one done. . .

The first Autumn sweater for nieces done & dusted ! The only difference between the two sweaters will be a colorway choice of undyed fleece colors. They are the same exact size, and otherwise will be almost the same, which is actually very amusing. They asked so nicely if I could make over-sized fit this year, because when I knit last year’s sweaters I made a gauge error, and although the sweaters turned out flatteringly fitted, there was obviously not a bit of room to wear over clothes, so I am never again making that mistake. Making nieces my most recent Sol Inca design in the after-thought pullover option, because I just am not tiring one bit from knitting these! Oh, I’m knitting with Simply Wool that I spoke about a few posts back , and let me say now, that I found it very wholesome to have to wash actual dirt out of the sweater when I was ready to wash & block it, and that only means the yarn is definitely minimally processed, undyed, and not overly scoured either. I say that like it is a good thing! Now there is a little intermission in my Autumn Sweater knitting, as I am waiting for yarn on the other sweater to become available, for a lovely very light contrast, soft colors as requested by eldest niece, definitely worth the wait, even if the sweaters wont’ be ready until late in the season. Yet I can’t stop this knitting locomotive, once I’ve psyched myself up for it, so I’ve decided to let this one sit awhile while I get going with pattern writing something I’ve been thinking about for years!

Forthcoming

jenjoycedesign© Autumn Sweaters 2019

Forthcoming are a very late couple of Autumn 2019 sweaters for my nieces.  Here the first one is blocking, that is, washed and drying to shape, on the bed in the loft room across the sunlit stairway landing.  The other of the two is in the last stretch of knitting, soon to be blocking in this same space by tomorrow.

jenjoycedesign© Autumn Sweater

The house is feeling like its old self again, regardless of the lack of finish floor and trim,  and so the settled place of things brings on a settled feeling of calm, and  I am very happy about the way my creativity is slowly returning.

jenjoycedesign© Autumn Sweater #1

I’m soon to be hoisting up my sails for a run of ideas that have been brewing while I have had to wait until these sweaters were done & dusted, so I am almost there. One down , one to go!

Two fast knits . . .

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Already it is that time cozy season of Autumn again, my absolute favorite time of the year.  Although much later in Autumn than I have always begun in the past, I’m talking about it being time to knit the Autumn sweaters for my nieces.  I have had the yarn for about a month, but life got in the way, and as I’m just now feeling settled a little bit after being in the new house for already a week, I have cast on.  Past the hoop of the body, I am not yet sure what pattern I’m going to knit.   I have had lots of ideas over the last two years for a new sweater design, but  have not felt settled enough to even think or rise up out of perpetual indecision.   For these two fast knits I’m considering a few different yoke shapings as they go along, and they should go really fast.

I might decide to knit two Hillwalkers, or two Calidez’s,  one of each,  or something entirely new.   Number one, is that I’m not putting any expectations on myself, especially as yesterday was the second anniversary of the wildfire, and the event  very much reminded me how trauma & stress really can change a person’s performance.  All I can say is ~~ we will see.   Finished with the ribbing, and now ready for a bunch o’ rounds of stockinette body, so I’ll be busy with it for some time.  And then I can do the same for the light grey one,  and then I will decide how to proceed.

jenjoycedesign© Autumn Sweaters 2019

Oh! And tomorrow I meet my youngest niece in Calistoga to celebrate her 17th birthday ~~ and that I truly can not believe !

Sweater Success !

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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.
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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. . .

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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!).

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Miss Thirteen is now in Middle School, and on the volleyball team (they smashed all the other teams and came in first for the season!) and Miss Fifteen is excelling in cross-country running 3rd year in a row, and about to go to the post-season competitions ~~  and about to get her drivers license too!

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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.
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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 !
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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!

Dicey Highland Cap !

jenjoycedesign©Dicey Cap

For some time I’ve been wanting to put together this third straight-sided shape to add to the bonnet & beret shapes of my Dicey Highland Hats pattern ~~ I’m calling it the  “Dicey Highland Cap”. Now have it done & dusted, and pattern is updated to include it !  All that is needed is a bit of fun with my nieces and a photo shoot for all three shapes, when they come this weekend to visit.

Speaking of Highlands, here, the California Highlands is having  a lovely slow turning of Autumn,  alternately misty & cool and bouncing back up to clear warm days.   Now we expect some rain and it will glue down all the lovely maple & oak leaves which have fluttered to the ground. I’m looking forward to some lashing blustering rain!!!  For now we’re still out walking every day, at least once !

Was just out on the trail knit-walking and  overlooking this …

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Tweedy & Autumny

Finally the rain clouds have come and rained and everything is moist and the forest smells wonderfully spicey with Autumny smells.  We’ve had rain this week enough to soak the forest and give the moss a good drink and I just love rain ~~ just look at those clouds ! 

I went for a knitting walk with this blue lump of a sweater,  with about a half ball of yarn at the start, thinking I’d have plenty for a long walk. I managed to get all the way back to the house, and ran out of yarn *just* as I walked in through the door, just enough to splice on to another ball ~ I call this a grand knitting coincidence !

I’m almost at the section of the Michigan Winter Sweaters (thats two) where I must fuss about with a tedious new technique ~  the seamless ‘shirt yoke’  that I have never tried ~ which will involve knitting back and forth on a lopsided saddle shoulder which is wider on the back than the front, and knits itself into the body as it goes.  This horizontally eating up the end of the vertical stitches, is making me nervous, because I’ve never done a seamless saddle-shoulder, but sounds exciting all the same !   Bless Elizabeth Zimmerman for writing the instructions out so dearly, but still I am not at all confident, because  I really just  am not a very good reader-of-knitting-instructions… don’t be surprised if I come back here and calling for help in another post soon.