Dyeing – Page 5 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

Yarn. Dyeing. Adventurous April.

Posted on February 19, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

It has been a while since I've shared yarn dyeing in progress with y'all. That's because I haven't had any time to dye lately. But, over the long holiday weekend I did a little work that I can't wait to share with you.

This is a new, still unnamed, blue. It's a dusky cousin of one of my favorite colorways, Betsy Blue. Blues are hard to photograph and this one isn't quite as teal as it appears on my monitor. It's lovely in person and I can't wait to knit with it (and name it!)

These two colors are not new. They are long-time Elliebelly base colors that I often mix to use in variegated colorways. (The golden yellow is one of the colors that makes Marble Angel one of my favorites — I was tickled when I googled for a quick picture and found this 2008 post on the old Diaperswapers forum with photos of it, along with Katie, the colorway that first forced me to think about gray in a serious way and led to the color on the left.) I thought it would be fun to see them on their own for a change. The gray on the left is actually a two-bath colorway, first dyed a pale gray and then over-dyed the deeper gray. When I use this color in a mix, I dye it all at once. I'm really pleased with the glazed approach I used here.

The mustard color — the color of mustard blooms in the garden, not the stuff you slap on a hotdog, is one of my favorite base yellows to dye with. It has just enough brown to build a hint of character. I like this color on its own as well, but I'm sure I'll be unable to resist overdyeing and glazing some of the skeins from this batch. This is one of those colors with so much potential to play with!

I've been making time to dye because, although it's only mid-February, I'm thinking ahead to April and the Adventurous April Knitalong on the Elliebelly Ravelry Group. If you joined us last year, you know it's going to be lots of fun. And, although you can't buy Elliebelly yarn, in the lead up to the KAL, my co-hostess Shelley and I will come up with fun and clever contests so you can win some in time to swatch and be ready come April 1.

Since the group has settled on at least one pattern for the KAL, Antarktis, I've made a headstart on dyeing some yarns that will work for that pattern. Like always for our KALs, you'll be welcome to join in with any yarn you want to knit with, Elliebelly or not. If you haven't joined is in the past or aren't a group member, you're welcome to come join and make some new friends while we start organizing for this year's KAL. It's going to be a lot of fun!

Dyeing For Spring

Posted on January 19, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

I'm going to need a hat to wear on my travels this spring. I want something lighter weight than the hats I have managed to keep out of my children's greedy little hands and also a springy green color. Since I didn't seem to have anything the fit the bill in stash, I dyed this.

It's a new-to-me yarn, Kraemer's Maria, a 50% silk/50% merino blend with 225 yards in 100 grams. The yardage and the look are both about right for me to call it a worsted weight yarn. For patterns, I'm still deciding between a Plum Tree Slouch

(c) NNK Press (with permission)

and an Irving hat.

(c) Melissa LaBarre (with permission)

They are both tempting choices and I feel sure I'll end up knitting both of them. The yarn itself seems to almost completely lack a Ravelry presence, so I'm knitting blind here. But I tend to like Kraemer's yarns and this one dyed up beautifully, so I have high hopes.

A note about the dyeing process. I like to apply color to yarn in layers, rather than all at once, to get more organic color variation in yarns that aren't going to be level-dyed a solid color. This yarn was originally dyed a pale yellow and then overdyed with a blue that was a dilute almost-navy solution, before being glazed in a yellow-brown. Although I'm often asked is glazing is worth all the work, there is no doubt in my mind that the same principles I used to use in painting collage backgrounds are equally at work in dyeing yarn, and there is simply no substitute for carefully applied layers of dye, each of which makes the final color full and rich.

Some Dyeing

Posted on January 6, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

It's been a while since I shared any dyeing with you, so I thought that for today's post, I would share a quick picture of some of the recent dyeing I've done.

I've been working with a sock yarn blend that is 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, and 10% nylon. It has a very tight twist and is a lovely yarn. I'm planning on using it for shawls, not socks, but it would be lovely for either.

In the back of my mind I'm thinking that this is the year I will start knitting for the holidays early. I'll make lovely things for the people I cherish. There will be no last minute scarves or mitts this year.

We'll see.

Yarn Things That Are Happening In My House Today

Posted on December 31, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

Although I need to clean up for New Year's Eve company and make myself presentable, there is a lot of knitting/fiber related activity in my house at the moment. It's a good summation of my knitting year, covering all of the bases.

There is blocking. More on this one to come as soon as it's dry. Suffice it to say, it's lovely and I'm very pleased with it, although a bit nervous about how the superwash collar seems to be growing exponentially as it blocks.

There is also (successful) swatching. Dead on gauge. It's a Christmas miracle.

And finally, there is dyeing. Wow, that's very pink isn't it! It's the first dye bath in a three step process, so look for the final result later this week.

Whatever you are up to today, I hope you have a happy yarn/knitting/fiber-ful New Year's Eve and on into the New Year! Happy 2015.

Gadabout: Knitting That Is So Much Fun I Can’t Wait To Do It Again

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

I liked knitting Gadabout a lot.

I like knitting cables and these were unique. And somehow, although I was able to memorize that pattern on the first repeat — something that almost never happens with me — it never got boring. Gadabout is one of those patterns where you want to do "just one more repeat" before you put it down for the night, so you keep going until it's done.

It does not hurt that this is in cashmere. It does mean that I haven't taken it off since it finished drying after a good wet blocking, which really brought out the pattern.

This is a go to pattern. I'd like to knit it next in The Plucky Knitter's bulky Snug — a cashmere blend. But I'd also like to do it in a gently variegated yarn, perhaps a Malabrigo Mecha version. I think it would also look great in Elliebelly Basilisk, a silk and merino blend, and I may need to dye some of that up in a wheat color to use as well.

Hanukkah, Knitting and Elliebelly Yarn

Posted on December 14, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

What would the first night of Hannukah be without gifts? Specifically, yarn. Because what else does a knitter want for the holidays?

Every Tuesday on the Elliebelly knitting group on Ravelry, we post on our Take A Picture Tuesday thread and share what we're working on. All projects are welcome, no matter what yarn you're knitting with. Since the first night of Hanukkah this year coincides with our Take a Picture Tuesday thread, this week, I will do a few random drawings to send Yarny Hanukkah gifts to posters next Tuesday.

So come post your works in progress or even your works on hold. Post a picture of yarn you haven't cast on yet and what you're thinking about knitting with it. Or post your recent swatching.

The holidays give us a chance to be our best selves and knitting is definitely a part of that for me. Invite your friends to our party and post up all the Yarny goodness for inspiration, motivation and just plain fun. We can't have dreidles and latkes on line, but there will be yarn!

Outlander Knitting and The Polar Vortex

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

With rumors of another polar vortex-like episode of cold weather headed for the deep south, I decided I needed a quick, but densely warm cowl, to get me through the next few weeks. I've knit several cowls that mimic the look of Claire's beautiful Sassenach cowl, as she works her way through the Scottish Highlands in the Outlander series, and I decided a modified version would be just right.

This pattern is so easy that I knit it during a drive yesterday (I was obviously a rider, not the driver), and had it ready to wear by evening. The yarn is Bulky Blue Sky Alpaca and I held it double-stranded. I used three skeins of yarn for this cowl, dividing the last skein into two even parts. The pattern is very simple: Using size 35 needles, Cast on 16 stitches using your favorite provisional cast on (I like Lucy Neatby's, using a crochet hook, which you can see here). Knit in garter stitch, i.e. knit every row, until you are almost out of yarn. You will finish the scarf with Kitchener stitch, for a seamless join. To do this, you need one length of yarn (no double stranding for this part), that is three times the width of your work. Even if you don't like to Kitchener, you can manage it for 16 stitches, and the result will be well-worth it.

For the larger cowl worn by claire — one that is long enough to twist around your neck a couple of times or spread out along your shoulders, you will want a longer cowl than this one. The modification is simple — this cowl is very bulky because of the double stranding, but using the same quantity of yarn, held single, you can produce a longer cowl that is easily wrapped around your neck.

Finally, a word about the yarn. Recently, I overdyed a sport weight Blue Sky yarn in this same pink colorway for a friend, and got a lusterous result. That yarn had silk in it, and I thought that might be responsible for the sheen of the yarn. I was curious as to whether I could replicate the result in a yarn that lacked the silk content. I tried it with this bulky yarn that is 50% Alpaca and 50% wool and you can see the result in the picture at the top — it's a deep, shimmering blue. I'm as pleased with the cowl as I am with the yarn, and look forward to staying warm through out the coming weather event.