Anybody who has visited this blog has seen a photo of this corner, where my nieces model their latest sweaters I’ve designed & knit. The building stands out in Calistoga , the angular & tall historic bank building from the old town, and the most striking pale fresh minty green, and which is now Bella Tootsie Shoes, but right next door is the Upvalley Vintners where my duo-mate and I perform music frequently.
You can read up on us more on our website, over here.
We had a gig in Calistoga last night at Upvalley Vintners (the place was hopping!) and let me tell you how surreal to be hauling sound gear past that very spot my nieces posed for the camera a few weeks earlier, and it got me thinking, how spring will be here in a blink, time for me to begin sketching ideas already.   I walked past this corner carrying mic stands and mandolin last night, wondering what the forthcoming sweater design will be, and that was a great moment of my evening.  John & me as a duo even back in 1992 . . .
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 . . .
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 ! Â Why not an accessory for the accessory ~~ why not tie one on for the mood you’re in ? Â 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, Â 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”. Â 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 .
A nice pretty little pair of socks I’ve been working on here and there while knit-walking the mountain. Â Pretty Little Things were so much fun to make ! Â I managed to make a knitted hemmed folded cuff, nearly three inches wide, lined, knitted back into the work, added a darling picot edge, and one tiny wee peerie to make it just pretty enough !
Did I say pretty?  I might add plain, basic, sturdy, utilitarian, old-fashioned looking, and as sleek as porpoises because there’s no ribbing.  Oh, and they are very, very warm ! The ‘legs’ are two layers thick of stockinette stitch, lined, so they actually hug my ankles snugly. My little feet feel very happy indeed to have their first socks knitted custom, just for them ! You can bet on a pattern for these popping up here sometime soon , so hang around !
I’ve been knitting in a heat wave for a couple of weeks, thirsting for that which best expresses my summer blues, and so I’ve produced the latest which I call it simply ” Azure “. It is a perky beret shape I’ve experimented from my latest pattern Dicey , that is I am considering augmenting the pattern with more beret shapes, graduating from the traditional Scottish Beret into less voluminous ones. This one is definitely narrower and vaguely muffin-shaped as are some of the Old World Scottish bonnets I’ve seen.Â
But what I love most about this beret is the color-work in the band while the crown is a single complimenting color, it is all about the subtle Fair Isle motif that one can barely see,  from the two shades of blue, one angle the motifs pop out, another they disappear into each other. I am going to have to design a new pattern from this, because I love it so much. With Dicey and this experiment, I have learned how to make a lined band, concentric decreases, experimented with several shapes of varying lengths, and practicing my new invention, the turning i-cord which is the edge of the band, super tidy and substantial, and also focusing the design into the band alone, in a Guarda Pampa sort of affect.  Oh, and I’ve also been toying with the little puff thing on top which the Scottish call a toorie!
My new beret design I’ve named ” Dicey ” is a simple and fairly traditional Scottish style bonnet. It has a checked, or ‘diced’ band as it is called. It has come to me in a sort of time capsule of childhood memories of Peter Rabbit . . .
as well as my present-day intrigue of a name by “Tam O’ Shanter” . . .
In a poem by Robert Burns ‘Tam O’ Shanter’ tells a story of a farmer named Tam, who gets drunk with his friends in a public house and then rides home on his horse Meg, enduring a night of terror and misfortune. (click to go to resource)
The Scottish forename “Tam” (for Tom) followed by “mishanter” (misfortune, ill-luck, the devil) = Tam of shanter . Coincidental how the name for the style of Scottish bonnet which Tam wears is what we think today of the voluminous hat with a pom pom on top of it. Its evident that the hat called a ‘tam’ came from Robert Burns’ character.
Oh, and check out this old tobacco label ! The dicing on the band is rather vaguely penned . . .
Actually, as far back as 1500’s the bonnet was a popular thing to wear throughout Europe, and the diced or checked band is a motif I find very timeless and yet fashionably dynamic !
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Dicey is knitted with Virtual Yarns Hebridean 2ply shown here in colors “Selkie, Red Deer, and Sun Dew” (with a few rounds of Jamieson’s Spindrift black).
A small semi-felted pom pom, or “toorie” which sits on top, makes Dicey just a little bit whimsical, with real ‘sassitude’ .
Dicey has a sort of horizontally ‘incorporated’ cord stitch ( i-cord) bordering the diced motif either side . . .
Dicey has a built in ‘cord’ stitch knitted right into the fold on the band, lined with more rounds of knitting, then the turned hem is knit into the fabric with no stitching afterward, very neat and tidy !
Dicey is very much the traditionally inspired bonnet I wanted it to be.
Dicey has been undergoing many design changes since its beginning, but I feel I’ve finally arrived with the right motifs, the right techniques, the right yarn, the right gauge, the right shape.
I am pleased it is finished, and the pattern can be found on Ravelry here .
