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.
Musings, The Designing Day

Re-energized and productive

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I took off for a good part of the summer — Mainly it was to escape the excrutiating high temperatures and > 90% humidity, so our trips took us to the Colorado rockies in July (mildly cool and only 16% humidity – yay!) and to Vancouver, WA in August (fortunately just missed the heat wave; ‘hi’ to Ann and Bob of Elann – thanks so much for the wonderful dinner and company). Along the way, there was plenty of time to ‘smell the roses’ . I think we all owe it to ourselves to sometimes just escape and do something totally for ourselves. I am now feeling more energized and productive than I have in quite some time. We shall see how long this lasts before reality sets in, lol.


new HeartStrings knitting designs in the new Tilli Tomas Symphony Kid Lace yarn
 I am really pumped up about the new Tilli Tomas Symphony Kid Lace yarn. This yarn is a very soft brushed kid mohair plied with a soft glittery metallic thread and tiny glass seed beads.Tracy Robinson (owner and creative director of Tilli Tomas) asked me to design one-, two-, three-skein projects for this yarn. It’s been great fun to create designs that showcase this yarn.

Watch for these new HeartStrings patterns to be released soon: Lace and Cables Scarf, Lace Starlight Stole, and Put on the Glitz Shrug.

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The Designing Day

12 Years in the Making

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Sweet Melody Vest in handspun yarn
 This project was more than 12 years in the making! It actually began around 1996 as the prototype using some of my own handspun yarn of the Sweet Melody Vest design that I just recently officially published. I was off to a great start in 1996 with my idea for the vest. Then when most of the way through the lower body, I got stalled over the fear of not having enough yarn to complete the vest in my size.

There was no more fiber to be had of the same kind, and it wasn’t like I could just go down to the store and get more yarn.

You wouldn’t believe how many times I picked up and put down this project. I really loved the yarn, loved the color, and loved the way the vest was coming out. But I kept trying to figure out a fall-back plan if I did not have enough yarn.

I did proceed on the project design for publication using the commercially available Lorna’s Laces Green Line DK. So now having proved the design and gotten final yardages, I felt I would at least be comfortable in finishing the handspun version for me(!) with the fall-back (literally) plan of using a similar color wool yarn I had hand-dyed on the back of the vest where it might not be as noticeable (at least to me when wearing, lol).

As always when I am concerned about running out of yarn, I just knit faster. So actually, when I got re-started on this ufo, it hardly took me any time to finish. I completed the remainder of the lower body, both upper fronts and upper back in just 2 days!

I did run out of yarn, but not until I was part way through joining the shoulders to the back. There’s a bit of difference that can be seen upon close inspection, but nothing that will bother me now in the least. Yay!

I think I am going to have fun wearing this vest a lot as it is going to be perfect to go with blue jeans that I usually wear these days of ‘retirement’. The yarn is so soft and feels good. I always loved that yarn I had spun and now am so glad I finally was able to complete what I envisioned — even if it took me over a decade, lol.

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The Designing Day

Last weekend’s lace scarf blocked and photo’d!

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Besides being the day to celebrate Thanksgiving, I have a completed project to share with you today! Yesterday was photography session and I snuck in some shots of the narrow scarf version of Elemental Changes Shetland Stole, the HeartStrings pattern that will be released in a couple of weeks.
Elemental Changes Shetland Scarf by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer

This is the knitting I brought along to work on during my travel-time to and from Sophie’s Fall Knitting Retreat where I taught this past weekend. We were at Clifty Falls State Park just across the Kentucky state line in Indiana. Wonderful knitters, accommodations and hospitality all around made for delightful classes and even some knitting down-time for myself in the evenings.

The knitting went quickly on this small scarf, probably because I had not taken my computer along and thus did not have that distraction, lol. As those who saw the knitting-in-progress can likely attest, it didn’t look like much at the time before blocking. It still absolutely fascinates me to block lace and see the finished product so beautifully transformed.

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Musings

Thanksgiving wishes and Bon Appetit!

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For those of you in the USA, have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Whatever makes up your holiday, I hope it is a grand day for you and yours. For those who have loved ones far away, I send hopes that you are reunited soon.  For those who will be traveling during the holiday, I wish you safe journeys.  For those who are cooking, I wish you enthusiastic clean-up crews.  To those who are on clean-up detail, I wish you good luck in fitting all the leftovers into the fridge.   

In keeping with the theme of “Taking Time to Smell the Roses”, my idea these days of Thanksgiving is to let someone else do the cooking. So my man-friend John and I will be heading down to the Thanksgiving buffet at Hotel Intercontinental. Bon Appetit!

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