Elliebelly Knit Along – Page 5 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

I Have Sleeves

Posted on April 5, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

I don't knit a lot of sweaters, so everytime I do, I tend to see something new.

Modern Garden is no exception. In this sweater, you knit the sleeves from the bottom row up to about chest high. Then, you knit them into the body of the sweater, keeping up with the patterning on the sleeves and in the yoke (and remembering to place your buttonholes, which has been an issue for me on this one) and complete the sweater.

The sleeves are bulky and I'm knitting them on DPNs, instead of magic loop because I don't have an additional circular needle in this size. They were a little too cumbersome to take along with me on vacation, so I put the sweater aside and worked on hats while I was away.

But I picked the sweater back up last night and am working on sleeves. The first one is ready to incorporate into the yoke and my hope is to have the second one there tonight so I can put everything together and move on to the yoke next week.

And, a reminder. We are starting a Knit Along on the Elliebelly Group on Ravelry on April 15. You're welcome to join us — you can knit with any yarn you choose and there is no official date you have to finish by. We would love to have you, whether you are a new knitter or a more experienced one.

Ollie’s Sweater Is Finished

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

This is Ollie, wearing Ollie's Ragman Sweater. As you can see, he is pretty pleased about it.

I am too. It's the first time I've set aside some Elliebelly Crayon for myself, and the bulky yarn, Talia Merino, made it a quick knit. It would have been quicker if I hadn't had to stop to dye trim after running out of yarn, but a girl can't be too demanding, right?

This is the most accurate picture I have of the colorway.

And, the buttons are very sweet.

This pattern gets a high recommendation from me — it's simple but not boring and the result is an eminently wearable sweater; a perfect knit for a perfect little boy. This officially concludes my project for the Elliebelly Knit Along!

This Week’s Knitting Round Up

Posted on September 9, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

I spent this week out of town, which was both good (flight delays and hotel insomnia = extra knitting time) and bad (Iphone camera photos of my knitting are very unsatisfactory). Here's the round up:

(1) Before I left I put in a little time dyeing which yielded both this fabulous dye pot

And this choice of trim for finishing off Ollie's Crayon Ragman.

Any thoughts on which color you think will look more like a design choice and less like a screaming "I ran out of yarn" advert?

(2) On the road I got through the better part of two (of four) repeats on the Orchids and Fairy Lights Hat.

This pattern is SO much fun to knit and have I told you I'm knitting it in a thick, soft, buttery cashmere? This hat feels incredible. And the bobbles are fun, the cables are a challenge to keep straight, and all in all, this hat makes me feel good about myself — a pretty big pay off for a little bit of careful pattern reading. Stephanie Dosen is the designer behind Tiny Owl Knits. She is a fabulous designer and articulates a great, clear pattern. I can't wait to knit her Amy March Slippers and her Catching Butterflies Mitts as well. You should really look at every single pattern she has, but if you look at only one thing, check out the incredible Bee Keeper's Quilt. I definitely have a crush on Stephanie and her beautiful patterns!

(3) I've finished (except for a line of crochet trim on the bottom edge I need to teach myself to do this weekend) the Honegart Hat.

I love the pattern. The details are clever and it is a very satisfying knit. Several members of my household are vying to keep this, but it's a birthday present for the oldest child (who doesn't read my blog), so I suspect I may knit a few more. I like the way the skeins of yarn play together — as I mentioned, two skeins were originally dyed together and then I overdyed one of them, so that some of the original color shows through. It's hard to display in a picture, but if you look closely below, you'll see some of the green from the band showing through in the blue "honeycomb" top.

(4) I also got in some time working on the body of Ellie's Tiny Tea Leaves Cardigan. I'm well into the "miles and miles of stockinette" part of the body which, while not the most exciting knitting is possible to do while carrying on a conversation or catching up on the news.

I'm hoping to finish up the body this weekend so I can get to work on the sleeves and button bands. I'm knitting this sweater in Madeline Tosh, Tosh Vintage Merino, which is a wonderful yarn. I'm wondering if it would be possible to consider this yarn a collectible item so I could justify buying some in every one of her amazing colorways. It's great to work with and the softly dyed colors are very pretty.

That's the wrap on this week's knitting, and a satisfying collection it is! Usually I'm in varying degrees of frustration, but all of these projects seem to just want to go well. The knitting gods seem to be smiling on me at the moment, which I'm going to try to enjoy, because I'm sure it will be fleeting.

Knitting Drama — What To Do When The Yarn Runs Out

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

I should be ashamed. Really. I knew, I knew in my heart, that I was going to be short on yarn for Ollie's Ragman. But I thought it would only be a bit at the end and I would compensate by shortening the sweater a bit.

What I didn't count on was that my gauge would be off and the sweater would eat more yarn than anticipated. I'm here.

And this is a bad place to be with less than one full ball of yarn left. I realized I was in trouble last night, and started knitting the sleeves before finishing the body, thinking I would just make it with a slightly shortened measurement. (And yes, I'm annoyed that the sleeve patterning is inconsistent with the body, but I haven't decided yet if I'm going to rip it out and see if I can play with the number of stitches to "fix" that.)

I'm now accepting that I am, in the vernacular, screwed.

I once knit Ollie a cute little hat with this same weight yarn and striped it with this yarn in gray, an effect I really liked. I think something like that, at the bottom of the sweater, is my only option.

I don't have any of that particular yarn left and I do wish I had planned better and knit the collar in trim, but unless I want to rip the whole sweater out and start over with the trim collar, my only option is to squeeze out as much of the sleeves as I can and then use trim for an oversized cuff there at the bottom of the body.

It doesn't help that it's my own fault and I should have planned better. I've sulked and I've pretended it wasn't so, but like all drama, ultimately the only thing to do is confront it and move forward. *Sigh*

Knitting & Knitting

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

The Elliebelly Knit Along is taking shape nicely!

The sweater I'm knitting for Ollie is coming along (although I'm getting a little bit edgey about the yardage and hoping I won't run out).

Some other Knitters are blogging too! You can read about Jen P. and Plath's knitting and see some great pictures.

Other knitters have finished their projects already. These people scare me!

There is lots of pretty knitting in the works, and I'm going to try to feature as much of it as possible on my blog over the next few weeks. Seeing it has inspired me to organize my yarn and my knitting plans for the fall.

Knit Along Progress

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

I have made great progress with Ollie's Sweater, having finished the raglan increases, put the sleeve stitches aside on waste yarn, and joined the body to knit down in one piece.

But my progress is not the knitting story of the day. That story belongs to Ellie, who made this totally amazing hat in two and a half days.

Isn't she a wonderful next generation knitter?

Now you will have to indulge me and ooh and ahh over the pictures of her knitting. I think it is the most incredible experience in the world to have lucked into a knitting child. (This is actually my second knitter, my first is here.) Isn't she wonderful?

Knitting Ollie’s Fall Sweater

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

I'm knitting Ollie's fall sweater for the Elliebelly Knit Along. I'm a little bit better than halfway down the raglan portion of the top of the sweater.

The sweater is Ragman and the yarn is Elliebelly Talia, a bulky Merino wool, dyed in the Crayon colorway.