Lambing and Deadlines
Hello Colorful Friends!
It's been a long time since I sent a newsletter out to all of you. I hope you all had a nice holiday season and a good January. It is hard to believe we are more than half way through February.
Things have been busy here at the farm. Lambs have been popping out for about three weeks now. We are up to 179 live lambs with still more to come. Our twinning percentage has been higher than normal and we have even had several sets of triplets. The other evening Mark said to me "Well I guess we are at the point that the sheep are running us." It's a statement that is actually true most of the year although during lambing it is even more true. I'll be posting photos of the lambs and ewes over the next few weeks and telling some stories over on my blog Getting Stitched on the Farm if you would like to follow along.
We've had a few lambs in the house - nursing them back to health. I know lots of you enjoy seeing photos of lambs in the house. Although it may look cute and all, I like to get them out of here as fast as possible. Sheep are really messy and let's just say, we aren't having any company until I get this place cleaned up good when lambing has slowed down. This is Boris who was here for a couple weeks during a nasty cold snap and lots of snow. He is now back at the barns being a sheep with the rest of the bottle lambs.
I have spent the better part of January and February working on my upcoming book Crafting A Patterned Home (2018). I've gone through a couple rounds of edits with my editor Jenn Urban-Brown from Roost Books. I've also painted over 70 gouache illustrations that will be in the book and drawn several templates for the book in Adobe Illustrator - all in the last 5 weeks. I've had to take time away from any life on-line due to my workload, deadlines and helping on the farm.
Here are some things I found on the web that I think you might find interesting:
• There is a new Vanessa Bell Show in London at the Dulwich Gallery. Learn more about it here. I really wish I could get to London to see it.
• Our sheep shearer Kevin Ford was just in New Zealand for the World Championship of Sheep Shearing and Woolhandling 2017. It is a contest that is held every 2 years. Kevin is amazing - he is 71 years old and still at it. He was one of 6 Americans who competed. There is an on-line Youtube channel with lots of videos from the competition.
• These jeans from Anthropologie with sashiko style embroidery patches are so pretty. I find it quite interesting that ready to wear is embroidering patches and sewing them on brand-new blue jeans. The craft and make do movement is inspiring clothing designers. Cool.
• I've discovered that the V&A has an on-line database of their objects. Check it out here.
• Artist and children's book illustrator Dahlov Ipcar has passed away at the age of 99. Here is a fantastic video of her from three years ago. Worth a watch if you have 15 minutes to spare.
• In Northern India they are crocheting giant granny square sweaters for elephants to protect them from the cold. Check it out here.
I hope to be back to a more regular schedule of posting and writing now that I've met my deadlines. As always, thank you so much for reading.
Yours in color and creativity,
Kristin Nicholas
www.kristinnicholas.com
getting-stitched-on-the-farm.blogspot.com/
www.leydenglenlamb.com
A fun video of our farm, our farmhouse, and my family.