Yarn and Chocolate

Design Inspiration

I can’t always remember the exact moment I get inspired for a new design, but for one of my new designs, I know exactly when it happened.

Last year, I traveled to two gems in the National Park system: Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and Denali National Park. Well, I didn’t actually get into Volcanoes National Park because our small group was there in May for my food biochemistry course, and that is precisely when the volcano was erupting, lava was flowing, and neighborhoods were being destroyed. Luckily, we were far from danger, but our group was impacted by some of Pele’s activities. It definitely made for an interesting and memorable trip.

In August, my husband and I traveled to Alaska and got to spend some time RV-ing in Denali National Park. It was incredible. We camped at the Teklanika Campground and we spend some time hiking around the river bed. At that moment, I was inspired to make a cabled pattern that reminded me of the braided rivers and the flowing lava. I began to take pictures of the rocks and colors to remind me of what I saw so I could translate that into a wrap/sweater and pattern when I got home.

I had other projects in various stages of completion that I had to work on first, so these new designs were delayed a bit. When I finally got to work on this design in January, I was planning to use a less symmetric cabling pattern more like the random intertwining of the rivers of water and flowing lava. However, when I began to plan out the pattern, I determined that it was going to be extremely challenging to knit and nightmarish to chart out for the pattern. Additionally, even though I might admire the randomness of it, in the end, I didn’t think it would be quite as visually appealing as a cabled-pattern with more symmetry. The symmetric cabled pattern was definitely easier to write. So, I opted for a more symmetric cable pattern that is reminiscent of the twists and turns of both the flowing lava and the water in the braided river beds, but is still satisfyingly symmetric.

Now it is August and I’m just putting the finishing touches on the editing and formatting of the pattern. I’ve knit two sample pieces (one is for sale at Bazyli Wearable Art Studio in Door County, Wisconsin and one will be for sale at the Der Bauernhof Farms Trunk Sale in November). Both of these were knit in natural fawn royal baby alpaca from Der Bauernhof Farms. They are just divinely soft and warm. The yarn kits and pattern will be available beginning at Stitches Midwest in August and then through my Ravelry page after that. I have yet to knit the piece for myself in my chosen flowing lava colors (black, silver, and red) because I just ran out of time. But it is still on my to-do list. It seems like the to-do list only ever gets longer, but I’m still optimistic every time I add something to that list. That is why I have an entire closet and six dresser drawers full of yarn, waiting to get moved up in priority on that list.

Welcome!

Welcome fans of knitting and chocolate! I have embarked on this new adventure with the hope of combining these two hobbies of mine. I envision this site as a place to provide support for my knitting patterns and designs, a place to learn and discuss knitting techniques, a place to learn some chocolate facts, with recipes and discussion thrown into the mix.

I am busy writing new patterns for the upcoming Stitches Midwest convention and I wanted to get this site up and running to provide support for those patterns. Look for upcoming hints and videos about techniques that I use while knitting and designing.

I thank all my knitting friends and family for the support and encouragement in this new endeavor. So, be on the lookout for some Ravelry coupon codes and special deals in the weeks following Stitches.

This is definitely an experiment for me, and I’m learning plenty of things along the way.

The following is a list of things that I would like to try with this page:

1. Pattern Support and techniques used for my designs.

I firmly believe you should try to learn something new with each new object you knit. I get easily bored knitting the same things over and over, so my patterns tend to be challenging. With over 25 years of experience as an educator, teaching is part of my daily routine. My goal is to get you to become a better knitter – a knitter who wants to try new things. I want you to be a fearless and successful knitter. So, to that end, this is the place to find the support for techniques that I use in my patterns.

2. Customized Patterns to your size.

Purchasing yarn for a sweater is expensive. Knitting a sweater takes hours and hours of work. You are investing a lot of time, energy, and money into this project. You want it to fit. I am willing to fire up my Excel spreadsheets to customize my patterns for you. That’s right. I can write the pattern to fit you (or whomever you are knitting for) with a few simple measurements and the measurements from your gauge swatch. You can learn how to do this and apply these customization techniques to any pattern.

3. Chocolate with purchase of specific patterns.

Each year, I hope to offer a special pattern that will include chocolates during my chocolate season (October through March). I won’t be selling the chocolates – they will only come with the pattern or pattern + yarn kits. This is just in the idea phase – not sure how all the details will work. But, hey, let’s try to figure it out!

Yarn and Chocolate

Come for the yarn, stay for the chocolate.

I’m a chemistry professor by day, and a knitter, knit wear designer, and chocolatier by night. Now that my early retirement from the university is on the horizon, I’m exploring how to devote more attention to my two hobbies. Well, three hobbies really, because collecting yarn and knitting that yarn are two separate activities.

I have been purchasing and stashing yarn since I learned to knit sweaters while I was in college – over 30 years ago. In those 30 years, I tried to learn something new with each knitting project. Now I’m learning how to design and write patterns. For the past 1.5 years, I have been teaching continuing education intermediate knitting classes at my community college. This has been great fun for me and I do love to see the finished projects from these classes!

In January, I added my first for sale pattern to Ravelry, and in March I had my first knitting pattern published in Knit Simple – a national knitting magazine. Since then, I’ve had additional patterns published and accepted for publication. (So not just a fluke. You know, impostor syndrome is real and has plagued me for years, especially in my chemistry career.) I’m still learning a lot with every new project. Now I’m learning about blogging.

The chocolate part of this discussion will come later in the year, during chocolate season, which is typically October through March. The cool months. Each year, I make about 100 pounds of chocolate truffles to give as gifts to family and friends. I’ve gotten quite good at it. I own 3 table top chocolate temperers and all kinds of gadgets. I typically prepare about 35-40 different flavors of chocolate truffles, 5-6 flavors of caramel (covered in chocolate), and 6-8 flavors of chocolate barks filled with nuts, cookies, and dried fruits. In October and November I make chocolate-covered caramel apples. In February, I make chocolate hearts and chocolate-covered strawberries.

All this chocolate obsession began in 1996-ish with a recipe that recommended using confectioners coating rather than real chocolate because “monitoring the temperature of real chocolate was like working in a laboratory.” As a chemist, I thought I might actually enjoy all that monitoring and lab-like stuff, so I tried it. Lots of chocolate experiments later, here I am, using hundreds of pounds of chocolate every year.

I also teach a couple of food chemistry classes at my real job. Chocolate manufacture and preparation is a hefty part of both of those classes. This past year, I’ve been teaching chocolate classes at a local kitchenware shop. It’s been great fun!

So, those are my credentials in the knitting, chocolatiering, and teaching worlds.