Mid October News from Kristin Nicholas at Leyden Glen Farm

Hello Colorful Friends:

It has been a while since I have checked in with you. I hope you had a good summer and are looking forward to hunkering down to the cozy (knitting) season. The summer has flown by and now we are closing in on the holiday season. The Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival is this weekend - a sure sign of fall. (No, I won’t be there but if you are going - have a blast.) This summer, I’ve made lots of pottery to sell on my website for the upcoming holidays. I have also been vending at the Amherst Farmers Market every Saturday from 7:30 to 1:30 selling our grass fed lamb and my artwork.

It’s been a challenging summer here on the farm. We experienced a severe drought with absolutely no rain for 8 weeks. Thank goodness it has begun to rain some this fall. For the first time in many years, I haven’t grown any sunflowers. Not that I didn’t try but because of the lack of water, there was no germination. I did have a small garden that I mulched with rotted hay. Because we have a well that goes dry easily, I was not able to water the garden. The only water the plants got was gray water from kitchen chores. My zinnias didn’t begin to bloom until September. I have felt like a complete failure since I’ve had a garden of some sort since my mid-20’s. Here’s a photo of the weedy mess in front of my pottery shed although now that the leaves are turning gold and orange, it does look pretty.

Lack of water for any farmer - livestock or crop farmer - creates all kinds of difficulties. Sheep need water daily even when out on pasture. Mark (aka The Farmer) pumped water out of a spring fed stream into a large plastic tank on the back of his pickup. Every day, he drove it around to the various flocks of sheep that were distributed at different grazing fields in three different towns. Talk about a time suck not to mention the expense for fuel. The hay crop (winter feed for our sheep) was awful because of the lack of rain. We are hoping for a better farming and gardening season in 2023 but know that the weather is going to be unpredictable due to global warming.

Here’s a fun photo of a traffic jam on Eden Trail. The sheep had decided to walk home from a field a mile away when the fence fell down and luckily I was passing by so I could put them where they belonged. I’m sure the Penske truck driver had a laugh. Hope he wasn’t in too much of a hurry.

I’ve got a few new irons in the fire on the knitting front and I’m trying to find the time to get to them. Hard to figure out where the days go sometimes. Artistically and creatively, I’ve been working in my pottery studio making new pots that I hope to add to my website closer to the holidays. Here is my messy pottery studio. It’s small and perfect for one potter.

Here is some recent work waiting for a firing.

Babe the Wool…… Last November when we had our sheep sheared, we had had some inquiries from folks that were involved in the Western Mass Fiber Shed. The wool from our sheep is a by-product which we do not process. Sadly it isn’t worth much if you can find someone to purchase it and getting rid of as much wool as the sheep grow is difficult. When we first started with sheep over 40 years ago, I did have it spun into yarn but as the years have gone by, I realized that the costs incurred for processing didn’t fit in with our farm plan. (Wool from 7 sheep is manageable; wool from 300 sheep is overwhelming.) Our sheep primarily help to feed our community in the form of our grass fed lamb that we sell locally at the Amherst Farmers Market, at our little farm store and to some wholesale accounts. The sheep also reclaim and graze (aka mow) overgrown and abandoned pastures in our area. It is a beautiful sight as you can see in the photo from early spring when the pasture was lush and there wasn’t a drought.

Shearing the number of animals we have is a big expense with no return. Every year I feel bad about not using the wool except for compost, weed control, dog bedding and insulating parts of the barn for the little lambs. I offered the wool to Lisa of Bloom Woolen Yarns if she contributed to the shearing costs. She came shearing day - kids in tow - and picked out the fleeces she liked from lambs as they were shorn. Lisa has since had our wool spun in southern Vermont into a lovely yarn called Babe. She has dyed it with avocado skins, marigolds, cochineal and more natural dyes. We are so happy that Lisa invested in our farm by helping to pay for some of the shearing costs. Lisa is a fanatic knitter and the wool from our sheep that she processed will make many knitters and crocheters happy. Hop on over to check out Bloom’s yarn Babe spun from wool from our Leyden Glen Farm’s sheep and lambs. You can follow Lisa and Bloom over on Instagram here.

Interesting Links…… I’ve been saving up some interesting links to share with you….. Considering the time of year it is, many are yarn and wool related.

• Here is an excellent article about how to get rid of clothes moths.

• This is an excellent video called Why Wool Matters.

• Never thought this would happen! BTW, I highly recommend Get Back. Nine hours but good backdrop for your knitting and making hours.

• I’ve been making this Chai Spiced Granola. It’s my morning go to with yogurt and fruit. (I omit the tea and use all oats instead of the buckwheat groats.) I’m quite addicted and this winter I hope to change it up a little.

• Loved this article about one of my favorite authors Ros Byam Shaw, her antique dealer mother and her entrepreneurial daughter Elizabeth. While you are there, have a look through the Cabana website. Lovely colorful things. Here’s a link to Ros’s books which have pride of place in my library.

• I’ve been a fan of glass artist Dale Chihuly for years. This video shares his glass installation “Chihuly in the Desert” at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West. He has an upcoming exhibit at the Paul Smith store in London.

That’s it for today. Thank you for reading. I’m going to try to keep up with the newsletters this fall and winter. I hope that you enjoy the things I share. If you ever want to unsubscribe, click the link at the bottom of the email. Back to the pottery shed to trim some bowls.

Yours in color and creativity,

Kristin Nicholas

Shameless Knitting Plug …… If you are looking for a Christmas Stocking Pattern for the upcoming holiday, I’ve got two very popular designs available as PDF’s. Check them out here and here. Also available in my Ravelry Store here.