Maya is a bulky shawl, knit here in Elliebelly’s Basilisk, as part of the Adventurous April KAL. It’s a great, quick knit. The stockinette section is perfect conversational knitting, you’ll carry this one around for knitting in all of those moments when you’re involved in something but need to have some knitting at hand. And, the lace section, which is easily memorized, goes quickly. It’s a pleasure to watch the lace pattern develop.
The surprise in this project for me was that Basilisk, which is a bulky weight blend of 50% Silk and 50% Merino, knitted up into a cushy, airy, fabric. I knit this at a slightly looser gauge than I would normally use, because I wanted the fabric to have drape. The result is a shawl that can be wrapped scarf-like around your neck for winter wear, but is perfect for a breezy spring day as well. I had it on all day yesterday, in our unseasonably cool Alabama May weather.
The color is “Grimoire” and you can find Basilisk and other Elliebelly Bulky yarns in our shop.
I’ve finished the first chart for my Ceramic Flowers Cowl and have just begun the second. It’s a fun pattern to knit, and reasonably quick, since I’m knitting at a worsted weight. Although the chart contains three floral repeats, a number of projects have stopped after two and liked the design better that way. I’ll assess when I get to that point. I’m about halfway through the second chart now and haven’t quite exhausted the first ball of yarn, so I should be able to do a full size version with two balls of yarn, if I want to go there.
The yarn is Elliebelly Pussy Willow, which is available in very limited quantities in my shop. It’s a 50 wool/50 silk single ply fiber that works well for spring and summer knitting and feels get slipping through your fingers while you’re knitting with it!
In the first week of the annual Elliebelly Knit Along, Adventurous April, I knit this Mirren Hat.
It’s knit in Elliebelly’s Talia Bulky Merino in the 20th Century colorway. I think it still needs a pom pom, but couldn’t resist snapping a couple of post-blocking photos for you to see while I try and decide between a pom pom from the yarn the hat is knit with vs. using one of my Toft Alpaca poms to finish this one off.
Now I’m moving on to my Ceramic Flowers Cowl and will also do some work this week on a WIP sweater that’s part of my KAL goals. I’m having some trouble with my right elbow — is there such a thing as knitter’s elbow? It’s slowing me down at the moment in the most annoying way. I hope it will disappear as magically as it showed up.
And what’s up with this photo? It’s that time of year where a refreshing drink while knitting is very welcome. I mix up a batch of syrup every week and keep it in the fridge in one of my weck jars. The basic recipe is 1C Water, 1/2 C. honey which you bring to a boil and stir until fully dilute. Let boil for 5 minutes and then cool to room temperature. As you can see from the bottle above, this syrup goes fast, even though I usually mix up several cups at a time. In this photo, I added lavender blossoms from my garden to the syrup and poured it over a sliced Meyer Lemon before chilling. I then use a couple of fingers of syrup diluted over ice in a glass that’s filled with either regular or soda water. For an additional quick, you can squeeze a lemon or an orange and add the syrup to strained juice before diluting. And, you can doctor the syrup with anything you have on hand. I frequently use some sliced fresh ginger, and this morning, added some tumeric root and fresh strawberries into the mix. I love to keep a glass of this alongside while knitting lately.
It’s almost here! My favorite month, April, when we have the annual Elliebelly Knit Along. If you’ve knit with us before, you know it’s a little bit of creative anarchy. This year, we’re looking at patterns in four categories: Sweaters, Bulky Hats, Shawls/Cowls, and Socks. I encourage you to wander over to the group, vote on the pattern choice threads, and make sure you sign up for the KAL later this week when we finalize our pattern choices.
This year, for the first time in many years, there will be plenty of Elliebelly Yarn available for your knitting pleasure during Adventurous April. I snuck a few things into my Etsy Shop over the weekend (a number of you seem to have found them) and am adding a few more today, starting with the first batch of the incomparable Smitten Fingering 120. It’s a silk/yak/merino blend in slightly oversized skeins of 523 yards for your shawl knitting pleasure. Five new colorways have been designed just for the Yak blends. Grinch, Merry and Bell Bottoms are pictured above. There are is a pinky brown, Linwood Road, and a deep cocoa brown, Llyr, as well.
Vespers, a new paintbrush colorway, is also in the shop of a new of different bases. It looks beautiful knit up, and whether you have a simple garter stitch or stockinette project, or something more complex in mind, it’s a winner. You’ll get some amazing results using Vesper for lace, cables, or other patterns with texture. I hope you’ll find something you like!
I’ve had to fend off attacks from various cats to maintain a claim to my blue cashmere mitts.
But, they are mine. All mine. I love them, and I love knitting with this fine Mongolian Cashmere. It’s über soft, even for cashmere. Although I am bad to get a case of second sock (or in this case, second mitt) syndrome, I cast on for the second one as soon as I finished – minus the thumb – the first one.
I’m hoping to finish them up today. They’re just right for some late winter hiking over the weekend if the weather cooperates, and the cats keep their distance.
[Mitts knit with one skein of Elliebelly Coventry Cashmere in “Lady Mary.” Available here.]
Despite the best laid plans, we are still working on site design. In an effort to making it easy for you to buy a little Elliebelly Yarn in the meantime, my wonderful designer, Nicole, has added a direct link at the top of the page that lets you “shop.” For now, it takes you to Elliebelly on Etsy, but I expect to have the shop relocated here in the next week or two. Please come and visit me on Etsy in the meantime. I’ve added a few items there, but if there is anything in particular you would like to see, let me know in the comments below or feel free to let me know using the contact form.
This is a sample of a few of the yarns that are available. You may recognize Lyric in Catherine, Are You Weeping, on the top left from my Rob Roy Hat.
Sorbonne, one of my newest colorways, is the main color used in the hat I’ve just finished; available in Etsy and used in the hat on aran weight Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) yarn.
I’ve tried to put a few things in the Etsy Store, without taking time away from the work we are doing on the site (some pesky, pesky bugs and an unexpected glitch with a plug in), so if there is anything you’ve seen on the blog that you JUST HAVE TO HAVE NOW, let me know, and I’ll be happy to add it in for you over the weekend.
Thanks for your patience. I love you all for the support you’ve been sending and am looking forward to getting this baby across the finish line!
Happy 2017! It’s a new year, full of new promise. In my case, that’s knitting promise. This is the year I’m going to finish my impossibly complex fairisle sweater, I’m going to knit with all of my cashmere this year, and mostly, I’m going to have lots of fun doing it! And, to get things off to just the right start, I have a new Elliebelly yarn to tell you about. I like yarns that combine silk with wool. It has to be just the right amount of silk: shine and softness, but enough wool that the yarn is still cushy and has great stitch definition. And, of course, it has to be the right wool. I’ve been lucky enough to have success with some silk-involved yarns over the years. But I’ve had difficulty finding just the right worsted weight single-ply. That is, until now! I’ve finally found it, tested it, and fallen in love.
Vintage SIlver
This is Pussy Willow, 273 yards a skein, worsted weight, and I’m hopelessly in love! It’s got a nice tight twist — essential in a single ply yarn. You’ll see it kink just a bit in places, which is exactly what you want to insure it will knit up nicely. And color. Wow! Color is the real reason I like having silk content in a yarn. Yes, it does soften the blend, but it’s real virtue is the way it makes color so intense and beautiful. I’ve dyed it up in several colorways and it never has a bad hair day.
Supernatural
I am really looking forward to knitting with Pussy Willow this year! It has so much potential. I’d like to have a basic cardigan in this yarn, but also, I’m thinking it may want to become a cabled scarf, a chic little cowl (maybe in the new Grimoire colorway), and a pair of very fun, soft mittens. Endless possibilities with this one! I hope you’ll fall in love with Pussy Willow too!
Legacy
All of these colorways will be available in our first shop update, when Elliebelly reopens this month. But just a word of warning, because I’m a very small, one woman dyeing operation, like all Elliebelly yarn, it will be available in limited supply. To stay in touch and be the first to know about the details of our reopening store stockings, take a moment and sign up for our newsletter, in the box at the top of the page.
