elliebelly yarn – Page 3 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

Another Reason Knitting Is Good For Your Soul

Posted on June 12, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

Knitting is good for your soul. Anyone who knits can tell you that.

And here is yet more proof for that proposition.

This lovely yarn is being sent to some wonderful knitters who sent money, generous amounts of money, to the Red Cross to support tornado recovery. To thank them for their thoughtfulness, they are receiving some of the newest Elliebelly colorways. Starting at the left side with the paintbrush colorway and moving clockwise, they include Good Day, Gulf Shores, P. Campbell, Kaleidoscope (not new, but oh so much fun for me to dye again!), Grapevine, and Steampunk.

Knitters always seem to be involved in helping others, and it's particularly gratifying to see this small amount of yarn turn into help for people who are trying to restart their lives. Thank you knitters!

The Knitted Rug

Posted on January 30, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

Kimberly R has finished the rug she made for me, and was nice enough to provide pictures in advance of its arrival. It looks beautiful. I'm planning on using it as the perfect splash of color in our playroom, although it has occurred to me that it's so beautiful that I may be forced to redo our bedroom around it.

I sent Kimberly a big box full of Elliebelly yarn, dyed on a bulky superwash Merino base. In case you missed that post and want to see the yarn, it's located here. The idea was to put all those different colorways to use — I'm planning on using the leftovers to do scrappy sweaters for Ollie (and Ellie if the leftovers holdout).

This rug has to be one of the most innovative patterns I've ever seen. Thanks Kim!

Knitting Little Copernicus

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

I'm so excited! I get to be a test knitter for Julie Kieliszewski, who has written a new child's sweater pattern called Little Copernicus. It's a sweet cardigan with a picked up and knitted 2×2 rib trim to finish it off. It's very cute and I'm hoping the little wooden buttons I have in my stash from Peace Fleece will be the perfect accent.

I'm using Elliebelly Pixie (superwash merino), in the Stained Glass Paintbrush Colorway, for the sweater.

I did my Paintbrush Colorways with linen stitch (for instance, these gorgeous baby longies by Siobahn) in mind, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to see how it performs in a mostly stockinette project. If I don't like it as well, it will be easy to convert the body of this pattern over to linen stitch, so I think it's a low risk proposition.

Although I rarely swatch for a baby sweater — they're going to fit at some point, right? — I decided I need to do that here, to insure that as a good tester, I provided necessary input. And, I hit gauge, spot on, at my first try on size 7 needles, getting five stitches at inch.

Many thanks to my assistant, Harry the Maine Coon Cat, who helped to hold the swatch out flat so I could measure it. He had no ulterior motive and did not proceed to pounce on it or try to chew my needles into two pieces immediately after the photo was taken. Really.

I did a very small swatch, really just barely enough to get the gauge, so I'm not sure yet about this yarn in stockinette. I'm tempted to say it's going to be very pleasing, but I don't want to jinx it. I'm hoping it will be the perfect gender neutral color, with enough variation to coordinate perfectly with just about anything else a baby could want to wear.

Midway Through The Cabled Afghan

Posted on January 15, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

I'm just about halfway through with the cabled afghan, at least based upon the amount of yarn I dyed for this project. The lighting did some funny things — there are no horizontal stripes, that must be from the bad nighttime living room light.

This project has been too bulky to be portable for quite some time now, which puts it on a slower track for completion than I would like. It is already incredibly perfect for snuggling under on the couch while watching TV. But, given that I can only work on it at home, I'm hoping to work on it a couple of nights a week and finish up by the end of February. At this point, I've crossed the cables seven times (it's a 14 row repeat). I'm hoping to be able to get in at least another seven to insure the finished afghan is long enough to cover toes.