Here’s a little something you don’t know about me: I get incredibly anxious opening gifts in front of the giver. I’m just not good at anticipation and surprises. I worry that my expression will be wrong or that it will seem like I’m not excited by the gift. And then I worry that I’m almost over-acting and not doing it very convincingly.

I also get incredibly anxious watching someone open a gift from me.  And I LOVE giving gifts, love trying to pick out the perfect little sussy that will make someone I care about feel happy and known. I just get panicky and nervous the actual moment of giving. Weird, right?

None of that changes the fact that I LOVE the holidays. Not the shopping- I don’t even like shopping on Super Bowl Sunday wheel the mall is a ghost town- but everything else I love.  Love picking out the tree and hanging wreaths. Love wrapping gifts. Love Christmas carols. Love those light post-mounted decorations that small towns put up every year. LOVE LOVE LOVE the crazy light displays in my neighbors front yards. And I especially love when friends with different faiths than the one I grew up in invite me to share in their traditions.

To celebrate the holidays I’m giving away three copies of the amazing Clara Parkes’ new book The Knitter’s Book of Wool: The Ultimate Guide to Understanding, Using and Loving this Most Fabulous Fiber. I can’t say enough good things about this book! You won’t believe the things you didn’t know you didn’t know about your favorite fiber.

To enter just leave a comment on this post telling me about your holiday traditions. When do you put up your tree? Do you open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?  What’s your favorite part of  Hannukah? How do you celebrate Solstice? I can’t wait to read about the way your family celebrates!

Rule-y type stuff: One entry per person, please. Entries close at midnight on Thursday, December 17, 2009. The winners will be posted here some time Friday and winners will have 24 hours to claim their prizes by emailing Juniper Moon Farm at prizes@fiberfarm.com

Good luck!

This week has been a busy one for the Juniper Moon crew. Paige and Erin are frantically packing up the last of the Spring 09 Shares for shipment; we hope to have the last of them out the door by Friday! I’ve dyeing new colorways for the shop, catching up on my chronically full email inbox, helping with retail shipping and working with Miss Lucy. Every minute has been accounted for at least once if not twice this week and we haven’t even started decorating for our Solstice Party on the 19th yet!

On Sunday I am flying down to Fort Worth to see my mom and sister and driving back in my sister’s car. Carrie just got an amazing job in Denmark! We are so proud of her but I am going to miss her fiercely. She’ll be starting at the beginning of January which is practically tomorrow. Since she won’t be needing a car here, I’m buying her’s to replace Chuck, my truck.

I’m really sad about losing Chuck but we’ve had five years together and it’s time. I leased the truck and really wanted to buy it out of the lease, but Toyota and I have vastly different ideas about what a five-year-old farm truck is worth, so I’m turning him in this weekend.

I am looking for some audio book recommendations for my drive from Fort Worth to Virginia next week. I usually like to download a couple of options, at least one of which is non-fiction, for a looooong drive like this one. Got any favorites? Post ‘em here for me.

In other news, our Yarnstorming Project is still going great guns and we have loads of yarn to send out to knitters in need but we are in need of donations for shipping expenses. If you’d like to help please send your contribution via paypal to program coordinator Nancy P at yarnstorming99@gmail.com. Any amount you can spare is greatly appreciated! Also, be sure to join our Yarnstorming Group on ravelry.

More news tomorrow! I’ve got to get back to the dye pots.

Thanks so much for entering our giveaway for a copy of The Girl Who Played with Fire. The winner is:

Reading through your comments it occurred to me that we haven’t done a “What are you reading?” post in ages. So, what are you reading?

I just started a new mystery series by Christopher Fowler called the Peculiar Crime Unit Mysteries. The first book- Full Dark House- is set in present day London but there are lots of flashbacks to World War II London. Very Foyle’s War.

The Ag Fair starts tomorrow and will keep me busy for most of the weekend but I’ll post pics when I can. The Fair is my very favorite Vineyard tradition- you can read my last year’s post here.  If you’re on-Island be sure to stop by the fiber tent and say hey.

You know how sometimes I ask you to do something and not ask a who lot of questions about it? This is going to be one of those times. Cause I just got home from a reading and discussion group about Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money, a book by Woody Tasch, and it was brilliant. 

Now, it just so happens that this book is published by Chelsea Green, the wonderful, patient people publishing my book, but that’s not why I’m recommending it.  Woody Tasch certainly doesn’t need me to sing his praises cause this book is being reviewed everywhere. But I think there is some very important stuff  here, some stuff that relates very directly to what we are trying to do here on the farm AND to my new project to get webcams and blogs on to every small, sustainable farm in America.

I’ll write more tomorrow when I’ve had a chance to process some of the things discussed this evening. In the meantime, get this book. I hate to be such a Bossy Boots, but I promise, you’ll be glad you did.

Guess what? It’s only 23 days till SPRING!!! Let’s celebrate with a little giveaway, shall we?

Have you seen this book? A Fine Fleece is all about knitting with handspun yarns and it’s absolutely lovely. Whether you spin your own fiber or just appreciate the art and craft of handspun you will love this book. There are 26 projects in the book and photographs of each pattern knit up with handspun yarn and with commercial yarn, a great tool for understanding when and where to use handspun.

I am a sucker for beautiful handspun. Some of my favorite skeins are so beautiful that I haven’t ever bothered to knit with them. I just display them in a big bowl on our hearth. My friend Maggie, a.k.a. Little Grey Cat Designs, does some amazing things with texture and color. Here’s an example:

Shareholder Deb is an awesome spinner as well. Check out some of her photos in this raverly thread. Lisa, another shareholder and our very first advertiser on the new site just started a blog with pictures of some of our mohair locks. Do you have any pics of your handspun you’d like to share? Post them in our flickr group so we can all see what you’ve been working on.

Are you a spinner or do you aspire to be one? Is there something extra special about knitting a sweater made from yarn you spun yourself? Or do you find it hard enough to find enough time to knit without throwing spinning into the mix? Post your thought on handspinning in the comments on this post and you might just win your own copy of A Fine Fleece AND your choice of any Little GreyCat Designs handspun skein in our shop.

Entries close at Noon on Saturday, February 27th. One entry per person please. One winner will be chosen at random from all the eligible entries. The winner will be announced on this website on Saturday and must contact us within one week to claim their prize.

I’ve had geese on my mind for a couple of weeks now. Geese and E.B. White. But I’ve been putting off writing about it because I thought it would be difficult to explain the connection with my brain as muddled as it has been since The Flu. To me, geese and E.B. White are as inexplicably intertwined as peanut butter and jelly.

But a couple of mornings ago, Erin and I were driving back from the farm and we saw three lovely geese in a little pond by our house. Not wild geese mind you. These are somebody’s pets and they are lovely and giant.

Then this morning I got my poultry catalog in the mail from Cackle Hatchery, and just like every other year, I immediately turned to the section on geese. I am tempted mightily to order a pair of Toulouses or maybe a couple of White Embdens. 

E.B. White is one of my favorite writers and also my secret crush. Can you have  a crush on someone who’s been dead since 1985? Well, I do.  Most people immediately think of Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little when they think of E.B. White and maybe The Trumpet of the Swan. But I love his essays, particularly the ones about his farm in Maine. The Geese is my favorite, but they are all just so lovely and well written and easy. That ease of his is what gets me. E.B. White is the reason I wanted to be a writer. 

I get emails from people from time to time asking me to recommend books on writing; for my money, you can’t do much better than The Elements of Style. If you still have a copy  kicking around your bookcases pick it up sometime and give it a read. I think you’ll find it to be the friendliest book on writing ever written. And one of the most important. “Make every word tell” is the best writing advice I ever got.

Do pick up a copy of Essays of E.B. White if you can find one. They’re the kind of essays you’ll read again and again.

Today was just crazy. I mean CRAZY! I had a whole bunch of deadlines- self-imposed and otherwise, and we had a great big lambcam FAIL, and I ran from one thing to the next like some kind of out-of-control robot zombie. And Erin was in Boston at the orthodontist. And I roasted a chicken.

Would I trade this asylum I’m living in for my old life producing network news pieces and shopping at Barney’s and eating at swanky Manhattan restaurants? Not for a sliver of a second. Not for a brazillion dollars and a Prius and a good night’s sleep. Not for the body and skin I had at 25.

I am happy. Busy, crazed, tired, cold, sore, cranky and stupid-happy.

I don’t want to bore you so here’s the CliffNotes version of my day:
1. Lambcam finally up and running. WIN!
2. Lambcam quickly overwhelmed by traffic. FAIL.
3. Redesign of new website goes live. WIN!

Although I am discouraged by the Lambcam situation I am not ready to admit defeat. We’re getting a new camera and having that lovely young man from the Geek Squad back on Sunday. Fingers crossed, everybody!

I did take some picture today for your viewing pleasure. We can’t have you looking for your lamb fix somewhere else, can we? No. We cannot.

Yesterday’s giveaway just about killed me. Thinking about corn on the cob. And tomatoes. And berries and figs and fresh basil and zucchini and rhubarb. Oh! And beans. I nearly cried just thinking about the beans.
The winners of the Fresh Food from Small Spaces giveaway is…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Congrats Sara, Barbara and RebeccaG! Send your shipping address to prizes@fiberfarmcsa.com to claim your prize.

I hadn’t planned anymore giveaways for this week, but then the lovely and charming PumpkinMama offered to donate some spinning fibers for a giveaway. An offer that I graciously accepted on your behalf. (Behalfs? Behalves?)

3.75oz of Ice Queen Rambouillet Top

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love the name and the colors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, I’ve never made a secret of the fact that I can’t spin. It would literally be easier to teach a monkey pilot the space shuttle than teach me to spin. And usually, I’m cool with that. But this fiber makes me wish I wanted to spin, if that makes any sense.

Would you like to have this roving come live with you? All you have to do to enter is tell me your middle name in the comments on this post. Why your middle name? Because my brain is tired tonight. And because I might need to speak sternly to you one day, and that middle name will lend gravitas to what I’m saying. 

All entries must be in by 8 a.m. tomorrow, January 31, 2009. One entry per person please! The winner will be chosen at random and posted here tomorrow night.

Good luck, ya’ll!

You know, New York, coming home to 12 inches of fresh snow and barely above zero temperatures is not so nice. In fact, it makes me want to kick your Empire State behind.

Good thing I have a stack of seed catalogs to look through and a garden to plan.

You know who else has a garden to plan?

Congratulations April, Allisone and Janelle!  I want to see pictures of your fabulous gardens this summer. Email me with your mailing address so we can get you your books.

Now, for those you that don’t have a lawn to turn into a garden. First let me tell you, I so sympathize! When I lived in New York I craved a little spot to plant something, anything, in. And. it turns out, that a little spot is all you need.

I am really grateful to my publisher, Chelsea Green, for giving me three copies of Fresh Food from Small Spaces to give away. This is the book I needed when I lived in the City. This is the book you need if you live in the City.

Here’s the description I swiped from the CG website:

“Readers will learn how to transform their balconies and windowsills into productive vegetable gardens, their countertops and storage lockers into commercial-quality sprout and mushroom farms, and their outside nooks and crannies into whatever they can imagine, including sustainable nurseries for honeybees and chickens. Free space for the city gardener might be no more than a cramped patio, balcony, rooftop, windowsill, hanging rafter, dark cabinet, garage, or storage area, but no space is too small or too dark to raise food.

With this book as a guide, people living in apartments, condominiums, townhouses, and single-family homes will be able to grow up to 20 percent of their own fresh food using a combination of traditional gardening methods and space-saving techniques such as reflected lighting and container “terracing.” Those with access to yards can produce even more.”

Did you catch that part about growing 20% of your own food? Swoon!

I bet you’d like to have this book as much as I would. I have three whole copies to giveaway. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me what food you most miss in the winter. Now, I know you can get strawberries and tomatoes in the winter, BUT they aren’t good for the planet and they don’t taste as good. So what little bit of summertime are you craving right now?

All comments must be posted by Noon tomorrow, January 29, 2009. Three winners will be chosen at random. I’ll post the winners here tomorrow. Winners must email me with their shipping address to claim their prizes.

Good Luck!

Oh my Lord, am I glad I asked ya’ll for book recommendations!  I have got a list now that will last me from now till Christmas. And since you all were so generous with me, I’d like to share a few of my own favorites with you.

The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky and Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett are my favorite audio books of all-time ever.  If you liked the Harry Potter books you’ll love this series. The protagonist is a 10-year-old Tiffany Aching, a preternaturally wise child with aspirations to be a witch. The books are charming and you’ll fall in love with the characters. 

The Feathering Mysteries by Simon Brett. A great British mystery series with two middle-aged female protagonist. Very light reading and slightly formulaic but I’ve grown quite attached to the characters. 

Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin. Some of the best food writing of all time. I was tickled to death to see one of you recommend this one. I have read and reread this book and it’s companion, More Home Cooking a hundred times at least and the writing never fails. 

How to Eat by Nigella Lawson. I have two copies of this book; I keep one by my bed and the other in the kitchen bookcase. Some of the best food writing there is. 

Anything by Jamie Oliver. I have made no bones about my mad crush on Jamie Oliver. But his recipes are also very good. I cook from these books all the time. 

Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros. Great recipes and amazing pictures that I envy to bits. 

I am also a big fan of Kate Atkinson’s fiction.

This was loads of fun- we’ll be doing this again!

Now for the winners of today’s giveaway. Here are the three winner’s, chosen at random. 

Congratulations to Kristina, Colleen and Ellen. I know you will love The Book of Yarn. Email me with your mailing address so I can’t get these books on their way to you.

How about another giveaway? Today’s we are giving away three skeins of our very own sock yarn. One skein of Red Sox Nations

And two skeins of Under the Sea.

Three winners will be chosen at random. All entries must be in by 8 p.m. CST tomorrow, January 25th, 2009. One entry per person please. Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite joke. Now, I know that not everybody can remember jokes, so if you really can’t think of one I’ll let you off the hook. But, since I am one of those people that can’t remember jokes, I hope you’ll try.

Good luck!

Do you mind if I gush over this book for a minute? The Book of Yarn by Clara Parkes is just as fabulous as you would expect a book by the creator of knittersreview.com to be. What I didn’t expect was that it would become my absolute yarn bible. I have knitted with yarn, purchased yarn, traded yarn, grown yarn from itty-bitty lambs and spent thousands of dollars having yarn made, and you know what? I knew nothing about yarn until I read this book.

The Book of Yarn gives you the who, what, when, where and why of yarn. Parkes clearly believes that you need all the information to make an informed choice about which yarn to use for a specific project. Types of fiber, types of spin and all the various plys are discussed in detail. Of course there are some really great patterns included in the book- I confess I have knitted not a one- but this is so much more than a pattern book.

Am I making it sound boring? I hope not because The Book of Yarn is anything but. I love this book so much that I am giving away not one, not two, but three copies of The Book of Yarn to three of you lucky people. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post recommending a book to me. It can be a book book or an audio book- I love them almost equally. Fiction, history, self-help, whatever. Just tell me about a book that you love.

All entries must be in by 7 p.m. tomorrow, January 24th. One entry per person, por favor. The winners will be chosen at random and posted here tomorrow night. Good luck everybody!