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!
All Sweater Successes Past & Present / Ravelry project details here, and here.
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…
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…
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 .
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.
Here it is, Highway 29 Halter, Miss Sixteen & Miss Thirteen are very excited about this design and think its the best yet!
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
Striped lace cowls in cool blues and warm pinks, knit in a lovely summery linen blend yarn that is draping and soft. I am very happy they’re finished, and just in time for them to go to my Canadian nieces for their birthdays. I love this pattern, a traditional lace motif called ‘feather & fan’ which is so easy it can be knit in my sleep. But these are the first striped versions of the pattern I’ve tried, and will try one more in stripes, with yarn mentioned on this post, before the summer is over.
As I dared myself to not make a peep until I finished these two, now there may be some chattiness! On my knitting needles, I have still some promised summer knitting for my two beautiful California nieces (whom all of you are familiar with ~ presently Miss Sixteen & Miss Thirteen ), and then its looking into a stretch of who-knows-what-may-come for a quiet spell of imminent lazy & hot summer weeks.
Pattern: my own Altitude Lace Cowl
Yarn: Classic Elite Firefly (posted previously)
Blue stripes project details on Ravelry HERE, and pink stripes project details HERE.
Spring sweater success! We decided to photograph not in the town of Calistoga this time, but again at the castle. Late morning brought very bright sun and was very warm after weeks of cool rainy days. Oh, and great news is … Continue reading
I finally got to schedule some time with my busy nieces, and we finally got to photograph the latest knitwear, and luck had it that at the moment we started, so did the rain. None the less, we had a lovely time shooting while cozied up in warm knitteds, beneath a single cramped corner of an overhang in the entryway to the rather gothic church on Oak Street. Good times had!
New patterns are Wee Hearts (mitts forthcoming!), Lace Cowl & Lace Mitts, Ridges Cowl & Ridges Mitts, Twists Cowl & Twists Mitts.
A very bright but chilly November morning, in the usual places we photographed, the ‘four corners’ of Lincoln & Washington Streets in Calistoga. This year, things are quite different all around.
First of all, what normally would have been the actual time of equinox, the infamous and devastating wildfire of Lake County held things off for two months. But here we are, back to our familiar places. . .
Other things about this year, as predicted, Miss Twelve is now Miss Thirteen, and has grown so tall that she is now beginning to tower over everybody, including her ‘big sister’, Miss Fifteen (but very soon-to-be-sixteen!).
Since all is going well with them, I’ll get back to the business of the sweaters . . .
These two being modeled are samples of Calidez.
I knit these Autumn Sweaters as I did the prototype, in Cascade 120 superwash ~~ extremely lofty and poofy yarn~~ and these pullovers knit up at lightening speed being bulky-weight yarn, and the instant impression from my nieces was ‘oh they’re soooo soft ‘. So I recommend this yarn if one wants a ridiculously soft but still pure wool experience.
And then . . .
after the photo shoot we went on a book-buying spree for Miss Thirteen’s birthday !
I think this Autumn Sweater design for my nieces is up to par and is deserving of the usual title of ‘Sweater Success!’ Now, those of you who are new to this blog, you must see Sweater Successes past, go HERE and be sure to scroll all the way down~~ to 2010!
My family has been with me in recent last days of summer. Here, my expert noodle-making nieces are preparing with me, a dinner of chicken noodle soup. We do love to cook & bake. The days have been filled with trying emotions during the Northern California’s devastating Valley Fire that has ravaged their hometown and is still, eleven days later, only 75% contained after devouring much of the county. I will not list the dreary statistics of the wildfire, but instead report happily that their house withstood no damage at all ~~ nothing short of a miracle~~ only a couple of sheds, wood fence, some of their garden & landscaping in front of their house burned. Even their chicken coop remained in perfect condition with all the hens surviving and left 11 eggs until my brother was allowed back to see his house a week later…we suspect the firemen patrolling for days dowsing smoldering areas, who may have given them more water and food.
However, not so fortunate were so many next-door-neighbors’ cabins burned to the ground. I had just posted this post only about two hours after the fire had broken out (unknowingly) and it was that night and into the the next day that their little mountain town was nearly destroyed, and even then the fire had only begun brewing in the eerie high winds after a week of 100F temps, to become a national disaster area and record Northern California wildfire.
Its been very preoccupying time, but today I am ready to get back into the routine again, focusing on knitterly things. My nieces, their mom and my brother are all fine, though anxiously awaiting to return to their house whenever the water & power are turned back on. They will even be starting school again next week, as it was saved, as was the ‘business district’ of their tiny town. Life will be busy cleaning up all of the debris & ash in the community, and slowly finding a sense of normality once again, although not without a smear of soot everywhere, and strong odor of smoke permeated absolutely everything (even in their home), and which will linger for many months. I am hopeful next spring will bring a burst of growth after the rubble is removed and winter clears the slate.
And speaking of spring, it’s on to new designs, about spring-things and emergence of new growth. I’ve been making a pair of half-mitts to go with Snowmelt Tam , and I’m very pleased. Here is mitt number two, and I am hoping to get the pattern for these going first week in Autumn.
Today is the last day of summer, and I will greet tomorrow, the Autumnal Equinox with great appreciation and fervor, and begin again in earnest my ritual of knit-walking as I have let summer nearly break me of the habit.
Forthcoming are more pink flowers in a snowy yarn-scape!
My younger niece models Calidez, in size 30″, the prototype and smallest of the bulky-weight size run, and looking a little outgrown, but she wears it well none-the-less. My nieces and I had a double-design photo shoot in St.Helena last … Continue reading
Miss Fifteen modelling my very recent “Altitude Cowl”
My nieces and I had a double-design photo shoot in St.Helena last week in the scorching heat of a late July morning, for Altitude Cowl and for Calidez. At ten o’clock the mercury rising up into the 80’s, proves that my nieces are really quite good at the modelling thing after all.
So Altitude Cowl was designed to be a very easy knit for beginner knitter , for teaching in my Knitting @ Altitude group that is soon-to-be-forming (so excited!). Actually , this one is first in a series of easy cowls, this one being ‘twists’. The next will add to make the pattern my first official e-book, and it will grow from there to hopefully a handful of easy cowls.
Please see details of the pattern page on this site HERE , or on Ravelry HERE
It can be worn tossed on over the head, or folded and pinned. It is a very showy deeply textured cowl that is ‘all about the yarn and the twists’ and I hope you try it!
Now please go see Miss Twelve in Calidez…
First, a simple pullover, and I made the smallest size in the size run to test, so what-do-ya-know... it actually fits… (but barely) the very tall Miss Twelve!
Second, with an extra skein & a half which was left over from the pullover, I designed a very simple but very showy cowl, modeled here by Miss Fifteen . . .
Both girls donned these bulky puffy warm knitteds in the scorching hot Northern California summer temperature, even already at ten-thirty in the morning in St Helena. But the photos are spectacular for me to put finishing touches on the two patterns coming up very shortly, just need some combing over. Luckily I don’t have a lot else going on this week so I can get them done & dusted. Then it will be time to knit my nieces their Autumn Sweaters based on this pattern, so watch this space for forthcoming All Things Pullovers & Cowls.
I finally got to have my long-waited photo shoot with my nieces for my April design Snowmelt.
Stunning beauties are my nieces Miss Fifteen & Miss Twelve, and brave, because although the mercury was already rising to near 80F at 10 o’clock in the morning, they donned these wintery outfits with wool. What a great time in St Helena, some shots against the gothic Catholic church, while their mom shopped at the church thrift shop next door. I’m so lucky to have them to model for me, and I don’t think there is anything I enjoy more than being with them. Oh, maybe add a fresh new design knitted up, the camera, and then a nice lunch out as we did today.
A few more smiles before posting this morning’s photo adventure…
Snowmelt Tam & Toque pattern on Yarnings HERE,
and on Ravelery HERE
Well folks, the pattern has been submitted, available for download on Ravelry HERE ( matching Mitts pattern HERE ) and I am happy to finally show you the lovely photographs taken last month at our castle, of my nieces modeling … Continue reading
Folks, I’m coming up for air, lost somewhere in this mountainous pile…this mother-lode of hats & mitts…this Tartan & Tweed design. I have just (ahem…) updated (maybe the fourth time?) Tartan & Tweed Mitts again, this time to include the full mitten option. Okay, so I’m done & dusted with mitt & mittens, Tartan & Tweed for the hands is now behind me.
Now it’s Tartan & Tweed for the head.
I’ve been working like an ox designing, knitting prototypes, and now writing patterns and making charts, for the classic tam & accompanying toque (beanie). Had a lovely photo shoot with my nieces modeling last weekend at the castle, our new favorite place. Here are some previews…
The tam is moderately swagging, like a proper tam, and toque is straight-up.
Forthcoming very soon, Tartan & Tweed Tam & Toque pattern debut !
‘Una Cosettina’ has had a bit of an overhaul in recent winter weeks. I have knit up several more variations on the original design from nearly a year ago. Now pattern has options to work lace up the back of the hand, (I so wanted to do this , and now it is done and I’m satisfied!) . You can create a full lace gauntlet , or a sporty shorty little wisp of a mitt, or anything in between. Options to omit i-cord cast-on & bind-off and/or eyelet round, and skip straight to the lacework. To me a bounty of choices makes a good pattern and as much fun to wear as it is to knit as it is to write!
But frankly folks, this pattern is all about using that one-of-a-kind skein or ball you have. Perfect for those lovely singles of your own spindle-spun yarn or that lovely skein of luxury yarn you couldn’t resist buying from that great yarn shop you just visited. Maybe you discovered a ball of vintage yarn in your grandmother’s attic which narrowly escaped a pair of argyle socks in the 50’s, or that novelty yarn you bought from the 13th-Century wool mill while visiting the town of Biella in Italy.
Una Cosettina meets One-Skein-Project-itis and makes a stunningly beautiful friendship.
This pattern can be found on Yarnings HERE, and detailed on Ravelry HERE.