White Iris Collection

Like last week, my walks through Jamaica Plain inspired my colorways. This week, white iris stole my heart. I just love their crinoline lady look, with their lacy petals, and their soft pastel hint of a color.
These are again very different colorways for me. I have never done a collection based on variations of white. Here, like last week, I focused on creating very subtle gradations from the palest white, to amore sustained color. The results make me so happy. The colorways are like the crinoline ladies, as soft and fresh as the iris that inspired them.

Enjoy the White Iris Collection.

I was remiss in my last post - HERE's a link to the complete Longfellow poem. It is really beautiful. I will get the pattern written up for the Lulu store soon - I only hope Knitpicks' doesn't discontinue any of the Palette colors by then.

Speaking of Christmas, last year DH didn't get me a gift as I instead asked for him to take me to Gallup, NM to buy me a piece of Indian jewelry. The trip finally happened and here's the bracelet I chose. It is Zuni and the artist's name is Quinton Quam. It features a blue jay, hummingbirds, and cardinals.




Here's downtown Gallup - it is the destination for people looking to buy Navajo, Hopi, or Zuni jewelry. Years ago I ordered from Virtual Yarns and I received a nice email from Alice Starmore recounting how she once purchased a bolo in Gallup. I've always wondered if that is the bolo she is wearing in her photo for her Fair Isle knitting book.



On the side of one of the buildings is a mural devoted to the Navajo code talkers - one guy is even holding a bunny!




We met up with my brother-in-law Dave from Phoenix and his partner Matt. Matt's family owns a cattle ranch in the Cibola National Forest where they camp in the Ponderosa pines. There is even a lake in the distance.

Here's a mama with her brand new baby hiding behind her.

Here's my latest project. I charted out the first stanza of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Christmas Bells" poem on a mitten. Longfellow had endured a tragic couple of years - first his wife died from a freak accident then his son was severely wounded in the Civil War. He wrote the poem on Christmas Day 1864 - here's the first stanza:

"I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old familar carols play

And wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, goodwill to men."

I'm using three colors of Knitpick's Palette - white, ivy and pimento (a really lovely red). This project is going pretty fast - I just love knitting letters.

Black Iris

I get my color inspirations from varied sources. Sometimes it is the work of a painter, sometimes a country, and at times the simplest thing can inspire a whole collection. This is exactly what happened this week.

I went for a walk in my lovely neighborhood of Boston, Jamaica Plain. Jamaica Plain is a sort of paradise. Imagine living in a great city, but instead of crowded dark buildings, and concrete everywhere, you have lovely victorian houses with gardens full of flowers, beautiful trees shading the streets, a great downtown with restaurants that serve delicious foods from all over the world, the best thrift store in town, Boomerangs, and of course the majestic Jamaica pond...But back to my walk.



I saw the most beautiful black iris in a garden, and got a rush of coloways passing through my head. I saw black and ruby, black and amethyst, black and tourmaline... I went home and started working... I wanted the colors to have both black and jewel tones, and I wanted smooth transitions. I opted for gradations from a practically pure jewel tone to the deepest black with a touch of jewel.
The results would make any black iris proud!



Enjoy this week's Black Iris Collection.

Tesuque

Today's blog road trip highlights the beauty of Tesuque, NM which is a few miles north of Santa Fe. We were there last week and it was incredibly green.

The first 3 photos were taken at Shidoni Sculpture Gallery. Way back when I started the mitten booklet I had the idea to use Shidoni as the backdrop for some mitten photos but life intervened.










Shidoni has a foundry where you can watch metal being cast. All the sculptures are for sale if you happen to have an extra $20K or so in your pocket.









We ended up in a national forest area (Upper Pacheco Canyon??) and although I was too far to get a great photo, you could see the Santa Fe Opera house in the distance.








Someone was growing a garden at the bottom of this valley.






I have a new Christmas project (It is never too early to start!) to show you next.

A Little Bit of Fabric

I have 2 favorite stores in Boston, Windsor Button, and Winmill Fabrics. I get my yarn, notions, buttons, and embroidery supplies from one, and my fabrics from the other.I am afraid to say it, but I do have a fabric stash... and a yarn stash... and a button stash... and a notions stash... Well, you know, one cannot be too cautious, what if there was ever to be a shortage of fabric, or yarn, or buttons, or...!
The other day, I had gone to Winmill fabrics to pick up an elastic band for a skirt I was making for my daughter, when, and I wasn't even trying to really browse the fabrics at all, this butterfly fabric caught my eye.



I had to have it. What could I make with it though? It was all down hill from there. I could make a quilt, but I needed fabrics to go with it. I picked the striped one, and then all the others...



I can't wait to play with them, they say spring and summer, and happy days to me! But first I'll have to finish my son's crochet blanket, and the embroidered pillow case, and ...

No piggies today for you but here are some toes. I had to change the length of most of the toes to fit my feet - my little toe was much longer and my middle toe was much shorter. You can tell the middle toe is still too long in this photo.





My feet really don't like wearing toe socks so I'm in a quandary about these socks. I am planning to give everything I knit this year (except any socks I need and DH's Dale sweater) to the rabbit rescue people to sell at a garage sale but I'm not sure anyone will want piggy socks in non-machine washable yarn. Therefore I'm putting these socks aside until I figure out what to do.



Speaking of the rescue garage sale (the one I knit 10 zillion rabbit finger puppets for), I wanted to show you what the money they raised was used for. This is a fancy rabbit cage to fit six bunnies for the city animal shelter to use. You can see the cage at the Lucky Paws shelter in the Coronado Mall in Albuquerque.