Jobo Designs

While trying to get myself excited about starting to blog again, and creating a new Facebook page, to try and reach a different audience... I started looking at some old project photos to try and get my mojo running.

Let's just say, I didn't get a large volume of projects completed in the last few years, but I love love love many of the things I did manage to make :)  Just seeing them makes me daydream about the fun I had through the process, and makes me wonder what else I can come up with.

I've been sketching in my design book again, and going downstairs to the studio and just staring at the piles of yarn.  It's a little depressing that I don't really have much time or energy to throw into this kind of stuff lately, but I know I can get back there eventually... someday.  The days when I sleep more than a few hours, I'm actually feeling almost human.  This morning, on the other hand - is a two-coffee-minimum type of morning!

Without further ado:  Here are some of the photos that caught my eye! (Click the Photos for links to some original articles)

Magic Mirror Mittens

Vernal Equinox in Handspun Merino Silk

Lilac Leaves Estonian Stole

Being off work is taking some getting used to?. 

The first weird thing? is that I?m actually ?done? done with that job, and when I return to work after the baby, I actually will be going back to the Hospital where I worked previously.  So not only am I finished of work and going to be home for an entire month before the baby gets here? I?m actually feeling a bit of a loss from knowing that things are just ?over?.  It will be fine to be back working at the hospital I?m sure, but at the same time it kind of feels like a chapter is ending.  It?s a bit strange to be so nostalgic about the whole thing really.

The other weird thing is the complete lack of a routine I have going on.  I try to get up reasonably early in the morning, but with no specific place to be at any specific time, I?m finding it a challenge to feel accomplished or organized in any way.  I?ve been doing some knitting, trying to take some naps, get some errands run, and even doing some baking (see Cinnamon Buns below? oh so yuimmy!) and still haven?t found my pace completely yet. 

Here?s hoping things get a little more comfortable soon :)  On the positive side ? the little beastie is growing and progressing just as planned.  In fact s/he is kicking mommy in ribs as I type this!

I made a pair of hand-dyed, hand-spun and hand-knit Fiddlehead mittens last year . It was an epic project, and every step was done by hand.  I love the results (which you can see here)  but when someone asked if I could make another pair, I didn’t really feel up to the challenge of doing it all the hard way again.  Don’t get me wrong - the first pair was a complete joy, it’s just that if I go through all of those steps to make another pair of mittens, I’ll likely want to be creating something more unique in the end.  I don’t tend to make the same thing more than once.

So, then the hunt began for some suitable yarn.  I could do as the pattern says, and just buy the 6 different colors and this would have been fine also, but I would have enough yarn to make like 4 more pairs (if the second pair is an unwelcome thought, believe me, the 3rd and 4th pairs would simply not get done) and there really isn’t any point in that. 

Then it occurred to me that I could get a color changing / color gradient yarn and use it for the contrast strand instead of all of the different solids!  I knew I wouldn’t really want to use something like Noro (both for the price, and the unpredictability of color sequencing) but there are a lot of different options out there now.  I can’t remember the name of the one I saw at Michael's but I believe it was mostly acrylic, so I didn’t bother looking any harder at it for this project.  I bet it would work lovely too (I think it was Impeccable, something like that).  The next yarn I saw that fit the bill was the new Knit Picks Chroma Worsted.  From the catalog, it looked like there were repeating colors in the ball, and there was also a white or chocolate brown option for the solid to match.  I figured this was a perfect chance to try it out, so I ordered a ball of the cream/natural and a contrasting ball with a variety of greens/blues/purples called “pool party”

So far things seem to be working out quite well.  I like the texture and softness of the yarn (though I don’t think it’s really all that rough and tumble it’s a barely together single really) and the way the gradient is running through the design.  The colors are different enough for the nice swirl pattern to still stand out.  I’ll be interested to see how the lighter green holds up in contrast to the white in the end. 

I’ve made it up past the thumb on the first mitten, and plan on finishing the pair for sure.  I am really enjoying doing colorwork on a pair of long circulars too no gaps in between DPNS, and no fussing with the beginning and ends of rows.  I still very much like working with DPNS, but circulars certainly have their advantages too! 

As the mitten progresses, I’ll post again!  I think these are going to look great in the end!