a bit of aaaah

i am on vacation.

the exact same place where we meet up with my cousins each year

is where we are right now.

the little kids

keep getting taller

and other life type things change,

but the you can always hear the ocean from the front porch at night

and we still have the best french toast in town

hands down.

i’ve been playing for a few minutes here and a bit of free time there with cestari yarn.

cestari cable swatchthere’s nerts (our family tradition card game)

nertsand flip flops on the painted floors.ballgame nightmostly there’s just enough familiarmonday morningmixed with just enough newIMG_1127

to equal out at positively relaxing.

in my opinion, that’s the perfect family vacation.

‘family’ taken from 24:41 of genesis.

against the tempest

in polish

‘burza’ means ‘storm’.

in my mind, if this extra super bulky weight

merino & tussah silk blend can’t keep gale force winds off your neck,

then no yarn can.

IMG_1508sq

only leaking a sneak peek today,

but the new pattern will be coming out soon.

for now, you can check out the tjockt yarns here and at your local yarn store.

‘storm’ taken from 55:8 in the psalms.

peephole

most days i hardly know how my own mind works,

between guarding my tongue, raising up my kids, and the rapid fire of creative ideas,

if i keep my temper and manage to make progress on something

i feel successful.

maybe that’s why i love reading interviews

with other designers (and engineers and teachers and rocket scientists)

because i’m fascinated at how differently, as individuals,

we see and interpret the world.

my friend, tracy purtscher,

has just announced that she is going to go back through

the designs she created during the fiber factor challenges 2 yrs ago

and let us peek into her process.

i’m relishing this chance to be a fly on an inside wall

of her mind#27 fringed scarf collage

where there’s as clear a view

as possible

of how

she thinks.

her first post in the series is here.

i can’t wait for the next.

‘clear’ taken from 3:13 of first corinthians.

a new angle

the thing about having magazines publish your patterns

is that so much of it becomes out of my control as a designer.

in most cases,

they choose the colors,

they rename the pattern, they take the photos, and they rewrite the pattern.

that leaves me, the designer, with the original ideaIMG_8666

and the actual knitting.

no more, no less.

this is not all bad stuff

(unless you’re a bit of a control freak).

i mean,

i’ve knit with colors that i’ve loved

and never would have chosen.

i’ve read my patterns after rewrites and found ways to improve future patterns

that i most likely never would have thought of myself.

i’ve also learned to be stretched by

the look of other people’s interpretations

and to remain open to allowing myself to grow

during the process.

still, i usually have the feeling that there’s stuff i either

wanted the pattern to say or wanted to say about the pattern

that doesn’t get said when it’s published.

that’s what a blog is for, right?

so, here are the myriad of ways that i’d wear the #27 fringed scarf

which you didn’t see in the latest issue of noro magazine:

#27 fringed scarf collageit’s really pretty versatile, isn’t it?

can you tell that i get easily bored and like lots of options?

true fact.

‘stretched’ taken from 38:5 of job.

the reveal

late this past winter,

string theory yarn company

asked if i would design with dream in color’s ‘canyon’ for a mystery kal.

i jumped at the chance. what fun!

i knew that i wanted to

design a hat, but how to keep it a mystery?

i mean once you start knitting in the round on size 16″ circulars…

a hat is everyone’s first guess, right?

but earlier this winter

i had knit up a super warm, oversized braided hat

(the ‘nomadic nights slouch’ by holly priestley)

her construction was such that you knit the brim flat

and then joined in the round.

that might be enough of a novelty

to throw people off track in guessing ‘hat’,

and ‘tohutohu‘ was born.

the mystery kal has just ended, so now:

tohutohu hat collagei chose really mildly contrasting colors,

but some of the other knitters picked things that really pop!

i’ll collect some of their pretty photos soon

to make a collage for you to ooh and ahh over.

i love seeing what color combos

other knitters knit.

don’t you?

‘thrown’ taken from 6:30 of matthew.

emerging theme

IMG_1347cropdo you see it?

i am apparently in a bit of a favorite color rut

as these are the colors in my latest project and 3 new designs.

although, ‘rut’ isn’t really the right word for it since i’m happy as a pig in mud about it.

i guess i’m in a red/orange groove.

let the beat play on.

‘happy’ taken from 128:2 of the psalms.

note: yarns shown above from right to left:

swan’s island ‘bulky’, classic elite yarns ‘chateau’, 2 tones of schulana ‘cashmere trend’

and cascade ‘ultra pima fine’.

 

sequential

i just wanted to knit.

something straight forward and nearly mindless,

in stockinette stitch and a stashed bulky weight yarn.IMG_1267+

but, the indian lake artisans needles that i wanted to use

were still in a hat that i’d started at vklive ny in january.

nothing, somedays it feels like

absolutely nothing, is a straight line in my life.

so, since the hat in classic elite yarns chateau was nearly done

i thought i’d just whip through the decreases lickety split

until i saw this:IMG_1266+

why didn’t i write down what i did as i went along?

huge designer no-no, unless you like to painstakingly stare at your knitting

trying to jump start your memory as you count

stitch by stitch to record what

 you think that you probably did when you were knitting it in the first place

and thought that you’d never forget – so why write it down?

deep sigh.

the thing is that it’s not that complicated of a hat,

i just didn’t want to take the time.

i wanted to be knitting with the richly red swan’s island bulky. IMG_0532+deep sigh again.

i did, for the record, figure out how i’d knit the chateau hat.

i wrote it all down and i finished the decreases.

it felt good

to have accomplished something

that i’m really happy with. i know that i’ll wear a lot in the fall.

patience is a virtue.  it’s true, especially when it doesn’t feel like it.

it’s probably most true then.

‘patience’ taken from 21:19 of luke.

the papahood

father’s day

is pretty much like any other day at our house.

the kids still need what they need.

david and i still spend most of our time making sure that they get it.

bedtime is still snacks and a family story, singing and good night prayers.28b294360e8e07aeb0d26618132a3c76it’s good.

we know it won’t last forever.

the wee ones get taller and older everyday.

so for now,

we’re both busy and grateful.

especially today we are grateful for papa.

‘grateful’ taken from 4:6 of jonah.

public-ly

so it started out as me

finding a place to knit in public.

well, it was me and the pond, blue skies and the soothing sound of falling water,

IMG_0587temand a bunch of guys spread along the shore fishing.

i had knitting and ice cream and…

IMG_0598cropthen, i got a little distracted by how gorgeous everything around me was.

i mean take a look.  can you blame me?

IMG_0589roso, you know i have this thing for rocks.

which means i was off on another tangent when i was watching my step

and looked down to see this:

IMG_0604temtake a gander at that sky.  just wow.

when i finally picked up my knitting (and what remained of the ice cream)

i also took away this overwhelming sense of gratitude.

the Creator really knows how

to create beauty.

 and again,

wow.

‘Creator’ taken from 40:28 of isaiah.