Fiber Twist and Fun Houseguests

The Second Franklin County Fiber Twist was this past Saturday and it monsooned all day long. Luckily, my booth was inside at the Memorial Hall in Deerfield and except for the loading and unloading, my stuff and I stayed dry. It was a totally lovely day meeting and greeting all kinds of people. I saw some locals I hadn't seen in awhile and met lots of new people who all love fiber, knitting, spinning, and yarn. I will definitely do it again next year.

My mom Nancy and our good friend Peggy drove up from NJ, met up with my sister Nancy and her daughter Celia from NH and they all travelled around the county with Julia in tow. They ventured to some farms that even on a good day are hard to get to (Tregyllys Fiber Farm and Keldaby Angora Goats). The dirt roads around here are always an adventure and amidst the monsoon, it must have been hairy. But they all had a great time buying yarn and fiber for projects.

I met Marcy who is the person behind the wonderful Habetrot blog. She is so much fun to talk to and is planning some great things for her blog. Check it out if you haven't - she posts antique photos and postcards all relating to sheep, yarn, spinning, and fiber. The images are quite beautiful.

Mom, Peggy, and I sat up every night after dinner around the lovely fire The Farmer built for us in our enormous fireplace in the living room. Last night we were hysterical with laughter. Peggy is teaching Mom to knit two socks at the same time on very long circular needles. Yikes - it looks so confusing and they were laughing so hard trying to figure out where she went wrong. Peggy teaches this method at a few yarn stores in NJ - something she figured out herself - she's a super clever woman - former art teacher, mother of four great kids, and obsessive knitter. I told her she should write a book about it. Her comment was that as I was witnessing, she doesn't quite have the teaching of the technique mastered. But Mom has made one pair already this way and Peggy knits socks like crazy. Perhaps there is already a book on this but I am so out of touch with everything that I don't know about it. I was just plain impressed. I think I will stick with my double pointed needles for socks and mittens - I am pretty fast at it and I just love the sinister look of all those sticks going every which way.

Here they are early this morning with Julia and her cat Zoe Sophia before the trip to school and their trip back to NJ. Julia is wearing a green mohair cabled sweater Mom made for me when I was Julia's age. I remember feeling like such a princess in that soft fluffy yarn. It's fun to see Julia wearing it now some forty years later. I had her school photo taken in it.

It's a little lonely and quiet here now after such a busy weekend. In three weeks though, Thanksgiving will be upon us and my family will descend upon our farm and we'll all be cooking up a pumpkin storm.

Interesting Things & October Giveaway Winner #1

And the winner of October Giveaway #1 is..... Erin who wrote...."Fall is my favorite time, for sure! I make lots of soups, and always a big batch of applesauce - some of which I freeze for the holidays. Also - pumpkin soup and muffins. Oh, joy!"

If you haven't had a chance - try to read through all the comments. You all have given me lots of cooking and baking ideas to try this autumn! Thanks so much to everyone who entered. You guys are great. So many of you put such thought into your comments! I'll be doing another Giveaway next week here on the blog. Check back!

It was another beautiful autumn week here. The lambs looked so beautiful grazing with the yellow leaves behind them.


If I want to get good portraits of them, I have to leave the Border Collies in the house. Otherwise they all just flock together.

Who says all sheep look alike?


I love this photo because it shows three distinct looks of lambs..... Shetland cross, Romney cross and Border Leicester cross.


Probably many of you are journeying to Rhinebeck to the Sheep and Wool Festival. I'm not but you all have a great time. I'll look at our sheep right here on our hill.

When we were separating the lambs a month or so ago, one older ewe snuck in with the bunch of lambs. This photo shows the difference in size and look between a ewe lamb and a mature ewe.

Some interesting things about knitting on the web...

Peggy Gaffney, a knitwear designer who writes self-published books with knitting patterns for specific dog breeds has been chosen by Martha Stewart as one of 2010 "Dreamers into Doers." Check it out here. It is a really nice interview. Congrats Peggy!

It is Wool Week in Great Britain. WOW - what if there was wool week in the USA? You can't believe the press it is getting! Google it - and check out all the great articles, including this one. (Thanks again Auntie Shan.)

Sister Lynn's Jacket

In August, Julia and I spend as much time as we can with family since we really don't get much of a chance to visit them for any length during the year. We've just come back from NJ and had a great time with my sister Lynn and her two boys Franny and Nicholas, Mom, and my sister Jenn. It was crazy hot but thank goodness Mom has a pool to keep us cool.


My sister Lynn is still stitching madly on her denim jackets. Here are some close-ups of the latest jacket. She draws freehand designs with ball point pen and then just goes wild with straight stitch and chain stitch - those are the only two stitches she knows and she sure gets a lot accomplished with them.


Our friend Peggy came over to visit one day. Peggy is a great knitter, stitcher, seamstress, all-around fiber fanatic. She was also an art teacher for many years. She tried to get Lynn to learn some new stitches but she really wasn't interested. I thought it was quite humorous and stood up for my sister. She gets so much done and it is so beautiful why muck up the works. Lynn isn't very good at following directions - she was always the one to break the rules. She is an artist and colorist at heart. But one stitch she wants to learn and I need to teach her is french knots - I know she can turn that one into some kind of masterpiece.


This last photo shows another part of the jacket in progress. Lynn had drawn the design all over the back yoke and had done this part so far. She wanted to wear the jacket so she washed it and the ink came out. She'll start stitching again soon. I like how the denim shows through. This floss was some of the space dyed shaded kind which I have never been very good as using. I think it looks great here.

Paul's Moroccan Fedora

Melissa is a longtime friend of mine from New Jersey. She now lives in Maine with her husband Paul. They are both musicians. Melissa's Mom Peggy (now in her late 80's) is a dear friend of mine. For years, she knit many samples for the different leaflets and books. Here's a photo of Julia, Mom and Peggy taken here at our farm back in 2006 when this blog was rather newish.  

Not many years ago, Paul taught himself to knit and he is really killing it these days. He is a pianist and I'm thinking those talented fingers were just itching to learn to knit. He sent me photos of his granddaughter wearing one of the hats he made from my Moroccan Fedora pattern. He kindly has let me share them here on the blog. 

Isn't she the cutest? The yarn Paul used is Malabrigo and he said it was the worsted weight. Here is the top of the hat. 

Now he is working on another project from the World Knits Collection. Can't wait to see how that turns out. Well done Paul! 

If you have made any projects from the World Knits Collection, I would love to see what you have done. You can send them to me via email or facebook. 

You can purchase the Moroccan Fedora Pattern here on Ravelry or on my website here. Thanks so much Paul for sharing. 

Fruit Crisp Recipe

It is "crisp season" here in western Massachusetts. Crisp as in the coming weather and the fall of the deciduous trees' leaves and crisp as in fruit crisp - that typically American dessert of fall and winter. 

For years, I searched for the perfect fruit crisp recipe. Every time I made one, it wasn't quite to my liking. One evening we were invited to our friends Peggy and Clara's house and they served the absolutely most perfect apple crisp. Clara passed along her recipe and each fall I make it. It is perfect for after dinner or breakfast the next few days. I've made it with apples and peaches, and plums, and frequently throw in odds and ends of frozen raspberries, blueberries, even grapes. Here's Clara's recipe and following are two picks of mine for most favorite local fruit orchards here in the Pioneer Valley in western Massachusetts.

Clara's Fruit Crisp

For the crisp topping:

1 cup rolled oats

3/4 cup flour

3 Tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 Tablespoons melted butter

1/2 cup walnuts or more

For the fruit:

6-8 cups of peeled fruit

juice of a half a lemon (2-3 Tablespoons)

1/4 cup white sugar

1 Tablespoon cornstarch

pinch of salt

1. Mix the topping ingredients together. 

2. Peel and slice the fruit and place in a buttered deep pie plate or casserole dish. I use a deep pottery dish that is 10" wide. Add the remaining ingredients and still to get the cornstarch to smooth out. Sometimes the dish is really full of fruit and sometimes not. Scatter the topping over the fruit and tamp down slightly. Using a knife, put a few airholes in the topping.

3. Bake at 375 for about 45-60 minutes. Fruit should be cooked through and bubbling up on the sides. Let cool slightly. Serve with ice cream, whipped cream or just plain. Very nice for breakfast too. 

And now for a couple recommendations.....

The apples are beginning to ripen here in western Mass and luckily for the fruit growing orchards, folks can socially distance and pick apples safely. There are many orchards to choose from. Here are two of my faves:

Apex Orchards in Shelburne where the view is unreal. They have recently built a new farmstore and if you don't want to pick, there are plenty of varieties of already picked fruit.

Clarkdale Fruit Farm in Deerfield is a fourth generation fruit farm that has over 100 varieties of apples, peaches and more growing on their hillsides. In the fall, they offer mixed bags of all kinds of fruit perfect for pies. Clarkdale was the orchard that my mother-in-law Betty always bought her fruit from and Julia and I have continued that tradition visiting their stand each year before Thanksgiving. 

Returning from Stitches

I’m back from Stitches East in Baltimore. It was a whirlwind trip and definitely worthwhile. I met a whole bunch of knitters who read my blog. I must say, that was one of the highlights of the two short days I was in Baltimore. I wish I had written down who I met, but I didn’t think that far ahead.

Once I got to the Convention Center, I helped my friend Linda Pratt from Westminster Fibers set up her booth. We did this together for many years when we worked at CEY and so it was definitely a blast from the past. After we got it all organized, it was time for the Kaffe Fassett presentation up in a giant room jam-packed with knitters knitting and eager to hear what Kaffe had to say. Linda’s company Westminster Fibers, distributors of Rowan, Nashua (where my yarn Julia resides), Regia, Schaenmayer, Gedifra, and a few more companies, generously sponsored the Kaffe event. That meant it was FREE to anyone who wanted to come. How nice was that of them? Bet you didn’t think about that, did you? It's not often you get to hear such a fabulous talk without paying anything!

Linda and Brandon Mably (Kaffe's studio manager, designer, and from what I hear, quite a fabulous teacher) did quick and humorous introductions and then Kaffe showed a wonderful slide show of his work. What I enjoyed most was seeing all that he produces. Seriously, when do these people sleep considering the travel schedule they also keep up? Kaffe showed mosaics, knits, textile design, oil paintings and amazing tapestry commissions which are housed in private collections all over the world. I found his tapestries most intriguing. He said he worked on 8 mesh canvas and used three ends of yarn at a time to cover the canvas quickly with large stitches. They were beautiful. It’s so great to see an artist who works in textiles and so many different mediums be so successful and well thought of. When I visit different cities, I like to take in a museum if I have time. I didn't need to this time - Kaffe's talk gave me enough cultural and artistic stimulation for days. Kaffe and Brandon are on a tour of the USA and if you have a chance to see them or take a class with them, I know you won’t be disappointed. Click here for their travel schedule.

Kaffe previewed his new book Kaffe Knits Again which was shot at Charleston House in Sussex, England. (As Kaffe said “Did I ever stop knitting?”) This fabulous home to the painters from the Bloomsbury Group - Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, children, and large extended family was the perfect setting for Kaffe's new knits. My friend Sally and I visited Charleston House several years ago and loved seeing the painted interiors, oil paintings, needlepoints, handmade pottery, antique furniture, and general creative atmosphere. If you are interested in knitwear and color and creativity, you will so enjoy this book. Many of the motifs are Kaffe’s signature designs, re-colored for this new book. There are garments for men and women and some lovely home décor.

The next day, I gave my speech at around noon. Benjamin Levisay, the CEO of XRX, Inc. did a little magic with my PowerPoint presentation and made it a bit spiffier – which I really appreciated – since I am a novice with PP. My Mom and my good friend Peggy surprised me by showing up at the talk which was fun and rather emotional. The attendees seemed very happy and I got many good questions. Friendly group and not too scary. After the talk, I signed the air-freighted copies of my new book down in the marketplace. It was so nice to talk with real knitters who enjoy what I do.

At the big Fashion Show at night, with 850 people in the audience, Alexis Xenakis (Publisher of Knitters Magazine) surprised me by introducing me and making me come up on the stage to say a few words. I had to think very fast – I had absolutely no warning – I told a quick version of this post. The lights were blaring in my face, I couldn’t see a thing, and I am hoping I made some bit of sense. One of my garments from The Book was in the Fashion Show and the audience seemed to love it – thank goodness.

The best thing about this visit to Stitches was seeing many old friends including David, Elaine, Benjamin, and Alexis from XRX, Nancy Thomas and Sally Harding, and several of the retailers I spent many years selling yarn to. I also loved re-meeting many of the knitters I met at the first few Stitches along with so many new faces. As I said to Alexis, it has been a decade since I was last at one of these shows. We’ve all gotten a decade older and hopefully wiser. I was feeling a bit self-conscious about seeing everyone again but thank goodness, they have more wrinkles too!

I think back to what Stitches was when it first began, a down-home event with enthusiastic knitters curious for all the knowledge they could gather. It isn’t much different now – but it is glossier, much better attended (there were probably 4 to 5 times the number of attendees since the last show I was at!), and the Convention Venue was so professional. The message was still the same though – live and love, knit and stitch, learn and share.

What a nice few days……

Doggy News

Need a special gift for one of the canines in your life? Check out my "Dog in Sheep's Clothing" handknitting pattern over on my Shop Page or on Ravelry here. It is sized for dogs of all sizes - from eeny-weeny to ginormous. This is the same pattern I dressed the lambs in a couple of years ago and you can read more about the pattern on my Knitting Page here. The dog in the photo is good friend Junie B who is owned by our good friends Peggy and Clara. Isn't she sweet? She loves the sweater I made for her!

Now onto the topic of the day.... Our dogs play a huge part in our farmlife. Our two Border Collies, Phoebe and Ness, are indispensable. Never could we farm without their help moving the sheep from field to field. Before we had Paisley, our first Border Collie, The Farmer and I used to run after the sheep flapping our arms, trying to get them to move where we needed them. It was always such a comical operation. We could chase sheep for 3 hours and still fail in our attempts to move them. 

Nessie in action

Luckily, we got our first Border Collie back in 1991. Her name was Paisley and she was a stellar dog. You can read a little about her here. We were so incredibly lucky to have an incredibly talented collie for our first foray into sheep dog land. Since Paisley, we have had 3 Collies - Devon (who sadly was hit by a car and killed), Phoebe, and Nessie. Our dogs work hard and they are such great companions also. They are a bit spoiled, enjoying the farmhouse, the fires at night, and riding in the trucks.

Winston, the Great Pyrenees Pup - Livestock Guard Dog in training!

Now we have added to our working dog family in the form of Great Pyrenees brothers Archie and Winston, our new Livestock Guardian Dogs. OMG - we are a 4 dog family! They are growing like crazy and seem to be fitting in with the farm. Every morning, The Farmer and I take them on a walk around the perimeter fences that one of the flocks of sheep graze during the day. It's a nice part of the day, I must say. 

"The Boys" sleep outside with the sheep. They have shelter in the form of a calf hutch with straw bedding but I don't think they ever use it. They have very thick coats and from afar, look a lot like a sheep. We will be keeping them here at the farmhouse all winter long with a group of growing lambs that were born last winter and spring. "The Boys" will also be going down to the winter barn to expose them to the lambs when they are born. But we will not leave them with little lambs until they are mature and can be trusted. They have done in some of my free-ranging chickens so we must be careful. "The Boys" are very friendly to us and look forward to seeing someone whenever they hear the door open. It is all I can do to not bring them in the house but from the start, I knew that their job was to live with the sheep and guard them. After sunset, they bark and bark and bark. I think that is what keeps the sheep safe from the coyotes. Who would want to bother facing such a big barking dog (even if they are still pups). 

Back to the Collies. Phoebe is 12 years old and at the end of her working life. She still helps out but she isn't as agile as she used to be. She loves a patch of sun, sleeping in the house and following me around. I hate to see her grow old but it is the cycle of life. Nessie is seven or eight (can't remember when we got her!) and lives to work. She won't be able to keep up forever so..... Big News! A few days after Christmas, we will be adding a new member to our dog family - a new Border Collie puppy! We met the litter a couple weeks ago and are anxiously awaiting our new pup. She is coming from the Gould Farm. 

 

Fingers crossed that she wants to be a worker! It will be a lot of work having a pup in the winter. We're working on names now. She is black and white and that's all we know. It takes about 3 years for a working Border Collie to get up to speed and we have to think ahead, be prepared for Nessie's eventual slowing down. We cannot wait to meet her!

It seems that 2011 has been all about the dogs here on the farm!

Farmer's Market Festival in Bernardston

Our Bernardston Farmers Market Festival on Tuesday was a huge success. We organized it very quickly and really were not sure if anyone would show, considering it was a Tuesday. But show they did. I really think the secret to getting people out was the FREE ice cream that was donated by Bart's/Snow's of Greenfield! And the radio ads Julia did on WHAI. (Radio really works for publicity around here!) Here are some photos from the afternoon.

My sister-in-law Debbie (wife of the other farmer David, Mark's brother) and our friend Sharon in front of the Our Family Farms booth.


The scoopers - Amanda on the right and Julia on the left. Julia is from the new business in town Kringle Candle Co. They donated a fabulous gift basket (and they aren't even open yet!)


Bernardston Farmers Supply, our local feed, woodstove, and garden supply store had a nice display. They were amazed at the turn-out.


Our friends Peggy and Clara brought Junie their dog to visit. That's Clara dressed up as an ear of corn! What a hoot!


We can now purchase locally grown wheat here in the Pioneer Valley. Check out Four Stars Farm website.


Knitter extraordinaire Melissa Morgan-Oakes was selling her honey and her daughter Megan demonstrated spinning with wool from our sheep.


Local music from Maddie and Lana from Bernardston Elementary School playing their flutes - how cute.


More local music from world-famous Stuart Kenney and his son Matthew.


Ervin selling produce from his Coyote Hill Farm. He never stopped smiling once - he was selling so much!


Maple products from the Severance Family in Northfield. They sold out too!


One of the many extremely cute babies who attended with ice cream dripping down her chin. Awwww!


Sandy Streeter was selling her beautiful pottery birds. I love these!



My friend Mike (who owns 7 South Bakery Cafe) volunteered to cook our lamb, Carrie's kielbasa, and Ervin and Gloria's veggies. Thank you Mike!


And he made this awesome bread cornucopia which he donated for a door-prize.


Julia's friend Levi set up an impromptu stand and sold his art and took orders for his comic books! He is such a great kid.


By the time it was time to close up, the moon was up and it was getting dark. It was such an awesome afternoon. It really is amazing how much we accomplished and pulled together in a short time and the luck we had with finding local businesses for vending. Thanks to all who came out!


Julia and I will be at Fibertwist tomorrow in Deerfield. The event is being held at Yankee Candle's Fitness Center (next to Yankee Candle). It is right off of Rt. 91. There is an enormous parking lot. If you come, please stop by to say hi!

It's still October - Scarecrows Rule

And you thought my scarecrow posts were over. Sorry. Today I'd like to share with you some of the more amazing creations the really dedicated scarecrow builders made.

Here are Mr. and Mrs. Pumpkin Scarecrow done by the local bridal shop.


The Beatles are visiting again - this time as Sgt. Pepper.


My friends Clara and Peggy built Mustang Sally.


This wise old owl was so amazing - it was built out of pinecones, bark, fungus, cornstalks, and lots of other natural things. It stood about 8 feet tall.


My neighbor Joanne who is a dollmaker made a pumpkin family. She built the heads and props out of paper clay, painted them and waterproofed them.


Then she hand-stitched all the little signs in backstitch.


Joanne is an amazing craftsperson - a collector of all kinds of antiques and fabrics. She took the scarecrow challenge to the N-th degree. Here's Gordie and his pet spider in a jar.


Aren't they all totally amazing? Wouldn't you love to stumble upon Scarecrows in the Park and explore it with a young child? Thanks to the local Kiwanis for supporting and organizing such a great event for the community.

Now back to regularly scheduled yarn, farm and color activities.

Scenes from our Thanksgiving Holiday + Felted Flower Napkin Ring/Pin Favors

Thanksgiving has come and gone. What a wonderful day we had here at our farmhouse. It was full of family, good food and drink, and laughter. It sure is a lot of work getting this house in shape. Mom came on Tuesday and helped out (Thank you Mom!). Here is our dining room the morning of the day. Normally this room is my shipping room and the spot we keep all our farmers market supplies. The table is never clear. But that morning it was.

After the turkeys went into the ovens, we started working on the table. I know - all of this is supposed to be done the day before. But not in my lifetime. I piled on my Indian block printed tablecloths/bedspreads (like these) and then collected some ethnic fabrics from my stash. Since Thanksgiving is "my" holiday, I put few little turkeys ......

amongst some moss and added an obligatory farmer and his sheep statue.  After all, this is a sheep farm....

We collected some bittersweet from the orchard - love the color this time of year even if it is invasive as all get-out! and plopped it into some old green glass bottles with some faded sunflower heads....

 

Candles lit.....

Ready to go!

I'm not much for lots of planning of parties. In fact, this is almost the only party I throw all year with the exception of Julia's b-day and my Getting Stitched on the Farm Retreat Dinners. My sisters are great at planning and throwing parties but since I am the most disorganized person on the planet, it's not in my DNA. But this year, I did do a bit in advance. Since I have been in the Knitted Flower Mood, I decided to knit all the sisters, moms, and cousins a flower. It took me three nights and I made extras but it was a fun project. Here they are before felting....

 

I sewed pin backs from the craft store onto the back of each flower after felting. Then I made napkin rings out of green wool fabric that I had hanging around. 

Thanksgiving morning I set them all up with their napkins on the table for their beauty shot.

There was a flurry of excitement as everyone chose their favorite flower color. 

And now they all have a pretty little pin to wear on their winter coats to remember the day by! I sent the extra napkin rings and flowers off to family members who couldn't make the trip and a good friend/knitter who is in rehab after a stroke (get well soon Peggy!). 

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! Now onto the next! 

If you want to do the same kind of project for your Christmas festivities, you can order the Sunflower and Zinnia to Knit and Felt new pattern available on the Shop Page of my website here or on Ravelry.