elliebelly – Page 25 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

Sock Yarn Winners

Posted on March 12, 2016 by elliebelly

With two weeks left before the start of our April Knit Along, it's serious time for project planning and yarn acquisition. On the yarn acquisition front, we are an inclusive KAL and welcome knitters who show up with any yarn they choose. But, I know a lot of you like knitting with Elliebelly yarn, so I've tried to get a bit of it out there for you. This week, I drew three random yarn winners from among those who have their KAL Project Page set up on Ravelry, using the tag ElliebellyAdventurousApril2016: Frucat, Pegmcc, and TeddyandNick. Depending on the project on your page, you've got either two skeins of Pixie Worsted for your Rye Socks or a skein of Decadence for Zigzagular on the way to you!

If you're new to the Elliebelly group on Ravelry or to our annual knitalong, I hope you'll decide to join us. You will find all the KAL information there, but it's a friendly group that will jump in to answer any questions you may have. We start on April 1 and are knitting several different sock patterns in different weights this year.

I'll do one last quick yarn giveaway later this week to make sure I get the yarn into the hands of the knitter in time for the start. Has anyone started swatching yet? I keep meaning to, and have wound my yarn, but so far, I haven't gotten there.

Yarn Pørn Friday

Posted on March 11, 2016 by elliebelly

Friday seems like a good day to share some recent dyeing pictures. Several of these yarns are headed for the Adventurous April KAL (if you are looking for the details for this week's yarn giveaway, which ends tonight, Friday, at midnight, they are HERE) and they've been a lot of fun to dye.

This first one is Coppelia, on Tree Sock, the replacement for my old favorite Sea Sock, which is not longer available from the mill. Tree Sock has that same wonderful sheen.

BFL Constant. I love this yarn. Crossword Clue is a really nice blue/blue purple colorway, with a little bit of a pale lavender surprise in the undertone.

I've been all about deep, rich reds lately. This is House of Voodoo on the left and Mulberry on the right. I like Mulberry so much that I'm contemplating a sweater later on this year on Aran weight Cloud Soft. It's a really pretty, rich, layered red.

Cyndi. Because the girls just want to have fun. If you know me, you know I love a complex, variegated sock yarn. Cyndi is a riot. Small boy-children will love their socks so much if you knit them from this colorway that they won't lose them. But I've got a nice thick pair of socks in mind for myself to wear with hiking boots this spring.

Last up today is Goldilocks, on the same Tree Sock base we started out with. This color is right where grunge meets elegance. It's layers of color that shine through in the most pleasing way. Is it brown? Is it green? Is it yellow? Everyone I've asked seems to have a different take on it. But they all, even people who say they aren't yellow people, seems to like it. Me too. I'm contemplating an Icterine for spring.

That's my dyeing from the last month or so. I hope you enjoy it and it helps you get on with Friday and into the weekend!

Very Close To A Sweater

Posted on March 9, 2016 by elliebelly

[If you are looking for information on the Adventurous April Knit Along or this week's yarn give away for the KAL, click here]

Glacier is almost done. No mind that it has been almost six months since I startedknitting it. I've knit 12 other projects while it was in progress, including an Arlo cabled sweater for my son, and I currently have four shawls in various states of progress that I've worked on along with Glacier. But Glacier is really the love of my knitting life. It has all of those cables, and that buttery soft Plucky Knitter Snug yarn with its Alpaca and its Cashmere. It makes me smile just to think about it — even during that dark time when I realized I had missed a cable cross on a nine stitch cable and I was four pattern repeats further up the back.

Glacier is almost done. The pieces are all knit. I'm going to block them this weekend and then hope for a good long day the following weekend where I can weave in ends, seam (always my arch-nemesis), and knit the collar. The pattern designer, Martin Storey, is a cable artist. They are simply beautiful.

I've spent so much time with these cables that I'm not quite sure what I'll do without them. I've even dreamed about knitting them. The pattern is one that sears itself into your brain is easily memorized, and I catch myself wondering how it would look in linen, or in a summer white version with pale blue stripes around the bottom. I think Glacier, which comes in one of those big beautiful Rowan pattern books that are full of eye candy and inspiration, is a project I'll revisit, at least once. But for now, it's on to finishing.

Weaving With Elliebelly Yarn

Posted on March 6, 2016 by elliebelly

I have to share this photo from KTell on Ravelry, a long time knitting buddy who has taken up weaving.

Kathy decided to weave with this BFL sock yarn and this picture of her start was too pretty not to share. I love the almost plaid effect that she is getting. If you want to follow her work in progress, her project is here. Weaving is an unknown frontier for me, but my local yarn store is doing some classes this month. Looking at this, I'm seriously tempted to give it a go!

Adventurous April KAL: The Third Yarn Giveaway

Posted on March 5, 2016 by elliebelly

This week's yarn giveaway for the Elliebelly Adventurous April KAL will let you get a head start on organization for the KAL. To win, set up your project page for the KAL on Ravelry. Here's mine, as an example.

If you haven't set up a project page before, it's easy. Go into Ravelry and find the pattern you are going to knit, then click on the link to start the project. Once you create your project, you can click edit to adjust the details, for instance giving your project a name and showing an April 1, 2016 start date. You can do this even if you haven't picked a pattern yet, by naming a project and choosing a personal pattern (not in Ravelry) as your pattern for now, with the ability to go in and edit it once you decide.

The most important thing to do? Tag your pattern with ElliebellyAdventurousApril2016 (all one word) and Elliebelly. On Saturday, I'll search the tags on Ravelry and randomly select winners from those who've tagged their projects this way, so it's important to get it in there exactly right so that your project shows up in the search results. There will be some yarn included in this giveaway that is worsted weight for those knitting Rye as well as some fingering weight for those planning on doing Zigzagular or other traditional sockweight patterns. Put enough info into your project page so that I know which weight of yarn to send you if you are one of the lucky winners!

If you haven't signed up yet for the Elliebelly Adventurous April Knit Along, all the details you need to know can be found in the Ravelry group. Leave a comment below if you need any additional help and I'll get back to you. You don't have to have Elliebelly yarn for this KAL — knit with anything your heart desires. But, I'll be doing a few more giveaways this month to insure there is Elliebelly yarn available to help out those who want to knit with it.

Yarn Give Away Winners

Posted on March 5, 2016 by elliebelly

I really want to give everyone who posted some yarn for the KAL. I loved seeing everyone's comments. But alas, I've only got three skeins of yarn, two of Secour and one of Blue Eggs for this giveaway. Random number generator says the winners are Siobahn, Marla, and Katie. Congrats to the three of you. Please pm me on Ravelry with your addresses and I'll put your yarn in the mail.

No worries if you want to knit in the KAL with Elliebelly yarn and haven't scored any yet, there will be several more giveaways before the end of March. Next up is a quick Instagram giveaway this weekend. Add me, Elliebelly_Knits, to your Instagram friends and comment on the Instagram photo of this yarn for a chance at winning this pretty little skein of the new Friends colorway in Juliet Merino. It's my personal pick for the KAL and I wanted to share a bit too.

Sunday night, we'll draw one commentator to win this skein. If you are interested in joining us for the annual Elliebelly Adventurous April Knit Along, you can find all of the information you need on the Ravelry Group. This year, we've picked several sock patterns to choose from and you've got plenty of time left to join us. We would love to have you if you haven't knit with us before!

It's pretty spring weather here in 'Bama, and I'm off to play with my kids for the afternoon. But, I'll be back later this weekend because I have big news. I've finished the second sleeve and last piece for my Glacier sweater, thanks to my husband driving to the conference we had to attend late this week. I need to do some end weaving, but then I'm going to block and get ready to do all of the finishing work so I can wear this gorgeous cabled sweater when I'm up north later this month!

An Ode To Stick On Thimbles

Posted on March 4, 2016 by elliebelly

Do you ever poke holes in your fingers when you're knitting? My favorite set of needles are a very, very pointy set of Darn Pretty lace needles. The points are so sharp you could do surgery with them. They come in very handy when knitting cables without a cable needle, as the stitches you temporarily drop off and then transfer over slide right onto the lace points without a drop or a split.

I've knit my Glacier sweater using them, but as much as I love them, I was ending up with painful indentations on my index finger. I'm pretty sure the problem occurred because of the combination of a bulky weight yarn and complex cables over five and nine stitches that reoccur throughout the pattern. I was really excited when I learned about stick-on, leather thimbles, like the one you see above. You stick it on your finger and no more pain! There are a number of different types available, and I tried several different types and liked them all but am particularly fond of the ones pictured above because you can use them over and over and they are so comfortable you forget that they are there. Although I think it's the unusual situation like this where you need them, they were a lifesaver, and I'm going to keep them in my knitters bag of tricks from now on!