All posts by Jackie E-S

Jackie E-S is the owner of HeartStrings FiberArts, a showcase for her growing roster of original pattern designs. As a certified master knitter and teacher, Jackie continues to share her love of knitting and knowledge through design and publication of skill-building pattern instructions, and conducting workshops, programs and demonstrations. Her interest in the fiber arts extends beyond knitting and spinning to include weaving, dyeing and all needle arts. She also enjoys contract bridge and music.

Magnificent photos of a magnificent New Orleans landmark

I first met today’s featured blog guest, Sai Chandrasekharan, at my local Apple Store (located in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans). I’ve been taking advantage of One-on-One Personal Training Sessions available through Apple Stores, and Sai was my instructor that day. At the end of the top-notch session, we traded business cards and Sai mentioned he was a photographer. A few days later, I checked out his Flickr site, and discovered amazing photos he has taken of the Mississippi River bridge in New Orleans. With his kind permission, here is a peek at just a few of my favorites with the bridge against the backdrop of nature during sunrise, thunderstorm and moonrise.

Fiery Sky by Sai Chandrasekharan
Fiery Sky
Mississippi River Bridge - 2 by Sai Chandrasekharan
Mississippi River Bridge - 2
Moon Rising by Sai Chandrasekharan
Moon Rising

I hope these will peak your interest in seeing the full-size photos of these and many others he has done. You can view Sai’s entire gallery at www.flickr.com/chandsa. I think you will enjoy his commentary there, too.

As background, the Crescent City Connection, (formerly called Greater New Orleans Bridge before its upgrade from one span to two spans) refers to twin cantilever bridges farthest downstream on the Mississippi River. These twin bridges run between the Central Business District of New Orleans and the Westbank (named for its location on the western bank of the river, even though geographically it actually is southeast of New Orleans!). Due to the Mississippi River’s winding course through the New Orleans area (the river is flowing north at the place where the two bridges cross), the eastbound span actually carries traffic on Business US 90 West, while the westbound span carries traffic East. Not only that, but the river is actually flowing north where the bridges cross.

p.s. Now you know why true New Orleanians do not refer to east, west, north, south. It is always just toward the river, away from the river, etc. lol.

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5 Favorite Tips for Knitting with Handspun

A number of years ago, I took a comprehensive workshop with Rita Buchanan on Knitting with Handspun. In going through some of my old file drawers in efforts to downsize to near-paperless, I came across a short write-up I had compiled of notes taken at this workshop 15 years ago! (SOAR ’95)

The fundamental message of the workshop was

“In a knitting project, the elements for a satisfying outcome happen in both the spinning and knitting.”

Rita is a fantastic teacher. A short blog post here would not do justice to the depth and breadth of what we covered and I learned in this workshop. But there were several points I discovered (or re-discovered) that have served me well through the years. Here are my “top 5” favorites. Whether it is something new to you or just a reminder, I hope you find them useful when knitting with hand spun yarn or even choosing commercially spun yarn.

Tip 1: Any fiber can be knit on a wide range of needle sizes (e.g. US 0 through 10) to achieve ranges of firmness or drape-iness (but there is a fine line between drape and sag!)

Tip 2: When changing needles in a test swatch by more than a couple of sizes, do a row of elongated stitches as follows: k1, yo across the row with the larger of the needles; then drop the yo on the next row. This will eliminate puckering between the two areas of the swatch.

Tip 3: You can increase the amount of fiber by up to 3 times on the same needle size and there is no significant change to the stitch gauge, but it does significantly add to the feeling of bulk and likely will affect the row gauge.

Tip 4: For lace knitting, a higher twist yarn is better for wear and stitch definition.

Tip 5: For 2-color knitting, a lower twist yarn is better because the spaces between the stitches will fill in so just the color shows. (And here is a corollary side benefit of this if you are stranding your colorwork: the lower density of the yarn will also compensate for twice the yarn being accommodated in each row/round.)

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Mardi Gras Parade season gets rolling tonight

Yay! the first Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans rolls tonight, Saturday Feb 19th at 6:30 pm. It’s the Krewe du Vieux parade. I love it for its quaintness, individualism and satiric creativity. Because it winds its way through the narrow streets of the French Quarter, it also is the most traditionally presented with floats pulled by mules, human power, or even 3-wheeled bicycles (rather than the tractors or trucks of the larger well-known parades). Oh yah, did I also mention Krewe du Vieux is quite risque, too? To keep things child-friendly, I had to very selectively go through my photos from last year to find this small fuzzy subset. But I hope it gives you a bit of flavor of this fun, nighttime parade.

The Krewe du Vieux parade is such a treat and I can’t wait to see what they they have in store for this year. I’ve heard the theme is “25 Years Wasted” and the Grand Marshall is Don Marshall, Executive Director of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. Beyond that bit of knowledge is the anticipation of the supporting themes that the participating sub-krewes will present https://www.kredite-vergleich.net/180-monate-laufzeit-kredit. You know that this all has to be about fun, with play-on-words names for the sub-krewes like C.R.U.D.E. (Committee to Revive Urban Decadent Entertainment), Drips and Discharges (the idea for the group began in the Emergency Room of Touro Infirmary), Mama Roux, Mystic Krewe of Spermes, T.O.K.I.N. (Totally Orgasmic Krewe of Intergalactic Ne’er-do-wells), Underwear, Rue de Bourbon, etc. In keeping with world and especially local events like the BP oil spill, the floats are touted to have themes like “TSA – The Good Hands People”, Crude Lubes NewOilands, DRIPILEAKS, Tokin Tea Party, David Semen’s Treme, and more that will probably make more sense when I see them, lol. In any case, I will be there to enjoy it all, and maybe even occasionally yell out “throw me something’ mista”. Oftentimes, outsiders think of Mardi Gras as just the single day festivity. But here in the New Orleans area, Mardi Gras is an entire holiday season. We like to have any excuse for a party. There will be lots of parades rolling between now and Fat Tuesday, March 8th. Com’on down (or up, or over, or whatever) and join the party!  

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KyleAnn loves Peggy

… Peggy’s Shawl, that is.

KyleAnn Williams is a good friend and fellow knitter. She happens to be a designer in her own right, as well as a knitting teacher. And that is why I am particularly flattered that she became so enamored of the Peggy’s Shawl I had designed.

Peggy Shawl in Kid Merino knitted by KyleAnn Williamss
Peggy Shawl in Kid Merino knitted by KyleAnn Williams

I’ve lost count of how many Peggy Shawls that KyleAnn has made. They all are always lovely, but I think this one that KyleAnn knit in Crystal Palace Kid Merino in a strawberry-lime color will always remain my favorite.

You can read more about KyleAnn’s making of the Peggy Shawl in her own words here.

KyleAnn Williams
KyleAnn Williams

I am really fortunate to have had KyleAnn assisting me at the TNNA Shows held in Columbus, OH each June. When TNNA changes its venue in 2013 to a different location, I am not sure what I will do. We have so much fun together. I just wish we lived closer to each other!

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Sheepy Hearts for Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine's Day
Happy Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day! We love you, our faithful blog readers and friends.

Today also kicks off Random Acts of Kindness Week. What a wonderful overlap with Valentine’s Day.

During this week, we are encouraged to make kindness a priority. We probably don’t need a special week for this (hopefully it is something we can keep in mind all 52 weeks of the year). Nevertheless, even though everyone wants to help others, it’s easy to get caught up in our own activities and responsibilities (I know it is for me).

So, this week, I am going to take this special opportunity to reinforce my commitment to perform a not so random act of kindness each day. Need ideas? Check out this site: http://www.randomactsofkindness.org

p.s. The little heart pillows are sachets I needlepointed in Persian wool. My Sheepy friend is a Dora Designs doorstop I purchased at the Charles M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, MT last summer. And that is why this is called “Sheepy Hearts”. 🙂 Actually, I’ve never used Sheepy as a doorstop. She is just too cuddly to be relegated to a mundane job like that.

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