Page 69 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

Knitting Drama — What To Do When The Yarn Runs Out

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

I should be ashamed. Really. I knew, I knew in my heart, that I was going to be short on yarn for Ollie's Ragman. But I thought it would only be a bit at the end and I would compensate by shortening the sweater a bit.

What I didn't count on was that my gauge would be off and the sweater would eat more yarn than anticipated. I'm here.

And this is a bad place to be with less than one full ball of yarn left. I realized I was in trouble last night, and started knitting the sleeves before finishing the body, thinking I would just make it with a slightly shortened measurement. (And yes, I'm annoyed that the sleeve patterning is inconsistent with the body, but I haven't decided yet if I'm going to rip it out and see if I can play with the number of stitches to "fix" that.)

I'm now accepting that I am, in the vernacular, screwed.

I once knit Ollie a cute little hat with this same weight yarn and striped it with this yarn in gray, an effect I really liked. I think something like that, at the bottom of the sweater, is my only option.

I don't have any of that particular yarn left and I do wish I had planned better and knit the collar in trim, but unless I want to rip the whole sweater out and start over with the trim collar, my only option is to squeeze out as much of the sleeves as I can and then use trim for an oversized cuff there at the bottom of the body.

It doesn't help that it's my own fault and I should have planned better. I've sulked and I've pretended it wasn't so, but like all drama, ultimately the only thing to do is confront it and move forward. *Sigh*

Knitting & Knitting

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

The Elliebelly Knit Along is taking shape nicely!

The sweater I'm knitting for Ollie is coming along (although I'm getting a little bit edgey about the yardage and hoping I won't run out).

Some other Knitters are blogging too! You can read about Jen P. and Plath's knitting and see some great pictures.

Other knitters have finished their projects already. These people scare me!

There is lots of pretty knitting in the works, and I'm going to try to feature as much of it as possible on my blog over the next few weeks. Seeing it has inspired me to organize my yarn and my knitting plans for the fall.

Studio Saturday

Posted on August 20, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

It's a lazy Saturday here. We dropped Grandma off at the airport for her trip back home, which is always a sad sort of thing, so we decided to do nothing of any consequence for the entire morning. We have succeeded admirably.

It's been a studio day. I set out to do some straightening up, and instead, immediately picked up my first experiment at knitting with silkworm handkerchiefs and decided to knit some more on it, instead of sorting out the room. It's such a pretty color — if the hankies hold out, I think I'll try to get a scarf out of this piece.

I also stopped to press a scarf I dyed earlier this week. The fabric is a Wool/Silk blend. I'm very pleased with it.

I never made it back to cleaning up, because Ollie showed up, wanting to college.

He is always fun to watch because of his fierce concentration, but he seemed happy with his work.

Just about the time he finished, Ellie showed up, wanting to make a card for a friend.

And really, I realized it was absolutely hopeless. There was no chance of organizing yarn because the basket had been taken over by a very contented Hermione.

I was not about to be the person to disturb her, so we've called it a morning and our contentedly lazing our way into lunch.

I think we could all use a lazy studio Saturday every once in a while. I'm very happy to be having one today!

A Special Day, Both Knitting And Otherwise

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

It was a special day today.

It was the first day of school.

Grandma Claire (who is visiting) and Teddy both got haircuts. Teddy hasn't had one in at least six months. I had almost forgotten how handsome he is.

One fringe benefit of the start of the school year is the extraordinarily long wait in the carpool line. It stretches down 4-5 city blocks and it can be a 20 minute wait if you are really lucky and manage to hit it just right. Extra knitting time! The carpool line is one of my most favorite-ist things.

I am really pleased that the sweater seems to be knitting up enough on the large side that he should be able to wear it for a couple of years.

Apparently Ollie thought the day was pretty special too. Although he was less than happy about putting on a wool sweater in 100` heat, he seemed to enjoy himself a lot. Maybe too much.

It's very nice to have such a appreciative little guy to knit for.

Knit Along Progress

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

I have made great progress with Ollie's Sweater, having finished the raglan increases, put the sleeve stitches aside on waste yarn, and joined the body to knit down in one piece.

But my progress is not the knitting story of the day. That story belongs to Ellie, who made this totally amazing hat in two and a half days.

Isn't she a wonderful next generation knitter?

Now you will have to indulge me and ooh and ahh over the pictures of her knitting. I think it is the most incredible experience in the world to have lucked into a knitting child. (This is actually my second knitter, my first is here.) Isn't she wonderful?

Knitting Ollie’s Fall Sweater

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

I'm knitting Ollie's fall sweater for the Elliebelly Knit Along. I'm a little bit better than halfway down the raglan portion of the top of the sweater.

The sweater is Ragman and the yarn is Elliebelly Talia, a bulky Merino wool, dyed in the Crayon colorway.

Casting On: Ollie’s Crayon Ragman Sweater

Posted on August 13, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

The Elliebelly Knit Along starts today, and I'm on top of it.

This yarn

is going to become this sweater, Donna Higgins Ragman.

I'm off to a good start.

A very bad swatch indicated I would get gauge on size 9 needles (I've knit with this yarn before so I knew that and was too lazy to do more than just quickly confirm it.)

57 stitches, casted on using the long tail method.

And, on to the set up row for the raglan increases, followed by the insertion of pretty yarn jewelry (stitch markers).

The only hitch in the process involved our large black cat, squirt, who became enamoured with the "new toy" Mom got him, and suddenly wandered off with the ball of yarn, trailing my needles behind him.

He was very disappointed when I took it back. Poor kitty!