This weekend Stephanie and I took a DIY screenprinting class at Brooklyn Artists’ Gym. She and I have been talking about taking screen printing classes for awhile now and when we came across this class (for way cheaper than any other ones we’ve seen!) we jumped on it.

When trying to figure out what I should do for the image to screen, I immediately thought about doing my nipper jellyfish logo. I, however, am not a drawer, so I was a little worried about what my version of the illustration would look like. So I practiced. A lot. Like filled an entire notebook of graph paper up with drawings. Good thing I have stacks of graph paper notebooks all over the house.

I had a “Graphic Arts” class in Junior High, so I remembered how you did the screenprint process, but I didn’t remember what kind of outcome you could expect from it. Junior High was a long. time. ago. I think I was conflating screen printing with woodblock printing, because I kept thinking I would need to make a big, chunky drawing. So the first half of my notebook is full of fat Sharpie drawings. They would be nice for a woodblock print, but not really what I wanted. (BAG also has a block printing class – maybe I’ll do that next… I love taking classes.)

But then I realised, once the teacher started talking about the process and how fine the lines could be, I figured out that I could do much more detail and get a drawing much closer to the actual logo. So the next half of the notebook is full of Sharpie fine point drawings where I tried desperately to get all the different elements to come out right: The jellyfish head had to be just so. You couldn’t have too many tentacles because it would get cluttered, but you also couldn’t have too few or it wouldn’t look sufficiently jellyfish-like. That little tshirt? Seems easy, but it was not. I also wanted to change the alignment of the drawing. Since this wasn’t a true logo I didn’t need the “nipperknits” to be the main focus, so I made the jelly bigger and made it all vertical.

I got a drawing I was pretty ok with, but once I tranferred it onto acetate it just didn’t do it for me. This was take 1. I made a different one after that where I think I got the jelly head and the tentacles just right. I’m not totally in love with the shape of the tshirt, but it looks pretty good.

This is Stephanie tracing her kickass geometric print onto acetate. She did some awesome stuff with her print!

Take 2 of the drawing, on the final screen. Woo woo woo!

They give you 5 tote bags to try out your screens on. I think it looks even better printed than it did in the drawing. There’s some real depth there!

My first couple prints came out a little light at the bottom. Push harder! But by the end, I was coming out with some great ones!

This doesn’t give you a great idea of color, but I brought in a gray jersey scarf and printed on that with red. The colors are awesome together – it looks really cool.

And I brought in a tshirt for me to print my jellyfish knitting a tshirt. Love it!

Screen printing verdict: Completely fun and exciting. Instant gratification craft. Absolutely in love with it. Maybe not enough to go out and buy the lamps to turn my bathroom into a darkroom or to make screens often, but I would totally take another class if I were to come up with a different idea to print.

I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with all these totes. (I’m totally wearing that tshirt and scarf at some point. Probably not together though.) And we kept the screens, so I could buy ink and make more… of something. What do you think? What should I do with these?

I don’t really knit from other people’s patterns anymore, but I am constantly inspired by what other designers are putting out. One of the most inspiring, gifted and original independent designers out there right now is Olga Buraya-Kefelian. She self-published her first book last year, Ori-Ami Knits.

One of her most recent patterns, Issey, really caught my eye as it was immediately obvious that she had also been inspired by Issey Miyake’s Pleats Please line – the same inspiration as my recent hat – Miyake. I love when two designers have the same inspiration and come up with drastically different designs. I approached her about doing an interview with me to talk about inspiration, wearability and some of her upcoming designs. I hope you enjoy it!

Olga and I also have a great giveaway for you. Check at the end to see how to enter to win.

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So I’ve gotten to the yoke part of the pleated neck. Here’s where it gets interesting! Math, short rows, shaping at the same time as other shaping… Love it!

I can’t wait to show you the final product on this. It’s going to look amazing. Check out the beginnings of those little cap sleeves. Too cute. I’m having such a love affair with this yarn. It’s going to need a good blocking to even out the stitches a little bit, but the depth of color and the this yarn feels is straight up delicious. I can only imagine how much more fantastic it will be once it gets a good wet blocking.

Yeay, knitting!

I have the best fake Cousin in the whole world. Norma sent me her Rose Jam and Basil Jam. My freezer is so full of deliciousness it’s hard not to just eat it out of the jar.

She sent it to me last week, but with work being insane and the post office being difficult, the poor jam had to spend a couple days at the post office. I felt so bad – I was really afraid it would be ruined. I quickly unwrapped it and shoved it in the freezer to save it. Poor jam.

I waited a full day before opening them, just to make sure they were ok. That as a long day too, because honestly, there’s only so long I can wait.

Every year I want to go visit Norma for jam making time. Every spring I think about planning a trip up for the summer. By the time summer comes around and jam is being made, I’ve forgotten to plan it – again. Clearly, I need to set myself a memo to go off next May to actually put the trip together. I really, really want to smell the smell of the rose jam coming together. The end product is fantastic, but I think the process of making it would be truly amazing.

Norma suggested the basil jam would go really well with pears and crackers. She was right, it really was delicious.

And when I’m not eating the rose jam off the spoon, it’s really good with vanilla ice cream.

Thanks so, so much, Norma. These are amazing!

PS. I say Best Jam in the World, but I have a couple friends who make jam and I don’t want them to feel left out. Moira’s Moiramalade is a part of my every day balanced breakfast. They’re all super amazing and I’m so super lucky to have friends who send me delicious food.

My Young Man was out of town this weekend working. I tend to get out more and do more girl-friendly stuff when he’s out of town. Like ice cream for breakfast and farmer’s market and friend visits. Or maybe not so much girl-friendly as Jenn-friendly.

I’ve been hearing fantastic things about Amorino’s gelato since they opened their first store in the States (in NY, good choice!), so Saturday morning I got up and headed into the city for an ice cream breakfast. They do the most lovely “bloom” style cones made with a center cone-shaped scoop of one flavor, then add on “petals” of other flavors on the outside with spatulas. The flavors were so delicate, not overly sweet and super delicious, the presentation didn’t really need to be pretty to be good, but it didn’t hurt. And it was a great breakfast. Seriously, I almost got a second cone.

The center is banana, the petals are vanilla with dark cherries and almond cookie. Probably I should have gotten different colors for the different flavors… Maybe I’ll go back soon and get a different picture for you. Of course, all for you…

I think this might be a new stop on the list of places I go when I have new people in town.

Then I went to the farmer’s market. That was the “real” reason I went into the city – the gelato was just an exciting perk. I’ve been wanting to make peach bourbon popsicles for awhile now… I’ve seen a couple recipes for them, but when People’s Pops put up their recipe I figured it was time.  Maybe I’m showing my Southern roots a little, but when it hits June I just assume it’s peach season. Apparently not so much in New York. There wasn’t a peach to be seen at the market. It was very sad. I want peach popsicles, dammit! It’s really, really hot. And a cold peach or a peach milkshake or a peach popsicle go with summer like hot toddies and winter. So I guess I’m going to start stalking the farmer’s market in a couple weeks waiting for those first sweet, juicy, delicious ripe peaches. I can’t wait. And I’ll just drink the bourbon until then.

I did manage to get quite a haul at the market, even though there weren’t any peaches. Chamomile, some large leaf lettuce, garlic scapes (which I roasted), eggs, strawberries, flowering sage (which I cooked in the eggs – it was an amazing flavor), middle east cucmbers (they have an almost dill flavor naturally. Delicious.), and a chipotle chevre (I almost fell over when I tasted that. Creamy, a little spicy, incredibly complicated flavor – fantastic).

I also did a rush tech editing job for one of Stefanie Japel‘s new Craftsy classes, Stephanie came over and watched Doctor Who with me, and Juno came over Sunday. That’s when I made the eggs and garlic scapes and she made awesome gluten-free muffins. It was an amazing brunch. And a super productive weekend. I didn’t get all the knitting done that I wanted to, but I’m at a math-heavy moment in my Pleated Sweater and make some swatching decisions for the next projects (Plans!). Not exactly hanging out with friends knitting. But that’s ok!

And some random market photos:

I’m always a sucker for the yarn stands. They’re gorgeous colors… I just get a little confused to see meat and yarn sold at the same place.

So, I’m coming down from my Post TNNA High a little bit. Still have new plans, still have exciting new things on the horizon, just not quite so wired. It’s possible a lot of that was from all the DayQuil.

I want to show you some of my goodies from TNNA. I didn’t really get that much. I tried not to be greedy. I just grabbed a couple yarns that I thought I might be interested in working with in the near future.

Blue Sky Alpacas has brought out a new yarn called Techno. It’s a silk/alpaca blend that’s soft and super lofty. What’s amazing is how they make it. It’s “baby alpaca … blown into a mesh tube of silk”. Crazy. And genius! It feels so soft and smooshy  in the skein and it feels even more smooshy and amazing all knitted up. There were a couple sweaters all worked up in it (you know I was dying for this one) that I really wanted to take home with me. I get the feeling I’ll be working with this  in the near future.

Alisha Goes Around was the star indie-yarn-dyer of the show for the Independent Designers. Her colors are flat-out amazing and her yarn bases were fantastic. The red you see (there’s no possible way that color came out right in photo) is the most vibrant tomato red you’ve ever  seen in real  life. It’s in the Panoply (of Peacocks) Fingering Weight yarn (merino, cashmere, nylon) and is soft…. so soft. It cries out to be worn next to skin. It might actually be the next thing I cast on. I can’t stop touching it. The green is a bottle green I can’t not pick up. I have so much stuff in that color it’s ridiculous. This yarn is called Tracks (of Bison) and it’s merino and bison down. It’s super tightly spun, so it’s a firm, hardwearing yarn, but the bison down keeps it nice and soft. I bet it would be great for socks. Maybe the Young Man needs a pair of bright green socks…

This is what I was working on while I was at TNNA. Hey, look, you’ve seen this before! It looks remarkably like it did before, masses of stockinette stitch, there’s just more  of it. This is the Front to the armholes and the Back  almost to the armholes. I’m super excited. I’m almost to the fun part of this sweater. I don’t mind that I’ve been just working on stockinette lately though. It’s about all I have the brain power to do. Lamorna wasn’t hard, but I always need a tiny (low brain power) break after deadline knitting. This Pleated sweater has become deadline knitting (PLANS!), but at least it’s easy. And the color is so nice to  look at, I keep finding myself stopping knitting to pet it and look at the color variation.

I’m back from TNNA. Sick as a dog, but buzzing with excitement from all the things I saw, people I talked to, future plans and schemes made.

First off, let me introduce you to my new friend, Lamorna.

It’s made of Lorna’s Laces (check our their new website! Isn’t it amazing?) new yarn, Solemate. This grainy mannequin photo doesn’t quite do it justice, but I’ll have more photos for you soon. I’ll finish up the pattern this week, get it off to Alison (in fact, let me email her about availability right now… Done) for tech editing, get it all formatted and ready to go so we can photograph it as soon as Amanda and Beth send it back to me. Let’s say it’ll be available in… 2 weeks? I think that sounds about right.

It’s a fitted little cardigan (perfect for retro-y dresses and pencil skirts – my favorite!) with 3/4-length sleeves, a square neckline and closes with a hook and eye tape. That hook and eye tape is awesome. A little fiddly to put in, totally doable though. All the new colors Lorna’s is bringing out are gorgeous, but I think I got the very best one though.  I keep checking their blog to see when they’re going to release the new colors.

So, you may be wondering about the name. Lamorna. I don’t know why, but it spoke to me. It was the one I was most drawn to of all the first suggestions of names. Partly because the word feels nice on my tongue, but what it is – a supposedly haunted town in Cornwall where mermaids sang men to their deaths – while a little gruesome, is awesome! And then Alli hit the nail on the head for me. She said it had a romantic sound to it. And that was it. That’s totally the feeling I was getting from both the name and the sweater. Romantic. Perfect for a mermaid sweater. So for suggesting the name chosen, I’ll order Stephanie enough Solemate to make Lamorna in her color of choice. And I wasn’t planning on doing this, but since she clarified my thinking so much, I’ll send Alli 2 skeins of Solemate in the new green colorway.

Guys, I’m positively buzzing from TNNA. It was really fantastic to be around other semi-professional and professional knitters. I loved hanging out with other independent designers, yarn makers, catching up with the ladies at Vogue, meeting new contacts with yarn companies. It was fantastic. I love my workwork job, but honestly? This is what I want. This is where my heart is. Designing new interesting things, helping other independent designers with their tech editing, creating, making, doing. I’m really interested to see what the knitting industry is going to look like in 10 years, and let me tell you, I’m going to be part of it. I have PLANS, people.

I think I’m ready for TNNA. Sweater (basically) finished, named and ready to go. It’ll be available next week. I’ve picked out clothes to style the little mannequin that will be wearing the sweater. I have new business cards from moo.com. Aren’t they awesome!? Registered, plane ticket bought, rooming with Amy Herzog. Ready to go.

Now I’m having a very hard time concentrating on anything else. I keep thinking I’ve forgotten something. What am I forgetting, people? This week is going to be rough.

Names are hard. Really hard. It has to evoke a mental image in your knitters. The meaning and feeling of the word must match the feeling of the sample. It has to flow from your lips easily. It must be easy to remember. It must set your piece apart from others. And from a practical standpoint, it has to be easily searchable on Ravelry.

Case in point: A few people suggested Ondine as a name for the new sweater. Pretty word, perfect for the sweater, cool mermaid reference, love it - too bad a search on Ravelry comes up with pages of projects already named Ondine.

Thank you all so much for your suggestions! Naming is one of the hardest parts of doing sweater designs for me and you’ve all made that job so much easier! Here are my top choices, taking all these criteria into account, as well as my own picky nature. Would you let me know which you like best? In no particular order:

Lorica – Greek for “armor”

Scylla – sea nymph

Hadal – Greek for “like Hades”, it means the deepest reaches of the ocean

Lamorna – suposed haunted site in Cornwall where mermaids sang men to their deaths

Flosshilde – one of the water-nymphs from Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen

What do you think? Any more suggestions?

Thanks for the excitement about our engagement! We’re really excited. Not really making any plans yet, just enjoying this new feeling. And feeling a little overwhelmed by the idea of all the planning we have ahead of us.

I’ve not been around very much lately. So. Busy. I know I say this all the time, but really, I’m dying over here from working too much. I got a promotion at workwork earlier this year and changed divisions. I was really excited for the move, because I was a little underworked and under-utilized in my last position. I was bored and it was bad for my emotional well-being. Welcome to an abject lesson in “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it”. I love the new job – lots to do, lots of new things to learn, lots of responsibility. Not bored at all now! But really, so so busy.

It’s hard to have time to write here and show you all the things I’m working on when I’m so super busy and when I’m working secret hush-hush projects. What’s ok to show off? What’s off limits? We’re coming up really quickly on TNNA, so I feel comfortable giving you a sneak-y peek at the new sweater I’m doing in Lorna’s Laces new yarn, Solemate.

I need you guys to come up with names. Mermaid- or Fish- or Scales-related names. I’m not sure how well it comes across in the photo, but the pieces look so mermaid-y! It’s so interesting how a stitch pattern will evoke different feelings in different yarns and different colors. I was originally going to be doing this in a yellows-colorway and it would have a completely different feel than this beautiful mottled forest green.

Put your name suggestions in the comments and I’ll have an awesome prize for the person who comes up with the best name.