Spring about to be sprung…

Posted on March 6, 2016 by Jen

Spring Tees 2016 footage

News from Northern California as the drops fall heavily is that another spring is on its way. Vernal Equinox this year is Sunday, March 20, in two weeks exactly, and therefore I have a goal. I am confident I will finish these, and feeling easy enough about it to share progress reports along the way. Here they are, the straight-away torso sections of Spring Tee’s for Miss Sixteen & Miss Thirteen, in luxurious & soft worsted-weight Malabrigo Rios, (seriously beautiful yarn folks!) in colors Water Green and Bobby Blue. Pattern to be used ~ Calidez ~ and later updated to include this ‘lighter weight’ tee option with lower a choice of swooping springy neckline with short-short sleeves… so yes, you might say these are prototypes! Watch this space as they grow before your eyes. Personally , I am charmed off my feet by them.

Sweater Success !

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Jen

The skies were perfect blue & sunny, and we had a terrific time for photographing Spring Tees 2014 ! This year, the design Penny Candy Tee has made it all the way to a published design, and I managed to get it all up and available in time to post the pattern ~~ right over HERE. What a crescendo, happy beautiful faces, and stellar lighting, with charm that just blew my socks off. I couldn’t believe my eyes, how much these girls have learned in the skills of modelling knitwear for their auntie. I am even getting a little teary just thinking about it. But on with the show !

The first always to be photographed is the mint green bank building of Old Town Calistoga . . jenjoycedesign©PennyCandyTees Then we cross Lincoln and shoot against the terra cotta wall outside of Brannon’s Restaurant for our usual series of slightly goofy shots . . . .

Then we go to the corner outside of Hydro Grill.

People were having breakfast inside

watching us through the window seemed intrigued at what was going on just outside…

Last year’s addition , the ‘tree hugging’ shot outside of All Seasons Bistro,

now completes Four Corners, at the intersection of Washington & Lincoln Streets.

Then we make our way to the big mural of Old Town Calistoga ! The same poses are great because one can really see how the girls have grown in the years that I’ve been knitting for them (and blogging about it).

At the end of this post is a big long slideshow, I hope you watch it !

However, as this post is also a pattern debut, I must say, some lovely detail photos were taken.

Just look how lovely the neckline , with the scalloped neckline & mitered corners looks in these details . . .

And just how the bottom icord edge with scalloped lace pattern works . . .

Last not least , the back shoulder, and short rows.

The neck is just low enough in both the front and back. . .

Friends & Knitters, you can find the pattern over on it’s own page Penny Candy Tee Pattern page , here on Yarnings. or on Ravelry HERE Plenty to peruse, but, before you click off this page, the best is waiting next in this little slideshow !!!

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Thank you girls, you’re the one’s who made me into the knitter I am, and if it weren’t for you, there’d be no Yarnings. Here on this bench outside of Calistoga Roastery, we closed for the day, and I want you to see the first photo taken of them, on this same bench wearing the first cardigans I knit for them!

September 2010

All posts of the Penny Candy Tee in progress HERE

Edit In : I have rounded up most of the photos of my nieces here in Yarnings over the last four years. From present retrospect back to the first sweaters I knit for them in March 2010 . Simply click : Sweater Success !

Tee Two

Posted on March 24, 2014 by Jen

Well knitters & friends out there… I am emerging from my knitting woodshed, now with not one, but two Spring Tees in my holster ! I am going to be doing a lot of (photo) shooting in Calistoga this coming weekend with my beautiful & adorable nieces modelling! A second knit of my latest design ~~ Penny Candy Tee ~~ prototype in previous post, but this one is a little different. Not four colors , but three, and it is not shaped (for an eleven-year-old, c’mon…) and, I used up some left over stash Malabrigo Sock yarn for the lace, which is… um… quite a bit finer than the yarn of the rest. Not enough to get worried over. And just like the original in last post, the lacework is the feature of the design, an unlikely pairing with stripes, but hey, they get along wonderfully ! No fights in the playground yet . . .

Waiting patiently

now , for their girls to sweetly adorn,

I’ve got them folded away from distracting last-minute changes.

This sign I have had propped up on my spinning wheel by my knitting loft door, well, I’m so pleased that what seemed a daunting task a month ago when I hadn’t even started them, is now….

done & dusted !

As I am presently working like a pair of oxen writing the pattern for Penny Candy Tee, that will be coming up next, for Spring knitting ! Details found on Ravelry HERE

Off The Needles

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Jen

. . . Two weeks later.

I realize this post is nearly identical to the previous one, but March is half through, and warming up, and had this little tee gone as expected, I’d have been finished last week. No complaints, though designing rarely is smooth and without challenge. Ripped back in a drastic way a couple times changing course. Tee One for Niece Who Is Fourteen is just now off the needles, ready to weave in all the ends, kitchener graft the underarms, and wash & block. I will only have time to breathe a big sigh of relief, and not skip a beat… on to Tee Two for Niece Who Is Eleven. Sweaters in my life always come in two’s. 🙂 LOVE IT ! Too much fun for just one person ! Will I… must I … can I possibly … have both of them ready for the equinox??? Stay tuned…

Sweater Success !

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Jen

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This Spring’s sweater tees are once again a success and my nieces made them into a photo sensation !!! Chasing the bright morning light around the town of Calistoga, we sought out our favorite spots. The corner of Lincoln and Washington streets, with the intriguing minty blue-green building which is Bella Tootsie Shoe Shop, and our ‘cover photo’ signature most every time.

A close-up of one of the sweater tee detail, lighting just right so that you can see the single-row pin-striping of two colors alternating, and the raglan decreases through the ribbed neck band, with cord bind-off …

Such fine pin-stripes of light green & light blue, and light purple & smokey grey aren’t even visible unless one is up-close. Even just a couple of feet away, the colors melt into one another, creating a perfect blend , as these two sisters do . . .

The mural off of Lincoln Street is our essential destination in every photo shoot !

We enjoyed just hanging about in town too, always bustling with folk from the whole Napa Valley and beyond . . .

There was the mandatory ice-cream ~ raspberry sorbet & strawberry cheesecake ~ which is always the last shot I get before the camera protests with no memory left !