I am a self-taught artistic knitwear designer. In my pre-kid life, I was an atmospheric scientist obsessed with the Need to Know about everything atmospheric physics, fog in particular. I have a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science, an M.Sc. in Physical Oceanography, and a B.Sc. in Physics (with a minor in mathematics). In my final year of high school (‘99-’00), I would spend my lunch breaks either in the library studying calculus or in the art room painting, I signed off my yearbook graduation photo with an ode to Intergalactic Anthropologists, and I started university determined to be an astrophysicist. Things change and I change with them, and now I’m a self taught artist, creating knitting designs and patterns since 2018 — but still obsessed with everything, universe, aliens, consciousness, meditation, things outside the visible wavelength spectrum — our world is full of weirdness and I’m so here for it.

My Background

I love writing patterns and designing, puzzles and mysteries, simply complex and complexly simple things, and the epic feeling of creating intricate things with small stitches. My background and love of maths, physics, and the unknown, seems to become instrinsically melded into everything I design. I just do what I do; my designs have tended to be on the adventurous side of knitting and I hope they bring you some fun. If you like them, you can join my knitjbeale Designs Ravelry group and see what’s happening on @knitjbeale!

My Designs

  • My husband used to be an Experimental Particle Physicist and we eloped in 2010 in our flip flops on a dock after 7.5 months of “dating”

  • I love purling and I prefer working everything flat (both non-colourwork and colourwork) over working it in the round — I really love Portuguese purling colourwork on the WS! It is so much fun.

  • Steve and I love to hike and camp for days on end. Before Basil was born, we attempted to hike the East Coast Trail from Cappahayden to our home in St. John’s in 1 week…we got from Cappahayden to Cape Broyle in 3 days (93 km / 58 mi) but then the drenching drizzle-covered and densely packed pine trees between Cape Broyle and Cape Broyle Head defeated us (it was pretty intense…they’re probably trimmed back now:)

Knitting and non-knitting fun facts

The land on which we live here is the ancestral homeland of the Beothuk [bee-oth-uck], and the island of Ktaqmkuk [uk-dah-hum-gook] (Newfoundland) is the traditional territory of the Beothuk and the Mi’kmaq [mee-gum-maq]. Labrador is the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Innu [in-new] of Nitassinan [ne-tass-eh-nen], the Inuit [in-new-eet] of Nunatsiavut [nu-nut-si-a-voot], and the Inuit of NunatuKavut [nu-nah-tuhk-ah-vut]. I recognise all First Peoples who were here before us, those who live with us now, and the seven generations to come. As First Peoples have done since time immemorial, I strive to be a responsible steward of the land and to respect the cultures, ceremonies, and traditions of all who call it home. (First Light NL)

-Jennifer