Busy

Posted on July 30, 2016 by Jen

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Knitting aside, I’ve been busy as a bee hive this summer. Mostly running down off of the mountain every day to water or weed or do some laborious task associated with home-improvement (of another house). Only this morning I was scrubbing a bathroom of tile & grout for hours with bleach, oh joy. Not. Feeling rather tired in fact, and looking forward to Autumn with a great yearning, but it is … sigh … only the end of July.

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Anyway, aside from the ‘town’ house project and my trying to keep the garden up here on the mountain alive through the hottest months of a Northern Californian summer, I am getting a little knitting done in spite of it all.

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I am now done & dusted with Wee Hearts Tam, in Isager Tweed Moss & Pink ( from last post’s mention of pattern merge). Not bad I think. But I am thinking I am now ready to test this design for a full-on Fair Isle approach, with many color changes, and warm foreground colors play against cool background colors sort of thing. I’ve been studying the great Fair Isle designers, ready to make simple Wee Hearts sparkle with about seven different colors of Hebridean 2ply…

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So thankful for my yarn stash, I am ready with what I already have, and off I go, on a major color adventure!

Wee Hearts in July

Posted on July 26, 2016 by Jen

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I have merged Wee Hearts Tam & Skier pattern with Wee Hearts Mitts pattern, now two patterns in one download ; that is a tam, ski hat, fingerless mitts and full mitten pattern all together! To celebrate the event, I’m having a bit of a promotion for my new ‘merge’, and you can (for an undisclosed number of hours or days) join in with the others for ‘Wee Hearts In July’ KAL…

EDIT IN: Pattern give-away for Wee Hearts In July KAL is now over, thank you to all of you who participated !

The knit-along is as always, informal, and no deadline, and no fuss…. pure enjoyment. I hope to see your Wee Hearts ! But hop on the pattern give-away, it will only run for a very short while.

Oh, and joining in with the others, I too have cast on for Wee Hearts In July KAL , making the tam with some lovely Isager Tweed, made in Ireland~~ a seriously beautiful fingering weight tweed, and I had bought the colorway of moss green and light grey, so evocative of Ireland’s mists on the bog, which I am seriously fantasizing . However, I somehow decided last minute to over-dye the light grey into a pink, which in scorching hot Northern California weather, dried in less than an hour hanging out on the clothes line, so away I went! Blasted through the Latvian Braid, and now already well into it.

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Doesn’t the warm moss green look lovely next to the tweedy pink?

So here & now, knitting yarn from Ireland, listening to righteous Traditional Irish Music Sessions on Youtube, still fantasizing the misty Irish countryside, and warm room with stout beer and magical sound of good ol’ unplugged acoustic instrumental music.

Highway 29 & Pattern !

Posted on July 12, 2016 by Jen

My latest design “Highway 29” is named after the main road running through Napa Valley from Napa to Calistoga. This old highway is dotted with wineries and famous restaurants enough to make you dizzy, plus some added hot-spots where we locals frequently go, beginning in the north end of the town of Napa getting sweet around Yountville, then Oakville, Rutherford, St Helena, and continuing clear on up to Calistoga. As a local, coming down off the mountain from Oakville Grade when I am going upvalley, I often stop at the very unique Oakville Grocery , founded in 1881, just an old rural ‘backroads’ grocers of a bygone era, is now a highly trafficked stop-off for locals & tourists alike, with an exceptional coffee bar & deli for drinks, gifts & goodies-to-go.

After Oakville you pass a bunch of wineries, and then of course, St Helena where I often knit-in-public or meet friends at Napa Valley Coffee Roasting Company, as its the coffee shops I seem to be most familiar with, loving to knit and visit with friends. After that it’s a stretch of countryside to Calistoga with places such as Bale Grist Mill, founded in 1846…

a working renovated grain mill which is popular for historic reenactment parties and has old-time live music often (one of the bands is my brother & sister-in-law, my nieces dad & mom) , offers tours & grinds corn to sell. It is in front of the entrance to the Bale Grist Mill where these photos were taken for Highway Halter, on the old wooden fence,

Ah, but it is here at ‘ The Castle ‘ where you’ll recognize the stone from merely the carriage house where we actually have many of our photo shoots…

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Right off of Hwy 29, this carriage house is at the entrance to the castle gate, erected more recently I think to use some left over stone & brick perhaps, and it houses the ground-keepers tools & provides a place for the chauffeurs to park, and I think some offices devoted to castle business. Here some shots from this spot…

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Passing more breathtaking scenery, one finally lands in Calistoga as if by accident.

This is the town from which you may recognize many backdrops to my nieces & my photo shoots. But there are many photo memories of Calistoga and not enough room to post. Anyway, enough of all of this Highway 29 – turned to- Memory Lane, and all the treasures found along the way… and now it is time for Highway 29, a halter which I’ve just knit for my nieces and written a pattern for! In previous post I talk about the significance of naming the latest design “Highway 29” , which really is a possibility to start a collection…. I mean, if I’m going to really go through with it… anyway, my nieces seem to think we should. If not the name-sake for the design will stand on its own. We will just have to see what comes.

You can find the pattern for this design on Ravelry HERE .

Highway 29

Posted on July 7, 2016 by Jen

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Well folks, I was full of doubt about how the halters would work out , and I’ve been working on them for about a month, starting clear back from this post. I knit and reworked several times from the original. But, this morning I was transcended from any doubt when my beautiful nieces breathed life into them, I must say, I was completely taken by surprise~~swept off my own feet even!

Yesterday we met in Calistoga, at the Roastery early in the morning, and talked over our chai & lattes, and after warning my nieces that this design is surely not to fit or even look good, they finally disappeared into the ladies room to change into them, and emerged, beaming with relief as much as my own, and they actually loved them!

((Oh, and not like it needs mentioning, but have you noticed how Miss Thirteen has completely over-taken Miss Sixteen in height!))

We excitedly cruised Highway 29 coming back from Calistoga toward Napa, trying to race the sun before it got too high and hot, stopping at Castello de Amorosa, and then looking for very ‘California’ looking places along side the highway on the way back, we stopped to photograph from the roadside, on the old lichen covered wooden fence at Bale Grist Mill, and on the stone wall and in the vines of V Madrone Winery.

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Here it is, Highway 29 Halter, Miss Sixteen & Miss Thirteen are very excited about this design and think its the best yet!

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We decided to name this (yes ‘we’ , apparently they are as keen now on being a part of the design naming as I am) design after the main highway which ambles up northwest of the Napa Valley, and furthermore, it could possibly be the first of a collection. So here is Number One from Napa Valley Collection…. “Highway 29”.

The pattern is practically written already, so in the interim of showing off the photo shoot and presenting the pattern, will be a day or so of last minute pattern assembling.

See you with pattern and all the intricate knitting details next…

California Highway 29 road sign in Napa Valley

Summer Stripes (2)

Posted on July 5, 2016 by Jen

In a post in June, I shared my new yarn to taste, Rowan “Revive”, a DK weight yarn made from recycled clothing that is made from silk, cotton, and viscose, and here it is now knit up into an Altitude Lace Cowl and it looks quite lovely. Stripes in sand & peach tones, barely contrasting, for a perfect neck wrap to wear with natural linen clothing, I am going to keep this one for myself. But can I be honest? I feel this yarn is a bit heavy, what I would expect from a cotton based yarn, but there’s a slight toughness to the feel, maybe also having 3 plies, each with 3 finer plies. Actually, this yarn may just be a great candidate for a sweater, or to unspin, for the single plies of this yarn are all unique and truly lovely and tweeded with bits of recycled fibers. I really do like the yarn a lot.

So this closes my jaunt of Summer knitting ~~ it is difficult to believe we’re already well into July! Although the hottest months are still to come, its time I begin to direct my thinking ahead to Autumnal ideas, and back to my un-spinning experiments which I abruptly paused, and of course, some non-knitting events going on too (mostly home improvement sorts of labor, which is not near as fun as knitting, admittedly). Summer Stripes was certainly enjoyable taste of new summery yarns, and I must say I have made a couple new favorites!

Details for this project are on Ravelry HERE