Joyce Makes Art – Page 13 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

New Knitting

Posted on May 26, 2015December 28, 2016 by Joyce Makes Art

I'm violating the rule of "one project off the needles means one new one on" this week. My Frostline is finished, but I've started two more projects.

First, a Zissou Hat. It's for the Judge for Father's Day. Ssssh. Don't tell him (I'm pretty sure he doesn't read my blog). I've got some lovely red Plucky Knitter Bello Worsted yarn and I've played with the math-fu to convert a pattern meant for a much finer weight cotton yarn. This probably means d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r, but I'm game. When finished, it will (hopefully) look something like this.

Reminder: If you haven't seen Wes Anderson's movie The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, DO! Just drop whatever you are doing right now (take along your knitting) and get it on Netflix or Amazon.

Second new project, and still in the swatching stage, is a (hopefully) quick tank top I want to knit for the ballerina before she goes off to her summer program.

The yarn is a fascinating Linen tape yarn from Quince, one of my favorite yarn makers and definitely my favorite for all things linen. This will require me to sew pieces together with mattress stitch, which will likely take more time than all of the knitting combined. I'm already trotting out my mantra: I love finishing up my knitting projects. Because really, like most knitters, I'm a bit adverse to finishing. But, having managed to weave in untold ends on my Frostline, I think it was something like 24 ends, this should be cake.

Frostline, Finished!

Posted on May 25, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

I'm pleased with Frostline. It was worth all of the miles of stockinette to get here. And, the lace border, which looked indescribably poor when I finished knitting, sprang right into shape with a gentle block.

It is one of my most colorful knits ever and I adore it. I'm going to find way to wear it, even during summer!

Finally, Frostline

Posted on May 23, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

My Frostline is finished and blocking. Earlier this week, The Plucky Knitter advised that rather than full immersion blocking, her yarns should be blocked using a spray bottle and patted out rather than aggressively pinned. So I used my handheld steamer (the blotchy places are not color flaws, but places where the steamer spit out a bit of water, leaving those areas wet and darker), but pinned to get the lace points in place.

It’s big and I’m delighted with it. Even though it’s summer, I’m going to turn on the air conditioning and wrap Frostline around my neck.

A New Start & A Near Finish. And Something in Between.

Posted on May 17, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

In this week's knitting:

A new start. The Forest Park Cowl in The Plucky Knitter's Primo Aran in Heirloom Green. With all of its bonny cables, this pattern feels like it fell right off the pages of Outlander. I've started this as an easy project to carry around, but plan on finishing a few in-the-works projects before I get serious about it.

An "almost there." Frostline is all done and just awaiting its lace edging. And I'm in love!

Vodka Lemonade. Will it ever end?

Just kidding Vodka Lemonade. I really do love you. The 7" of seed stitch in the collar on all 300+ stitches was sort of a bummer. And then keeping the various columns of seed stitch and ribbing straight, along with the right side increases, as I worked from the top of the shoulders shoulders down to the point where the sleeve stitches can go on a holder and the body be worked alone was a bit of a challenge for me. But I'm almost to that point, and it should be quite simple from here on out. I'm looking forward to the lace bits at the bottom.

Fit is still a challenge for me with sweaters. But I'm going to work on that. In September I'm going to a knitting retreat and taking "Knit to Flatter" with Amy Herzog. In the meantime, I'll give Vodka Lemonade my best effort, because I love the pattern, the yarn, and the color.

Frostline

Posted on May 11, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

World Traveler. <= That's me lately.

I'm sorry I haven't managed to blog but it got complicated and busy, while on the plus side, I did get a fair bit of knitting done while flying and driving.

Here's a quick tidbit — I'm working on the last color band in my Frostline Shawl. I'm very excited about how the colors are playing together. The yarn is Plucky Knitter Bello Worsted in (from the bottom up), Starlet, Cornucopia, Dandy Lion, Corduroy, Cassidy, and Baroque, and the accent color in between blocks is the February Classics colorway. Once I finish up with Baroque, I'll be onto the edging.

Knitting Progress

Posted on April 29, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

Our trip involved lots of beautiful scenery, which turned out to be wonderful inspiration for knitting as we drove from place to place.

The projects I worked on will always be linked with the places we visited on the trip and the people we shared our experience with, which is an awfully nice thing, when you think about it.

I finished Antarktis and wore it everywhere from the moment it was off my needles. It was unseasonably cold in the Middle East, and I definitely failed to pack for that weather. So Antarktis became my best friend. I finally blocked it yesterday, and it has grown a great deal. Modeled shots over the weekend, but trust me, you want to knit this one. I keep reaching for it with everything. It's a great pattern and a great finished object. Here it is again, not quite done, with a view of the Mediterranean.

I also knit two more squares for Ellie's quilt. True confessions: I'm over this one. I'm not enjoying knitting the squares at this point. But I want her to have it when she goes off to college, so I'm sticking it out. There are still more squares in my future.

I added two more colors to my Frostline, the green and the yellow bands. This is a very simple but highly addictive knit. I only stopped here because that was all the yarn I had with me, but I've moved onto the blue band since returning home and can't wait to finish this one!

I haven't snapped a picture of Vodka Lemonade recently, because it seems like all I'm doing is knitting, knitting, knitting without making progress. Yes, there are a lot of stitches on the needles right now, but that doesn't really seem to account for the big black hole of knitting I'm in. Sooner or later I'm bound to get to the point where I take the sleeve stitches off, but it is slow going right now. I don't particularly mind as I love the yarn and it's a fun knit. But I do want to finally finish a sweater and have it fit!

That's my vacation knitting progress. Now, I'm trying hard to get myself back into the right time zone so I can pick back up at work. No knitting for the rest of the week, but I'll share more pictures of Antarktis with you over the weekend, since I seem to be on a mission to convince everyone I know to knit one.

April Catch Up: Knitting and Vacationing

Posted on April 29, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

As most of you know, we spent two weeks in April on a study trip (cleverly disguised as a vacation) to Israel and Jordan. It was a wonderful trip and we learned a lot. And, because of lots of travel time and some wickedly long layovers, I got a lot of knitting done.

This is me during our five hour layover in Charlotte, after completing the first of three flights it took us to get to Tel Aviv. At the time I was not amused, but when I realized the husband had brilliantly snagged seats that reclined into flatbeds for the overnight segment of the trip, I felt better.

In my bag: Antarktis (the blue), Vodka Lemonade sweater (the green), my Frostline shawl (you can see a bit of red peeking out in the back), and a couple of squares for my quilt from hell that will never be finished Barn Raising Quilt, which you can't quite see in the photo. Although the full bag of knitting may seem like overkill, I finished two of the four (Antarktis and the quilt squares), worked on Frostline until I ran out of yarn, and got in a few inches on Vodka Lemonade. More on all of that progress after I catch up on the time change, but I did want to share two photos with you before I get some sleep.

This is me, happily knitting on our balcony in Jerusalem in sight of the walls of the Old City. This became my early morning routine every day, and I was grateful to have a project I could work on while looking around and drinking in the beauty of my surroundings, without needing to pay lots of attention to the knitting. It was amazing and moving, as was the entire trip.

This photo captured an unexpected moment of knitting poignancy, that would have taken my breath away if I had any left at all while visiting Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial. It was an extraordinary and emotional experience. We came upon this exhibit, which told the stories of those who had survived in the camps, only to be forced into a death march as Hitler's forces realized they were losing the war. One of the exhibits showed a beautifully knit, stranded glove, among pictures of some of the people whose stories were told. It noted that the knitter made items like this to trade for food and took it along with her on the beginning of the death march. I can't capture my feelings in words, but wanted to share this photo with my knitting friends. On so many different levels, it's both heartbreaking and hopeful.