Dyeing – Page 4 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

Yarn Pørn Friday

Posted on March 11, 2016 by elliebelly

Friday seems like a good day to share some recent dyeing pictures. Several of these yarns are headed for the Adventurous April KAL (if you are looking for the details for this week's yarn giveaway, which ends tonight, Friday, at midnight, they are HERE) and they've been a lot of fun to dye.

This first one is Coppelia, on Tree Sock, the replacement for my old favorite Sea Sock, which is not longer available from the mill. Tree Sock has that same wonderful sheen.

BFL Constant. I love this yarn. Crossword Clue is a really nice blue/blue purple colorway, with a little bit of a pale lavender surprise in the undertone.

I've been all about deep, rich reds lately. This is House of Voodoo on the left and Mulberry on the right. I like Mulberry so much that I'm contemplating a sweater later on this year on Aran weight Cloud Soft. It's a really pretty, rich, layered red.

Cyndi. Because the girls just want to have fun. If you know me, you know I love a complex, variegated sock yarn. Cyndi is a riot. Small boy-children will love their socks so much if you knit them from this colorway that they won't lose them. But I've got a nice thick pair of socks in mind for myself to wear with hiking boots this spring.

Last up today is Goldilocks, on the same Tree Sock base we started out with. This color is right where grunge meets elegance. It's layers of color that shine through in the most pleasing way. Is it brown? Is it green? Is it yellow? Everyone I've asked seems to have a different take on it. But they all, even people who say they aren't yellow people, seems to like it. Me too. I'm contemplating an Icterine for spring.

That's my dyeing from the last month or so. I hope you enjoy it and it helps you get on with Friday and into the weekend!

Weaving With Elliebelly Yarn

Posted on March 6, 2016 by elliebelly

I have to share this photo from KTell on Ravelry, a long time knitting buddy who has taken up weaving.

Kathy decided to weave with this BFL sock yarn and this picture of her start was too pretty not to share. I love the almost plaid effect that she is getting. If you want to follow her work in progress, her project is here. Weaving is an unknown frontier for me, but my local yarn store is doing some classes this month. Looking at this, I'm seriously tempted to give it a go!

Weekend Knitting News

Posted on February 6, 2016 by elliebelly

I've take a few moments away from my regularly scheduled knitting to become completely obsessed with dyeing. Again. That means there is very little knitting progress to share with you this weekend, but there is some pretty yarn.

There were a couple of purple days. Purple is always a challenge on yarns that are non-superwash or good, old fashioned, wool. Getting saturated color is difficult, but worth the effort. You can also see a skein of the Tree Frog colorway variation I've been working on, the green yarn. I used it to play around with an idea I had for a sleeve (I am not and likely never will be a sweater designer, but I had this idea that wouldn't leave me alone so I had to play with it for a bit). The photo on the left has accurate color, on the right is my idea, which still needs a little bit of refining.

I really love yarn with silk content, and as much as I love Chemise, the Elliebelly linen-silk silk blend that is going to be my next sweater, I took some time to dye Elliebelly Panda, a silk bamboo blend, for an Ishbel scarf. And, of course, purple.

This is some Juniper Moon Farms worsted merino that I purchased as a farm share one of the first years they were up and running. It has been in my "too precious to use" stash, but I decided to dye it for the beautiful new shawl by Lisa Hannes, The Colourist, which is intended for richly variegated yarns. This one certainly fits that parameter, and I'm a little bit nervous that I went to high contrast, but I decided against toning it in hopes we'll see lots of pretty color variation in the finished knit.

There is also a little bit of roving being dyed so it can be spun into yarn. I adore handspun yarn, and this is the softest, fluffiest roving I've gotten my hands on in some time. It's merino, with a very low micron count. I can't wait to see what this looks like when it becomes yarn.

I'm going to have to use the weekend to get caught up on sleep, because this is mostly late night dyeing. Late night dyeing is not something that is conducive to good photography or quality blogging, so I apologize for the limited pictures I have to share. But there are lots of exciting photos of yarn and projects knit from it coming in the next few weeks. I've got some wonderful test knitters doing amazing things with some of my yarn this month, and I can't wait to show you the results, along with my own knitting.

More Dyeing Than Knitting

Posted on January 23, 2016 by elliebelly

This week, there has been more dyeing going on around here than knitting. And with dyeing, comes this:

I truly love my electric skein winder. Without it, I couldn't make all those skeins to dye, reskein them after a dyebath to more evenly distribute the colors when they are glazed, or to pretty them up after the fact. I really do love it. But the noise lives in my head for a long time after a long winding session ends!

I managed to finish Adama first thing this morning, and I was really glad I did. My version is warmer and fuzzier than the looser, lacier versions most people have knit, so it kept me toasty and warm while pictured here, in the early hours, driving our high school kid to take the SAT. I haven't taken it off all day, although it really needs a good blocking. I'm not usually a fan of chainette style yarns, but I think Woolfolk's worsted weight Får is definitely a keeper. You should go get some right now and knit with it!

Next up — I need to pull Glacier back out of its hiding place and see if I can fix the humongous sleeves (I will never learn to read through everyone's comments on Ravelry — had I done so, I would have seen that virtually every knitter complained the sleeves were oversized). I've got to rip them completely out, not a big deal since I'm only a couple of inches in, but them I'm going to have to struggle to math them so that I can make smaller sleeves fit into the armhole size I've knit. And I've got a good bit of the back left to knit, as well.

Here's a quick peek at some of the yarn I've been dyeing. This is Elliebelly's Merlin, a worsted weight Merino wool yarn.

Although you might think it's too complex, this yarn knits up very well in cabled patterns. It's a bit counter intuitive, but the results are spectacular. More on that later this week!

A Sock and A Knitalong

Posted on January 20, 2016 by elliebelly

I've shown you the Paraphenalia Socks Janine knit for me when they arrived a few weeks ago, but I just had to share them again, as I wore them for the first time. You get a different perspective when you put them on, and realize the brilliance of the cabled design is that they fit perfectly. They don't cling uncomfortably like some socks are prone to do, but rather, they fit nicely in all the right places. And the interwoven cable is smashing. It's almost a shame to cover them up with shoes!

If you're interested in taking up sock knitting, head over to the Elliebelly group on Ravelry and get involved in our plans for this years Adventurous April Knitalong. The theme will be socks. There will be yarny prizes. And it will be FUN. We're in the planning stages now and you will want to be in the know as a little bit of Elliebelly yarn, which you can't be purchased at the moment, will be handed out as prizes as we make our KAL plans.

Yarn: Elliebelly's Juliet 3-Ply Merino in the Oryx colorway.

Some Colorful Yarn

Posted on January 15, 2016December 19, 2016 by elliebelly

It has been a slow week for knitting around here, so I'll share one more dyeing picture from last weekend with you. This is one of the classic Elliebelly colorways, Crayon, dyed on a sock yarn base. It's a surprisingly versatile colorway, despite its boldness, and makes lovely socks and shawls. One of my favorite Crayon projects is ModernKnittress's Clapotis.

My personal favorite knit with Crayon was a sweater I did for my youngest boy, when he was at that perfect boy age for dressing how he wanted to without regard for gender stereotypes. He started a trend for colors among the neighborhood boys. Several dads were not happy with me.

This year, I want to knit myself a pair of socks in Crayon. Something to guarantee a smile on a rainy day. Since our annual April KAL is going to have a sock component this year, it looks like that's going to happen.

Knitalongs: Give Aways & Progress

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

It is, perhaps, a bit confusing to be participating in one knitalong while planning another. Confusing, but fun. So, first things first. The Sunday night yarn give away winner for the Adventurous April KAL on the Elliebelly Ravelry Group is Jamlknitter. Lisa, message me on Ravelry and I'll get your yarn on the way to you in time for cast on!

If you aren't Lisa, don't worry. There is still time to enter and win some Elliebelly yarn before the KAL starts on April 1, by leaving a comment to this post, before next Friday.

In the meantime, any guesses about what color my yarn, in the dye bath above, is going to be? This photo is a little bit reminiscent of the dress that took the internet by storm a couple of weeks ago. What color do you all see?

And, for the Malabrigo March KAL, my Monkey's eyes arrived today. I've got three different options to choose from. I'm almost done with the first leg, so perhaps we will be to the point where we can have an eye test soon. The pattern calls for you to do the monkey's muzzle last — right now his face is just the big round blob you all saw last week. But I'm glad to have the eyes ready. I'm hoping to finish Monkey up next weekend.