A chat with Jennifer Beale - "Adventurous handknitting patterns for adventurous handknitters."

Esker by Jennifer Beale ~ a winding ridge of sediment deposited by the meltwater of a retreating glacier. There are many eskers in Labrador, and a little place aptly named, Esker.

Find Jennifer’s beautiful lace and fair isle Esker yarn kit and pattern: HERE

Jennifer and I have been chatting back and forth between the Hebrides and Newfoundland over the past few months. We put together a few questions and answers so you could find out a bit more about the background to her knitwear design work:

Tell us a bit about yourself and your route to knitwear design?

Life is wild where all of our journeys go. My route here was completely unplanned and pretty different to what I ever intended to do.

When I started the wild ride into teenage years back in the 90s, I was incredibly rebellious, rebelling against all expectations and rules, and found myself at a low turning point. I promised myself to go back to school and do something. So through distance education, I caught up 2.5 years of high school all in 1 year in order to go back in time for Grade 12 (the highest grade here in Canada) and graduate high school with my original classmates.

During that distance education time, I would stay up really late at night and work on schoolwork and I used to listen to Art Bell’s radio program called Coast to Coast AM. One night, he had a theoretical physicist, Dr. Michio Kaku, on the show and I was enthralled by every word that he spoke. So I focused on physics from then onwards, dreamed of knowing everything about the universe one day and was determined to be an astrophysicist.

I went to university, took all the physics, astronomy and math courses over the next 6 years, but found myself gravitating toward ocean physics toward the end, which then turned into atmospheric physics. I got my PhD in atmospheric physics and was working for a private company when my husband and I decided that we really wanted to have a kid.

So Mr. Basil Danger Beale (our little boy) came along! He was born with congenital heart issues and after getting through multiple open heart surgeries during his first year of life, and feeling that we were incredibly lucky, I couldn’t bring myself to go back to work and leave him in a day care. So as maternity leave was ending, I told my husband that I was going to get into tech editing knitting patterns. The very first words out of his mouth: “Why don’t you design instead?” I had never even given an iota of thought into designing knitwear and I was confused as to how he even knew that that was a thing … I don’t think that I even realised that it was a thing. But because of him, and because of Basil, that’s what I did. I immediately designed my first sweater “Heart’s Content”.

Where do you take your inspiration from?

Inspiration is everywhere and in everything at every point in time, though I’m not sure I could ever pinpoint any exact source of inspiration. Oh but thinking about it now … the unknown! That is an inspiration. I do get enraptured by things and circumstances that are strange, quirky, serendipitous, geometric or abstract. I try to find the amusing or positive side to any thing or situation no matter what or no matter how hard it is. So that probably influences and inspires me in that if I don’t end up liking something in the end, or if something just isn’t jiving, then well, at least I know now!

All that said, I do really enjoy the mystery of unknown things. Everything unknown in the universe is known by something or someone, and it’s our joy and freedom to discover it if we want to. Things just pop into my head and I improvise as I go, like an unknown adventure down an unknown path, discovering the outcome along the way.

Where is your favourite place to knit?

Outside! But that is a fairly rare event here. Out of all the cities in Canada, we in St. John’s, Newfoundland are the foggiest and windiest, we’re among the snowiest with an average of 322.3 centimetres (126.9 inches) annual snowfall each year, and we rank #3 for the “most wet days”. I have severe Raynaud’s so it makes it difficult to knit outside, but I do love to knit outside whenever it is possible.

What else do you enjoy doing?

Just being around and hanging out with my husband (Steve), son (Basil), and dog (Alfie). Alfie is a Border Collie mix (Border Rottie!) and I love taking him on really long walks each day.

My husband and I are big time hikers. Before our son Basil was born, we would go and get really exhausted and stinky on day-long and week-long backpacking hikes. Our longest was a 10-day backwoods hike up through the remote northern part of Algonquin in Ontario just before we moved back to Newfoundland. Then when we moved here, we attempted to hike and camp the 215 kilometres (134 miles) East Coast Trail from Cappahayden to St. John’s in 1 week. We made it 93 kilometres (58 miles) in 3 days, then we found ourselves trying to squeeze through a very, very, very densely packed section that hadn’t been trimmed back yet by trail maintenance at the same time as very cold drizzly, soaking wet weather set in. So despite being completely waterproofed for our hike, the soaking wet branches and bushes got up under our pant cuffs and down our jacket collars and after battling through it for 3 hours, we got as drenched as if we’d been swimming in a pool. We had to be smart and call it quits at the 93 kilometer mark. My husband and I will do it again one day when our little boy is older and we can go scoot off for a week.

I also love to cook; cooking everything from scratch, experimenting with different spices and ingredients, and just making all sorts of different foods.

And I love to cross-stitch huge mural-type pictures, crochet enormous blankets and enormous lace doilies, but I have had a lot of trouble making time for these over the past couple of years 🙂

Where is your favourite place in Newfoundland where you love to sit and soak it all up?

Hmmmm. Everywhere? This is my favourite place on Earth. We stick pretty close to home here in downtown St. John’s. Trekking up on top of the Southside Hills is pretty amazing and it overlooks both the city and the ocean. I always feel so blissful walking from our home to the harbour front; just a 15 minute walk down Prince of Wales and Barter’s Hill to the St. John’s harbour!

Are there any ‘native’ sheep on Newfoundland?

There is the “Newfoundland Local”. There was some question about whether there has been enough time to establish a true sheep breed here, and there has been genetic testing done among the sheep populations. Sheep have been established here since about the 1600’s and the verdict seems to be that the “Newfoundland Local” is now a true sheep breed.

Are there any distinct traditional Newfoundland knitting patterns? What has been the history of knitting or wool work there?

This is a bit tricky for me to answer since I grew up 5000 kilometres (3100 miles) away in Swartz Bay (British Columbia, Canada)!

Knitting and sheep history does run deep here. There is the Newfoundland saying “who knit ya”, which means “who are your parents?” and nearly everyone here at some point had their Gran knit them mittens.

From what I’ve seen and gathered from living here so far, the Trigger Mitts are the most traditional Newfoundland knitting pattern. Thrummed mitts, rugs, socks, and sweaters were all traditionally made in the out port communities too. There is the traditional Newfoundland Guernsey that I think originates from Guernsey and Jersey fisherman making their way to the fishing off the Grand Banks and traing starting around 1500.

Then there is the iconic NONIA, a not-for-profit knitting organisation that began over 100 years ago as a way to pay for health services in all of the province’s small bay communities. From the original start-up of NONIA all through to today, knitters for NONIA produce handknit traditional Newfoundland knitwear which are sold out of its shop in the heart of downtown, on the corner of bustling Water Street and the infamous George Street.

Finally … any top tips for knitters especially in relation to your own designs?

Just do what you love and love what you do. 🙂

Esker yarn kit can be purchased in these five different combos. Find Jennifer’s beautiful lace and fair isle Esker yarn kit and pattern: HERE