For those of you that don’t follow me on Facebook, I have a quick brag I want to share.
My best friend Susan is in July’s issue of Martha Stewart Living!
The photographer came down to Virginia a few months ago and spent a day with us taking some stunning photographs of Susan and the farm. I hope at some point Susan will be able to get her hands on some of the photos, because, well. Stunning.
Get yourself a copy of the July issue now and read all about Susan and Juniper Moon Farm!
Comments Off on Martha!
Tagged Farm, Uncategorized
We are still up to our neck’s in our Fall/Winter collection photo shoot. I’ll get back to regular blogging ASAP. In the meantime, I give you the world’s most patient dog.
Comments Off on Probably something you would like…
Tagged Uncategorized
Lauria spends a whole lot of time answering emails from our sample knitters and from our customers who have questions about specific techniques called for in knitting patterns. That may not sound like a difficult task, but it can be a bit like trying to tell someone how to perform a delicate heart operation via email.
Thank God for the internet, home to some of our very favorite knitting tutorials. Here are links to some of the best.
The difference between “pick up stitches” and “pick up and knit”, and how to do both. By the Yarn Harlot, our very own high priestess.
How to pick up the right number of stitches for a button band. From Knitty.
Fixing mistakes in cable knitting without frogging back. By the Yarn Harlot. (Scroll down to find it.)
Very cool picot cast on. (Not in English but the photos are pretty clear.)
Bickford Stitch – makes an invisible vertical flat seam. I love this one!
Everything you ever wanted to know about knitting frills and ruffles.
Want a perfect set-in-sleeve seam? Here’s how! From the brilliant Amy Herzog.
Keeping the Facing of a Sweater Flat. From our friends at WEBS.
Everything you ever wanted to know about increases. From Twist Collective.
An intro to Intarsia Knitting. From Purl Bee.
The Russian Bind Off. (Okay, I’ve never used this one but the name is so great!)
Our very favorite lace blocking tutorial! By Eunny Jang.
Everything you ever wanted to know about short rows. From Purl Bee.
Do you have any favorite knitting or crochet tutorials? We’d love to add them to the list.
Comments Off on A Round Up of Knitting Tutorials
Tagged Knitting, Uncategorized
Susie was on a cool podcast called Math4Knitters. She talked about a lot of cool things: when she learned to knit, the farm and CSA, the commercial yarn line, the possibility of patterns being released digitally, and more.
To listen, click right here.
Our Facebook fans got the first info about the podcast yesterday!
Susie’s still driving. Actually, she stopped to take a nap because she wasn’t well. She is in New Jersey, about 4.5 hours away. Hopefully she’ll make it to Massachusetts tonight, since we plan to start photographing tomorrow!
Comments Off on Math4Knitter’s Podcast
Tagged Uncategorized
Today we were forced to say goodbye to our darling little Beatrix.
She had a bit of diarrhea the last two days, and despite treating her with everything we could, she had passed on when I went to check this morning.
Losing animals is always difficult; it’s especially hard because since we only had two lambs this year we got to know both of them well, and spent a lot of time with them.
I have a call in to the vet to be sure there was nothing else going on I may have missed. Darby and Amelia are doing wonderfully – they are still penned out in front of the house on grass and I am loathe to put them back out in the field now. Since there is no grass back there yet it has gotten very muddy with the heavy rains, and I worry that may have contributed to Beatrix’s decline. Amelia is also still very skinny despite the grass and grain, and I fear she shouldn’t go back to a hay – only diet at this point.
I pray everyone else stays healthy and the heat and mud don’t become more of a problem for anyone. I have been out to the field four times a day to check on everyone, and I am having to fight the urge to just stay out there all day now. But, having me fret over them constantly won’t help, either. These things happen despite our best intentions and care.
My heart is very heavy today.
We’ll miss you Beatrix.
Comments Off on Difficult Days
Tagged Farm, Pets, Uncategorized
Comments Off on This Evening in Pictures
Tagged Farm, Pets, Uncategorized
I finally finished a skirt I’d cut out months ago.
Just in time for our first campfire of the season!
The fabric is a delectable avian print by Joel Dewberry.
And can I say how much I enjoy having a serger to make nice finished edges?
The pattern is one of my absolute favorites. It’s Amy Butler’s Barcelona Skirt pattern, and I’ve made many of them.
They’re comfortable, flattering and super easy to make. I don’t know why it took me so long to get this one sewn up.
Comments Off on A Line Skirt
Tagged Sewing, Uncategorized
This weekend I decided to try my hand at something I’d been thinking about for awhile. Soft tacos with brisket filling.
I didn’t really have a recipe as such so I just kind of winged it. This is what I came up with.
I threw a 2 lb beef brisket into the crockpot around 11 am and topped it with about 1/2 cup of catsup, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 3/4 cup of tequila, 1 cup of beef stock, 1 TBS red pepper flakes, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, and 2 tsp cumin. I cooked it on high heat for about 3 hours and then reduced it to low for about another 3 or 4 hours.
Once the brisket was done (super tender and falling apart!) I chopped up some tomatoes and onions and threw them together in a small bowl with a splash of lime juice. If I’d had any fresh cilantro on hand I’d have thrown that in as well.
Then I decided I may as well whip up some homemade tortillas.
Homemade tortillas are actually dead easy and quick, and if you’re going to go through the effort to make a fabulous brisket filling for your tacos, then you should have excellent tortillas, too. They’re so much more delicious than store – bought (unless you can buy freshly made ones!).
I use THIS RECIPE.
SO easy. Flour, salt, water and olive oil.
Break off a small ball at a time, roll it out with a rolling pin and throw it in a greased pan for about a minute.
It took me about 20 minutes to make 8.
Then I served them up. I filled each warm tortilla with brisket (plus a little brisket sauce from the crockpot) some monterey jack cheese, the tomato – onion mixture and some sour cream. If I had had any fresh guacamole I would have used that as well.
Et voila! A super delicious, super easy dinner that will wow your family.
Comments Off on Brisket Tacos
Tagged food, Uncategorized
This year has been my most ambitious garden undertaking to date. I have two raised beds in front full of radishes, chives, lavender, rosemary, yukon potatoes, and Adirondack blue potatoes.
I have the front garden full of garlic, arugula, two kinds of beets, two kinds of peas, pole beans, carrots, 4 different kinds of tomatoes, bell peppers, anaheim peppers, strawberries and raspberries.
The new, larger back garden has several kinds of pumpkins, butternut and acorn squash, zucchini and summer squash, two kinds of cucumbers, watermelon, two kinds of corn, blue potatoes, red potatoes, sweet potatoes, and basil.
Keeping up with the weeding has been the hardest part of it all (as is usually the case!).
The blueberry patio plant I bought last year (which was “guaranteed” to fruit the first year. Ha!) is finally in fruit.
The back garden.
Squash sprouts!
Sweet potato.
Red potato.
Pole beans.
One of the roses I planted to encourage visitation by pollinators.
It’s so hard to be patient when everything is just starting out, but soon enough if all goes well I’ll be overwhelmed with the bounty.
Fingers crossed!
Comments Off on Garden 2013 Progress
Tagged Farm, food, garden, Uncategorized
My friend Gale Zucker is an in-demand knitwear photographer– she shoots all the Mason-Dixon girls books — and she also teaches amazing workshops. She taught one at the farm a couple years ago. We learned so much and had a blast!
Gale and the folks at Interweave have put together a webinar of Gale’s Photography for Knitters workshop!
I’ve done a couple of these webinars and they are a great way to learn a new skill. It’s nice because you learn at your own pace, in the comfort of your own pajamas. Plus it’s a total bargain– only $19.99.
FYI– This isn’t a sponsored post. I just really like Gale and think this workshop is the bee’s knees. The in-person version of this workshop got me started on serious photography, so I’m a fan.
Comments Off on Photography for Knitters!
Tagged Events, Uncategorized
