Knitting – Page 35 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

Ann’s Handspun

Posted on November 3, 2010 by Joyce Makes Art

My cousin Ann, who sews, knits, and quilts amazingly decided to take up spinning last year. Her spinning is really beautiful.

You have to see her yarn up close to appreciate how neat of a twist she puts on it and how quickly she has become a fine spinner. I have always been amazed by her — the woman manages to knit intricate Kaffe Fasset sweaters while stopped in traffic on her morning commute in LA — but her spinning really elevates an every day item into something of extraordinary beauty.

I'm going to see if I can get gauge with this yarn to do a square for Ellie's Barnraising quilt. I tend to hoard and pet my handspun, but one of my new years resolutions is going to be actually knitting with it, so I'm going to try and get a headstart here. This "string" is spun from Merino roving in the Elliebelly Copper Patina colorway.

I'll leave you all with a quick cat-update. With cooler weater, Harry and Hermione, our Maine Coons, have become increasingly adventureous. They seem to have an un-catlike knack for getting stuck high up in scraggilly trees that can't quite hold their weight. On the plus side, they have been busy making friends (or at least achieving detente) with our new Doberman, a pony-sized dog named Hannibal. Apparently, all of this has been too exhausting for Harry, who has decided to become dining room decor. Isn't he handsome?

Cabled Scarf: Finished, with a Surprise

Posted on October 30, 2010 by Joyce Makes Art

I finished the Reversible Cable Scarf, that I started earlier this week, last night. There was just a bit of the second skein left — enough to add a small pair of fingerless mitts. The mitts are short and bulky, and altogether wonderful.

The yarn, which continues to be onf of my all time favorites, is Malabrigo's Rasta. This is the Indecita colorway. It is really, really soft.

The scarf is completely reversible, which is accomplished through the simple device of knitting through out, including the 12 stitch cable, in a 1×1 rib. The yarn is lovely and bulky, and this makes for a very warm scarf, with a lot of visual interest. The cable is simple enough that it doesn't compete with the colorway, but it does make the scarf fun to knit.

Pattern note on the mitts: I cast on 16 stitches and knit 6 rows in a 2×2 rib. Then I knit 10 rows in stockinette before doing a stretchy cast off. I liked the rib so much I decided to use it up on the fingers. Here's what you should probably do differently if you knit something like this: The rib really does need to be at the wrists for a better fit (I will probably rip the seams and turn these around, although I do love how the poufy part looks on my fingers). If I knit another pair of these, I think I will try either a 1×1 rib, or two knit stitches to one purl as the rib. I'm tempted to do the entire mitt in 1×1 and do a total of 30 rows, which would put these just at my elbow. Also, I think they would be greatly enhanced by a decrease of 2-4 stitches around row 13 where the hand begins to narrow into the wrist. Finally, these would be lovely with a silk ribbon woven through the wrist as I did on Ellie's Victorian Gauntlets, so I think an eyelet row in that area would be a nice addition.

Rasta Scarf

Posted on October 27, 2010 by Joyce Makes Art

I’ve had a sudden holiday panic. It’s almost November and I’ve barely started. This is more of my beloved Malabrigo Rasta yarn, knit in a simple reversible cable scarf. A little bit of progress.

Purple Knitting Tidbits

Posted on October 21, 2010 by Joyce Makes Art

Purple seems to be the color of the moment in my knitting. Ever since I decided on a little spark of purple velvet in my living room furniture, purple seems to be everywhere for me.

You all have seen the start of the purple cabled afghan, which continues to make slow but steady progress. It is great nighttime knitting, especially now that my darling oldest child has taught me to stream the first season of Thirty Rock — a previously undiscovered guilty pleasure — onto the Judge's monster TV.

I really like the look and feel of these very sturdy cables as they march up the fabric.

Then there is the dropstich scarf in Cleo that I wasn't certain I was going to like in the last post. I'm almost a full skein into in, and the verdict is definitely a good one. I adore how the colors are working together and this yarn feels divine. I can't wait to wrap this one around my neck.

Finally, there is purple roving. While I was sending off some of my roving to be spun, my cousin Ann (she who can do anything!) offered to spin some up for me as well. She said she wanted to spin some Alpaca, so I ordered some and have dyed it up with high tones in purple and lavender.

I cannot wait to see what she does with it!

I'm still doing some destashing here and there in an effort to make more space to create and devote less space to storage in my studio. It is slow going. But, if you have been looking for some Elliebelly yarn in the Crayon colorway, I am having a drawing here for two skeins of it, dyed on a premium British Merino. I won't draw the name of the winner until November 1, so please go and enter anytime before then.

Finally, I would be remiss to not mention one personal detail, although I don't do much of that here. My much loved Mother-in-law, Helen, passed away earlier this week after a brief battle with an aggressive cancer. She never lost her sense of humor. Helen taught me important truths like the fact that my children would not remember whether there were dust bunnies in the corners, but would remember me reading them stories at night. Although she was a needle point person, not a knitter, she was indulgent of her daughters in law, and always admired the pretty colors in my knitting. The Judge and I are incredibly fortunate to have spent so many years in her close company. She was a person who was not afraid to speak her mind and had a strong sense of social justice. I'm going to miss her more than I can say — it is only just now dawning upon me. I hope that the tolerance she practiced and the wisdom she tried to instill in us will stay in place with us.

The Drop Stitch Scarf

Posted on October 10, 2010 by Joyce Makes Art

As a knitter, I either have a dreadful case of attention deficit disorder or I am a highly efficient, multi-tasker. I'm never sure exactly which one it is. I do seem to have a knack for working on multiple projects at a time though, and just this weekend, as I'm working steadily on my cabled afghan and almost ready for the finishing ruffle on my Far Away So Close shawl, I suddenly became infatuated with Christine Vogel's Drop Stitch Scarf Pattern.

I've actually been intending to knit this pattern since the first time I stumbled across it. I like the airy look of the dropped stitches. Last night I printed out the pattern and this morning I looked through the stash for a likely yarn.

I ended up pulling out some Elliebelly Basilisk in the Cleo colorway. The yarn is similar to the pattern yarn in blend — 50% silk and 50% merino wool, but is a somewhat heavier weight, more of an aran than the DK weight Lady Godiva yarn from Handmaiden that the pattern was written for.

This scarf looks gorgeous in every photo I have ever seen. But, I'm having my doubts as to whether Cleo was a good colorway choice. I understand that this scarf requires significant blocking when finished to open up the pattern, so I'm keeping an open mind. I'm worried that it needs more of a rainbow colorway though. Before deciding on Cleo, I looked at some handspun that was in my stash and considered both some of my own Alpaca that a spinner did in a DK weight for me and some unknown handspun, but rejected them both because I thought it might be too much color and pattern all at once. Now I'm wondering — did I pick the wrong yarn?

I'm going to go forward with Cleo. It's a fun and simple pattern to knit and I need something easy and portable for travel the rest of the month. The Afghan has become too big for a travel project and I need a break from the Barn Raising Quilts squares. So Drop Stitch and I will travel together, and we will see how it turns out in Cleo.

Afghan Progress

Posted on October 8, 2010 by Joyce Makes Art

Progress…

I've made it through two full repeats of the 14 row cable pattern, and am into the third. I've used about four of the 16 balls I dyed for this project, so based on the size I'm feeling increasingly confident I have enough for a good sized blanket.

I tried tarting up the contrast on this picture in Photoshop so you could see the cables a little bit more distinctly. I've chosed to do a very basic eight stitch cableover reverse stockinette, with four stitch bands of stockinette separating the cables. Although I had a little bit of cable anxiety, this patterning is so easy that after the first repeat, you can just read the stitches and put the pattern away.

The yarn is wonderfully soft. The Merino content is giving it good stitch definition, but it's warm (I'm guessing the Alpaca) and very soft (must be the silk). I could have knit this on larger needles to get a loser gauge I suppose, but I'm fairly enchanted with the firm, structured fabric flowing out of this uber-bulky yarn on size 11 needles. As it gets cooler here, I'm trying to knit faster. This is a piece of knitting that is definitely going to get a lot of love and use.

The Start of Something Beautiful

Posted on September 28, 2010 by Joyce Makes Art

Three of 16 skeins.

The start of my cabled afghan.

I can’t wait to get started!

Stay tuned.