Page 67 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

Ollie’s Sweater Is Finished

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

This is Ollie, wearing Ollie's Ragman Sweater. As you can see, he is pretty pleased about it.

I am too. It's the first time I've set aside some Elliebelly Crayon for myself, and the bulky yarn, Talia Merino, made it a quick knit. It would have been quicker if I hadn't had to stop to dye trim after running out of yarn, but a girl can't be too demanding, right?

This is the most accurate picture I have of the colorway.

And, the buttons are very sweet.

This pattern gets a high recommendation from me — it's simple but not boring and the result is an eminently wearable sweater; a perfect knit for a perfect little boy. This officially concludes my project for the Elliebelly Knit Along!

This Week’s Knitting

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

I always seem to wrap up my knitting for the weekend at some point on Sunday. This week has been a busy one, and I don't have a lot of progress to report. But I do have this:

I wove in what seemed like a million ends (I switched skeins every couple of inches on both the body and the sleeves) and Ollie's Crayon Ragman Cardigan is now happily blocking in the first cool fall day we've seen.

In case you can't tell, it's very colorful.

That's Elliebelly's Crayon colorway, and I'm more than pleased with how it knit up for this sweater.

I'm continuing to make progress on my Storm Cloud Shawlette, which I'm calling Mermaid's Tail, since a good friend said that's exactly what it looks like. It's still an amorphous blob on the emails, but when you gently straighten it out you get some sense of how it will fan out after blocking. I'm looking forward to wearing this one — it's all mine, baby.

I've acknowledged before that I have a bit of an ADHD tendency as a knitter. It's really more of a "so many patterns, so little time" syndrome, and as I do tend to finish most of them sooner or later, I don't worry about it much. So, when I got an email Friday night from Knit Purl with a great looking ribbed scarf knit in Noro yarn, I immediately tossed my stash and started knitting. I couldn't wait. I'm knitting it as a K3P3 rib (with three knit stitches on each outer edge) and because of its simplicity, it is my "car knitting" project-I like to have something on hand for carpool lines and traffic jams.

I already know two things about this scarf: (1) I am deathly allergic to mohair, and this yarn has a small mohair content. It makes me sneeze and make my nose and eyes itch. I nonetheless like this yarn enough that I will finish this scarf despite all of that. (2) Two skeins is not enough yarn to knit this scarf as long as I would like, so I am going to have to start hunting a third skein. If anyone happens to have Noro Silk Garden in colorway 276, Dye lot A, please give me a shout!

New Works in Progress

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

I'm down to knitting sleeves on Ellie's Tiny Tea Leaves Cardigan and Ollie's Ragman, but, through whatever quirk of knitting adhd I seem to possess in great supply, I've detoured onto two small projects. I'll get back on the sweaters next week, and finish them in time for the advent of cooler weather.

These cabled gauntlets are a fun, quick knit. Not overly challenging (unless you are totally incapable of reading and then remembering a simple, well-written pattern as I seem to have been on the first one). I love these and the yarn, a lovely blend of Alpaca, Silk, Camel and Cashmere.

This is the start of my Storm Cloud Shawlette. I love the elongated garter stitch, and although I told myself I couldn't start one more project until I finish the sweaters, I succumbed to the allure of this simple, comforting knit and the pretty colors of the Sea Wool that had been at the top of my list of yarns I wanted to knit with. When I stretch it out, as though blocked, the colors look like a cloud of rainbows. It's going to be hard to avoid knitting this one straight through.

My Cashmere Orchids And Fairy Lights Hat

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

This has to be my favorite thing I've ever knitted. It's a Tiny Owl Knits pattern named "Orchids and Fairy Lights." My version is knit in an undyed, aran weight Cashmere yarn and it's a perfection of bobbles and cables. The pattern is brilliant, and although it was at the outer edge of my knitting competency, it was so well written that I was able to hang with it the whole way through.

The end result is a fabulous confection. This is definitely the start of a love affair with Tiny Owl Knits patterns!

Ollie’s Crayon Sweater: Trying Out Trim

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

When last we left our story, I had run out of yarn for Ollie's Ragman, knit in Elliebelly Talia in the Crayon colorway, and was obsessing over how to deal with the trauma. I settled upon a solid color trim, and dyed two: one blue and one gray.

Ollie favored the blue, so I knit it up into cuffs. The 1×1 rib looks oversized to me, knit on the same size needles as the body of the sweater (size 9) and although the color has much to recommend it, I wondered it the gray wouldn't be a better match. So I'm trying out the gray on the bottom of the body, going down one needle size to get a neater fabric.

I think the gray is the winner, so once I finish the body, I'll rip off the sleeve cuffs and reknit them.

The inside of the sweater looks great to me too. At some point, I'm going to have to come up with a reverse stockinette project for the Crayon colorway!

What I Did

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

This is the story of my trip to get to my business trip, which turned out to be a really exciting mini-vacation for 24 hours. I started in Connecticut for a really momentous event, the 21st birthday of my oldest child. (He loved the Honegart Hat I knit for him). This post has a lot of photos, but let 'em load — you will want to see this all the way to the bottom!

Before I get too much further, if you are looking to score some Elliebelly Yarn, click here.

I had to get from Connecticut to Vermont, and it turned out that it was cheaper to drive than fly, so I took a day off and drove, stopping along the way at, um, yarn stores.

First I went to Creative Fibers, near Hartford. It turned out that the incredibly friendly woman behind the counter was none other than Julie Cashin, author of several adorable baby sweater patterns, who I was really delighted to meet in person. She looks great standing in front of all that yarn!

Next I drove into Masachusetts at stopped at WEBS.

It felt like a pilgrimage. The store was beautiful and full of amazing yarn, and I was so happy I stopped there. I saw this amazing sweater sample — a Madeline Tosh hoodie that I grabbed pattern and yarn for.

I was overjoyed to stumble across an entire display of Juniper Moon Yarn from Shepard Susie. It was so much fun to see it in person, and it made me even more impatient for the sheep on the farm to grown my CSA share — grow sheep, grow!

But I really didn't get what WEBS was all about until I wandered to the back of the store and discovered a warehouse, full of racks and racks of yarn in bags. Good yarn. Amazing yarn. I surrendered myself to the experience and engaged in stash nirvana.

This should have been enough, and it almost was — I found out that a planned detour in Vermont was out of the question because of roads still damaged by Irene. I drove straight up 91 and by total luck (and need for gas) came across the Green Mountain Spinnery.

It was a teensy little yarn store, because (O.M.G.) most of the building is occupied by a spinning operation, using equipment from the 1910's and 1950's. It was, in a word, amazing.

The folks in the shop were incredibly nice, and stopped what they were doing to give me a tour of their operations, from the unwashed fleeces, to carding, to pulling the yarn into batts, and then ultimately into long thin ropes of roving that are spun into singles, steamed, and then plied into beautiful yarn. It was totally fascinating and I only dragged myself away to buy some of their incredible yarn, including these skeins, which are plant dyed.

And this wool/alpaca blend.

And this sock yarn, which begged to come home with me.

Then I went on to business and meetings and accomplished a lot of good things (and some knitting late at night).

Strangely, on the way home, the woman on the plane next to me was knitting some beautiful, intricate lace. It turned out to be Evelyn Clark's Swallowtail Shawl and the knitter turned out to be Grace, a/k/a LilMsDramaPants, whose knitting I have stalked on Ravelry for quite some time now. What are the odds?

Isn't her knitting stunningly beautiful? I think you can see this one in person at SAFF and it is well worth it!

A 24-hour yarn hop is definitely a rejuvenating event. I highly recommend one, wherever you find yourself.

This Week’s Knitting Round Up

Posted on September 9, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

I spent this week out of town, which was both good (flight delays and hotel insomnia = extra knitting time) and bad (Iphone camera photos of my knitting are very unsatisfactory). Here's the round up:

(1) Before I left I put in a little time dyeing which yielded both this fabulous dye pot

And this choice of trim for finishing off Ollie's Crayon Ragman.

Any thoughts on which color you think will look more like a design choice and less like a screaming "I ran out of yarn" advert?

(2) On the road I got through the better part of two (of four) repeats on the Orchids and Fairy Lights Hat.

This pattern is SO much fun to knit and have I told you I'm knitting it in a thick, soft, buttery cashmere? This hat feels incredible. And the bobbles are fun, the cables are a challenge to keep straight, and all in all, this hat makes me feel good about myself — a pretty big pay off for a little bit of careful pattern reading. Stephanie Dosen is the designer behind Tiny Owl Knits. She is a fabulous designer and articulates a great, clear pattern. I can't wait to knit her Amy March Slippers and her Catching Butterflies Mitts as well. You should really look at every single pattern she has, but if you look at only one thing, check out the incredible Bee Keeper's Quilt. I definitely have a crush on Stephanie and her beautiful patterns!

(3) I've finished (except for a line of crochet trim on the bottom edge I need to teach myself to do this weekend) the Honegart Hat.

I love the pattern. The details are clever and it is a very satisfying knit. Several members of my household are vying to keep this, but it's a birthday present for the oldest child (who doesn't read my blog), so I suspect I may knit a few more. I like the way the skeins of yarn play together — as I mentioned, two skeins were originally dyed together and then I overdyed one of them, so that some of the original color shows through. It's hard to display in a picture, but if you look closely below, you'll see some of the green from the band showing through in the blue "honeycomb" top.

(4) I also got in some time working on the body of Ellie's Tiny Tea Leaves Cardigan. I'm well into the "miles and miles of stockinette" part of the body which, while not the most exciting knitting is possible to do while carrying on a conversation or catching up on the news.

I'm hoping to finish up the body this weekend so I can get to work on the sleeves and button bands. I'm knitting this sweater in Madeline Tosh, Tosh Vintage Merino, which is a wonderful yarn. I'm wondering if it would be possible to consider this yarn a collectible item so I could justify buying some in every one of her amazing colorways. It's great to work with and the softly dyed colors are very pretty.

That's the wrap on this week's knitting, and a satisfying collection it is! Usually I'm in varying degrees of frustration, but all of these projects seem to just want to go well. The knitting gods seem to be smiling on me at the moment, which I'm going to try to enjoy, because I'm sure it will be fleeting.