New (to me) Yarns & Yarn Brands – Page 2 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

Aster

Posted on May 31, 2015December 28, 2016 by Joyce Makes Art

Knitting with linen is always tricky. Swatching isn't as exact, because your fabric with ease up significantly with repeat washings and lengthen if the garment has any weight at all to it. And, because I have a very loose gauge from the get go, swatching is even riskier business for me on linen.

My first swatch for Aster was on size 8 needles. The pattern recommends 9. And it was huge. Very pretty but huge. I would have knit a monster size garment.

I went down to size 6 needles and after washing, blocking and stretching the swatch (to imitate normal wear), I had gauge. Or at least, I had stitch gauge. My row gauge is off for the garter stitch piece. Interestingly, the pattern suggests going down a size when you hit the garter stitch block at the top, and that gives me row gauge. But not stitch gauge. So I'll do some math-fu on that part.

After swatching, I was distracted by two sweet little stray kittens who came to live with us this week. Aren't they cute? They ADORE knitting. This is not a good thing.

This pattern calls for negative ease, and I'm knitting it for my daughter, so I chose the 31.5" size. The next size up, at 34" would have been far too large. The start is stockinette stitch, and you can see that it rolls. The roll up at the bottom concerned me, but looking at the pattern photos I saw a slight roll. I'm hopeful that as the garment grows in size, its weight will work on that.

I'm not sure that hope is going to work out, because I'm past the first set of decreases, but I still have a roll of linen. And on the gauge front, as I thought might happen, even with my best efforts to knit tightly, I'm still getting enough fewer stitches over time that I'm please with the choice of the 31.5" size. It's too early to tell if that will hold up, but as of right now, even with the stretching that is inevitable as the garment grows, I think I should get a good fit.

Finally, a word about the yarn. This is Quince and Co's linen tape yarn, Kestrel. I love their sport weight linen, Sparrow, which is a typically spun yarn, and which I used for Lida last summer.

The verdict is still out on Kestrel. I had a knot in the first skein after knitting three rows, which did not get us off to a friendly start together. But this is a good project to test it out on and see how it performs.

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.

Swatching and Knitting

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

I'm having one of those "cast on all the things" weeks. I like weeks like this — sad about the demise of my Flyaway Hoodie (at least until I figure out the proper size and needle size and cast back on), I decided to start several smaller projects so I would have some instant gratification and knitting always ready and at the go.

(1) The Nevermind Hat. Cute Cables. And oh my goodness, the yarn! My first project with The Plucky Knitter Snug, a mix of merino, cashmere and alpaca and I want to marry it!

(2) Olivia. I need a wrap like this so much! Something to wrap around myself on a cold winter's morning and relieve the tedium of all the black I wear to work! Olivia is going to be beautiful (if I can just get my gauge right for creating the perfect warm but slightly drapey fabric).

(3) Wilde. I like this cowl. It has (subtle) stripes. I don't know how to knit stripes — I always get that funny uneven jog when knitting in the round. So this time I'm going to buckle down and figure out the jogless stripe trick that every other knitter in the world already knows.

A word about this yarn: It is Blue Sky Alpaca's Metalico and I really love it. I purchased it for another cowl, but it was too lacy and not the warm neck hug I wanted. I think this pattern will be a better fit for me as the polar vortex descends on Alabama again.

I love starting new projects and that comfortable feeling of projects all ready to be picked up on a moment's notice for a night of happy knitting. I still plan on casting on at least two more projects before the end of the year, this capelet and this skirt, as well as starting over on the Flyaway Hoodie.

Plucky, Plucky, Plucky (The Plucky Knitter, That Is)

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

Six months or so I stumbled across a yarn brand I had never head of before, The Plucky Knitter. The colors looked intriguing, the prices looked high. But, as I kept seeing mention of this yarn in patterns I was looking at or projects I came across, I started to read more.

The dyer was experienced and reliable. She had developed such a following over time that she was having yarns custom milled for her. And the yarns themselves were wonderful blends — merino and cashmere, merino and silk, and a few with yak or other wonderous fibers mixed in.

And, then, of course, I shopped.

The yarn is sold in a clever way, through blog updates that center around color, fiber, new pattern, and other themes. There is a bit of a carnival atmosphere and it's almost as fun to shop as it is to open the boxes when they arrive!

I'm planning to knit a shawl in one of the yarns I've just received as my first Plucky project. But I can tell just from looking and fondling this yarn that I'm hooked.

New (to Me) Yarn Brand: Brooklyn Tweed

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

I've not knit with Brooklyn Tweed before, but I'm about to.

I thought it started with this hat, the Bray Cap.

As soon as I saw it, I fell in love and had to knit it. I knit one of Flood's hat patterns a couple of years ago, and it rates among my most enjoyable knits. So I was eager to go again. And, the pattern yarn was so pretty, that I decided to look it up and order it. (Thanks to the kind folks at Brooklyn Tweed for letting me use their picture)

The yarn is Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter, a 100% American Wool with a nice twist that gives it a rustic look. I'm not much of an orange person, so I ordered it in a red color called Long Johns. It's really pretty, don't you think?

It's gorgeous and I love it. But, the more I thought about it, the more I really wanted the beautiful orange color, Ember, for my hat. So, um, all thoughts of knitting only from stash this year aside, I ordered the orange.

I adore it. The color. The fiber. It is the yarn of my dreams for this hat, and I can't wait to cast on.

As I petted the yarn over the weekend, I kept getting the funniest feeling I had seen it before. It turns out it didn't start when I saw the Bray Cap. I realized that on a trip through New England a couple of years back, I had picked up eight skeins of this same yarn in Pumpernickel at Webs, thinking it would make a nice short cardigan, like this one. I've been meaning to knit this sweater for ages, and I love this yarn. I'm going to wind a skein and put it into my swatching basket for later this week, but in the meantime, I'm getting ready to knit Bray.

Have you knit with this yarn and what do you think? I can't wait to get started with it.