Not too early to think about knitted Christmas Stockings.

Hello Colorful Friends:

Wow! We are in the midst of a September heat wave here at the farm. Yesterday I spent the day selling at the Northampton Tuesday Market with the thermometer registering 96 degrees! One thing nice about the heat and the humidity is that it is helping to speed along the blooming of our sunflower garden. You can see in the photo above that the buds are forming and it is going to be a beautiful show. Stop by the blog over the next couple weeks to see all the gorgeous color. Here is a photo of the first dark brown blooms just emerging. The variety is called Moulin Rouge.

I am just finalizing my travel plans to Madison, Wisconsin to speak at the Madison Knitting Guild on October 12th. I will be teaching 2 classes and doing an evening talk. Check out the information on their website here.

I've had a great season of Creative Retreats here at our farm this year. I have one more coming up September 26 and 27th. It is a knitting and color retreat and there are still 4 spaces available. The leaves should be changing by then. Come enjoy a day or two in the New England countryside on a working sheep farm learning some new tricks to enhance your knitting. Check it out here.

It is the last day of the big Craftsy Labor Day Sale. It ends at midnight (Mountain Time). Use my link to get UP TO 50% OFF THE CLASSES. It is back to school season and this is a great time to choose what you want to learn this coming fall season when the weather turns more autumnal and we here in the northern hemisphere are doing more indoor activities. HERE is my affiliate link for your savings:
http://www.craftsy.com/ext/KristinNicholas_holiday

A few weeks ago I shared our latest litter of kittens. I still have two kitties available - the lanky black kitty and the gray tiger with the white markings. If anyone is interested, please contact me by email - kristinnicholas@gmail.com

This week, I've stumbled onto the following interesting things that you might like to look at too:

• I would love to visit this grand home in England called Sezincote House. Imagine a Mughal palace in the British countryside. Wow!

• My mom Nancy, Julia and I went to a fantastic sculpture park in New Jersey called Grounds for Sculpture. What a fun day. A place full of art and fantastic gardens. Lovely.

• This is a fascinating post about the block printing process of an intricate design made in India. Stunning work and lots of colors.

• Do you like making pom poms as much as I do? I found this basket decorated with pom poms on for sale on Anthropologie. Cute.

• I loved this story about a chicken creating havoc on the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge. Glad I wasn't stuck in traffic though!

• This story on Houzz.com about "Barn Quilts" in Shewano County, WIsconsin is quite inspiring. Wouldn't it be fun to take a tour and look at all the gorgeous graphics on barns throughout the countryside?

That's it for this week. Thanks for reading.

With colorful best wishes,

Kristin Nicholas

It is not too early to start thinking about
Christmas Stocking Knitting!

Kristin's Colorful Christmas Stockings features 5 different designs that use only one color per row. If you are a newish knitter and frightened of stranded colorwork, I highly suggest this design. ORDER PDF FOR $12 HERE.

Kristin's Creative Christmas Stockings is a bit more traditional in design, it features stranded colorwork in many different motifs. There are even extra charts for you to use to design your own version. Each of the styles is given in 4 different sizes. ORDER PDF FOR $12 HERE.

In case you missed my last newsletter, I have a brand new book out called The Amazing Stitching Handbook for Kids. Jam-packed with 15 projects and 17 stitches, it is a perfect learning tool to teach young people to embroider.

To order, hop on over to my website. The book is $16.95 plus $4.00 shipping and handling. I will also include a free Kristin illustrated bookplate for placement in the book.

I'm happy to sign the book to a recipient. Leave their name in the "notes" section of my order form.

Check out the video about our colorful farmhouse and farm produced by Houzz.com.