What to Knit Next – Page 4 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

Knitting with Dragons. Color Choices. Why I Knit.

Posted on February 6, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

Drachenfels, which means Dragon Cliffs in German, is also a wonderful pattern by Melanie Berg for a multi-colored, knit shawl.

(c) Melanie Berg (with permission)

My plan is to knit it with sport-weight cashmere from The Plucky Knitter.

The issue? Color selection. I have some choices ahead.

Choice One: the blue color is Thank You Note, and truth be told, it is probably my all time favorite color. The green is called Good Old Days, and the first time I saw it, I wondered who could possibly like it. The answer is me. I've got a hat on my needles in it, a sweater in a related shade in progress, and plans to do another sweater (because I want a pullover in this color in addition to the cardigan I'm knitting). I adore it, and although as a kid I was told I couldn't wear green, this one works for me. And gray. Because I love gray.

Choice Two: It's hard to capture the depth of this teal blue-green. It's the same color as the Olivia I currently have in progress, which I've also been unable to get an accurate color photo of.

Choice Three: I am not a colorful person. But I could be, especially if I knit Drachenfels up like this!

Choice Four: Ignore Thank You Note on the left, and focus on the delicious introduction of Cabernet, the red, with the pink (Decorum Dictates) and the light gray. This one might be impossible to resist.

Choice Five: My original thought was to go with the two grays and the scummy green. But the contrast wasn't high enough. Then Decorum Dictates, the blush pink, dropped into my lap while they were out. The three on the left — pink, gray, and green.

Choice Six: Another strong contender (ok, they are all strong contenders or we wouldn't be having this wishy-washy post), I originally thought about doing this is the red and grays combination, and this is the yarn I ordered for Drachenfels. And I still love it. I love them all. I think they would all be splendid. So, I'm having a hard time deciding.

Choice Seven: Finally, there is this lovely concoction of gray, blue, and red. It will look good with black, which is a must in my wardrobe. It is both unusual and familiarly comforting. I like it a lot. But then, as we have previously established, I like all of them.

So help me out. Let me know what you like and why. What would be practical. What would be whimsical. Help me decide on colors for my Drachenfels, and consider joining me! Drachenfels has been knit 511 times on Ravelry (as of this posting) and in such a wide variety of yarns!

This project pretty much sums up why I knit. Beautiful colors. Wonderful, soft fibers. Texture. The planning is as much fun as the knitting. The finished project will be surreal. Truly, I cannot wait!

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.

A Box of Yarn

Posted on January 16, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

Here is a quick picture for a Friday morning. My kind UPS lady dropped off this box, full of The Plucky Knitter's Scholar, a rustic textured yarn that is a cashmere/merino blend. Oh the possibilities! Whatever will it become?

I'm thinking about this sweater, or possibly this one for the red yarn, which is called Strawberry Wine. And this one has caught my eye for the blue yarn, which is Thank You Note. What to knit next is always one of my favorite questions! Happy Friday everyone.

Knit This Now! Plucky Yarn, Fingerless Mitts, And Me

Posted on December 6, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

Every time I knit a pair of fingerless knits, they magically get adopted by another member of my family. I'm the only one around who is ungloved. But this time, I'm knitting just for me!

This is Churchmouse Fingerless Mitts in The Plucky Knitter Trusty. The yarn is a pleasure to knit with and the color is fabulous. I'm liking these so much that I'm hoping I have enough leftover to do a striped pair with this yarn and the yarn from my Betsy Blue Mitts.

This pattern is so simple and so functional. You could probably manage it with any skein of sport, dk or worsted yarn. It's quick. It would make anyone happy. Knitters everywhere should stop what they are doing and cast this pattern on. It's just that happy of a knit!

What To Knit Next? Green Yarn From The Plucky Knitter!

Posted on November 30, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

This is one of my favorite new yarns, Primo Worsted from the Plucky Knitter.

I've fallen in love. I've swatched. And now, I'm trying to decide on its future.

I've got a couple of hats under consideration or perhaps a pair of fingerless mittens (I like the Churchmouse Ferryboat Mitts pattern), but I'm going to wait until I have a moment to block my swatch before making a final selection. Please let me know if you've got any ideas in the comments or by email. I love this yarn and am really excited about knitting with it for the first time!

Knitting with Plucky: The Olivia Wrap

Posted on November 26, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

I'm really excited to be knitting with yarn from the Plucky Knitter this week, casting on my Olivia Wrap. (This was supposed to be my first project with Plucky Yarn, but I snuck in a Nevermind Hat last week, and I'm so glad I did!)

I'm in love with Olivia and I'm in love with this color — Holloway — with is the perfect teal. I decided to do some swatching, even though it's not technically essential for a wrap, and I'm glad that I did. In fact, it had several benefits.

In addition to helping with size, as you can tell from the three swatches above, one of my skeins is darker than the others. The skeins looked pretty well matched, and I might have been tempted to skip alternating skeins had I not seen them knitted up. I'll make sure to alternate in this project!

The pattern gauge for Olivia is 12 stitches over 4 inches. I'm not concerned with row gauge here, since I plan to sling this around my shoulders over my coat, and that won't be criticial. But I do want it to be big enough to wrap all the way around.

The pattern suggests using size 9 needles, so I started there. I got 15.5 stitches. Obviously, the more stitches in your project, the more the effects of having "bad gauge" throw off the work. Here, with 189 stitches, I would transform the 63" wingspan of Olivia into a mere 48.77". This seems odd, given that I'm a very loose knitter, so my problem is typically in the opposite direction. And, although I'm using a different Plucky yarn than the pattern yarn, it's the same weight — they are both arans — so I would not expect a result like this.

Going up to size 10.5 needles didn't help much. Here, my gauge was still 14.5 stitches. My Olivia would be up to 52.13". Theoretically I could continue to increase the needle size to try to bring my gauge into alignment. When I first knit on the 10.5 needles, though, I thought the fabric was becoming too loose and drapey and had I not blocked my swatch, I would possibly have set the project aside. But after blocking, the fabric was even and beautiful and perfect for the project. It even looks as though I could go up another needle size. Still, I'm not sure I can manage it — I'll see what a swatch on size 13 needles looks like, but I'm not optimistic. More on that and one other possibility in a minute.

Because this is gauge week, I decided to round out my experiment by knitting another swatch on size 7 needles. And, as expected, I got more stitches per inch, this time, 17.5 stitches in 4 inches. This would give me a miniscule Olivia, of only 43.2 inches. I have to confess that I'm rather partial to this fabric. I like a yarn that is knit up tightly. But the Plucky Primo Aran yarn looks wonderful on all three sizes of needles. It's a fabulous, beautiful yarn, even if it is frustrating me a bit at the moment.

You'll notice this swatch is a bit different than the others. A friend pointed out to me that this swatch is supposed to be over garter stitch (note to self: read the d@mn pattern). So I swatched in both stockinette and garter on the 7's, but unlink most knitters, I tend to get the same result in both stitches and that held true here. Still, I think it's worth trying a swatch on the size 11 needles in garter to see if that gives me a bit to play with. Since I did both of these swatches together, I may have pulled the sizing off. Fingers crossed that a garter swatch gives me a better result.

Then there is this to consider: Olivia is written for an average size woman and I am only 5'1". So a slightly shorter version may be okay in my case. I'm also going to pull out some of my favorite wraps and measure them for length before deciding what to do.

If you've been reading along this week, you've probably noticed that, A) I'm not very good at getting gauge and B) The process of swatching seems to lead to more swatching and lots of indecision. But I see all of this as progress towards getting finished objects that fit the way I want them to (and even, perhaps, some that actually fit my body when I'm knitting for myself). Although the math makes my head hurt, it's worth knitting a few extra swatches and seeing the examples that make sense of the rules.

I'm going to knit Olivia. I may have to do a few more swatches, measure some old favorites, and seek advice from some good friends, but I'm on it!

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.