Original House – Page 3

Seasonal

Published on August 5, 2017March 11, 2019 by Jen6 Comments

Blackberries line the country roads and harvest is abound in the deep rural places that are secret to we locals. Approaching mid-summer now, and life sometimes feels so uneventful, and yet changes so fast day to day that I can barely acknowledge a blink. Its the punctuation of a season, of a summer, of things like making a berry pie from hand-picked berries, just how good it really is when I take a few hours to indulge to create a little pleasure for the senses.

Life is good.

I just have to remind myself of that on occasion.

Tweed Chronicles: Carding & Blending

Published on July 25, 2017July 2, 2019 by Jen7 Comments

jenjoycedesign© rolags

I’ve been lured into somewhat of a trend. The trend is carding & blending boards! Such a beautiful tool are the ones purchased by Ashford, etc, and I was so excited to buy one, but I resisted knowing that I was perfectly able to make my own. So with Jeff’s help, I did…

005 I bought 24″ of very expensive 12″ carding cloth, but still less expensive than a new 12×12″ board. We cut some plywood to size, and after a quick glue & nailing down the carding cloth, added a footing to the head, and a handle, and ended up with double the size of the regular blending boards available. Not bad! I then spent hours practicing on some old weedy raw fleece I had hidden away, found my old carders, and had a go with some alpaca.

jenjoycedesign© carding alpaca

Mixing first by hand, then carding three times on the board,

it eventually looked like this…

jenjoycedesign© carding alpaca 5

Then I drew the 3x carded alpaca back on to the board, caught the tips in between two dowels, then began to pull out, roll, pull out & drafted it rolling into rolags…

jenjoycedesign© making rolags

Eventually I got through all 240 grams of it and made finally into some nifty rolags ready to spin, after a heck of a lot of work …
053
Honestly folks, do you have any idea how much work goes into making a simple 100g ball of yarn from raw fleece? I’m sure there are some of you out there who do.

Which brings me back to the carding & blending board. I did say that it is a bit of a trend, I mean, just look at the process of making art rolags…

The video shows really what the blending board is all about. I was actually using it in my above photos as a carding board for raw fleece, now I think I’ll go clean up the weeds and fluff that has spread all about my loft, because I am actually waiting for some combed top roving to show up in the mail.

Its such a strange modern era. I feel that I have shifted from wanting to create from the roughest and unrefined of raw materials ~~ my old self ~~ into craving the ease of beautiful prepared combed top roving to spin from, or with which to create those beautiful blend rolags ~~ my new self. I think I have worked something through here, and am considering offering to the wild all that old coarse wool from my earlier spinning days, and face a future of pleasure spinning clean exotic selection of fibers, as there is just so much available now. I have definitely reaffirmed my respect for those who spin from animal-to-yarn, I just can’t seem to be one to run with the flock anymore, but that is okay.

I do feel the urge to spin yarn again, after a long hiatus. I am very excited to come back and show off some really artful blended rolags from my plus size blending board, as well as the yarn spun from them!

forthcoming and fishy….

Published on July 10, 2017March 11, 2019 by Jen15 Comments

a21ed5308ab28c98087d478423dd312c--fishing-girls-gone-fishing

Hello folks! Another sneak peek about what is forthcoming & fishy.

georgina

I was surprised to find so many very interesting & artful old photos of women fishing…

1902-July-Man-and-woman-fishing-in-the-Credit-River

These are but a few,

PMB21

Finding these photos has rather set a theme. A theme which seems to be finding itself, as I knit and knit samples of my new design.
d42c258bdb719f6102f2f83fa5757b17--women-fishing-fishing-girls

Something about women …. and… fishing?

Three women fishing. - [1908?]

Well yes, that’s about it in a nutshell. More to come…

for now I’m “gone fishing” .

pr75951

but I will be back again very soon, with some more knitting and more hints to the forthcoming Fishy Thing!

jenjoycedesign© forthcoming

June Into July

Published on July 6, 2017August 19, 2019 by Jen13 Comments

jenjoycedesign© pink.JPG Checking in from the hermitage. I’ve been knitting up a pile of rectangular shaped things, in various sizes, in pink and in grey, for what at first was to be one prototype turned out to be many, although I am in the last stretch. These have admittedly completely consumed my time but there is the possibility that this forthcoming ensemble will be one of my favorite designs to date, so well worth it. Let the hours and yarn and heat exhaust me to sweet slumber every night.

Here is a sneak peek of one of them pinned and drying …

jenjoycedesign© sneak peek 2.JPG
Meanwhile Emma and I have done very little walking, for the hot summer days have put us both into a trance, for me the memorable events being turning of rows from right side to wrong side and back again. I am all over that fresh brewed cup of French Roast and I’m throwing stitches in a caffeine induced frenzy.

♣ ♣ ♣

Incidentally, another past-time of mine while knitting the lace shawls, is perusing old films on youtube about tweed-making, and here is one I discovered, hope you enjoy it…

Meet Abelene!

Published on June 16, 2017September 23, 2025 by Jen10 Comments

Hi, I’m Abelene. I am the newest personality here on Jen’s blog, and I live a completely charmed life. My name is Abelene because my parents were yuppy mannequins, and spelled it that way instead of “Abilene” or “Abeline”, the way the name is normally spelled, probably in attempt to be unique & exotic, but it only created a life-long task of my having to explain to “its spelled with three e’s and no i’s” and to give lesson of how to pronounce… “say it like ‘Abba’ … you know, the 70’s rock band from Sweden?… plus ‘lean’…you know, like skinny jeans.”

Oh, I am a gorgeous 37-27-37, the figure every woman wants though few shall have, and I will not brag about it, but it is one of my very few attributes. In fact, my figure and my chattiness are all there is to my whole existence. However, Jen hopes for photogenic abilities too, and she assures me I show potential. In fact, Jen hopes for a lot from me ~~ design success, fortune & fame~~ in exchange for a charmed life of glamour…. but she says I can’t even dream to compete with her nieces, who are real live models.

Jen debated for a long time about getting me, but recently grubbing around to find me was ‘a score’ as she puts it. The trauma to clear a space in her ‘studio’ closet was difficult, to find other places for yarn that previously inhabited my new place (by the way, don’t tell anybody, but she calls my living space her Studio Loft , sounding so artsy professional, but really it is only just a guest room where her nieces sleep when they come to stay over). The door into it is at my left.

Jen tells me that “having a big awkward useless trendy possession” (such as a mannequin) is for her a very difficult thing to give in to (um, add a little peppering of guilt there why don’t you!) when in fact she wrestles in strained efforts with her sprawling collection of antique wooden hangers, you know, those ones with old cleaner advertisements? ( You ought to witness her obsession with those) Even she realizes her limitations before getting me, that she had a rough time of displaying something as lovely and draping as say… lace.

Jen says is very pleased with my snug dove-tail fitted legs of my solid maple stand, and solid maple finial (that is my head) and is happier than can be with my stability. Things are going to work out she assures me, very well. I am so giddy with pride that I may be having custom made new dress form coverings to wear, as Jen promised me … linen …. tweed … buttons & bows… and I am very excited to make more appearances in my outfits in the future. Forthcoming of Jens designs is one of her best achievements yet, a Big Lace Deal, and in more than one shape, so she is busy knitting lace this summer. I am to be the teaser here, to get a feel of what modeling will be like… here is me in the new work-in-progress, careful to not show any detail prematurely.

Ta ta for now,

Abelene.