Wild Boot Socks

Posted on October 8, 2013 by Jen

Here’s some wild-caught boot socks (not the farmed variety. )

Edit In 10/15 : Now, the day after, I can tell the world these were made for my ten-year-old niece who just turned eleven yesterday ! I stuffed them with retro candy and she loved ’em!

I’ve been sketching with some DK yarn bits in my stash drawer. Total improvisation of color stranded motifs. Like fly-fishing for wild trout, one listens closely to their instincts .

Just a wild pair of boot socks, playing with color and also functional design. I talk about this process way back in this post

These would pair well with hiking boots or big ol’ clogs.

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Wild Boot Socks details on Ravelry HERE

Upcoming: I’m working on the last of the size-run test-knitting and then pattern for PrettyLittleThings socks should be making an appearance! I got sidetracked with some other knitting projects, but now there’s nothing standing between me and the pattern. 🙂

Lupinus Albifrons

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Jen

Lupinus Albifrons. Known as just ‘ lupine ‘, it is one of the more populated native wildflowers of Northern California, and in April fills the mountain meadows, between grape vines in the rows, and trail-sides with deep blue & purple variegation. A small woody shrub when mature, however, where grass is mowed annually (as in the vineyard rows here on the mountain) and where seed is planted from the wind, you’ll see it popping up everywhere as young single stemmed flowers . . .

I luckily had just the perfect yarn handy when I became inspired from my walk of last week. I had a bunch of green which I over-dyed from grey wool which perfectly illustrates the ‘silvery’ grey-green leaves of the plant. The rich deep blue and purple played illusive games however with the camera, which wasn’t able to distinguish the two, and both came out as blue tones in most of the photos. But here it is , un chullo, for my brother’s birthday tomorrow!

I absolutely go wild photographing still-life knitteds ~~ its just one of the things I love doing, in every light possible , which enables me to make an assemblage of photos that catches different tones and characteristics of the yarns and knitted shapes . . .

The detail with which I experimented for the first time on this chullo hat, was to add a running crocheted chain just inside the typically chullo-esque double-crocheted edge, to neaten up the edge.

I love to make my chullo hats a bit of a hybrid with gnome hats by decreasing into a point, then finishing with a braid extending off of the top . . .

They blossom into a hat with a lot of character and playful whimsy . . .

The crocheted edges tame the curling tendency of the stockinette stitch. . .

Braid finishes being made on both ear flaps . . .

(the purple really pops in this photo below !)

Un chullo, inspired from the lupine flowers in the fields of Northern California. To be given to my brother tomorrow, and there could be nobody more appreciative than he, who wears them everyday , and who is also a botanical wizard !

NOTE : I have taken notes as I knit this one, so if anybody is interested, I could assemble a pattern of sorts from it.

Details on Ravelry HERE

Well, I’m off to walk the mountain with Emma, but I will leave you with a little slide show of the early morning walk of last weekend, from which this chullo’s lupine photos were taken . . .

While I Was Out Walking . . .

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Jen

. . . I brought my knitting. You’re not surprised are you? Well, this was raising the bar a bit on what I can do knitting-while-walking ~ I’ll be the first to admit ~ and I was pretty much only watching where I was walking every other row. (do not try this !) What we have here is a variation on the pin-stripey theme for still another pin-striped mitt . . .

Jenjoyce’s Pin-Striped Fingerless Mitts !!!

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Jen

Hey look, its my latest and greatest accomplishment !

Okay , so you have seen me make a zillion of these since before Christmas, and I just couldn’t tire of them, then Lizzi convinced me to write this pattern. You must have noticed the commotion over there in the sidebar with my “Thought For The Day” screaming jubilantly about having written my first knitting pattern ever , and the new advertising of a free download !!!! Well, the odd thing is now I really don’t see as why I should stop. This is a strange and new concept. I was totally blown away that before I even sent the pattern draft of a pdf to Morrie, she had already cast on to test-knit it. We chatted through the afternoon on gmail, as she test-knit away and as I knit up the above pair, while discussing the wording, the nature of ‘ jogless-ness ‘ , helix effect, and other such puzzles of the universe. Then the very next morning early with light just peeking through the sky window of my loft, I photographed these against the newly painted wall, and then I hurriedly slapped it up on Ravelry. In one day friends, the little “Pin-Striped Mitts” got over forty ‘favorite’ hearts on my Ravelry activity , many queued, one project even finished (I see you Morrie!) … and a whole lot of ’em dowloaded ! And boy did that really make my heart melt into a big puddle ! Excuse me folks for being so giddy, it just that for now, it’s all just a really big deal !!!

Free Pattern on Ravelry over HERE

Mit Mania

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Jen

Finished.

Another two pairs of pin-striped fingerless mits !

Aren’t they lovely ?

These are for Molly & Maya, belated xmas presents.

For some reason, I can’t capture the colors very well with the camera .

These are a medium greyish slate blue with marine blue stripes . . .

And these are a deep plum with royal purple stripes . . .

I think that five pairs of pin-striped fingerless mits are enough for me for a time, but since I knit them all almost entirely while walking the mountain, I’m not sure if I might not cast on for another pair . I mean, I fear I might trip without something to knit !

🙂

But for now I’m going down off the mountain into town to ship these mits in the mail, and then feel my feathers fluff up with a sense of satisfaction of a job done ! I find it difficult to believe that all the Christmas knitting is behind me now. I went for my walk this morning , and, nothing to knit while walking along ! It was surreal.

Two Shades Of Grey

Posted on December 28, 2012 by Jen

There’s somebody out there who knows these are made just for her, and who knows if she walks up through the woods soon, along with a steaming hot cup of bittersweet & spicey chocolate (with whip), these fingerless mits ~ in two shades of grey ~ will be waiting for her. 🙂

Stormy

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Jen

Cables ! ! !

Twisted while walking over hill and dale . .

and counted so I could watch my surroundings.

K (1,2,3,4,5,6), P (7,8), K (9,10), P (11,12) . . . repeat,

& twist cables every 13th row.

Knitted while walking in the last of the Autumnal color.

Environs greying more each day as the leaves fall to the ground and colors melt away.

Not the last, but another knitted gift for one soon to be Thirteen !!!

I have named it simply . . .

” Stormy “.

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Details of this project found on Ravelry here

Twittermits !

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Jen

Here is another pair of fingerless mits knit up for Christmas !

The misty color combo is lavender and grey, a soft wintery colorway for one who has been very good and hoping for her first and very own iphone from Santa in a week, and from whom I’ll anticipate a lot of action on the Twittery front.

Look here, can you even see where the pin-stripes join?

A little tug at the switching of colors is all it took, and there it is… jogless !

I am dizzy from pin-stripes !!! Will there be no stopping me? Will I be pin-striping at Christmas eve into the wee hours of the night? Will I bridge Christmas with the New Year doing nothing but more, more, more pin-striped fingerless mits , rationalizing still another recipient who might need a pair? There’s no way to really know, but to watch this space as they say.

Details on Ravelry here

Peppermint Parfait

Posted on December 15, 2012 by Jen

One pair of fingerless mits for Christmas !

I’ve been working on these, sans pattern, for about four days, while walking , standing at the stove, just ‘ about the house ‘ sort of knitting …. nothing too committed. I think I could easily knit one in a morning if I worked at it non-stop. Anyway, I’m smitten with pin-stripes !!! So easy to be ‘jogless’ too, just give the yarn a little tug when you come to switching colors, and then the single-row stripe ends stay all in line … it’s amazing… and so satisfying to have two color affects with no woven ends . I can see I’ll be knitting pin-stripes until I”m dizzy . One pair done, now to cast on for another !

Details on Ravelry here

Autumn Sweater Success !!!

Posted on September 30, 2012 by Jen

( Autumn Sweaters 2011 in same location click here )

My nieces in their new Autumn Sweaters. We photographed in the same colorful Calistoga nooks we seek out each time we do the Equinox Sweaters. In front of Calistoga Coffee Roastery, in front of the mint-green building on the corner of Lincoln and Washington streets, against the terra-cotta painted wall outside Brannon’s restaurant, and the best, the most amazing painted mural in the alley across Lincoln from the coffee roastery ! These places just never get old, and they will be the back drop every time we photograph the Equinox Sweaters.

” Happiness is a new sweater knit especially for me ! “

Sweater success !

Luckily they fit, and luckily the yarn which I over-dyed became colors they both approved of ! Oh, and can you believe we were having a major heat wave of the Indian Summer? I wanted to get the pictures taken before it got too hot, and the unrelenting sun was bleaching bright, and nipping at our heels the whole way. . .

Autumn Sweaters 2012

(( Compare with two years ago ~ click for Autumn Sweaters 2010 ))

And now, for a slideshow of the fun sweater frolick we had in Calistoga . . .

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You may see all posts on the progress of the Autumn 2012 sweaters by clicking here

Knitting details about sweaters are posted over on Ravelry here.

Autumn on its way

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Jen

Look me straight in the eyes …

…and tell me that this unexpectedly interesting color combination looks bad. This is the (mostly) Green Autumn Sweater for my younger niece.

I had bought one of each color of green , and of blue, from KnitPicks Swish ( a yarn which I have found is a really nice choice for making sweaters for growing kids) and came up with this lot. I thought I’d be lucky to find any combination of a few shades, but I ended up loving the mismatched hues, and I bought more ! Blueish Teal with Olivey Mossy Green ? You bet ! Reminds me of Amish Quilt color combinations.

( Oh, and the row marker charm was made and given to me by Morrie. )

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So we returned from the “Out-and-About” Treehouse Village in Oregon, as last mentioned in this post . We stayed for two nights and two days, and I knit most of the time. This was my upstairs little knitting nook…

…and from within, this was my view of the rest of the place. There are catwalks up in the trees , between some really high-up treehouses, all interconnected in a web of rope and wood walkways, seeming to be about 50 feet in the air !!! But we stayed in one of the separate ones, which had steps up to it, called “Serendipitree”.

Here is a photo of the outside . My knitting nook was the tiny room above.