Its Only Knitting

I’ve been busy as a bee working away on my designs, coming up with new ones and further test-knitting my existing ones.  Add now tutorials.  I have gotten to the point in the whole knitting Thing where I really don’t have time or energy to put into anything which is not my own design.  I really can’t regret this , because whether or not I endeavor to write the design into a pattern, I’ve just come to face the fact that I have to make up for lost time.  I’ve embraced Indie Design, and am committed to wear ‘all of the hats’ in the job, and I’m ready for a lot of hard work ahead. The more I tell myself this the more I want to work like an ox towards succeeding. However, the elusive truth often escapes me, and that is ” Its only knitting. ”   A quote of Elizabeth Zimmerman’s used by over-zealous knitters everywhere.  Although it is ‘only knitting’ ,  I am practically ‘only knitting’. I have little chalkboards I’ve made which I’ve placed in prominent places of my work space ,  with lists or sage messages to give me perspective, and I use them to keep my focus clear wherever I turn.  Today’s brilliant message . . .

jenjoycedesign©its-only-knitting

Tee Two

jenjoycedesign©Penny-Candy-Tee two Well knitters & friends out there… I am emerging from my knitting woodshed, now with not one, but two Spring Tees in my holster ! I am going to be doing a lot of (photo) shooting in Calistoga this coming weekend with my beautiful & adorable nieces modelling! A second knit of my latest design ~~ Penny Candy Tee ~~ prototype in  previous post, but this one is a little different. Not four colors , but three, and it is not shaped (for an eleven-year-old, c’mon…) and, I used up some left over stash Malabrigo Sock yarn for the lace, which is… um… quite a bit finer than the yarn of the rest. Not enough to get worried over.   And just like the original in last post, the lacework  is the feature of the design, an unlikely pairing with stripes, but hey, they get along wonderfully ! No fights in the playground yet . . . jenjoycedesign©ruffly

jenjoycedesign©detail Waiting patiently

now , for their girls to sweetly adorn,

I’ve got them folded away from distracting last-minute changes.

jenjoycedesign©ready&waiting

  This sign I have had propped up on my spinning wheel by my knitting loft door, well, I’m so pleased that what seemed a daunting task a month ago when I hadn’t even started them,  is now….

done & dusted !

jenjoycedesign©check! As I am presently working like a pair of oxen writing the pattern for Penny Candy Tee, that will be coming up next, for Spring knitting ! Details found on Ravelry HERE

Mossy Green Under The Blue Moon

Did you know that today is the Blue Moon ?  Progress on the mossy sweater pauses as I am in for a bit of a little break from knitting,  a little something non-knitting I’d like to bring to show you.   Occasionally I get all worked up in folksy crafty sorts of projects,  my latest making blackboards out of odd frames I find at thrift shops.  Here’s one of two identical ones, which I stained with espresso and sprayed with shellac , then mounted the matte-black-painted fiber-board. My new ‘weekly menu’ board !

And the other twin,  has become my grocery shopping list . . .

A third,  which I painted red,

and which I am going to give to my girlfriend who has a birthday this month . . .
`

And another which is made from an old frame (50cents )

 is now in my work space of my knitting loft, reminding me of upcoming

Knitterly Things To Do. . .

I should mention I also had found a motherlode of antique wooden hangers which I snatched up…

You may have to click the photo and enlarge to notice the names, and old-as-the-hills three-digit phone numbers.  Also, most of them are from my home state of California, but not all.

The fog is now breaking,

the sun shining through the trees here in the woods…