Blog – Page 8 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

New Year, New Yarn

Posted on January 3, 2017 by elliebelly

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.

Elliebelly's Pussy Willow in the Vintage Silver Colorway — 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.

Elliebelly Pussy Willow in Supernatural; Worsted Weight Silk/Merino Yarn — 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!

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.

Catherine Are You Weeping on Pussy Willow — Catherine, Are You Weeping?

Closing Out The Year In Green

Posted on December 31, 2016 by elliebelly

Happy New Year’s Eve (or day, depending on where you find yourself at the moment). Before I head on out, I wanted to share a few last Elliebelly Yarn projects with you. Photos, compliments of my daughter who took a few quick snaps for me. When I looked at them, I realized I had selected four green projects. Perhaps that’s an omen for the new year, but I can’t think quite what it means, so I’ll simply close out the year with a few last bits of knitting eye candy for you.

Mitts Knit in Elliebelly Tree Wool

The pattern is Falberry Mitts and the yarn is Elliebelly Tree Wool Sport. We love this yarn around here. It’s the replacement for the beloved Elliebelly Sea Wool Sock Yarn, a yarn we were devastated when the mill discontinued it. But now, we like Tree Wool even better and have been knitting with it a lot. These mitts give you a good idea of why it has become such a favorite.

Rob Roy Hat Knit in Elliebelly Lyric

This is the Rob Roy hat I knit earlier this year. It’s the first time I’ve gotten a decent photo of it. The bit of white fluff at the top is perfect with Lyric, one of my newest yarns. You can see the projects knit to date with Lyric here. It’s a new-ish yarn, so there are only six of them, but wow does this yarn have pizazz! This colorway is Catherine, Are You Weeping and it has become the new black in my wardrobe. It goes with everything and it’s a bit of a chameleon depending on what you wear it with. I’ll have this colorway on a number of different base yarns when we reopen. I hope you’ll think it’s as special as I do!

Zigzagular Socks Knit in Elliebelly Juliet Merino

Zigzagular Socks were last year’s Adventurous April KAL choice. Turns out, this pattern is perfected with a variegated sock yarn and is also the boss with our Paint Brush colorways (here’s my sock from the KAL, knit in “Friends,” a Paint Brush yarn). These socks are knit up in the Verdigris colorway.

Heart of Wales Shawl in Elliebelly Angel Fingering

And finally, the Prince of Wales Shawl, knit in Angel Fingering (I really don’t have a favorite yarn, but if I did, this would be it) in “Dido.” It’s such a pretty shawl! If you’re looking for a fun lace project in the new year, this is one that is so wearable that you will find yourself reaching for it constantly. And I think it would be a lovely, functional shawl in one of the merino sock yarns but also definitely worth having in something luxurious like this Alpaca/Cashmere/Silk blend.

That’s my four green pieces for a cold, rainy new year’s eve. Perhaps the green choices must mean that I’m looking forward to a beautiful spring this year and lots of opportunity to sit outside and knit in my garden. It’s a wonderful idea, in any event.

Hope wherever you are, you are going to have a happy New Year and lots of beautiful adventures to look forward to in 2017.

Some Sock Yarn

Posted on December 29, 2016December 29, 2016 by elliebelly

I’ve been dyeing sock yarn. It’s one of my favorite things to dye.

The yarn I’ve been working with, Juliet 3-Ply Merino Sock. It’s a favorite — an incredibly soft, 100% superwash Merino yarn. Although I’ve knit socks from it several times (like this pair of Zigzagular Socks, from last year’s Adventurous April Knit Along), I also love it for scarves and shawls, because of its enveloping softness. And, I’m particularly fond of a machine knit cowl that BeckyU made for me. It’s a lot like this one, with leftovers from her Ashburn Shawl.

Dyeing Juliet is always lots of fun. One of my first priorities was to dye some Crayon.

And I’ve also dyed some in favorite colorways like Lady Mary, the pale blue and Peggy, the burgundy.

Although it will still be several weeks before everything is ready to reopen, I thought you all might enjoy a little peek into what’s going on behind the scenes.

Glacier

Posted on December 27, 2016 by elliebelly

I’m thrilled to have finished Glacier, Martin Storey’s cabled sweater from Rowan 58. It’s my second Rowan sweater, knit in Snug Bulky from the Plucky Knitter in the Dive Bar colorway. And, it’s a keeper.

We are in the middle of a sultry hot spell in Alabama — high 70’s on Christmas Day and weather not at all conducive to wearing a bulky, cabled sweater. But I love it and I’m wearing it no matter how hot it is (and praying for cooler weather!)

The complex cables, which I really enjoyed knitting once I got the hang of the pattern, are incredibly pretty. And, although I was worried about the method I chose for increasing on the sleeves, seriously, it’s perfect. What was I worried about? My knitting mantra for 2017 is going to be “worry less and trust yourself more.”

I couldn’t be happier with this sweater, and I’m happy to have it finished.

The Kindness Of Knitters

Posted on December 26, 2016December 28, 2016 by elliebelly

There is a legendary kindness among knitters. It is a kindness that lasts year round, but is in keeping with the spirit of the religious holidays many of us are celebrating this week: compassion, thoughtfulness, helping others without any thought of help in return. Knitters specialize in this kind of behavior year round. So it should be no surprise that when I was struggling with finish details on my Glacier sweater, knitters reached out to help me. Finishing really shouldn’t have been an issue for me. Glacier wasn’t the first sweater I knit than needed seaming. But it did have a couple of issues, the one that concerned me the most being my interpretation of the pattern direction to “increase in pattern” on the sleeves, which involved some pretty complex cables. My seam edge wasn’t straight, but rather bugged in an out with the cross of the cables. And it had me worried. So I delayed and delayed finishing, always finding another project to jump to the front of the line.

Jess, a/k/a Fascine on Ravelry (make sure you go check out her finished projects, she’s amazing), volunteered to do the seaming for me. I shipped off all of the pieces to her, with an apologetic note about the “issues.” In record time, I had a lovely box back from her with a perfectly seamed sweater and an incredibly nice note. When I opened the box, which I wasn’t expecting to receive back so quickly, it came as a surprise. It was like having a candle lit in the dark. It was a touching kindness and it came right at a time when I need it and suddenly, I had a path forward, at least with the sweater. Gratitude.

Yesterday was my day. A few quiet moments and a wonderful way to spend the late afternoon. I picked up the stitches for the neck and wove in (ok, endlessly wove in because this was a low yardage/bulky yarn and I used a lot of skeins!) ends. I can’t wait to share the finished sweater with you. I’m super-grateful to Jess for giving me just the nudge I needed. The gift of kindness is a wonderful thing, and one of the special super powers of knitters.

A Little Elliebelly Eye Candy

Posted on December 20, 2016 by elliebelly

Here is a little update for those of you who are interested in goings on towards the January reopening of Elliebelly:

The website redo is in progress, in the very capable hands of the lovely Nicole (who, by the way, has a fabulous shop of her own with hand dyed fiber and handspun yarn, and which you should check out). It’s a lot of work but I’m so pleased with the progress we are making! You will begin to see bits and pieces of the changes in progress and I welcome any comments you have.

The video on this page is a compilation of some of my favorite pictures for the new site. I wanted to share it so you can get a sneak peek at all of the good things that have been happening.

There has been A LOT of dyeing going on here most weekends. As excited as I am about the beautiful solid and semi-solid colorways, I dyed some Crayon sock yarn last weekend and am trying to decide which of the other variegated socks to bring back. Retro Kitchen? Guppy Creek? I love them all and getting to dye them again is like seeing old friends!

Please sign up for the new Elliebelly email list. Mail Chimp, my new host, seems to think I’m a spam lord, because I tried to upload the 400+ people on my old email list. Rather than fighting that battle, I’ve added a new sign up box (over on the right or at the bottom of the home page) and am hoping you all will sign up because I want to have lots of fun along the way to reopening: contests, giveaways, and a ramp up of our little community of knitters.

Whether you celebrate a particular holiday or not, I hope you will have a wonderful end of the year. If you’re like me, the end of the year always seems to close out in a flurry of knitting. I have a lot of projects in the works and some cashmere mittens that need to move past the swatching stage and onto my needles. I’m going to be hanging out in the Elliebelly Group on Ravelry, and I hope you’ll join me there. You’re welcome to knit and chat, whether you’re knitting with Elliebelly Yarn or anything else and there’s talk of a very interesting Temperature Blanket/Scarf KAL going on. Pour yourself a cup of tea, bring along your knitting, and join us!

It’s A Test

Posted on December 18, 2016December 21, 2016 by elliebelly

We’re playing around with the website (as you can doubtless tell — we’re trying out colors and ideas and there may be some rough edges here and there for awhile). And finally, the blog is here on the website, something I had difficulty making happen on my own.

I’m doing some test driving here. This is the first post I’m making directly onto the website instead of blogging on Typepad and sending everything over here through the magic of the interwebs. The interface is different, so I’m playing around a little bit here to see how it goes. Once I’m sure that I’ve got it all figured out, I’ll post a redirect on typepad and set everything up so you can subscribe here.

Please let me know if you notice any glitches (or anything you particularly like or a feature that bothers you), as we work through getting the architecture of the site just right. I’d love to have your input and I hope you’ll be patient as we sort it all out.

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