think about leaving my full-time job to begin a freelance career, Melanie kindly proposed the idea to me of collaborating on a baby book. We proposed it to a publisher and all of a sudden, I was busy designing all the projects in the book. It was the perfect way for me to stay involved in the yarn world and begin a new part of my career.


Because we were both knitters and both mothers, we thought we knew what most mothers would want as handknit gifts for their babies. The concept behind the book is that a new knitter could begin at the first chapter of the book and start knitting for their upcoming baby. As they worked their way through the book, their skills would increase and they would move beyond garter stitch. The first few very simple patterns in the book were written in normal language. As the book progressed, “knitting language” was introduced.

From the beginning, we wanted the book to have a cohesive, pretty and soft look – similar to the cuddliness a woman feels when she has her first child. Here is the color palette I developed.

From this palette, we chose the yarns to match and coordinate with these shades. This was a real challenge. We had to source yarns we deemed appropriate for little babies. Oftentimes, we would find the perfect yarn for the project but the colors weren’t what we were looking for. I found this to be one of the most frustrating stages of the book. (This is before my yarn Julia was developed.)

Here are the swatches I worked up for the little garter stitch striped pullover that was on the cover of the hard cover Knitting for Baby. Hard to believe I could find them! The yarn (now discontinued) was called Waterspun – a lovely merino from Australia which was barely twisted. It was perfect for baby projects. I started swatching with the colors that were in our chosen palette and kept at it. The other pre-requisite was that the sweater color would not be only for boys or girls – this further limited the choices. In the end, we chose the swatch at the lower left in a tan, grey and aqua.


The sweater that is on the new cover we called the Harvard Square Cardigan. I love this sweater. It was an easy combination of garter stripes and moss stitch panels. If it is finished neatly, it is reversible. That little child was so incredibly cute in it. It really looks nice on the new paperback cover with the chartreuse layout. By the way, all of the photos were taken by the extremely talented Ross Whitaker in his studio in NYC.


I’m so glad Knitting for Baby has been reprinted again. It’s nice to see a project I work on have a long shelf-life. Not all of them do. My only regret with this project was the size of my illustrations. I did over 60 hand-painted how-to illustrations for the book and because of space limitations, they were reproduced so small. But they looked lovely none the less. The art direction on the book was beautiful including the cute little chapter openers.

If you are looking for a book to learn from and have baby projects in mind, make sure you check out Knitting for Baby.

Mrs. Gardner's Egg

Last week while Julia and I were in eastern Massachusetts, we took a day trip to Boston with my sister Laurie. We went to one of my favorite places in the world - The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. This is only the second time I have visited this lovely place and it was just as wonderful as I remembered. It was great to show Julia around.

Built at the turn of the 20th century, the building resembles an Italian palace. There is a large courtyard in the center full of plants all year long. There's a lovely mosaic in the center of the courtyard. As you look up to the glass ceiling you view the four floors of the building full of windows and little porches. In April, blooming nasturtiums cascade down the walls of the courtyard.

The museum is full of paintings, sculpture, decorative art including furniture, ceramics, silver and more. There's so much to look at and it is all so accessible. It's a big place so the thought of living there doesn't enter my mind but I could move right into one of the large rooms! There are lovely stone columns all over the place carved from different kinds of stone.

The rooms and hallways are painted in dark colors that really speak to me - a dark royal blue, crimson red, and deep green. The art and furniture looks wonderful against it. There are no lights on the artwork so it does make it difficult to see everything but the atmosphere far outweighs this. In 1990, thirteen works of art were stolen from the museum. They have left the spaces empty with little cards explaining what happened. It is kind of eerie and odd. Needless to say, the guards are very cautious of each person who enters a room.

If I am not mistaken, Mrs. Gardner left specifics in her will that everything should remain as she placed it. Her collection from all over the world happily co-exists together in this lovely place. I read a wonderful book about Mrs. Gardner and how she collected all these things. "The Art of Scandal" is sadly out of print but you may be able to pick up a used copy. It's a fascinating look into a very interesting woman's life with art.


In one of the glass cases, Laurie spied this wonderful ostrich egg covered with silver. It's quite bizarre and fabulous all rolled up into one - kind of like the Gardner Museum is itself! Makes me wonder about who made this!

Put this place on your list if you ever come to Boston!

More CREATIVITY from The Reynolds Family

A few years ago when my book Kids Embroidery came out, I did a class and booksigning at The Blue Bunny in Dedham, MA. (The illustration here is one I did for the book and it is shows children from around the world in embroidered costumes.) Owned by the Reynolds' family, the store is all about creativity and learning for children of all ages. The kids who attended made a little bookmark and learned quite a few stitches. It was a fun afternoon.

When I go to present these events, I usually learn more than I teach. I was fortunate to spend some time talking with Janet Reynolds and she shared with me her family's needlework traditions. The timing was perfect - it was just before the photography for Colorful Stitchery.

She told me about her favorite aunt who lived in New York City. The aunt, who was quite prim and proper, had a special tablecloth which she used for every dinner party she hosted. The color was a lovely shade of silver grey. Before each guest left the table, she asked them to sign their name on the cloth with her special graphite pencil. After the dinner party, she stitched over the signature in a matching silver grey floss to help her remember her friend and the meal she shared.

When Janet and Paul began throwing their own dinner parties, Janet carried on with her aunt's tradition. She purchased an off-white cloth and started building her own dinner cloth memories. I boldly asked her if I could share her idea in my book. She volunteered her cloth for photography. How very exciting for me to be able to share their special tradition with my readers! Here's a shot from far away.


As you can imagine, Janet and her husband Paul have many friends who are illustrators and artists including Paul's twin brother Peter. What you can't see from this photo is that lots of the signatures have little quirky illustrations next to their names. Janet stitched the names in many different bright colors and it is so lovely. She says the only downfall is she can't wash the cloth until the signature has been stitched! Janet stitched the signatures in the simple outline stitch which works nicely for swirly cursive lettering.

Thanks so much to Janet for sharing this project with me. It was so nice to see her again last week at their store The Blue Bunny in Dedham, Massachusetts.

p.s. If you live with young authors and illustrators, be sure to check out this link to The Hutch, the Reynolds' new literary and art magazine for children. They are accepting submissions now!

The Blue Bunny and Peter H. Reynolds

Last week was Julia’s winter school vacation. We headed off to Dedham, MA to visit my sister and her family for a couple days. It’s nice to have family close enough to visit. When in Dedham, we always try to visit a wonderful children’s book store called The Blue Bunny. It is owned by the Reynolds family and managed by Janet Reynolds. Janet is the mother of three boys and she juggles her family and store amazingly. The store is packed to the gills with books for kids of all ages and lots of fun toys – both educational and silly. They have a lovely studio room where they teach classes for children and adults.

Janet is married to Paul Reynolds who runs the company Fablevision, an educational and media company dedicated to learning of all kinds for people of all ages. Check out their website – there are lots of activities that are fun for everyone – young and old. Paul is a wonderful personality full of ideas and enthusiasm which seems to just bubble out of him. Fablevision is located atop the Children’s Museum in Boston which we have to explore. His twin brother is Peter H. Reynolds, author and illustrator of The Dot, Ish, So Few of Me, The North Star, along with illustrator of the Judy Moody books and a staggering number of many more children's books. His books have been translated into many languages - he is a giant in the children's book world.

Julia is a persistent kid and she had decided that she was going to meet Peter H. Reynolds on this visit. She marched up to Janet and asked about him. Janet said he was in the local area and she left a message on his phone for Julia. She looked at all the books - and kept hoping Peter would appear. Her persistence paid off and Peter arrived happy to talk with Julia. He was wonderful - he whisked her off to a little table at the back of the store and sat and talked and drew with her. She was mesmerized. I was overwhelmed at his generosity. It was such a great day and treat for both of us.


Do you know Peter's book “The Dot”? It is a kids book about a little girl named Vashti who thinks she can't draw. She goes on a little journey and learns a lot about herself and what she can do. When I teach knitwear design, I often hear similar comments from knitters - I then try to help them realize that yes, they can design too. I think I'll bring my copy of this book the next time I teach. The Dot was followed by Ish about a little boy who thinks he can't draw. It's a lovely story. We picked up the last of the trilogy of books in this series - So Few of Me and Peter signed it for Julia. I love these books - they speak to so many people - young and old - and if you haven't seen them yet - check them out.


Thanks so much to Peter, Paul and Janet Reynolds - this visit was the highlight of Julia's school vacation. And thanks to Paul Reynolds for taking these photos with his cellphone and emailing the memories to us!

Susan B. Wonderful

I don’t buy too many knitting books – I always look with interest at all the new titles when I visit yarn stores, B & N or Borders. And these days, there are literally tons each season. By the time a book is published, I usually have heard about it from a colleague or fellow author and I’ve got a good idea of which books I am planning to buy. Honestly, I barely buy a knitting book anymore. And If I don’t start weeding out some of my old books to donate to the local library for their book sale, I don’t know where I’m going to put any new ones. I do have a hard time discarding knitting books.

When I do find myself at a giant bookstore, which is rather infrequently, I grab a stack of the newest knitting titles and take them to the children’s section so Julia can look at what she wants to. Every season publishers bring out so many books that is is very hard to keep up. This is how I found Susan B. Anderson’s first book Itty Bitty Hats. The subtle but beautiful colors on the cover and the spiral binding caught my eye. It was with great interest that inside, the book didn’t disappoint me – it was jam-packed with cute little hats with interesting trims. There was even some crochet and embroidery on the hats which always wins me over. I guessed that it was going to be a big seller because of the cuteness factor, incredibly sweet photos, cute babies, and really clever projects. Finally a book that I wanted to buy.


So it has been a great pleasure for me to spend time with Susan at both TNNA in January and this past weekend at The Knit Out. Susan is just as nice as you would expect from looking at her books. This weekend after my talk at The Textile Center, we went out to dinner. I told her that when I first saw her book I said to myself, “Who is this new designer? Where did she come from? Where has she been hiding?”

I found out that Susan has been happily living in Madison, Wisconsin with her husband and four children for a long time. She designed baby clothing and hats professionally before her latest venture - writing knitting books. I read her blog every time she posts (thank you Feedburner) and am constantly amazed at how enthusiastic she is about knitting and how much she knits beautiful colorful projects.

I asked her how she got into writing knitting books and she told me that it was by luck. She wrote up a rough book proposal, tucked in a little hat project and sent it off to Artisan – the publisher of Kids Knitting (which I illustrated). In a very short while, she found herself with a book deal and started knitting.

Her second book Itty Bitty Nursery came out last fall and is just as good as her first. I’m a bit crazy over knitted toys so I really enjoy looking at all the super fun projects in this book. Of course, being a chicken farmer makes me a bit partial to these polka dot chickens. Are they just the cutest little things? Makes me want to knit some up – if only I didn’t have to work on my own stuff right now.


I asked Susan how the heck she got so much knitting done. She let me in on her secret – she gets up ridiculously early in the morning before her family stirs and knits and knits and knits. Maybe I should try this – although I’ve never been much of a morning person. My knitting tends to get done later in the day.

Luckily for all of us, Susan is working on yet another book so stay tuned! It was really fun to spend time with her at the Knit Out and share knitting stories. She really is as nice as her books would suggest - which is very refreshing. If you want to learn more about Susan, I highly suggest listening to the two interviews (episodes 46 and 64) with her over at Craft Sanity.

The Knit Out 2008

I’m back from the Mall of America and Minnesota. What a whirlwind, to say the least! Out to dinner Thursday evening with Karen from Needlework Unlimited and Karen, the former owner of Three Kittens. We've all known each other for a very long time so it was fun to catch up on each other's lives and "As the Yarn World Turns in Minneapolis." On Friday, I spent the day with Nancy Kleiber, the local Westminster Fibers sales rep. Nancy and I visited Amazing Threads in the morning where I did a booksigning and met some wonderful enthusiastic knitters who had already bought my Julia yarn which the store had received only the day before. Lovely shop with great selection of all different kinds of yarns.

After a quick lunch, we spent the afternoon at The Yarnery in St. Paul. What a great bunch of women – both employees and customers. We had quite a crowd – everyone oooohing and ahhhing over my samples from Kristin Knits. I’ve known one of the managers - Theresa Gaffey for over 20 years so it was fun to catch up with her and hear about her son Tommy. Then I was totally overwhelmed to see an old friend from my college exchange days at Oregon State University. Sandy Olson, who is a member of the Textile Center, saw my photo on the poster about the talk I was giving. She couldn’t come to the talk but she surprised me by showing up at the store. Hadn’t seen her in 30 years! Wow – what fun. The girls at The Yarnery gave me this lovely chicken kit designed by Marie Mayhew, a local designer who does some incredibly cute things like felted snowmen, Easter Eggs, and pumpkins. You can order them on their website here. How thoughtful they were – especially knowing that I raise chickens.

After a quick stop at the hotel, Nancy escorted fellow author Susan B. Anderson, Amy Greeman (Storey’s Director of Publicity) and me over to The Textile Center to set up for the evening talk. What a great space – the knitters, quilters, weavers, felters and fiber artists of Minnesota are so lucky. We had a bit of technical difficulty – the projector wasn’t compatible with my MacBook Pro. Luckily, Robin who reads this blog and who I met at The Yarnery was at The Textile Center early. She and her husband Daniel saved the day. She called him on his cell phone and he ran to his office to pick up his IBM-ish laptop, brought it on over and then configured it to work with the projector. I had my slides on a flashdrive and except for starting a little late, all was well. There were over 75 people there – isn’t that marvelous? Everyone was so sweet and friendly and seemed to have a good time. Thanks so much to the Textile Center for hosting the event and to all of you who came! And thanks to Robin and Daniel for saving the day with their technical abilities.

I met up with the rest of the Storey crew for breakfast – Pam Art - Publisher, Deborah Balmuth – Editorial Director, Amy, Susan B Anderson – Author of Itty Bitty Hats and Itty Bitty Nursery, Melissa Morgan-Oakes – Author of 2 Socks at One Time, and Edie Eckman – Author of The Crochet Answer Book. Off we all went to the Mall of America – none of us really knowing what to expect. The crowd of knitters and crocheters was overwhelmingly huge – long lines snaked past booths as people waited to pick up all the free stuff the different yarn companies and publishers were giving away. I did a couple demos on color and embellishing and participated in two author forums on the main stage hosted by Vickie Howell who I had never met before either.

My friend Candi introduced me to the most famous author at the place - Debbie Macomber of The Shop on Blossom Street fame along with zillions of other books. I signed a copy of my book for her – how cool – she is evidently very fond of my work – who would have known? I tried to be witty. She was there with her cousin and they were meeting and greeting all her fans. And boy does she have fans! What a totally lovely, gracious woman oozing sincerity. How awesome to meet her.

The highlight of my day – the thing I had heard about and was most excited about seeing on my trip – was the big contest for the World’s Fastest Knitter! This was just wild – I can’t remember all the names of the contestants (sorry guys – I missed the introductions). There were six women – all from other countries, including Lisa Gentry from Germany, Wanneitta Precord from Canada, Miriam Tegel from Holland, and Hazel Tindall from the Shetland Islands off of Scotland. It was quite something – they had 3 minutes to knit as many stitches as they could. They all used straight needles and the same yarn. Before they began, they pulled the yarn out to check for breaks and knots. Then they were off – knitting away. It was fun to watch each knitter’s techniques. Wanneitta from Canada was a “crotch knitter” holding one needle between her legs. Miriam and Hazel were “pit knitters” holding one of their needles in their armpit. It was the best out of 3 timed trials. Hazel won each trial with Miriam just behind her. Each knitter’s speed increased with each round. Hazel was the victor and won the crown of “World’s Fastest Knitter” once again knitting 262 Stitches in 3 minutes! – she had won previously at the big stitching festival at Alexandra’s Palace in London in 2004. As I watched Hazel I was amazed – her fingers barely moved – the yarn just seemed to knit itself.


Sunday there was more of the same – meeting and greeting and teaching and talking and signing books. I met so many friendly appreciative knitters who have enjoyed and knit my designs over the years. I also got to meet so many of my blog readers in person face to face. Spending time with my fellow authors was a blast – sharing stories and getting to know one another. Working so solitarily as we all do is a challenge and now at least we can catch up via email and by reading each other’s blogs.

Sunday afternoon, Susan, Melissa and I were waiting in the lobby for our ride to the airport (that's the three of us below). On my way to the restroom, who did I almost run into but Hazel Tindall – the newly crowned “world’s Fastest Knitter.” As I turned the corner, there she was wearing a little Fair Isle bolero with a bobbled edging. I couldn’t help but introduce myself and make a fool of myself which I think she found quite amusing. Melissa, Susan and I got to spend some time asking her questions about how she learned to knit. It was a lovely end to a fast and furious, knitting packed trip which I will remember for years to come. Here's a fun article about her win.

I want to thank Storey Publishing for asking me to participate, Amy Greeman for taking such good care of me and The Craft Yarn Council for organizing and sponsoring this fabulous event. Thanks to Nancy for driving me and the girls from Storey around and helping to organize the booksignings at the stores. Thanks to Kare for giving me the lead on the venue for the talk at The Textile Center and to Margaret Mitchell for believing knitters would come.

I bet I’m one of the only people who has spent the entire weekend at the Mall of America and didn’t buy a thing except a few cups of coffee, some lunch, and a kids knitting book called Knitting with Gigi which is by the way a very cute how to knit book for kids written by Karen Thalaker who was also there with her husband and four kids.

Who would have thought that learning to knit at the age of eight would have taken me to this fun weekend – how amazing. Thanks Mom for putting those needles and yarn in to my hands.

Backfat or Not?

Maybe some of you remember that I raise pigs every year. I get the piglets in the early summer and we take them to harvest (or slaughter) in very early winter. This year I raised three pigs and I have been trying in earnest to cook all the different cuts of meat so they tasted exceptional – thereby doing justice to the animals i raised.

This is much easier said than done. I’m a self-taught cook and not a chef by any means. Every year, I ask for cookbooks for Christmas. My go-to books this winter are Bruce Aidells' Complete Book of Pork and Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn's Charcuterie: The Craft of Smoking, Salting, and Curing. We’ve also been reading mainstream books about raising food -- including Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. The Farmer and I know we are living a life these two authors probably would love to live – raising our own meat in a good and respectful way. Perhaps you too have read these books – they were both on the bestseller’s lists for months.

Taking care of the animals, once they are slaughtered and in the freezer, is different from feeding and caring for them daily. It starts out with the order at the slaughterhouse. The butcher asks me lots of questions which I just hope I answer correctly. Not that there is a right or wrong answer. My answers though will determine how I cook the meat and fit it into our daily schedule. It’s different than going to the grocery store and picking up a pork loin.

The butcher, with his New Hampshire Yankee accent, asks me questions: Chops – how thick? Loins – how many ribs? Shoulders – fresh or smoked?; Do you want your hocks smoked or fresh?; Hams – fresh or smoked? Hams – sliced, whole, or half? Bacon (or belly fat) smoked or fresh? Do you want the feet?

Over the past few years, I have figured out how to answer him by trial and error. I’m slowly figuring out how to cook different cuts to make them taste the best they can. There are lots of parts of a pig, once slaughtered, that most American people never deal with (the French on the other hand have a use for everything!). I am taking it as a challenge and learning as I go – similar to experimenting with a new knitting technique such as fair isle or lace or cables. It’s a fun way to spend a cold winter season – reading, planning and cooking.

Every year, the butcher asks me “Do you want the fat back?” I, of course, with my waste not - want not philosophy, have always aswered “yes.” I am inheretly frugal. Although not a Yankee by birth, I seem to be picking up lots of my adopted New England's traits. When Julia and I pick up the pigs (or pork as we now refer to them), there are enormous slabs of fat attached to the skin of the pig plopped atop of the banana boxes loaded with perfectly wrapped loins, shoulders, and ribs. The hair has been shaved from the skin – but they look like they should – the skin from the animals I have been feeding for five or six months.

When I get home from the slaughterhouse, I stuff all it in the freezer. Slowly, I work my way through the pile of meat over a few months, moving aside the backfat each time I have to dig for the perfect roast. The past few years, after months of moving the backfat around, I have given up and fed it to the chickens.

I’m proud to say that this year, this didn’t happen. For the past few weekends, I have been working on my “lard project.” When I began, The Farmer was not at all startled. In fact he was encouraging. He told me that there was always a large square box of lard in his refrigerator when he was growing up. His mother did make the most amazing pies and evidently her secret ingredient was lard.

I have persevered. It started out slow. For my first batch, I followed the instructions found in Bruce Aidells' Complete Book of Pork and cut the fat up into tiny 1/2" inch squares. It wasn’t easy – I had to use surgical scissors to hack through the skin. Then I baked it at 350 degrees until it smelled done and there was lots of liquid in the bottom of the 8” sided pot I used. The tall pot is essential - so that the fat doesn’t burn and catch fire in the oven. But honestly, that cutting into small pieces was a nightmare. It took so long, I cursed my way through it. The fat cooked slowly and started to smell a bit like roast pork. When it was done after a few hours, there was a large amount of clear liquid in the bottom of the pot and lots of mighty crunchy bits of pigskin or "cracklings" floating around. We shared them with my chickens after tasting a few.

This weekend, with the advice of my friend Kay who owns a bakery and is a chef, I cut the backfat into pieces about 4 to 5” square. This was a huge timesaver. When the fat was rendered (that is the proper term), I strained the liquid through a fine sieve into some canning jars and stashed them in the fridge wondering what I was going to do with all of it.

I made some oat biscuits substituting the lard for butter weight for weight and they were really flaky and tasty. I’m not much of a pie baker but I think I’ll try some crusts for chicken and meat pot pies this winter.

Do you have lard-y memories of earlier days? What were the favorite recipes your grandma cooked with lard? I’ve got a bunch of it and I’ve got to cook my way through it somehow! Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Here are some good lardy links to read if you are interested.
From Food and Wine: Lard - The New Health Food
From The Seattle Times: The Real Thing

Atlantic and Pacific Memories

It's been a bit short on the knitting content here on this blog this past month. As you can imagine, lambing season takes over our lives. Although I'm still knitting and designing, I can't post any current projects because they are going to be in an upcoming book I am working on. I've also been doing quite a bit of designing for Nashua/Westminster Fibers for their upcoming Fall 2008 pattern collections.

When I work on a book, I put a lot into it and come up with all kinds of ideas. Books have a certain amount of pages and everything must fit according to a formula - aka "book layout and design." This part really drives me crazy because my content, that I worked on, wrote about and conceptualized in my head often gets dropped. But those are the breaks. I often save the ideas and can try to add it to the next book project if it fits. And then there is my blog which is the perfect vehicle for showing ideas that get cut.

From reading this blog, you know that lots of my ideas come from nature and observing. So it was with the colorways of both of the Atlantic and Pacific socks. (This pattern is on page 84 of Kristin Knits.) I wrote a lovely little passage about this inspiration and it got cut to two short sentences. I'll let you in on some of it here.


Over the years, I have lived on both coasts of the USA. I went to school at Oregon State University on an exchange program in 1978-79. I was one of a large number of exchange students from all over the USA and parts of the world. Most of us weren't there only for school. Mostly we wanted to explore the incredibly beautiful state of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. OSU was where I met The Farmer - he was on exchange from UMass and I from University of Delaware. We all would venture to the Oregon Coast (Corvallis was only about 1 1/2 hours from the coast) and spend time on the beach and eating clam chowder. I am pretty sure beer and coffee was also involved. I can still remember the amazing sunsets like they were yesterday - purple, fuschia, orange, gray blues. They are marked on my mind and I hope they never leave. I don't have a photo of these days but you can see what I am talking about here on this "beach camping website." Those sunsets inspired the socks on the polka dot legs.

About ten years later, my friend Sally invited The Farmer and I to her home on Swan's Island - a small island off of Bass Harbor "down east" in Maine. I had never been to an island in Maine before. We both fell in love with the everything on the island - the people, the colors, the freshly caught lobster, the smells. We've been going back ever since. Last summer I wrote about our trip here and here.


So that's where I got the color ideas for these socks. I am really happy with the way they turned out. I had intended them to be shown on a man and a woman but we didn't have an available male at the shoot. But there was a little person and her mom (not me and Julia in case you are wondering). Luckily I had brought a bunch of Julia's tights with me and they were the perfect accessory. We plopped the mom and her child on a table in this lovely gray room and here's how they look. I do so love the photo and how the legs are intertwined. Kevin Kennefick did a great job.

There will be some big news next week about something a new friend and I have been working on. Stop back at the beginning of the week!

It's a Steek Tutorial

I learned to sew before I learned to knit. At first I tried handsewing with my mom and grandmother. When I was nine, my mom decided I was ready to give the sewing machine a go. Brilliantly, she handed me over to our teenage babysitter Robin C. who lived across the street from us. Both Robin and her sister Ellen sewed beautifully and although my mother was a wonderful seamstress herself, she knew it would be much easier if someone else, not her, taught me to sew. And besides, we Nicholas Girls idolized those Cashen Girls. My first project was an a-line mini-floral print dress with a lilac faux tab front and a zipper in the back. I wore that dress in my 4th grade picture and mostly likely until I couldn't squeeze into it anymore.

So what, you ask, does this have anything to do with steeks? If you haven't guessed by now, I went on to have a long sewing career making most of my clothes through my teen years and beyond. When I eventually learned to knit proficiently, I was in college majoring in Textiles and Clothing. Knitting was something I picked up for fun. I could do it on the train or the bus going back and forth to college.

Eventually my interest in knitting began to take over my sewing hobby. I started spinning wool. And then I had all this yarn which I couldn't find a pattern for. A professor of mine wisely recommended some books including Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Without Tears. I started designing my own patterns for my own handspun yarns following the sage advice of the wonderful EZ. I noticed the word steek but I was into "knit in the round" sweaters. A year or so later, I picked up a book called Knitting in the Nordic Tradition and saw the steek technique again. I decided to give it a go and haven't turned back since. I knit most of my sweaters in the round and cut them and sew the sleeves in. I'm not afraid and you should not be either.

When I was working on Kristin Knits and I got to the section on sweaters, I thought long and hard about "knitting in the round" vs. "knitting back and forth." I have written patterns both ways. When I worked for TYC, I always wrote my patterns for back and forth knitting. We didn't feel our shopowner customers were interested in "steeking." We were afraid we would turn them off to certain knit in the round and steeked patterns and then sit with a warehouse full of them. We realized the LYS-owners didn't have a lot of extra time in their day and wouldn't want to be bothered with helping their customers learn about and make and finish steeks.

But my book was my own thing. I could do whatever I wanted, within reason. I asked a lot of knitting friends what they thought. I asked some shopowners. I was torn. In the end, with the decision making help of my wonderful editor Gwen, I decided to present two of the five sweaters included in the book to be worked in the round with steeks. The photo shown here is a steeked sweater from Kristin Knits. (The lovely alternative photo was not used in the book and it is by Kevin Kennefick.) This sweater has steeks at both the neckline and the armholes.


I've taught a lot of knitters how to sew and cut a steek. I think the first thing to remember is that you must have no fear. If you are very timid, practice on an old swatch following the directions below. I promise you it isn't hard - it is mostly your fear of the unknown that is holding you back!

Enough of the chit-chat. Let's move on to how you do it.

First of all, what is a steek? Briefly, a steek is an extra set of stitches knit into a garment which will become a seam later on. A steek makes it possible to knit sweaters in the round (or anything for that matter) that later needs to be seamed or have a zipper or edging added to it. I knit my steeks in alternate colors (knit 1 dark, knit 1 light) so that the yarns are caught into the fabric and that it will be sturdy. On the next round, I swap the colors and a little check fabric will develop. (I also knit steeks on solid color sweaters so that I am always working on the right side but I'm not going to talk about that here.)

The biggest advantage of including a steek in your knitting is that you will always be knitting in the round. If you have dyslexic tendencies like I do, it is much easier to always see the right side of the knitting and follow a chart always from right to left. I can't be bothered with working colorwork back and forth and I even knit most of my swatches in the round on double pointed needles.

Here is a steek at the armhole of the sweater. Note that the steek begins after the fabric has been knit in a regular pattern until the armhole needs to start.


Here is a steek done at a neckline. You will notice a little pouch created by the bound-off stitches at the base of the neck. The gentle side neck shaping occurs at either side of the steek.


I use my trusty old Bernina sewing machine to stitch my steeks before cutting them. In these photos, I have used white thread. Set the machine to a straight stitch and sew between the stitches on the outside of the steek stitches. I call this "stitching in the ditch" and the machine stitching will actually disappear. Do this on either side of the steek - there will be 1 row of straight sewing machine stitches on either side of the steek.


Next, set your machine to a medium zig-zag stitch. My steek has 6 stitches in it. I am going to sew down the center of the two centermost stitches in the steek, making 2 rows of zig-zag. Locate stitch number 3 and sew a row of machine stitches over the the knit stitches. Next, locate stitch number 4 and sew a row of machine stitches over the knit stitches. The photo below shows the second row of zig-zag being stitched.


It is important to keep the knit fabric flat and neat while stitching. Do not pull on it as you sew or it will distort and ripple. Make sure you block and steam your knitting before doing the sewing machine work.

Now, take a deep breath and using a sharp pair of scissors, cut through the center of the two zig-zag rows of stitching. Be careful not to snip the sewing machine stitches (although nothing much will probably happen if you do). Be careful when you come to the end of the armhole steek so you don't inadvertedly clip the main part of your sweater. The following photo shows an armhole steek being cut.


That's all there is to it. Give it a try and see what you think. I have never had a steek fall apart and almost every sweater I have made has used steeks.

This series of photos was taken as a guide for the illustrations I did on Cutting a Steek in my new book Kristin Knits. I give full instruction in that book but as someone said, a picture is worth a thousand words.

If all else fails and you are still too timid to try, I suggest printing out this blog post and taking it to a local tailor or alterations expert along with your almost finished sweater. They will be able to do this for you quickly and easily and then you can get on with sewing the sleeves in and attaching the neckband and cardigan band.

Flights, Talks, Life and Books

I’m finally feeling more normal and ready to tackle everyday life after my trip. I’m not sure what happens to me but it just takes a while to settle in and even assess what needs to be done. The jet lag and very long and overly stimulating days and nights at the show just do me in. Extra sleep the past few days seems to have helped. I am very thankful I don’t have to go on one of those long, extended book trips like some authors are expected to!

That said, the trip to Minnesota is shaping up. Thanks to all who e-mailed with suggestions. It looks like the speech at the Textile Center is going to work out - probably for Friday evening, February 15 at 7 p.m. Margaret Miller, the lovely Executive Director, got back to me and said yes. You’ll have to check back here for specifics in a week. Now we (that’s you and me, guys and of course the publicity team at Storey) have to spread the word so there is a good turn-out and I don’t look like a fool! I’m going to get the Publicity Department to create a poster and I’ll tell you all when it is available.

Now it is back to real life on the farm. The nice thing about returning to a farm is that nothing changes. Lambs are still being born and The Farmer is still feeding them. Mud comes and then freezes again and becomes muddy ice which is much easier to walk through than boot-sucking mud. Snow comes and goes (and it is coming again tonight). Farmlife is all rather comforting in an odd way since it really isn’t very peaceful at all.


The older lambs are racing around after each other playing their lamby version of tag. The younger lambs are close to their mother’s sides nursing and sleeping, nursing and sleeping – very similar to a newborn baby’s activities. When they lose sight of their moms, a frantic little baaaaahhhh can be heard and then the mama answers back with her lower pitched, comforting baaaaahhh. They are quickly re-united. It is not unlike going to the grocery store and losing sight of your young child.

The lamb population has grown so much that we have given up counting. There are close to 100 lambs. It’s hard to take cute little pictures of cute little lambs and moms because it is mass hysteria with lambs running to and fro. I keep trying.

I often get asked what it is like to live on a farm. I think most people have a rather romantic notion of the whole farm thing. But as you can tell, by reading this blog, there’s mostly hard work which is sometimes dirty and smelly and sad. There are lots of beautiful photo opportunities which are fun to capture and share. There’s a lot to deal with which the normal American person probably doesn’t want to hear or think about.

I have compiled a list of some very good books that we have enjoyed reading and which you (those farmer wannabees) may too. It is a combined list made by The Farmer and me and it is no particular order - just as they came off the stack. Some of them may be out of print and the British ones may only be available from British booksellers. Enjoy.

Hill Shepherd, A Photographic Essay by John and Eliza Forder, 1989, Frank Peters Publishing, Cumbria, England - lovely photos and a bit of words documenting hill farms in the Dales and Lake District of England.

Little Heathens by Mildred Amstrong Kalish. Bantam Books, 2007. A new book written by an octogenarian about growing up on a farm in Iowa during the depression. Not much about livestock but this overview of farmlife is very matter of fact and enjoyable to read. No sugar coating. It was reviewed in the NYTimes Book Review and was one of their "10 Most Notable Books of 2007."

Sylvia's Farm by Sylvia Jorrin. Bloomsbury, 2004. A little hard to get into (I started it, stopped it for about a year, and then eventually finished it). It might be a little sugar coated and a bit too flowery but a nice read. And Sylvia is a knitter.

Harvest by Nicola Smith. The Lyon's Press, 2004. Very real story about bringing back and aging farm organically. Not all about animals, some crops and flower farming too. Lovely photos by Geoff Hansen.

A Shepherd's Watch by David Kennard, Headline Book Publishing (UK), 2004.
Dogs of Windcutter Down also by David Kennard. Both of these books are very well written and so true to what it really is to raise a large flock of sheep. The author lives in England and tells it exactly as it is. As I was reading it, I kept saying to myself, "oh, that happens to them also." His sheepdogs play a major part in the book.

The Last Shepherds by Charles Bowden. Granada (UK), 2004. The subtitle of this book is "A Vanishing Way of Life on Britain's Traditional Hill Farms. The Farmer really liked this book and I've got it on my stack to be read this year.

Storey's Guide to Raising Sheep by Paula Simmons and Carol Ekarius. Storey Publishing, 2000. This book has been in print forever and we have at least four copies in various states of disrepair. It covers lots of the basic information you will need if you want to start raising sheep.

James Herriott's books and the BBC t.v. series All Creatures Great and Small. We enjoy reading and watching all of the work this prolific vet did. Can't miss with the humour and descriptions of a time gone by.