Preparations for Shearing

Sometimes I wonder how we get done all we do. Farming is very busy - especially in the summer when the sun is shining, the weather is warm and the hay and sheep are growing. There's the veggie and cutting flower garden that finally got planted, the sunflowers that are just beginning to be planted, and the hay that is constantly being mowed and baled. Add to it the Farmer's Markets (4 a week when we can manage it) for direct marketing of our lamb meat and it makes me nuts to think about. Throw in a studio renovation and life is one big pile of plates being juggled in the air.

And then there is the annual summer sheep shearing. It has to be done and although most of you would think it would be a really fun day, both The Farmer and I dread it. We constantly listen to the weather, hoping that there will be a stretch of no rain. If it is a rainy year, we have to find some place to shear inside and that is never fun because we don't have a covered area big enough for all our sheep. Sheep cannot be shorn when wet.

Our sheep shearer Kevin Ford gives us an appointment two months ahead. Talk about a crap shoot. How do you predict the weather two months ahead? We know that day will be a busy one with nothing else getting done. We've been through it many, many times and when it is over, it feels good. But in the meantime, we both fret silently.

And then there is the gathering which happened last week. We got lucky with the weather and could tell we would be able to shear outside our farmhouse in the yard. The adult sheep who graze about a half mile from had to be moved down to our pasture. On Sunday, the three of us and the two dogs headed up the hill and crossed our fingers things would go smoothly.

There they are, peacefully grazing - not having a clue that they're about to go on an adventure.


The dogs pushed them along, only for them to all take a break and graze in a fresh part of the field.


After a bunch of prodding, they began to move....


Out past the falling down shed and old trucks....

Down the road, stirring up the dirt with over 800 little hooved feet.....


When they get moving, they move fast. They always remember where they are going. They were off and we all had to play catch up....


Good thing there was some lovely green grass for them to snack on and slow them down.

It was hard to get them moving again but with that dog power, they did.

Julia couldn't keep up but plugged along behind...

Down the hill they went, passing the little red barn, the farmhouse, and ending up in the front yard. Good thing I had fenced in the garden - otherwise it would be gone now.

The grapevines on the arbor were too good to pass up.

More prodding and they headed up the hill past the falling down chicken pen. Must put that on the list to fix one day.

And there they went, to await their haircut the next morning.


It was hot and everyone worked hard, especially the dogs. Phoebe collapsed in the shade on the dirt road, waiting for her next job.


P.S. For all you local spinners, we are having our first ever fleece sale. I'm calling it....

"THE FLEECE SALE BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD"

AT LEYDEN GLEN FARM

JULY 10, 2010 - Saturday

10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

You can find the directions to our farm on our Leyden Glen Lamb website here.

Check back next week for more information.

Kristin at Colorful Stitches in Lenox July 17

A quick announcement to tell you all I'm going to be at the fabulous Colorful Stitches in Lenox, MA July 17th. You all know THAT Colorful Stitches - the store with the fabulous handpainted advertisements you see in all the knitting magazines. The store with the floor to ceiling windows and gobs and gobs of beautifully displayed yarn nestled in lovely Lenox in the Berkshires.

You can find the class link here on their website. I know this is late notice but we are just getting it together. This is the first time they are offering a summer class. Lenox is a popular summer resort and we shall see if the visiting knitters want to learn something new!

A New Knit It Felt It Zip It Bag Inspired by the Garden

It has taken me forever to finish this bag I have been working on. It is the largest version of the Knit It Felt It Zip It Bag.

I haven't been able to find the time for sewing in the zipper and lining. That's what is good about slow traffic at farmers markets - I have plenty of time to finish up odds and ends. I lined the bag with an odd scrap of gold colored silk. It is good to put light colored linings in bags so that it is easy to find things in your bag.


Lots of my designs are inspired by colors I see around me in nature. Many times, I will put one of nature's color combinations in my memory bank and then knit it later. I must have done that with this bag that I made back in March. I stumbled upon this lovely shrub blooming in our garden in May and it reminded me of the color combination of the bag I had recently knit.


The shrub is some kind of Spirea which was here when we bought the house. If anyone knows the name, please leave it in the comments. I love the colors of the charteuse leaves and the little dark maroon budding blossoms.


After the buds blossom, they turn a beautiful pink. They look great in a vase.


You can buy my Knit It Felt It Zip It Bag on my shop page. The pattern comes in four sizes. The bag pictured is the largest size.

I've had a few people tell me they have had trouble understanding how to pick up around the base of the bag on the circular needles. I will admit, on the smaller bags, it is tricky. Here is a photo (not so good, sorry) of how I sometimes use four needles - here a wacky combo of circulars and double pointed. I thumbtacked the rectangle to a cork board - that is what the red and blue bits are to make it easier for you to see. You can see that you will pick up at both short sides and at the cast on edge. After working around the rectangle in garter stitch for a few rounds, you should be able to drop the extra needles and continue on with a circular. Sounds confusing but you'll work your way through it.

The Knit It Felt It Zip It Bag is a great small project for summer knitting. Good weekend everyone.

Studio on Temporary Hold

It was a beautiful summer morning. Many mornings, our farmhouse is surrounded by fog which sometimes slowly, often quickly, burns off. The other morning, you could barely see 50 feet past the window.



Our construction project is on hold at the moment. We are waiting for inspectors to sign off and Kevin has gone to fix someone's roof. In the giant microburst, a tree fell through it and the poor woman has been living with a massive hole through her roof. He'll be back soon and the studio will continue to progress.

Summer Stitching with Kids

Julia and her friends have finished up their class at Cherscapes Studio. I snapped this photo on the last day of the three girls and Cheryl, their wonderful teacher. Don't they all look so happy with their beautiful textiles?

Here's a close-up of Julia's stitching. The kids drew the stitching lines through a template and then used floss for stitching.

I could not believe how good she did. She printed or painted the fabrics and then applied the fabrics to muslin with fusible web and then did all the hand-stitching and machine stitching with Cheryl's guidance. I'm hoping I can get her to do a little bit on her own this summer.

If you want some ideas for stitching with some of your little friends this summer, look for my book Kids' Embroidery. Sadly, the publisher has taken it out of print but I have copies for sale in my shop.

Seen on Our Road No. 2

My neighbor Dick is a milk truck driver. He picks up milk from area farms and delivers it for processing to the milk factory in Springfield. He loves farming and farmers. Working with farmers has been his life. Along his pick up route, he gets everyone's news. I'm sure he could write a book if it had the interest. This is his own truck he drives.


He got the letters for the saying at the auto parts store. They glue onto cars. Didn't he do a great job? Do you see the "barbed wire" around the license plate?

If you want a bumper sticker that says "No Farms, No Food" you can order one from this site.

The Icing on the Studio

It has been a really busy couple of days. Upon the arrival of the windows, Kevin and Rory got right on the job. By the end of the day, all the windows were in. I decided upon casement windows so that there would be good air-flow from side to side of the porch. I couldn't believe how fast they popped in and were all set. By the end of the day, the windows were done. In the photo below you can see the studio space with the windows and screens installed.


While Kevin and Rory installed windows, our electrician David Laprade and his lovely wife Marsha worked on the rough wiring. I was glad I was there all day long because sometimes you just can't anticipate all the questions. I think I will have enough lights and outlets. If anything, I overdid it but you just can't go back without it costing a fortune.

Yesterday, the roofers arrived. We chose to have a classic standing seam roof for this part of the house. I have always loved driving through Vermont and seeing all the pretty metal roofing treatments that have stood up for over a hundred years. I contracted with Walker and Company and am thrilled with the service and quality of their work. Check out their website - they have done some incredible roof treatments. I didn't know this until I linked the blog to their site. Wow.

Three roofers arrived in a big truck which acts as their on-site factory.


Two guys were on the roof all day long, taking measurements and shouting them out to the guy in the truck who was making the roof.


This is the metal roofing which arrives on a roll primed and painted. I ordered slate gray.


The guy in the "truck factory" feeds the metal through a slit in the van.


The metal is fed through a crimping machine that makes the standing seams.


The machine cuts the metal with a jagged looking tooth-like apparatus.


Then these pieces are put on the roof and folded over to almost make "flat-felled" seams similar to a sewing technique. These pieces are somehow attached to the drip edge which was applied first. It's a bit of a mystery to me because I didn't have the time to watch all day.


The whole process took less than a day. Amazing. Here is the roof on the backside of the building.


I love the way it looks! Just what I envisioned.

Studio Day Eleven

Boy oh boy, it was busy here Tuesday... from early morning on. We had two deliveries arrive, one right after the other with odds and ends of materials for the finishing. Here's the upstairs porch with its new fir beam across the ceiling. There are three of these and I've got to sand off the printing that they came with. What a pain. Why do these things have to be stamped all over? Why?

And then the windows came. I couldn't sleep all night hoping the openings would be right for the windows I ordered. I told Kevin this in the morning and he said - "What are you worried about? That would be my problem." What a waste of sleep that was.....

All hands were on deck to unload the windows.


What a bunch of packaging and trash they generated. Boxes, plastic, wrappers, labels.

Our building supplies have come from my brother-in-law's family business Belletete's Building Supply in Jaffrey, NH. It's been great to work with David on this project, using his expertise to choose the best product for the situation. I still have a few things more to pick out and order but pretty much everything has been decided.

If you live in Southern New Hampshire and frequent Belletete's, thank you. You are helping to support my sister's family and all the people who work there. The Belletete Family business has been around for over 100 years. It began as a little general store in Jaffrey and has grown to be five stores and a lumber mill through hours and years of hard work. It's amazing that a business like this can survive despite all the competition from huge chain businesses. Hard work to say the least from all the family members and their employees.

Here are some of the windows after unpacking, waiting to go in.


This is my first experience with vinyl windows. All the windows in our house are wood and most of them are over 50 years old. I chose a brown shade called "terrratone" because the outside of the building will not be painted. I am going to let it age into the grayish brown shade that old barns have. It will take years to happen but I really don't want to stain the wood because it ends up looking painted and all the same tone.

More coming tomorrow.

Studio Day Ten

There is a hole in my kitchen wall!


But it's a good thing because it means progress. It was a tight fit and I had just enough room between the kitchen counter and our corner cupboard. We covered the hole with a piece of vinyl so the bugs won't get in. Now we can walk out to the porch instead of climbing a ladder.

The ceiling of the porch is going to be V-groove pine board. Because the ceiling is going to be open, the V-groove is going to be very high. I'm the "painting contractor" unfortunately. I'm using something called "spar varnish" because it is durable outdoors and the space is not going to be heated. It takes forever to dry and I have to varnish 125 of these 12 foot boards! I can do 15 every 2 days! Big job...... and smelly.

Rainy days caused the construction to move indoors. Kevin and Rory worked on the studio space. They drilled into the concrete wall and then screwed pressure treated boards into the wall to form the framing for the interior walls. Patience and lots of pressure on the drill....

Rory worked on the north wall. You can see the the openings for the windows above.


Kevin worked on the east wall.


Phoebe and Nessie are loving all the action - having guests be here all day long. Kevin loves dogs and always spends lots of time giving Phoebe attention. The last time Kevin did a lot of work for me was eleven years ago when we were just moving in. Phoebe was a puppy back then and she loves her Kevin!


That's it for my progress report today.....

Day Nine

Things are continuing to move along on the construction front. The east side of the building is covered with "shiplap" siding. The gables are finished and trimmed out. This is fiddly work with lots of angles and precise cutting. Kevin was up on ladders and scaffolding and Rory was cutting pieces from below. I heard lots of directions being shouted and adjustments being made but it turned out beautifully. Must cut those branches off the maple tree off. Add that to the list.....


Both the north and south side "soffits" are finished now. There is some kind of metal in for venting the building.


This is the view that will be out my studio door (minus the piles of lumber). My studio is taking the place of our old porch so I am very at home with the space. The entire room used to be made of screening with barnboard siding so this will be a bit to get used to. Not quite as much light but I'll be able to use it all year long which is marvelous. I can't wait!

Julia's Fiberart Experience at Cherscapes Studio in Greenfield

This spring Julia has been taking a series of Fiberart classes at the new "Cherscapes" Studio in Greenfield. It has been a great three months for her. She's met some similarly aged girls from other towns who are interested in sewing, surface design, and crafting things. I must admit, this was my idea but Julia has gone along for the ride and has actually looked forward to each Wednesday afternoon.


Cheryl has worked as a teacher with kids with learning issues so I thought she would be a great person to help Julia learn more about the things I like to do. Julia is never much interested in what I make and I haven't had a lot of luck getting her to learn to make and do. Cheryl on the other hand has.

Julia has made tie-dyed and painted fabrics, she made and printed from a silkscreen. She has learned to use a sewing machine and how to stuff a pillow, and she is even learning some basic sewing.


Here she is in a photo by Cheryl embroidering on a hoop.


The class is over for this school year but I'm hoping I can swing getting Julia to go back again. Thank you Cheryl for all your help, patience, and kind nature.


You can check out Cheryl's blog here and her classes here. I have several friends who are taking the adult series of Surface Design Classes and they are loving it!

I hope I can take one of her silk screen workshops one day as that is something I have always wanted to do. Maybe next year. Have a peek at Cheryl's silk scarves here on her website.