Wee Hearts in nine different Fair Isle Hebridean 2ply colors! Actually this hat is a study on one of Alice*Starmore’s colorways , a colorway from her design “Mary Tudor” from her 2013 second edition of Tudor Roses , using her own yarn, as sequenced in the chart. You could say this hat was a colorway test for Mary Tudor Cardigan, although I did change some colors around from the chart, because of a mistake I made. I really came out of the study with a better understanding of how the blending of foreground color changes against background color changes can be in modern Fair Isle.
Now I am wondering, do I have time for one more? Not really, I must be on to Autumnal Sweaters!
Knitting aside, I’ve been busy as a bee hive this summer. Mostly running down off of the mountain every day to water or weed or do some laborious task associated with home-improvement (of another house). Only this morning I was scrubbing a bathroom of tile & grout for hours with bleach, oh joy. Not. Feeling rather tired in fact, and looking forward to Autumn with a great yearning, but it is … sigh … only the end of July.
Anyway, aside from the ‘town’ house project and my trying to keep the garden up here on the mountain alive through the hottest months of a Northern Californian summer, I am getting a little knitting done in spite of it all.
I am now done & dusted with Wee Hearts Tam, in Isager Tweed Moss & Pink ( from last post’s mention of pattern merge). Not bad I think. But I am thinking I am now ready to test this design for a full-on Fair Isle approach, with many color changes, and warm foreground colors play against cool background colors sort of thing. I’ve been studying the great Fair Isle designers, ready to make simple Wee Hearts sparkle with about seven different colors of Hebridean 2ply…
So thankful for my yarn stash, I am ready with what I already have, and off I go, on a major color adventure!
I have merged Wee Hearts Tam & Skier pattern with Wee Hearts Mitts pattern, now two patterns in one download ; that is a tam, ski hat, fingerless mitts and full mitten pattern all together! To celebrate the event, I’m having a bit of a promotion for my new ‘merge’, and you can (for an undisclosed number of hours or days) join in with the others for ‘Wee Hearts In July’ KAL…
EDIT IN: Pattern give-away for Wee Hearts In July KAL is now over, thank you to all of you who participated !
The knit-along is as always, informal, and no deadline, and no fuss…. pure enjoyment. I hope to see your Wee Hearts ! But hop on the pattern give-away, it will only run for a very short while.
Oh, and joining in with the others, I too have cast on for Wee Hearts In July KAL , making the tam with some lovely Isager Tweed, made in Ireland~~ a seriously beautiful fingering weight tweed, and I had bought the colorway of moss green and light grey, so evocative of Ireland’s mists on the bog, which I am seriously fantasizing . However, I somehow decided last minute to over-dye the light grey into a pink, which in scorching hot Northern California weather, dried in less than an hour hanging out on the clothes line, so away I went! Blasted through the Latvian Braid, and now already well into it.
Doesn’t the warm moss green look lovely next to the tweedy pink?
So here & now, knitting yarn from Ireland, listening to righteous Traditional Irish Music Sessions on Youtube, still fantasizing the misty Irish countryside, and warm room with stout beer and magical sound of good ol’ unplugged acoustic instrumental music.
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!
Folks, thank you so much for your great ideas in the last post about what to call my new tam. I was tempted to keep with chess theme, and loved the jacks idea (I almost did that)… but then after I finished the tam (today) I realized that yes, there are indeed little tiny hearts in the motif, and stayed with the original title. (If you click the the image of the tam, you will land on the pattern page for it. ) So after 5 or 6 days (I honestly lost track) of non-stop work designing, redesigning, knitting, ripping out & knitting over, cutting the band off and part of the tam, and reworking the band (plus Vikkel braid) , then making toorie, photographing, pattern writing, pdf editing, uploading… then doing myriad details on the pattern page on Ravelry with linking….
((huge sigh))… I must say, Emma and I were in dire need of a walk. So walk we did.
Thanks again for your feedback. I think I will engage you wonderful readers more often, I didn’t even know half of you were even out there. 🙂
A progress photo of a tam I’m working on which has an all-over pattern, and that I’m really having a lot fun figuring the shaping & wheel. I’m also looking forward to showing it off more, very very soon… promise!
Backstory; I saw a film recently about chess master Bobby Fischer, called “Pawn Sacrifice”. and well, totally apart from the actual film’s plot or historic depiction, I couldn’t help but notice the… um… Fair Isle yoked sweaters and vests which were worn, whether just popular at the time, or more a signature of Fischer’s. Perhaps also the chess scene promoted a bit of class in the realm of the game, and I’ve spotted a few shots (only a few, of many) where some fine knitted sweaters are very chessy & stylish . . .
Autosave-File vom d-lab2/3 der AgfaPhoto GmbH
But really this isn’t about chess, or the film, or even the grand-master Bobby Fischer. Not at all. In fact, although the film was about Fischer, ironically the motif is from a vest worn by Fischer’s opponent Spassky (much much later) that draws my attention…
It appears to be little hearts , or shamrocks, or whatever it looks like to you. As Valentines day is approaching I can’t help but think to name my tam “Wee Hearts” or something equally saccharine. But maybe a better name like “Chess Moves” or… well… this is where I’d love your help. Above is a photo of my tam in progress with the same motif. Can you see the tiny little hearts?
Here’s the thing, I beckon you for your ideas as to what to name this tam, and although it is not finished, it will be the all over design just as you see, and the name would do well to reflect the motif, or the origin. What does the motif bring to mind for you? I will choose one of your ideas left in comments here on Yarnings~~ and so happy to hand it over… thanks!
Jenjoyce Design 