Late in July I posted about a lot of handspun yarn I found in a drawer that I forgot about, in Consigned To Oblivion. It was the end of August I began to think about knitting it up in one of my own designs, my Calidez Cardigan. Now finished, this handspun sweater can be posted tomorrow to Canada, for my niece-in-law, who is such an extremely artful person, I think she will be able to appreciate the rustic handspun sweater, which is knit to her personal specifications. Just in time for the cooling of the season, rescued from oblivion!
I met my nieces at the Roastery in Calistoga this morning, then we hit the four corners … It was a stellar success! It has been a couple of months since the Autumnal Equinox … I worried I’d never finish … Continue reading →
Rosanna and Cesar have come to visit! We gathered up all sorts of knitwear from the cedar chest, and went out into the darkening wintery woods, along the knitting trail. Rosanna is wearing the Calidez Vest I recently knit for her, while Cesar wears several of the Fishermens Neck Ganseys I just wrote a pattern for.
Cesar wears my own cardigan made of Studio Donegal’s Aran Tweed ~~ posted here ~~ Cesar commented how warm and nice the tweed wool felt against his bare skin, and I thought the look was charismatic and fabulously ethnic, especially drinking yerbe mate from a gourd & bombilla that my Argentine friend gave to me. I was so excited they wanted to do a photo shoot with my ensemble of recent designs, because they are both such naturals in front of a camera. It couldn’t have been a better day, clear and cool, and it was a great time had by all, including Emma…
It was pouring down rain most of the day, but fortunately late this morning it settled a bit and we got in some great shots of Miss Sixteen & Miss Fourteen modeling Calidez Vest. At the wall outside of Brannan’s … Continue reading →
I have gotten another package from Kilcar in Ireland, a lovely bunch of Studio Donegal yarn ! Worsted-weight, one-hundred percent merino wool, and aptly named …
“Soft Donegal”
In Sweater Descent #1 I wrote a sort of introduction for what is now my series Sweater Descent Project…
Descent is a word which takes many directions in meaning, most typically it means to ‘move down’ or ‘lower’ as in a physical place of going, as ‘down from a high place’ as from the peak of a mountain. It has metaphorical meaning to me as well, which I absolutely groove on, like ‘making easier’ and ‘moving into a secure low-ground of the known’. Of course there is the meaning of ‘lineage’ or ‘clan’, and far-off distant cultures or bloodlines one may have come from. But for me, primarily the relationship of the word refers to mountains, and walking, and in my case knitting while walking about the mountain on which I live.
And now for Sweater Descent #2
This post also being a yarn-tasting theme , I would like to show you my yarn acquisition, and I am watering at the mouth truly, envisioning this in my second very own Calidez Cardigan ! A rich depth of color, explosion of tweedy flecks, I am totally smitten with the color range of Studio Donegal “Soft Donegal” and see great potential for using this yarn in future designs. But for now all there is left to do, is cast on!
ps. I thought I would mention too, that Emma is one-hundred percent better, and managing the stairs all by herself with new addition of rugs! And thats us… off to the Knitting Track!
At last, my very own cardigan, and it is so special because it is from a wool I’ve wanted to knit forever, and in a pattern which I designed to be my favorite sweater recipe. . .
I made it with Autumn neckline. The pattern has four seasons of necklines in case you weren’t aware: winter=full yoke depth, autumn=3/4, spring=1/2, summer=very low. . .
I had so many choices to color match buttons because of all the flecks of tweed in the yarn, but in the end, I only had more shell buttons, but I will find some more, in russet and change them out later.
When it came down to it, I am purely smitten. Donegal Aran Tweed knits up beautifully and has a real ‘slinky’ feel to it when knit up at 3.25 sts to the inch, although I was so tempted to try a smaller needle size, I chose the larger, appealing to a drapier cardigan, however, because of the fact, it is very stretchy and a wee bit baggy, but like in a good way. Next I will try a slightly firmer cardigan fabric, as well as make a size smaller. I still can’t decide what color to go with for my next, and I do think it will have to be a Soft Donegal, and I am thinking to go wild, and get this color.
Well folks, that’s it for today, posting from very rainy Mt Veeder! I couldn’t be happier than with a just-finished cardigan to wear, and you can see details of this project on Ravelry here.
Everything in it’s place, and life is good. Oh, and I’ve been enjoying listening to some beautiful Irish pipes while knitting Irish Wool . . .
What have we here? A cardigan (for moi) which I will be finishing in the next couple of days! Some time ago, back in this post , I talked about knitting a cardigan from Studio Donegal Aran Tweed. I actually cast … Continue reading →
It is here, the design I’ve been working on for a really long time … Calidez Cardigan ! A simple, easy, cozy & classic raglan cardigan, sampled here in beautiful tweedy bulky weight yarn… From the my pattern Calidez pullover, I have felt … Continue reading →
Do you see it there? In the other room? It is just out of the sink soaking, then pressed in fluffy towels, now drying on the bed ‘blocking’ for a day, while I polish up the pattern for it. A pattern that I’ve been working on for a really long time.
Forthcoming….photographs…. then pattern…. glory of glories !
Another sweater success! We fell out of tradition this time not photographing in Calistoga, but at our new favorite, the castle! Few words this post, but the cardigan pattern is almost ready, and will post soon!
Its a glorious time of year, and although the temperature is oppressively hot and a layer of dust covers nearly everything, there is an anticipatory glee happening all at the same time, for we are days away from the Autumn Equinox! And perfectly on schedule, the two cardigans come off the needles and sit folded, well-mannered and patient, waiting for the eventful day (hopefully soon) they meet their people~~ my nieces!
I’ll not say a self-promoting word about what pattern these are knit from or anything like that, I’ll just say that I’ve spent the better part of 6 weeks merrily knitting these plain & simple sweaters. One last detail to do, the hand-made label…
And now they are indeed fully finished. I always feel a huge sense of accomplishment at this point in the year, all ready for the rains to fall, whenever it will be, who knows, but I look forward to that first sprinkle like candy falling from the sky. Next time you see these babies, they’ll be on my nieces in Calistoga, for the traditional annual Autumn Sweater photo session. Autumn is on its way, and life is good!
Mid day light seems to pour though windows, filtered through a mulberry tree and various shrubs, into this quiet warm room. There is my favorite knitting chair, **temporarily transplanted from its mountain home to this echoey clean & empty place, kept company by my knitting basket, cup of coffee-to-go, and myself. It looks like maybe three sleeves and two bodies, which means only one thing . . .
… that it is nearly time to join all the pieces together to make a couple of lovely cardigans to greet the Autumnal equinox. My usual first weeks in September are all about this stretch of frenzy knitting into my favorite season of all.
I also wanted to share with you something very fun I ran across on a series of internet clicks I wandered down this morning, ending up at an old mill in UK. Here is a room with spinning, and all the rhythms and sounds associated with milling yarn put to music, a lovely little video for you all to enjoy as I have, called ‘A Short Day At The Mill’…
And here is another similar, but with more footage called ” A Long Day At The Mill ”
** Knitting chair & basket is occupying a corner space in a room of the house Jeff has been renovating for nearly 6 months (with a little bit of my help) and finally, it is empty & glowingly ready to find a new owner, as I knit while waiting for real-estate agents to show intermittently. No worries, I am not moving, nor is Jeff, this is but his old house in town that he lived in when we met in the summer of ’94.
Bye bye old house, it was nice revisiting your rooms, and I will miss you.
