Page 64 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

The Knitting Olympics 2014

Posted on February 7, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

Long about now, knitters all across the world are getting ready to participate in a tradition that occurs once every four years, the winter knitting Olympics, known these days as the Ravellenic Games. Sadly, I will not be part of the mass cast on during the opening ceremonies because I will be at work. But, due to the wonders of Typepad, which lets me schedule a post to publish at the exact time I select, I can share with you the projects I will be casting on tonight when I get home.

I've got four projects lined up. I don't expect to "medal" (finish) all of them, but I like the idea of having lots of support and fun with other knitters, albeit mostly on line, and trying new things I might not otherwise be ambitious enough to take on.

My first project is Adrian Bizilla's Flocked Mittens. I chose this project because I want to learn color work. This may not have been my best choice because it's small and relatively complicated. I'm knitting on size 1 DPNs, but my first gauge swatch, which I did in a navy blue version of the same yarn, Quince & Co. was oversized on size 3 needles. So I worked my way down to the 1's and I'm still a bit off on gauge. I have a very loose gauge but I'm going to try to tighten up because I really want to knit these beautiful mittens. Just in swatching I had to learn to do a picot edge, an internal hem and braided trim, so I consider these mittens to be a win already. I'm trying to teach myself continental so I can do the color work knitting with both hands, but I'm having trouble with tension and it's a slow go.

Here's a picture of my swatch as well. You can see where I did the braided trim using some leftover varigated yarn.

My Second project is Jared Flood's Bray Cap. I'm knitting it in the pattern yarn, Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter, in the Ember colorway.

I fell in love with this hat, which I'm knitting for myself. Its challenges include learning on a new cast on, the tubular cast on, which made it seem like an appropriate challenge for Olympic knitting.

I'm also going to knit Little Shells in Fleece Artist's Woolie Silk 3-Ply. I had an orphan skein sitting in my stash, which I dyed in Elliebelly's Pale Pale Pink colorway for this project. I'm not a big lace knitter, so this will be something of a challenge for me, but I have it in mind for a friend.

My last project is in the Aerial Unwind event, where you frog a project and reclaim the yarn. I'm frogging a long ignored cardigan in progress. As a part of the unwind event, I am hosting a Torch Passing Event on the Elliebelly Group. If you are doing the aerial unwind and want to pass your yarn on to another knitter in the Olympic spirit of friendship and cooperation, we've created a way for you to do that, and the Ravelry Mods have made us an official part of the activities, so please take a look and consider joining in.

Happy Opening Ceremonies and happy knitting!

What to Knit Next?

Posted on February 7, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

I've been knitting a lot of small projects lately. I have another small, but challenging project in mind as my Olympic knitting project. After that, I want to finish up a few works in progress and then move on to a larger project.

After lots of looking and oohing and ahhing over patterns, I settled on this sweater.

This is Pam Allen's Sophie Sweater, and I've purchased some Quince Osprey yarn in a pale, pale petal pink to use. I can't wait for the yarn to arrive in the mail! Although I won't be starting this one until late this month, I'm looking forward to it already.

Dyeing Yarn and Seeing it Knit into Socks

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

Over the holidays I found a little time to dye some yarn. Two of the skeins looked like this:

I sent them off to Silviaol, who offers her knitting services on etsy and I promptly received back two lovely pairs of socks. Unable to contain myself, I had to snap pictures and share them before even taking time to wash and block them properly. It's so much fun to see new colorways knitted up.

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.

Newly Finished Objects

Posted on February 2, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

Cold weather is surely the best time to finish up a few projects. This was my week to finish up four cowls, and it was just in time! Between children and me, they've been in use ever since coming off needles.

This cowl, using bulky weight Malabrigo Rasta, knit up in a day and is very pretty. I love Rasta because of its reliable quality, beautiful colors, and warmth.

My Blue Lagoon Cowl, using the Caera Cowl pattern, took quite a bit longer than that. The pattern was a fun, challenging knit. Not too difficult for a beginning cable knitter but complicated enough that it never dragged.

This cowl was knit for my daughter using an organic merino yarn out of Maine. I haven't encountered this yarn, Natural Colors Merino Bulky from Swans Island, before. I wasn't sure about it at first — it's a round knit yarn and I was concerned about stitch definition. But after finishing this cowl, I'm certain the yarn is a hit. I liked it so much that I'm using it for a hat to go along and I know I will be adding more of this yarn to my stash this year.

Finally, I finished Pam Allen's State Street Cowl in Quince Puffin for my Mom. You will have to forgive the bad picture — I promise to get one of my Mom in it over the weekend. But I was so excited about this pattern I wanted to share it. Although this can be worn as a bulky scarf and it looks great that way, I like it even better pulled down like this to stay warm while drinking tea and talking with friends or watching a game on tv. I've cast on a second one for myself — like all of Pam's patterns, this one is well thought out and fun to knit.

This is probably a high water mark for me: most finished knit items in one week. But the combination of cold weather and simple, quick projects in bulkier yarns made the knitting fast and enjoyable!

Knitting Update – Works in Progress

Posted on February 1, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

Weeks that are good for knitting include weeks with bad weather and weeks with lots of plane time on planes so small it's impossible to pull out office work without the person next to you having a full view of what you are working on. Since this past week featured copious amounts of both of these, I've got some knitting progress to share.

First, I've finally begun a project using one of those yarns I have considered "too precious to knit with" ever since it entered my stash. The yarn was spun for me by my cousin and I love it. I kept it at eye level in the yarn closet and petted it alot. This week, I cast on with it for a Storm Cloud Shawlette.

I've knit this pattern before and loved it. Unfortunately, my first one had an anonymous admirer who made off with it one day. Although it can be a rather tedious pattern, working through all of the elongated garter stitch, I really loved the first one and wore it every day while I had it. So I'm going to keep this project for waiting room and carpool line knitting and enjoy knitting with this cousin-spun yarn.

There is progress, also, on my second State Street Cowl. This one is being knit in cashmere and will be more of a wrap than a cowl. I'm well into the third pattern repeat. Although four are called for, I believe I will do a fifth if my yarn holds out, so I can have a bit more warm coverage.

My friend Helen raved and raved at lunch two weeks ago about a hat she kept knitting, the Slouchy Shmeph. There are only a few finished objects on Ravelry, but I decided to use up some leftover yarn on one, and I'm really delighted with it. I hope to finish it tomorrow so I can start wearing it.

Getting Ready for Knitting in Color

Posted on January 25, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

Colorwork, stranded knitting, fairisle — whatever you call it, knitting with more than one color of yarn has always seemed like a big challenge to me.

I tried it once. It was 2009 and I decided to knit a very simple winter hat in a Spud and Chloë yarn for my oldest child, then 19, who was going to school in Connecticut. It was the simplest of fairisle patterns, involving just a few blocks of squares.

In the end, it was pretty much an epic fail. I sailed right into knitting, without realizing I would need to carry the strands loosely along the back of the work. Instead, I pulled them tight and the finished product barely fit my then-six year old. As it turned out, he was the only one who was happy about the project!

But I've been thinking about trying knitting in color again this year. The lovely Teeniebean on Ravelry showed me her mittens and I fell in love. Yes, I may be setting myself up for failure, but I've got to try them.

Not only do they have that beautiful exterior, they have a full lining. I'm planning to dye a riotously colorful skein for the lining, since I'll be the only one who knows about it.

A local knitting friend turned me onto a blog full of knitting know-how called TECHKnitting. It is truly the most amazing resource for knitters. There is a whole series of pieces on colorknitting, which I'm hoping to work through this week in order to get myself in shape for the project. In addition to a piece on the basics, there is a discussion of knitting with one color in each hand and avoiding the color jog when knitting in the round.

This is my challenge for the new few weeks. I'm looking forward to learning about it and am hoping I'll be able to conquer colorwork this time.