July into August

Posted on July 26, 2021 by Jen

In last post Squiggly I discovered how much I am fond of whimsy. Traditional cables that do not twist around in the same direction of crossing, but alternate, makes a fun snaking variation of a traditional fishermen gansey pattern. In fact , this charting was going to be a variation of a theme, but now I’m considering making it the showpiece. Actually, this one and another in the pile of knits, are going to be bon voyaging in a couple of weeks with my nieces, for some big life adventures (oldest moving to the big city of Santa Rosa all on her own, and younger off to UC Santa Barbara for college) and we recently decided to plan our traditional Autumn Sweater photo shoot at the castle before they take off. Stress! I have had plenty of time to knit and design these at leisure over the last couple of months, but I hadn’t really figured out the upper body shaping yet, knitting the lower bodies to get them out of the way, and all the while thinking my nieces would be back home for a November Autumn photoshoot… um … but that likely will not happen. So now I have got to get going and get the two finished, for it is nearing August already. I don’t think it will come to panic knitting, and I am confident I’ll have them finished for the deadline, but lets get to work then!

yokes 3

Posted on June 16, 2020 by Jen

jenjoycedesign© yokes 3

I am in the middle of the seventh yoke, seven yokes of varying sizes, although one is not in the stack. Pardon me for the blip the other day, I posted, then shortly after doing so I took out the post because frankly, I did not like the colorway of the prototype. Quickly I changed my mind, so fickle, and then on to a new colorway … for a new and hopefully final prototype official. I had a dream this morning early before waking that I was unraveling all the yokes I’ve knit, and re-knitting them into bags to felt, as the colors changed in the yoke, so would the colors in the bag, all tied together ends as they happen, and yarns held two at a time. When I woke I thought what an interesting rework it will make when the pattern is done and there is a pile of yokes left to deal with. Determined to see this design through, and not post too much unrelated material during the process, although I absolutely would love knitting a simple plain sock, I’ll keep this short and wave to All with assurance that knitting is happening here at a frantic pace, however generally slow and melted time feels during Pandemic Days, and that life continues to be good !

thankful

Posted on November 28, 2019 by Jen

jenjoycedesign© Autumn Sweaters 2019.JPG

I am thankful for many things, but at the moment especially so that I finished these. They are Hillwalker pullovers, with a simple Icelandic style colorwork “sketched” into the yoke, an easy modification for which the simple circular yoke is an excellent canvas. So until the time on a late Autumn day when I will give them to my nieces, they will waiting, tucked in nice & tidy. Autumn Sweaters 2019 are done & dusted.

The Solstice Ahead

Posted on November 11, 2019 by Jen

jenjoycedesign© new design 2

About five and a half weeks away is the Winter Solstice, and I am working like an ox to get this here tam up and running ahead of the holidays so knitters can knit it for the holidays. As soon as I finish knitting the prototype here I’ll be done & dusted ; I’ve got the pattern all ready to go, charts are drawn and redrawn, then drawn again, and so I am confident that the Up & Coming is going to be ready in a blink. It is certainly a significant personal accomplishment in the wake of a couple of years where my creative brain seemed to be on vacation somewhere far away. It will be knit, blocked (that is, put into a lovely tam shape and un-wrinkled so to speak), then photographed . . . all in the next couple of days.

Stranded on Fair Isle.

Posted on November 4, 2019 by Jen

jenjoycedesign© blocking tam

I’ve been feeling like knitting design has taken a back seat for so long that it was becoming inconsequential to big things going on (so many big big things), so I decided to get focused again and design a tam during the week-long power outage in Napa last week. Here it is blocking inside-out on a blocking board drying into shape with a lot of pins. The motif is quite apropos to the power situation, but I won’t be showing it off right-side-out yet, as it is a test-knit to an upcoming pattern idea. That is, I am waiting for my order of Elemental Affects Shetland yarn to arrive for something heart-warming and cheerful for the holidays, but having wanted something to ‘sketch’ the motif with, I dug into my yarn drawer and pulled out four balls of Jamiesons Spindrift to make a grey-scale version of the colorful holiday one forthcoming, but with a little bit of a sinister spin on it. And that is all you get to know for now.

♥ ♥ ♥

Oh! And I’d like to mention that it was ten years ago about this time of year that I was becoming obsessed by Fair Isle colorwork, having knit my first ever Fair Isle tam, and so I decided to get stranded out in the colorwork rounds again after a two-year colorwork hiatus. It has been thoroughly delightful and introspective!

Sweater Mania

Posted on October 5, 2018 by Jen

jenjoycedesign© pile of sweaters.JPG

A pile of sweaters; two finished and one not quite. Another is not in the photo for it is only half finished, and in a bag somewhere up in the tiny attic, and another still was knit almost to finish and then ripped out. These three represent a lot of knitting through recent months; through weeks of dusty loud logging, of waiting frustratingly for building permit to be issued, through scorching heat waves, some cool summer fog waves, and through Autumn equinox. Now the rain has come, and construction of house has begun. It is perfect timing for these sweaters to be finished and have their debut.

A sweater debut? Yes! In a couple of days I will be visiting with my youngest niece who is soon having a birthday and turning sixteen ( so will be Miss Sixteen for a year) and she’ll model the brown sweater and then there will be a pattern release of a design I have been working on for a long time. The Autumn photo shoot with both of them must wait until the November holiday this year, when Miss Eighteen comes home from college.

At first the design was going to be a set-in sleeve invention, then I couldn’t manage through the stress of things going on, so I changed my mind, promptly ripped it out, and started over with more classic style I realize that can not live without, so it became what it really wanted to be.

I will leave you in your anticipation of the forthcoming while enjoying my latest find of video mill tours, this one has given me hours of enjoyment as I knit frantically one more sweater for niece’s birthday. It rather has a calming effect while starting out a bit sleepy, but the excellent jazz music accompanies about a minute into the narration …

Sweaters to be…

Posted on August 23, 2018 by Jen

Winding off skeins of Soft Donegal Tweed, orienting myself facing Autumn!

Things going on…

Posted on August 6, 2018 by Jen

Hunkering down here, as things are happening. Here’s the news:

Miss Eighteen has left for college. Yup, finally flew the nest. She’ll be settling in with a load of classes and finding a job, and all of those events of college life. There’ll be fewer photo shoots with her, sadly, but when she comes home for holidays, we’ll be sure to get one in! Meanwhile I’ll be sending her knitteds in the mail, and hopefully Miss Fifteen will carry on modelling solo for as long as I can come up with something new.

We signed on officially with our construction company and met down at the county building department over a week ago, so the building plans are in process, rebuilding will start soon. However, I can’t give you anything but a hopeful “soon”, the plans are not through the office. Maybe foundation will begin before the end of August?

Continue reading →

Next…

Posted on August 19, 2017 by Jen

jenjoycedesign© handspun mitt

I am knitting this last prototype of a pile of samples which are from my next pattern, and which will highlight this Autumn’s designs ~~ a set of mitts & hats! Just had to photograph a little teaser, because the sun was streaming in through the window and making my yarn glow, a bit of a yarn-henge moment!

jenjoycedesign© pattern writing 2

I do love this yarn, which is such a surprise, from wool I made on blending board and spun up into this very tweedy yarn last weekend. But by next week I will have this pattern up and running with legs, thanks to Wendy, Yvonne, Jane & Dawn for test-knitting!

jenjoycedesign© pattern writing

Mystery fair isle…

Posted on January 17, 2017 by Jen

jenjoycedesign-mystery-fair-isle-detail I see no reason not to post a sneak preview at what I’ve been working very laboriously on, since its first mention back in this post. Something which I have had to do a colossal amount of drawing, of math, of experimentation, ripping out & knitting over. Oh, right, that is called designing….

jenjoycedesign-fair-isle

I am so absorbed in this project that entire days are droning by, so still & quiet, with nothing but the ticking of the clock and Emma’s occasional rustling about, and then of course, very brief strolls in the cold winter outdoors. Papers are strewn everywhere! And I have been sitting in my knitting chair far too much in the last two weeks. Far too much.

jenjoycedesign-mystery-fair-isle

None the less, I am very pleased with myself and am certain that any day now it will be all finished and I can celebrate by revealing what this is, my greatest knitting and design accomplishment ever. Until then, I hope you enjoy the mystery!

Hang Dry

Posted on July 2, 2016 by Jen

jenjoycedesign© hang-dry

Done & dusted with something I’ve been working on for a few weeks !

Knitting Linen

Posted on August 23, 2015 by Jen

I woke this morning with a vivid realization that a new experience awaits, blossomed from an epic love relationship of linen. As I ponder this, it would just have to be, as my love of knitting, and the fact that living in a climate where dryness and heat are a way of life half of the year, and well, even when it is cool and damp, I love to wear linen.

Since posting about this yarn ages ago, originally I was intending it to be a lace thing, but I let it hibernate so long that it now wants to be something else. I think. Maybe. I am ambivalently thinking about making it into an actual shirt. I really don’t want to call it a ‘sweater’ as that evokes cold weather & sheepy cozy wooliness, which this is most definitely not. It will be a highly breathy creature, billowing in the breeze hanging dry on the clothes line after being washed in the washer with a load of jeans . . . something one could not dream of doing to wool . . . something one could toss on and wear into the town on a balmy day.

Flower of flax Oh, but first, it is understood that knitted linen fabric is nothing like woven linen fabric, and as I am a knitter, and not a weaver, the obvious task at hand is to master the fiber with knitting needles, wrestling it into submission as the flax was to make the linen strands. Interestingly, linen made from flax, a vegan sustainable resource which is in itself a hardy most beautiful plant. Just look at it’s pure light blue delicate flower ! How can something so delicate come from a plant that is so incredibly strong and tough and enduring? I love the metaphor of the delicate and enduring hardiness all in one , I really identify.

Autumnal Equinox Sneak Preview

Posted on September 7, 2014 by Jen

Autumn Sweater Sneak Preview

One down, the most colorful for youngest Niece of Eleven, which is now finished. I basically knit this critter twice! This Autumn’s sweaters will be a relative of Penny Candy Tee. It is in worsted-weight yarn and construction is altogether different enough to warrant a whole different design . Backstory: I knit this one up to the underarms somewhere in the first week of August, thinking I was ahead of the game, to have two Autumn sweaters designed and knit for the traditional Autumnal Equinox sweater photo shoot. Way ahead. Um… small detail… youngest niece grew like a rampant ninja weed all spring & summer, and when they came for a mid-summer visit a few weeks back, I slipped it over her to try on and to my horror it was already way too fitted, with not much room for this Slipover to be slipped over anything.

I just couldn’t carry on with it, so ripped that out, knit over to underarms. Knit one sleeve half-way, but didn’t like the cuff and knit over, and finished two sleeves finally. Joined at the yoke and was going to go entirely circular, knit all the way up to the lace yoke section, decided it was going to be floppy as heck, ripped back to armholes. Decided to do raglan , and a wide decreasing lace neckline, but it was too wide and lacy (therefore see-thru), and also discovered where I missed a decrease on one corner down near the armhole… ripped out the whole yoke back to the mistake, and reknit the raglan decreases, though higher. Finally, the lace neckline! Okay, so too wide, ripped ripped back and knit over narrower, i-cord cast-off too loose, ripped back did over again. There you have it. I knit it twice I figured. I can’t believe I went and showed off one without the other, so uncharacteristic of me, as the two sweaters always make an appearance togethr. However, I just felt like I needed to cheer up Yarnings a bit, and feel some sort of reward in Show & Tell, as I am just in the middle of such a knitting grind.

The good news is that I practically wrote the pattern with that one, so IF & WHEN I ever get around to writing the official pattern, it won’t be such a bear. I am honestly hoping I can get it together by November, but Christmas knitting kind of gets in the way too… so I’ll try my best. Oh, and Eldest Niece of Fourteen’s will only be in two colors , subtle wintery colors, and will rattle off like quick. It will be nothing short of a miracle if I get these done by the Autumnal Equinox, but I am going for it!

Vineyard Rows Tam

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Jen

Walking along the old mountain vineyards close by, I found inspiration for a design which I have named “Vineyard Rows”. A California Highlands Bonnet if there is to be one ! I chose four natural shades of Jamiesons Of Shetland Spindrift yarn, because I happen to love this black & white photo of the historic vineyard landscape I took a year ago. Near the highest vineyard knoll on the mountain perhaps, rows against an Autumn sky, leaves blowing off of the vines as a storm was brewing… it was a walk to remember ! So I came up with this . . .

jenjoycedesign©Vineyard Rows Tam still 4

Vineyard Rows Tam : http://jenjoycedesign.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/vineyard-rows-tam/

jenjoycedesign©Vineyard Rows Tam still 6

Vines of grape leaves wind about the wheel, in borders and peeries, along with interruptions of bold checked dicing. To me this tam brings together California Wine Country with Scottish Highlands. Embroidered grape clusters adorn the rambling vines with French knots in wine tones, creating a spectacular and colorful needlework finish I think!

I really went wild with the notion of the toorie and decided that a tam must have accessory options ! Why not an accessory for the accessory ~~ why not tie one on for the mood you’re in ? Basic black, wine red, & marled toories !!!

But before I embroidered the grape clusters into the vines,

I took the hat out into the woods…

Against the moss . . .

And lastly, against a blush of colorful Autumn leaves, showing how the tam’s outer most rim is traditionally useful in shading from the sun.

Well there you have it, my latest design of a tam named “Vineyard Rows”. I have created this tam for all the lovely walks I’ve enjoyed in the beautiful aesthetic of these old vines ~~ this tam is in tribute to them.

If you haven’t yet read a post I made about Knitting & Wine , it is the prelude to this design, as well as other posts and photographs of nearby vineyards, you may peruse in all vineyard posts .

♣ ♣ ♣

Vineyard Rows pattern may be found here .

((as well as details on Ravelry here ))

Really Red Tam

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Jen

I am very proud to finally show you the tam I made !!! It goes in a set with my Really Red Cardigan. I had knit the tam before the holiday gift-knitting crunch set in, then put it aside to be photographed after the new year. New year … check. Photographed…. check. I am over the moon about having this particular cardigan & tam ensemble finished because only a couple of months ago, after having hibernated well over a year, the cardigan was doomed to die a tragic death of getting unraveled out of existence! After much persuasion from a friend, I committed & cut the steek, finished the cardigan, then surprisingly soon after, decided to knit up this tam to go with it. Maybe it was meant to have waited until now, as the rains of the season has made the moss so verdant ~~~ and just look at how well the moss sings praise to the red wool !