She was absolutely spectacular. I think she has really has mastered what is essential in modeling, having developed her character that is genuine and honest . . .
So natural, with a hint of bashful, and a lot of charm.
Jen has veiled me in her new lace that she’s been hinting about for weeks in her series of veils & variations.
The lace feels so lovely, so fine, I think I feel like what it must be like to be a bride, or a Shetlander, or an Estonian knitter, modeling as best as I can in the tiny house.
About time she’s finished, because she is so exhausted of drawing and redrawing charts, doing math and wrestling mistakes, so she let me handle posting about the pattern.
Did you know that Jen’s UnSpun is the reason she felt compelled to write this pattern? She had just an overwhelming urge to make some really fine lace yarn after watching this video , and worked like an ox to get a bunch of really fine lace-weight out to some friends before the pattern was ready. The UnSpun yarn is beginning to show up now around the far corners of the world and Jen feels its time to finish up and get the lace knitting going!
Oh but did you notice the diamond motifs showing up in a couple of the videos in her series of veils & variations Goldberg Variations? Jen tells me this was by pure chance and unplanned, yet something makes her think that the diamonds must be a subliminal Bach Thing.
so here are those favorite Goldberg Variations highlights !
The pattern actually is three styles; a stole, a square hap shawl, and a cowl, all and each in four sizes! You can see more information if you go see the pattern which is live now on Ravelry HERE. Jen would really love it if you would join in on her pattern give-away in the spirit of Valentines, so I’m suppose to mention her post on her group over here , which is running just for a very short time, so that folks can get yarn and cast on for Valentines day! I hope everyone is in a lace-knitting mood!
Last but not least, Jen is wildly looking forward to photographing youngest niece Miss Sixteen modeling Aria & Variations this weekend at the castle, which will make the pattern a real hit!
The Goldberg Variations are a work written for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations. First published in 1741, the work is one of the most important examples of variation form.
I imagine the Goldberg Variations have been performed far more than a million times since Bach wrote it, and on every conceivable instrument. I am a big fan of JS Bach’s music, and I’ve done a lot of listening to YouTube recordings of this work while knitting my lace interpretation for it, but of all the performers of the Goldberg Variations, I can’t help but consider Glen Gould possibly the most iconic. This performance was filmed 55 years ago, and still it rocks! (If you can’t spare 12 minutes to listen to the whole video, at least fast forward to 10:30 and listen to Glen’s commentary ) . . . I love Glen Gould humming and enjoying himself with measured rapture during recording!
Next post I will ‘unveil’ what has been a work in progress for weeks upon weeks. I have been enjoying myself immensely for those weeks while knitting a couple samples of lace, and yet , I’m one lace piece short. I really want this the pattern to be submitted to Ravelry before the Valentines holiday, but fell sorrowfully behind, so the ‘missing’ lace variation will be cast on to my needles the moment this is posted. I will take a deep breath and see you on the flip side with my new pattern very very soon!
Its the end of January, and that means the coldest barest month of the winter is over. But I’ll take a thousand Januaries, for the rain and cold means the watershed is potent on the mountain, promising a verdant landscape in spring and water trickling through into the heat of summer, pushed down and flowing somewhere deep beneath the forest. The days are warming up a little, and in a week the fields will be solid yellow with mustard flowers, which are already beginning to bloom!
I am in need of a break, feeling quite assaulted with lace knitting & difficult chart writing, but in the nick of time I’ve recalled the quote from Elizabeth Zimmerman, and remembered it being a revelation a few years ago in in this post . To me this quote of EZ’s is a diamond jewel for staying out of the mindset of crazy perfectionist thinking, reminds me there are no knitting police, and even though my lace may sometimes be riddled with mistakes, I can surely hope from my forthcoming pattern, yours will be a flawless veil of heirloom-worthy stitches that you can be proud of, for that is my first desire, truly.
In closing, I hope you enjoy this incredibly masterful, energetic, and artful performance film of Mahan Esfahani and his harpsichord. I’ve got a few more Variations queued up for you, so as long as you don’t mind listening, I don’t mind posting them, until at some point there will be a logical destination for all of them.
Meanwhile, I have got a second stole underway with the single ply lace weight …
made from my yarn tasting of Simply Wool . In fact, I am so utterly smitten with Unspun that I can’t help myself wondering how far out I might go. I’ll ponder the thought as I take my stole knitting out for a trail walk!
