Loving the Studio Space and a New Winner!

It is finally getting cold here in western Massachusetts. We had our first really hard frost and everything was coated with ice outside this morning. Must find the mittens and hats! I'm busy right now working on some new projects that I will announce here on the blog in a couple of weeks. And best of all, I have been using my new studio space and totally loving it. The light is beautiful. It is a great spot for photography. Best of all, I can keep things set up and noone will bother them! It is such a huge luxury and makes working with messy things like paint much easier. I keep pinching myself!

One more addition to the studio which I couldn't live without now is a heat source. I took the recommendation of someone who does heating installation for a living and purchased a Monitor Heater. It is one of those "on demand" units where you hit a few buttons and it turns on. It is fueled by propane so I had to have someone add an extra propane tank and there were certain regulations that had to be followed. I turned it on finally last week and it works great. The room is heated in a matter of minutes. I also had a ceiling fan put in so that it would circulate the heat. We'll see how it does this winter in the sheer freezing weather but so far, so good.


The winner of October Giveaway #4 is...... Karen V. She wrote:
"Kristin, I have been reading your blog for quite awhile and feel especially compelled to comment, not only for the great giveaway, but to say that your Gram and my Dad share the same birthday, he would have been 92 today. He was a great inspiration to me and will always be a hero in my book! I am a novice knitter, so my experience is limited, but most of the free patterns I have tried have been accurate. I rely on magazines, blogs and Ravelry for obtaining most of my patterns. With so much available on the Internet now, I don't visit my LYS as much as I used to. Thanks for keeping me inspired with your blog, photographs and beautiful knitting!"

I want to thank you all for entering and writing so eloquently about how, why, and where you purchase knitting patterns and books. It has given me insight into how my readers think, purchase and feel about patterns. I hope to use it to continue to develop new products.

I've got one more incredibly awesome giveaway coming up in a few days. Check back. You won't want to miss this one!

More about Flowers and Renovation Update

You all watched so patiently as our porch/studio renovation progressed this summer. I heard from so many of you about your own renovation stories and nightmares. It was fun to share this with you all. We've been really enjoying the new porch which opens off our kitchen. It gives the three of us more space to mess up! Although I wanted to have only screens on the porch, I was advised by so many people to spend the extra money and put in windows with screens. Now that it is October, I'm glad we did! We can still sit on the porch and read and enjoy the new space, although it has been downright chilly this past few nights. A sign of things to come!

All the furniture was on our old porch and I basically just moved it back to where it was downstairs before. I'm not much for changing furniture arrangements. I know some people do that all the time but I just like keeping everything in the same spot. My furniture is a sturdy wicker that has an antique-y finish. I wrap the cushions (which are a rather hideous print) in an assortment of faded Indian bedspreads that I have collected over the years, mostly from Adivasi in Brattleboro (one of my favorite stores in the world).


You can see that we have raw studs on the walls. It is a porch you see. Maybe one day we will finish it off but for right now, we'll use this room when it is warm.


Here is the view into the kitchen with the table. I have been collecting old chairs and I painted them in all different colors. They make great props for photos and they just are so cheerful.


The porch table bowed up on the end while it was under the tarp outdoors for 2 months. I wonder if it will ever go down the other way. Right now I have a couple blocks of wood under it so it doesn't shift when you are eating at it. Kevin told me I should put a few cement blocks on top of it this winter and see what happens. You can still take photos of it though. Here's the scene after breakfast the other morning.


And here is a close-up of some of the last flowers from the flower garden. The little brown vase in the front is one of my favorites. It is actually wicker that is woven around a little jar. Must be some craft from the old days. I love this vase. The tablecloth came from Anthropologie this past summer. It makes the whole room look cheerful. It looks like they still have it on their website.


Here is a little detail shot of a project I just sent away. I figure I can preview this much of a close-up since you can't tell anything about what it is from the photo. And the flower pattern fits in perfectly with this post.


Now I have to re-organize the studio and get some nice shots of that for you all before it gets totally trashed.

Check out this article in the NYTimes about a creative soul down in North Carolina named Patrick Dougherty. I actually saw a couple of his structures a few years ago in Brattleboro. What amazing work!

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.

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.

Studio Day Thirteen

Work has begun again on our studio/porch project, thank goodness. The first class is at the end of the month and panic (on my part) is setting in. Things have been really busy here and summer is flying by. Farmers Markets, shearing, cleaning up, planning new classes...... The list goes on and on. (By the way, there are still some spots left in the new August 14/15 class if you are interested. It is going to be a really great class.)

The building inspector gave us the go ahead for insulating the studio. That's all Kevin and Rory needed. They got right to work on the nasty job of insulating with fiberglass.

Here's the roof of the porch all neatly done.


Although the porch isn't going to be finished, thus the studs will be visible, one wall is rather unsightly. I'm going to have it covered up with 1 x 12 pine boards which I plan to whitewash. I decided I might as well insulate it in case I ever decide to finish the room off. You can see the door which leads into our messy kitchen.


The studio is going to be the tightest room in the house. It has foil covered insulation on the floor and the walls (which are both concrete).


Regular insulation is on the ceiling and the rest of the walls.


Next comes the sheetrock! Wow - it is really coming together! I'm really excited. Thank you Kevin.

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.

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.....