Category: Knitting

The day of linen dyeing that I showed you here resulted in these finished skeins.

That's Elliebelly Chemise, a silk/linen blend in the new Castle Stone colorway. I'm looking forward to experimenting with different grays this year to try and find my favorites. This one is surely a contender, at least on this base. It's interesting to note that different fibers or yarn bases take dye very differently. With this being an unusual blend of fibers for a knitting yarn, I'll be interested to see what this colorway does on other fibers.

Of course, once I had gone to the trouble of setting up dyepots, it was hard to put them away without doing a little bit more, so despite the frigid cold, I spent some time mixing colors. This skein is dyed using the paintbrush method I developed years ago, but haven't had a chance to do a lot of lately. It's one of my favorite ways to dye for variegated color.

Once I got started, it became a bit hard to stop, so I did several vats of kettle-dyed yarn. That's a bit of the Crayon colorway you see drying–I've earmarked some for giveaways ahead of the Elliebelly Adventurous April 2016 KAL, which I hope you will join us for.  The indoor-at night photos never do much justice, but late night knitting and dyeing seems to be my MO, so we'll have to make do until the yarn is properly dry and photographed.  I wanted to give you a sneak peek!

My favorite sock knitter is Mommajnine on Ravelry.  She is absolutely fearless and will take on patterns that others look at and slowly sidle away.  Her socks are beautiful pieces of art. Every once in a while, I send her yarn and a month or so later, socks come back.

The Turquoise blue socks are an older pair – she knit them about a year ago.  Despite their intricate cables, heavy wear, and a lot of washing, they still look brand new.  The pattern is called Roses for Margery and they are knit in Elliebelly's Juliet Sock Yarn.

The other two socks arrived just a few weeks ago and I'm already in love.  That's Paraphernalia in the gold, dyed on Elliebelly Merino Sock in the Oryx colorway, and Ocean Mist Socks, in the pale blue, which is Elliebelly MCN High Twist in the Lady Mary Colorway.  The Merino Cashmere High Twist has rapidly become my favorite fingering weight yarn.  I also used it for my Antarktis and think it's perfect for scarves and shawls.

I feel very lucky and grateful to Janine to have such lovely socks without lifting a finger.  I adore sock knitting, but don't always make time for it, which makes me think, perhaps a little bit early, that sock knitting would be a great theme for this year's Adventurous April Knitalong on the Ravelry group.  

Adventurous April is always one of my favorite KALs, and I am really looking forward to it this year.  Although April may seem far off, as I know from planning earlier versions of our annual KAL, it always comes up quickly.  I've put up the first thread on the Ravelry Group asking for input on KAL choices and hope you will join in, as it's so hopeful to hear from people early in the planning stages.  For those of you who haven't knit with us before, we typically welcome knitters who knit with any yarn, Elliebelly or others, and offer a variety of patterns.  It's always lots of fun.  So if you are interested, or even thinking about it, please join the group so you won't miss the sign up announcement or any of the pre-KAL chances to win some Elliebelly yarn.

I managed a bit of time on this last day of the holiday break for yarn dyeing, something that has been far too infrequent for me these last few years.  I have a project in mind that will need a specific yarn.  So I had motivation for this spate of dyeing.

I have a lovely, old, worn to pieces linen sweater.  It is a very simple pullover.  It's at least 20 years old and needs to be retired, having been worn heavily for activities with kids.

The pattern for its replacement is still a work in progress.  I've looked at a few basic pullovers but I'm also flirting with a pattern that has a cable down the front and another with gathering at the neckline. The yarn is a blend of linen and silk, Elliebelly Chemise.  I'm dyeing it into a silvery-gray colorway named Mithrail.  I don't anticipate starting this project until I finish up Glacier and a few other shawls I have in progress.  In the meantime, if you see any likely patterns, please let me know in the comments.

A note about this yarn: much of it was sold before Ravelry (it's so hard to remember that far back!) so there is none stashed other than my own.  But it is a lovely blend and there are a few companies that offer a similar blend of silk and linen.  Although knitters are often nervous about knitting with linen because its properties are so different than wool, please don't be!  Remember that it will soften and loosen with age, so don't expect it to sprong back into place like wool does.  As long as you're prepared for the drapey effect, your projects will turn out just fine.  One of my all time favorite knits is the Lida Shawl I did in Quince's Sparrow 100% linen, one of my all time favorite yarns.

I have a project in mind that with very specific yarn requirements.  So, I finagled a few hours yesterday to dye some yarn, something that has been far too infrequent for me these last few years.  

I have a lovely, old, worn to pieces linen sweater.  It is a very simple pullover.  It's at least 20 years old and needs to be retired, having been worn heavily for activities with kids.

The pattern for its replacement is still a work in progress.  I've looked at a few basic pullovers but I'm also flirting with a pattern that has a cable down the front and another with gathering at the neckline. Although my original sweater is 100% linen, my yarn for the replacement is a blend of linen and silk, Elliebelly Chemise.  I'm dyeing it into a silvery-gray.  I don't anticipate starting this project until I finish up Glacier and a few other shawls I have in progress.  But I wanted to have the yarn in hand so I could start to swatch and pick a suitable pattern. In the meantime, if you see any likely patterns, please let me know in the comments.

A note about this yarn: I sold it, for the most part, before Ravelry (it's so hard to remember that far back!) so there is none stashed other than my own.  But it is a lovely blend and there are a few companies that offer a similar yarn spun of silk and linen.  Although knitters are often nervous about knitting with linen because its properties are so different from wool, please don't be!  Just remember that your finished object will soften and loosen with age, so don't expect it to sprong back into place like wool does.  As long as you're prepared for the drapey effect, your projects will turn out just fine.  One of my all time favorite knits is the Lida Shawl I did in Quince's Sparrow 100% linen.

That whole saying about the shoemaker's children having no shoes?  So true.  Or, in my case, it's the shoemaker herself, who seems to never have gloves on hand.  I prefer fingerless mitts to actual gloves so I'm not pulling them on and off constantly.  I'm knitting this pair for myself in sport weight cashmere in hopes I'll have warm hands by midweek.  They are going quickly as I haven't been able to shake the icky sick that descended on our house with the holidays, so I'm going to perch on the couch today with my knitting and a nice cup of tea.