Kids in Knitting Photo Shoots and Another Preview from Color by Kristin

Photo shoots with kids are always dicey. Over the years, I have been involved in my fair share of shoots jampacked with little toddlers, babies and grade schoolers. When I was in my 20's - I really didn't have a clue how to make it work - little kids were a mystery to me. Now, over 25 years later and after living through a kid, I know their little quirks. Some kids just aren't interested in having their photos taken even though their parents want them to be in the photo. Some kids can be coerced with a bit of bribery. Some kids have a photo shoot time of availability of about 5 minutes. And then some kids are stellar models. Now that I take so many photos of Julia for this blog, I have learned to be really fast. I check her mood and bribe her with ice cream bonuses (and now some cash!).

Color by Kristin had been in the works for way over a year before the photo shoot happened. I knew I wanted to include two sweaters for kids in the book - one zippered cardigan and one pullover. They were both modeled on drop shouldered colorful designs that I have been knitting for Julia since she was an infant. I designed a striped pullover and had it knit up to fit Julia in shades of Geranium, Rock Henna, Chartreuse, Golden Honey, and Espresso. It was the first design I did for this new book. I figured Julia could model it. And then she grew..... it was over a year later and of course that happened - what was I thinking?. A month before the shoot, I designed a second pullover variation and had it knit big enough so it would fit Julia. And it was - then. Sadly she has grown some more and now it doesn't fit anymore. I sent it off on the Color by Kristin Trunk Show and it may be coming to a store near you.

As the photo shoot drew near, I knew I had to find a second model to show off the other little sweaterl Luckily, Julia's little friend Bridget fit into the first sweater and so I had two - slightly willing - models. Bridget and Julia are the best of pals so I kept my fingers crossed that magic would happen. I picked the kids up at school, brought them home and helped them change into the clothes Julie The Stylist had left for them. This was dicey to say the least - they weren't much into changing out of their own clothes into clothes that they couldn't keep. Somehow I talked them into it.

Out the door they went. And then they promptly refused to have their photos taken. I must admit, it must be a little scary - two strange men holding big black cameras and enormous white scrims, one nervous mother, and an Art Director dressed all in black from NYC.

Luckily John Gruen, The Photographer, is a Dad and is great with kids and tells funny stories. His assistant was a Dad too so we had a chance. We set the girls up in the doorway. This is Julia's crossed arms position - "No Mommy, I'm not going to do that" even with a smile on her face.

Next, we asked them if they were friends. "Oh yeah, we are Best Friends." And that's where the name of the sweater duo came from - the girls named it "Best Friends Pullovers."


The girls were warming up and becoming comfortable in front of all the equipment. Next we tempted them with kittens.

Things were getting better but the kittens covered up the sweaters.... I asked them if they wanted to take a little walk. The sun was starting to get low in the sky and the light was awesome. The brightly colored sweaters popped against the gray November day and scenery. They were warming up a little more.

Please girls, walk slowly. Oh, yeah - like kids will slow down..... But they did and magic happened. Here's my favorite photo of the day.


Aren't they just the cutest little girls? And the sweaters are quite nice too....

I'm going to Stitches in Hartford tonight and am teaching classes on Friday and Saturday. I don't have any book signings set up but if you want me to sign a book, just ask. I should be hanging around the Westminster Fibers Booth in between classes or looking around the market. The last few times I have done signings at Stitches they were pretty poorly attended. It's quite embarassing to sit in someone's booth and have noone come - bad for the booth and no fun for me! I think there is just too much stimulation there for knitters to even think about having a book signed.

If you aren't going to Stitches, you can order a signed book from my website here.

Sheep Chores at Leyden Glen Farm

Every two weeks, on Mondays, The Farmer takes lambs to the slaughterhouse in Athol for our local meat business Leyden Glen Lamb. Sometimes he catches the lambs by himself and sometimes they are in a pasture far away from the house where it is really difficult to load them into the borrowed trailer. A couple weeks ago, it was a rainy weekend with heavy mist falling all day Sunday. He wasn't feeling very energetic. The sheep were very far away - in the middle of our neighbor's field. Julia and I were called in to assist. The Farmer had built a temporary pen of hog panels way out in the field. Julia and I walked gingerly through the pasture, trying to miss the burdock, and hoping not to slip and fall into sheep manure.

The dogs and The Farmer had already herded all of the sheep into the pen..... except for one - "The Jumper" - who had of course already jumped the four foot fence.


The pen was full of over 200 sheep. From amongst this group, we had to quickly decide which lambs we were going to "ship" to the slaughterhouse. It goes kind of like this....

The Farmer: So, what do you think?
Kristin: That one, right over there... it looks pretty big.
The Farmer: No, it's a ewe lamb.
Kristin: Okay, how bout that one, right next to the brown and white spotted sheep.
The Farmer: Okay, I'll try.

And then he does his best to catch the lamb that we think is the biggest and ready for processing into meat for our lamb business. Most of our ewe lambs have had their tails docked (removed). It makes it easier to distinguish the ewe lambs from the ram lambs. We keep most of the ewe lambs for replacement breeding stock.

He puts the nylon braided halter onto the lamb and then gently moves it towards me. I open the gate carefully, just wide enough to let The Farmer and the lamb out and taking care not to let anyone else escape. The sheep is loaded into the trailer and we shut the door.


We repeat the process 6 or 7 more times, depending on how many lambs are at finished weight. We don't have a livestock scale and it is something we are hoping to buy next year if we can find the money. Knowing the weight of the live animal would make it easier to determine the finished weight of the lamb carcass. But for now, we use our eyes and intuition.

Julia is used to all our sheep chores now and doesn't mind standing around or helping if she is able. The other day, she just watched in the rain. While we were standing there, me working the gate and Julia watching and offering moral support, who do you think appeared?


You're right? That's Cora. She had worked her way over to Julia. It really was quite amazing. Cora has been wild amongst all the ewes since last spring, grazing all the time. But she hasn't forgotten Julia evidently. She stood next to her the entire time we were there. Julia talked to her and I just watched amazed. Cora's lamb Jackson was one of the first lambs to go into our meat business last summer. He was huge - no surprise since she is such a good mom. Maybe this coming year, Cora will have a ewe lamb that we will keep. I'll hope so. It would be nice to have offspring from her - kind and gentle and easy-going.


After we loaded all the lambs, it was time to get the flock back to the pasture that they would graze for the next couple days. We had to be extra careful not to let anyone escape - considering how wet we were and how bad we wanted to get back to our cosy house. Eeyore was waiting for his pals.


Down they walked towards Julia and me. We were standing guard at a gap in the fence, flapping our arms so the sheep would not escape. If they did, it would an extra hour to our chore and none of us wanted to do that!

They kept coming, all 200 plus of them.


Just below where we were standing, there was a deep gulley caused by erosion. The sheep were spooked and none of them wanted to go down into the gulley.

Finally, there was such a huge pile-up of animals that they had no choice but to climb down and up the other side.


The flock kept on coming - going down the gulley and quickly up the other side.


And then they were all through and Julia and I pulled up the rear, bringing the fence with us. We enclosed them in the electronet and let them graze quietly for the night.


Monday morning early, The Farmer drove the trailer over to Athol and unloaded the lambs at Adams Farm. In about 10 days, we will pick the meat up and bring it back to our freezers, ready to sell to our customers. This is just one of the many chores we do to produce the meat we sell at our lamb shack, at farmer's markets, and to local restaurants. And you were there!

Farmer's Markets Memories and Another Preview from Color By Kristin

The Farmer’s Markets are almost over for the season. Julia and my official duties of local markets (Bernardston and Northfield) have stopped for the season. The Farmer (Our Farmer) is still doing South Hadley (in front of the Odyssey Bookshop) on Thursdays and he has just started doing Northampton’s Tuesday Market behind Thornes’ Marketplace from 2 to 7. (We are hoping to be at this market next year every week.) Tomorrow, late in the day, we hope to all be at the Northampton Tuesday market so stop by if you are local.

We all have spent an enormous amount of time setting up our booths and sitting and trying to sell our pasture raised frozen lamb. I liken the whole experience to the trade shows I used to do when I worked for the yarn company….. set it all up, hope people will come, talk about your product you are passionate about and believe in and hope to collect orders or cash. There is good and bad about every week - mostly to do with the weather and how many people show up to shop.

What I didn’t think about, going in, was the relationships that we would develop with the other vendors and the customers. That has been the most rewarding part of attending Farmer’s Markets. Julia is really mourning the loss of the Farmer's Markets. She has so enjoyed talking to all the vendors. They have been incredibly patient with her and for that I thank them.

Most of the markets offer some kind of food for sale as an enticement to get shoppers to come to shop and eat a quick dinner. Julia seems to be constantly starved (growing girl, you know). After severe begging for a grilled burger every week, I decided to teach her where money comes from.... I told her that she couldn't have anything to eat unless we sold some lamb. I would say that this has been the lesson of the summer for Julia. She is beginning to know where money comes from and how hard it is to make. There have been market days where we have sat for 4 hours and not sold a thing. She hasn't eaten..... And she has not complained. She knew that no cash means no food. It has been a great life lesson for both of us. For her, she is starting to know where money comes from. For me, it has been that she is starting to pay attention to such things....

Here is the wrap-up of our local markets complete with photos of the vendors and some of the customers.....

Ervin and Gloria from Coyote Hill Farm grow the most amazing fruits and vegetables. Every market, I shopped for dinner knowing I was buying fresh, organic veggies that were unbelievably fresh and delicious. Ervin and Gloria came to their farm in Bernardston after careers in Boston. They grow an acre of veggies organically (although they aren't certified). They take such care with all their fruits and vegetables - from selling and describing them to packing them away into the neat brown paper bags they send their products away in.


Some of the delicious watermelons from Coyote Hill Farm....


Flowers also are available from Coyote Hill Farm....


Julie (not Julia) is a jam and jelly maker from Guilford, Vermont. Julie is incredibly witty and funny and a joy to be around. She sells plants early in the season and then moves on to her own canned products. Her stand is always neat and tidy and there are always delicious samples she gives away.


I love the colors in Julie's jam and jelly display.

Alexa and her mom Nola make delicious cakes and cookies flavored with lavender. Nola's mom Doris (who died at 92 a couple years ago) planted a large field of lavender which they both tend and harvest. Nola is a nurse by trade and a horsewoman in her off hours and Alexa is a bubbling font of humour and cheerfulness. Both Julia and I enjoy their energy so much.


Kerrie is a fellow "meat girl." She and her family run Wells Tavern Farm in Shelburne, MA. They raise pastured heritage breed pigs, rare breed cows, and heritage turkeys and chickens. She and her family also sell their meat through their website "Wells Tavern Farm." Her bacon is the best - maple cured from heritage pigs! Yum.....Kerrie also writes a nice farm blog...... Kerrie's blog link.

Robin Severance sells sweet maple products from the sugar bush she and her husband Milt farm in Northfield, MA. If Julia wasn't diabetic, we would be very good customers! But Robin loves Julia just the same.


And so, on to the latest Preview from Color By Kristin.... This is a Fair Isle Shopping Bag that is knit in the round and then embroidered after finishing. Although it is named the Knitters On the Go Tote, it would easily hold groceries from your local Farmer's Market. The strong and sturdy handles are from Homestead Heirlooms who I met up with at last year's Baltimore Stitches Market. I sewed them on after finishing and lining the bag.

I have put a complete photo set of all the projects from my new book up on Flickr. Here is the Flickr Link. If you want to have a quick browse, it is the easiest place to do it. I will continue to write about my projects here, until I am done showing you all the fun projects included in my latest book.

You can order my new book here on my website. But by all means, please buy it from your local yarn or bookstore if they carry it. They need your support.

Fall Sunflowers + Another Preview from Color by Kristin

The day I was leaving for Detroit, I stopped by the Sunflower Field to take a last look. The weather was said to be turning colder and I knew I had to take some photos since it would be a good nine months before I could enjoy the flowers again. The flowers were still blooming and there were hundreds that were fighting to hang on and bloom. We had planted several rows late in August hoping for a late frost.

The wind was whipping and it was difficult to take any focused photos. This flower looks cold against the changing leaves, naked trees, and grey sky.

The bees on this Mammoth Sunflower were fighting for the last bit of pollen.


While I was gone, the weather did indeed turn very cold, so cold that all the flowers died. Today, I stopped by to see them. Everything was shriveled, looking fragile and sad.


The large Mammoth Sunflowers never got real big this year due to the wet weather and really late start. Here is one bending towards the earth, ready to compost into the ground and enrich the soil for next year.


Which leads me to how you can enjoy sunflowers this winter.... on my "lazy daisy tea cosy" project from my new book Color by Kristin.


This tea cosy is one of the easiest projects in the book. It is knit in the round (only one color per round). It features a bobbled edge and a fun knitted knob. After it was knit, I decorated it with bobbles, French knots, lazy daisies and woven bar leaves. You can order a signed copy of my new book directly from my website here. But please, support your local book and yarn store if they are stocking Color by Kristin. Thank you.

Another Color by Kristin Preview + I'm Back from Detroit

I'm back from Detroit after taping six new segments for the upcoming season of Knit & Crochet Today. I'm rather exhausted and trying to fit back into my normal every day life which I welcome.


On my way back, I spent quite a few hours waiting for a plane at the Detroit Airport (which is very nice). I picked up some mags I usually don't read, except for when I am on business trips. In the new issue of MacLife, I stumbled upon this two page spread about Dinglab's Laptop Sock made of "eco-tex" certified 50% acrylic/50% cotton yarn. I just got such a charge out of seeing knitting in this magazine.


Which leads me to my next preview from Color By Kristin. It is a Felted Laptop Cosy which I think is miles prettier than this Dinglab cotton/acrylic version. My laptop cosy is knit in the round in my Julia Wool/Mohair/Alpaca yarn in a lovely Fair Isle pattern and garter stitch stripes using colors Lady's Mantle, Deep Blue Sea, Rock Henna, and Magenta. I designed it to fit 3 different sizes of laptops. I just sent it off to Soho to participate in the traveling trunk show of "Color by Kristin" projects, otherwise I would sure be using it! The finished felted cosy is so thick and lovely. You can order signed copies of my new book here.

Here are some scenes from "behind the scenes" at Knit and Crochet Now - yes, that is a new name! The new season will start airing in January on over 125 PBS stations. There are so many really great projects this year. It was great fun demo-ing them all. I spent hours and hours with Candi Jensen (the Producer), Susan Levin (Candi's assistant and author in her own right), The Host Brett Bara, and "experts" Drew Emborsky, Maggie Pace, and Myra Wood (Robin Chachula's replacement while she is on maternity leave).

Here is the staging area we hung around in while waiting to go on the air.


Here are the needles, hooks and tools we used on air that were supplied by one of the underwriters - Boye Needle Co.


Here's my crocheted afghan and embroidered pillows decorating the blue velvet couch. Don't they look great?? So cheerful.


Here is the overhead camera that films the close-ups of my hands as I am knitting. You have to be careful to hold your work under it and not stick your head into the frame. It's a bit difficult but after some practice I was all set. That is Brett, The Host and Fred, The Floor Manager in the bottom right of the photo.


Here are the stairs where Brett, The Host, introduces and closes the shows. Each time she is filmed, the lights and cameras have to be moved.

Here is the table I demo-ed at.

Here are my "step-outs" all lined up and ready to talk about. Yes, I had to knit all of them.......

Here's more stuff necessary to make the show.



And then, my camera died! These photos don't include the "control room" and all the folks sitting back there!

All in all, this was a great experience. I am so much more relaxed at appearing on t.v now - it's even fun!

I'll be at Stitches next weekend - on Friday and Saturday. When I'm not teaching, I'll be in the Westminster Fibers booth so stop by!

Sheep Escape

Late the other afternoon, the sheep were missing. They had broken out of their electro-net fence and were nowhere to be seen. It's a little hard to misplace 200 plus sheep so we knew they couldn't really be missing. The Farmer and dogs went out to look for them. They were high on a hill full of lush green grass which hadn't been hayed in a few months about a half mile from their fenced in pasture. They were enjoying a nice snack.

Julia and I hopped in the truck to take a look at them. It was a gorgeous late afternoon and the leaves were just beginning to turn orange and gold. Although the sky wasn't clear blue, it was full of dramatic grey clouds.


At this time of year the burdocks have turned brown and they are all over the edges of hayfields and the sides of roads. The sheep were covered with them - a handspinner's nightmare, I know but it is pretty impossible to keep our sheep out of the "hitchhikers."


Eeyore was looking over everyone. He started walking towards me and I saw that he too was covered with burrs. Really covered.


I turned to take a photo of the landscape and all of a sudden I felt a large shove in my back. I lost my balance and turned around. Eeyore was sticking his head in my back and now his hitchhiking burrs were all over my sweater. I'm still picking them off. Never know what each day brings.