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

Up to my ears in knitting, lol

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December – Woosh! Where has the month gone? For me, the clock always seems to speed up as the holidays approach and the year is ending!

My month started off with teaching a class at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown NC for their Holiday in the Mountains week. This was a special holiday class I titled A Winter Wonderland in Beads and Knitted Lace. I had four enthusiastic and wonderfully creative students – Tricia, Ginny, Alice and Reyn. Check out Tricia’s blog where she shares her photos from the Friday afternoon showing.

John is visiting for Christmas, and my son and daughter are in town, but other than that I am not having very much time for holiday celebrations. I am up to my ears in knitting!

I have a rush project for Mountain Colors and Lorna’s Laces which I just couldn’t bring myself to turn down (I really liked the marketing premise and it has good potential), so I can blame no one else but myself for getting into this time pinch. That, along with the other new patterns I hope to release next month and various samples for yarn companies have me busy-busy-busy. But I am happy and life looks good.

As a member of Association of Knitwear Designers (AKD), I volunteered to knit some Some GWOY yarnsswatches for the Great Wall of Yarn (GWOY) that will be displayed at the TNNA trade show in Long Beach CA next month. Here are the yarns that I will be swatching.

As just one of the many benefits of being an AKD member, it is sort of neat to get to see and work with new yarns and colors — sometimes even before they are released! I’ll post more information about each yarn over the next few days, along with pictures of the display samples I am playing around with.

Enjoy the week of holiday celebrations! Happy Christmas Eve and blessed Christmas Day to you and yours.

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The Designing Day

Off the needles and onto the needles …

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Wisps of Smoke stitch detailJust off the needles and blocking now: A stitched model for a new design that I’ve titled “Wisps of Smoke Ring”. It combines the heavy drape of Tilli Tomas Rock Star and Plié silk yarns, the lightness and fluidity of lace, and the sparkle of beads. I really hate to part with this baby – very pleased with how it has turned out – but need to mail it off to Tilli Tomas this week for their photography session.

Schaefer Andrea Scarf WrapAnother just off the needles and to-be-blocked: A lace wrap in a new design technique that I will publish a pattern for that “reconstructs” the color sequences of hand-dyed variegated yarn; this one uses Schaefer Yarns Andrea 100% silk in the Elena Piscopia colorway. If you get the sense that I like silk, you aren’t wrong, lol.

Next to go on the needles: Project samples for a week long class titled ” A Winter Wonderland in Beads & Knitted Lace ” that I am teaching at John C. Campbell Folk School starting Dec 2. Yikes – that’s only a few days away. I really have to get crackin’ on these.

Have a good week! 

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Musings

Did you write me?

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damaged-letterf.jpgLook what showed up from the post office. Pretty pathetic, heah?

The results of this post office mutilation came with the usual “We Care” message, and how sorry they are that the enclosed document was inadvertently damaged. Well, to me it looks like they maimed, beat it to death, and stomped on it some more afterwards just for good measure!

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There is nothing left except a torn and crumpled, blackened front side of a security envelope. I can’t identify whose hand-writing this is. The area where a return address might have been is missing. So I am at a loss as to who had written me and what is missing from inside. Can you help me solve this mystery?

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The Designing Day

Wounded – Beware of sharp things trying to interfere with your knitting

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… or when knitting is not quite as fun as it could be … 

I had the unfortunate experience last week when I cut one of the critical fingers that I use in usual knitting technique to achieve speed, as well as maintain control and gauge. It was a relatively deep gash on the index finger which I use a LOT in my knitting. What a downer. And especially because I was in the middle of making sample models for a book by Donna Druchunas about Dorothy Reade’s lace knitting. I am one of the contributors and will have 2 projects in this book based on Dorothy Reade’s #11 Offset Chevrons stitch pattern that I adapted for embellished beaded knitting. Not only did my finger hurt like h***, but I was really concerned that I would be able to maintain the gauge I had started out with. A bandaid didn’t help – that just got in the way more. But then I had to be very careful that I didn’t continue to pock the needle point into the gash in my finger – ouch!  

I persevered and fortunately I have models for both the hand warmers and socks completed now (and to gauge, yay!). They are on their way to Donna in the mail along with signed contract. Want a sneak-peek?

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Here is one of the hand warmers made up in Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock yarn. The socks are stunning, too, but I want to let Donna present that to you in her book. I hope you will look for the patterns for these hand warmers and the socks when the book comes out later next year.

My finger is feeling much better now and the gash is almost closed up. So it is onto the next deadline project, which is a beaded cowl/smoke ring for Tracy Robinson in her Tilli Tomas Rock Star and Plie Silk yarns. More on that later. 

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Musings

My new distraction is here!

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It’s not like I need another distraction, but I have been dreaming of having a cajun accordian (technically a diatonic accordian in the German melodean style) ever since I fell in love watching Andre of the Lost Bayou Ramblers playing the summer of 2005 (that is how the inspiration for the Concertina Lace Socks design came about).

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Well, my dream has come true finally. When I was over in Lafayette, Louisiana last month for Festivals Acadiens, I went by the Martin Accordians shop beforehand and ordered an accordian to be custom-built for me by Junior Martin. I got a call from him mid-week that he had completed it (yay!), and John picked it up for me on his way over here this weekend. So now I am the proud owner of this beauty in birdseye maple.

Of course, Andre makes playing his accordian look effortless and sound so good (and he is good-looking, too!). I have a LOT of practicing ahead of me to anywhere reach near to that level, lol.

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