Mid November News from the Farm

Colorful Inspiration for You

Hello Colorful Friends:

It’s the middle of November and 2023 is almost in the books. We’ve had a busy month here on the farm. This Saturday is the last Amherst Farmers Market of 2023. I sell our farm raised lamb and my textile and ceramic art every weekend from April to November at this market that began in 1972. There are 5 colleges in and close to Amherst so I never know who I will meet each week. Harrison Ford came to the market in June — I got a good look but didn’t get to chat. Some of my newsletter readers have even come to visit me this season.

I’ve been busy decorating my ceramics and keeping the kiln firing - trying to get as much work produced as time allows. I hope to have some work available on-line in mid December. Ceramics, like any handmade art, is time-consuming but also rewarding. I really enjoy taking each piece that I have shaped on my pottery wheel or with my rolling pin and reacting to each shape with a new surface design. Every piece is decorated differently with new motifs and patterns. I am willing to trade the speed of repetitive decoration for the satisfaction of the individual designs. Is there something you do that you know isn’t efficient time wise but gives you extreme satisfaction? Leave a note in the comments if you have time.

Here’s a little preview of some of my ceramics that will be done before Saturday’s market. They are in the bisque state (fired once) and still need their coat of clear shiny glaze before being fired the second time. Fingers crossed they fire perfect. They are “cooking” right now.

A couple weeks ago, our sheep were sheared. Our regular crew of blade shearer Kevin Ford and electric shearer Gwen Hinman came along with two other shearers. They sheared 180-ish sheep. You might wonder why we shear so late. Several years ago, Kevin suggested this late fall schedule. He said it would make it easier to see the condition of the ewes when they are closer to lambing. Although I was skeptical and worried that the sheep would be cold, he was correct. When the ewes are very close to lambing, their udders swell - a sure sign that lambing is close. The first week after shearing, the sheep eat a bit more to create extra warmth. The wool begins to regrow quickly. You can read an excellent article about Kevin Ford here. Kevin is an amazing guy - still shearing up in his life 70’s.

Here’s a video of Kevin and Gwen shearing here several years ago

Although we don’t sell our wool as finished yarn, you can purchase it through Bloom Woolen Yarns. Lisa (the owner of Bloom) buys some of our fleeces and then gets them processed into yarn. She has recently designed a shawl called “Nanuk Means Polar Bear” and you can purchase the kit HERE or the yarn HERE.

With the holiday season closing in, my mind is scattered in a million directions. What about you? We are hosting Thanksgiving once again and although the crew will be a little smaller than in the raucous days of very young families, we are looking forward to seeing everyone. It is one of my most favorite weekends of the year.

Before I get to the main focus of this newsletter - Colorful Inspiration - let me offer up some favorite items from my website. My sheep related holiday (or not) cards make a lovely way to add some beauty to someone’s actual mailbox. I’ve got five cards and you can purchase them on my website here. They come in packs of 10 and there is an assorted pack too. Don’t like my assortment - tell me what you need in the notes on the order form.

For those of you who are knitters, hop on over to my Knitting PDF Page to see all the knitting patterns that are available. All of the patterns are available on Ravelry too.

Knitting PDF Patterns from Kristin Nicholas Designs

So now for the real purpose of this newsletter.

Two plus years ago now, our daughter Julia and I flew to Kansas to adopt a dog who was to become Julia’s Diabetic Alert Dog. It was a great trip full of tears (mine), training and learning. We flew home with Pretzel (a 16 month Golden Retriever female) we had only met 5 days previous. We did not know how integral a part of our family she was to become. Pretzel has changed Julia’s life for the better - she is a great companion and has helped her improve her health.

As we were driving from the airport in Wichita north to Concordia, Kansas where the non-profit service dog organization CARES, Inc. is located, I saw a familiar name on a roadside sign - Birger Sandzen Museum. I didn’t think much of it because I was concentrating on driving in the dark on an unfamiliar road with huge trucks going by at high speed. The next day, we met Pretzel along with many other dogs and their new trainers. (Tears shed, for sure.) After a few days of learning, training and lots of new folks and experiences, it was Public Access Test Day. The dogs and their “people” must pass a performance test in a public space in order to become certified as a Service Dog Team. After Julia and Pretzel passed the test, I decided to look into that name I saw on the highway.

The Birger Sandzen Museum was just south of the test location in the town of Lindsborg, Kansas — aka Little Sweden. We arrived there to discover preparations for the bi-yearly Svenskhyllnings Festival which was happening that weekend. Streets were being blocked off and people were arriving from all over the USA and beyond to celebrate their Swedish heritage. Below are Julia and Pretzel in front of a huge Swedish Dala Wooden Horse.

I was there to learn more about that sign I saw on the dark road a few nights previous. I had recognized the name BIrger Sandzen from an image in an art magazine I no longer remember the name of. That image had hung on my studio wall for several years. What caught my initial fascination was the way Sandzen used color. It turned out that Sandzen had immigrated from Sweden to the US in 1894. He landed in Lindsborg, Kansas where he became a painting teacher at Bethany College. He taught there until his retirement in 1946.

The small museum — the Birger Sandzen Memorial Gallery — is a testament to the number of paintings, woodcuts, and illustrations he produced. As an art teacher and very prolific artist, Sandzen left his influence on artists in Kansas and beyond. The museum held a large selection of his landscapes and portraits along with ephemera from his life in Kansas. The folk art animals at the beginning of this newsletter were in the museum and collected by his wife. Sandzen used thickly applied paint with each stroke loaded with multiple colors — right down my alley. There were also a few portraits that were on display that were lovely.

What originally drew me to this artist’s work was his use of complimentary color combinations. If you have followed my work for a long time, you probably realize that I too use complimentary colors in my knitwear designs, my ceramics, and my home.

A close-up of his individual strokes…..

A lovely portrait….

Along with the Birger Sandzen Museum and Lindsborg, we also stumbled upon the National Orphan Train Complex. Throughout the small town of Concordia there were multiple bronze statues of small children. These were depictions of homeless and poor children who were transported by train from the east coast to the Midwest to live with families. You can watch a documentary about the Orphan Trains HERE.

We were in Kansas during harvest season. It was fascinating - enormous trucks bringing in the grains from farmers to be deposited in mammoth grain elevators. The Midwest feeds the world. I enjoyed seeing the old buildings and grain silos too.

This was the 4J Cowboy Church.

I have been meaning to share these photos for quite a while. I hope you find them inspiring to your creative work. The one nice thing about traveling is you never know what you are going to happen upon. Julia got a lovely Service Dog and I found a bit of colorful and cultural inspiration. We both had a lovely trip to Kansas. And Pretzel is doing great here at our farm in western Mass.

Here are today’s interesting links for those of you who got to the end of this email……

• You know how I love sunflowers. Here’s a nice piece from CBS Sunday Morning about these amazing flowers.

• I stumbled upon this Claymation advertisement for Barbour. It is super cute.

• 71 Useful hacks to help around the house HERE.

• If you have ever thought about doing mosaics, check this out. Astounding.

• Have you heard of the British stitchery company The Fabled Thread? Lovely, colorful embroidery and needlepoint kits designed by Eppie Thompson. I found her on Instagram a few years ago. She teaches virtual stitching classes and writes a very good on-line journal. It’s really nice to see a younger person so enthralled with handstitching and bringing it to the greater world.

I’ll be back after Thanksgiving and will hopefully have some of my ceramics and tea towels available on-line in December.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

For new readers, here is a video about our 1751 farmhouse and farm.