Page 68 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

Hotel Hat Knitting

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

1. Honegart – I adored knitting this hat, which is a present for my oldest child’s 21st birthday. It still needs a crochet edging along the bottom.

2. Orchids and Fairy Lights – Bobbles and cashmere. Cashmere and bobbles. I like everything about this hat, except, possibly, the fact that it is clearly going to be so cute that only my beautiful daughter will be worthy of wearing it and I will have to relinquish it to her.

Two superlatively fun patterns to knit. This is probably as good as it gets for travel knitting and although I’m itching to get back home and to finish knitting the kids sweaters that are waiting for me there, I’m definitely enjoying the hat interlude.

Progress Knitting The Honegart Hat

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

I'm knitting Steven West's Honegart Hat for my oldest child, who goes to school up north. He asked for a new hat a while back, and I had been rather obsessively stalking Ravelry for a basic hat he would like when I stumbled across this pattern.

I'm into the second repeat of the honey comb cable pattern. After one more set of cable patterns, I'll be ready to start on the decreases. It's a simple knit with enough variation to keep you interested throughout.

The yarn is Elliebelly Alpaca & Merino. I opted for a blue and a green, rather than the gray and yellow high contrast hat in the sample. I loved the sample hat, but thought the boy might be more prone to actually wearing the hat knit in these softer colors.

Knitting From The Road

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

My work for today is a long, boring drive from the bottom to the top of the state. I’ve stopped for a quick lunch break and am knitting a few rows on the Honegart Hat to wake myself up for the rest of the trip.

New Knitting

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

I have a hectic schedule the next few weeks, so I decided it would make sense to get a start on a few new knitting projects so I could have them ready to travel along with me — the idea of being stuck on a runway without knitting is intolerable.

First up is Honegart by Stephan West.

I like everything about this hat — the two colors, the honeycomb textured pattern, the earflaps. My version is knit in Elliebelly Alpaca & Merino.

Second is Tiny Owl Knit's Orchids and Fairy Lights Hat. Possibly the cutest hat ever, I'm knitting my version out of some luscious, undyed cashmere. You can't imagine how good it feels to knit with this yarn. It makes me wonder why I don't knit with it all the time.

Third is 198 Yards of Heaven. I had a horrible time with the start of this pattern but finally got it figured out. I saw this knit up as a sample in my Local Yarn Store and although I had been contemplating knitting it in Sea Silk, I was so taken with the Noro Cash Iroha used in the store, I decided to use it instead. The color is more of a mossy green than a gray.

These three projects, along with Ellie's Tiny Tea Leaves Cardigan and Ollie's Ragman ought to keep me in knitting for the next few months. I'm a slow knitter, so this is an aggressive schedule, but I'm hoping to manage the kids' sweaters and hats and still have some time for holiday gift knitting.

Dye Yarn. Dye.

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

Sometimes a girl just has to dye yarn. Nothing else will do.

I dyed some Blue Faced Leicester for a very sweet girl.

I dyed two skeins of Elliebelly's Eco Alpaca — I guess that makes this an Eco Duo — to use together in a hat for my oldest. The skeins were dyed together and then the skein on the bottom was overdyed. I'm hoping this means I get complimentary skeins that work well together. It's an experiment I've been wanting to try for a while. You can see the richness of the colors a bit better in the close up photo below.

There is a bit more yarn steeping and you would think I would be tired of dyeing, but of course, that never happens.

The First Week Of The Elliebelly Knit Along

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

Two weeks ago we casted on for the first ever Elliebelly Knit Along. In the two weeks since, there has been masterly knitting, some early finishers, a lot of talk about pattern selection, tasty yarn pictures, and, exactly what I needed, encouragement for getting my fall knitting out and going strong.

Today I thought I would share some of the projects with you. They are all so beautiful, but I've got a few at random (the knitters who I was able to catch up with and insure it was okay to share their pictures and projects), so I will start with these few and show off the rest over the next couple of weeks.

You are in for some serious eye candy in this one!

Siobahn is knitting mitts for her Mom, a nurse. Actually, I should say past tense, knit, as she is so amazingly quick that despite using a sock yarn, Elliebelly Ellie-Blue BFL Sock, she is finished. Isn't her Mom lucky? The pattern is Alexandra Brinck's Fishtail Wristwarmers and the colorway is "Purple Rain."

Cricket is knitting this amazing sweater and bloomers set. She is using Carina Spencer's convertible bloomers pattern and Elliebelly's Ellie-Blue Aran BFL yarn in Cupcake.

My cousin Ann is knitting a Shoulder Scarf using some yarn she spun from Elliebelly Alpaca Roving.

She is an amazing spinner and knitter and my best role model. Isn't that scarf an artwork in its own right? It is so simple and so beautiful. I cannot wait to see it completed.

Clarissa is knitting the Storm Cloud Shawlette by Hanna Breetz. I'm particularly interested in seeing how this turns out as I have some yarn earmarked for the same pattern. She is using Elliebelly's Sea Wool in "Chihuly."

Tina knit Cappuchine for an incredible little model, using Elliebelly Ellie-Blue Bulky BFL. I've never noticed this pattern before, but now, I can't wait to knit it. Tina managed to show the yarn off to perfection.

The last bit of knit-porn for the day is Jenn's Citron, using Elliebelly's Juliet Sock Yarn in Marmalade.

Jenn's knitting is so pretty that I feel like she has captured a piece of the sun and is knitting it.

There is a lot of very cool knitting going on these days. I'm really grateful to everyone who is participating in the knit along for all of the fun and inspiration it's bringing me!

What Do You Do When You Are Out Of Yarn?

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

I never cease to be amazed by the ways in which people convince themselves that something that is clearly not right is actually okay or even good.

You might think that this is a very successful knitting project in the works for a very sweet young man.

But you would be wrong.

I spent the better part of the week not knitting on this sweater, while telling myself I had plenty of yarn to finish the sleeves and the ribbing at the bottom. Briefly, I entertained the possibility of finishing out the sweater with a solid gray yarn — a moment of deep practicality. Then I pushed the notion aside and reminded myself I still had three partial balls of yarn and everything would be, well, okay. Or even good.

Last weekend I hedged my bets by starting in on the sleeves early. I knitted the body of the sweater just far enough to do the last button hole, leaving a couple of inches of ribbing at the bottom to be done. I started one sleeve, and then I told myself that just to be sure, I would start the second one. At this point I had three circular needles and three balls of yarn attached to the sweater, and knitting the third sleeve was an interesting dance of needles and tangling balls of yarn.

And then this happened:

Two partial sleeves. Two rapidly diminishing balls of yarn in ziploc bags.

I can "catch up" the shorter sleeve on the left to the length of its mate is on the right with the remaining yarn. But that is about it, as you can plainly see.

Really, I knew. I knew this day was coming. After I exhaust these two little stubs of yarn, I'm going to have to bring out the gray — I have some lovely Alpaca — and pray that I can get gauge. And that it doesn't looks stupid, a sort of a "hey, I ran out of yarn but I'm trying my best" sweater. I'm hoping I can embrace the mistake and that it will look like an intentional design element or at least that it won't look like a total disaster and become the kind of sweater all children fear their mother may knit them some day. In the future, I will try to keep myself from ignoring the impending train wreck, or maybe just recognizing that when the math on yardage is a little bit tight at the outset of a project, it likely won't improve with time.

Despite all of this, I am oddly delighted with this sweater. I like the bulky Elliebelly Talia Merino yarn and I love how the colors play together. The Ragman pattern is simple, but a joy to knit and not in any way boring. So I'm going to suck it up, start knitting with the gray yarn, hope for the best, and trust that another solution will present itself if the gray yarn doesn't work out.