elliebelly – Page 8 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

This Morning I Bring You Beautiful Things From The Garden

Posted on May 28, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

I was out early, dyeing some yarn, which led to this:

Early in the morning it's quiet and beautiful and you can hear the birds singing on our street. And the light is beautiful. So, despite my best intentions to take pictures of the Dream in Color Shrug that I finished last night, I have a little hijack to show you beautiful things from the garden this morning. Shrug pictures later — I promise.

My Sister-in-Law gave me daylilies for my birthday about a decade ago. They are still incredibly beautiful.

As is the Echinacea, which I had to replant this year as mine suffered some form of disease that led to mishappen leaves. It's now back to its prior beauty.

I still have a few late Gardenias blooming. Their perfume always reminds me of my Grandmother who grew them on an enormous, beautiful bush.

Our roses are particularly heavenly right now.

And I have high expectations for the tomato plants, mostly cherry tomatoes, that I tuck in empty spaces in the border so that playing children in late summer can snack without coming inside. This is a favorite in our garden every summer.

One of the best things we did, besides underground sprinklers, when we worked on our yard early this year is the long stone wall that prevents erosion alongside our driveway. It is pretty and the cats are incredibly fond of its warm, wide ledge which allows them to perch next to their beloved Catnip. Hermione has decimated the patch she was particularly fond of, and is now reduced to sleeping on the young Rosemary hedge.

This, of course, was the best part of my early morning garden, my faithful helper Ollie, who loves all things outdoors. Not only does he love to run and jump on the new wall, he thinks the $6 nozzle I bought for the hose at Home Depot last weekend is the most righteous toy ever invented. As far as Ollie is concerned, the entire garden grows just for him. I couldn't agree more.

Seaming the Shrug

Posted on May 20, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

This is definitely the fun part. Knitting done, finishing commenced.

I have sewn up the side seams and did a quick try on before picking up stitches around the opening so I can knit the body of the sweater.

Sadly, the sizing appears to be just perfect for my Mom. I had been secretly harboring hopes it would be too big for her and I would have to gracefully step in to spare her from the horror of it, but, sadly, no. It should be just right for her.

Next to pick up a bunch of stitches and knit some ribbing. I'm hoping to finish it in time for her to wear for her grandson's graduation.

Just Enough Ruffles Scarf

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

I am going to knit this

Using this yarn, a soft, heavenly, robins egg blue worsted weight cashmere.

I am very happy about it. So are my kids.

Don't you just love a yarn everyone can get excited about?

Afghan Love

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

My Afghan is done.

I am very happy with it. Very.

I started this project after falling in love with a cheap acryllic afghan in a high-end design store, and thinking, "I can knit that. And not in acryllic either!"

I could not have done it without the help of my Cousin Ann, who turned me on to a wonderful book about cables, that made it possible for me to write a simple pattern that gave me exactly what I wanted.

Sitting on this chair, it reminds me that I've always wanted to knit this.

It would be just perfect in our bedroom! Perhaps my next big project.

This yarn did everything I expected of it. It's soft, it's warm, it holds its shape. I love the combination of silk, alpaca, and merino. There is definitely an advantage to dyeing your own yarn, writing the pattern, and getting exactly what you wanted – a sort of soup to nuts approach to knitting.

Finished: Little Copernicus. Started: Dream in Color

Posted on February 12, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

Little Copernicus is finished. Down to the sweet little Mother of Pearl buttons. Very cute. All it needs now is a baby!

I have knitting work to do. I'm about three skeins away from finishing the endless black hole afghan. And, I should be knitting it over the weekend as it's so big it can only be worked on at home.

But no. Write it off to knitter's ADHD or spring fever, but I put the afghan down for the weekend. I also bypassed two charming projects I've purchased pattern and yarn for, Norie and Laar by Gudrun Johnston, but not yet started. And I even let the hat I'm knitting for my snowbound eldest child in some incredibly soft Eco Alpaca from Cascade Yarns sit swatched, but not started.

Instead I picked up the shrug I've been meaning to knit for my Mom for quite some time. I have four luscious skeins of Jade Sapphire 6-ply Cashmere in the Blackberry Fudge colorway and I had selected the Dream in Color Shrug Pattern. I selected that pattern after seeing this Shrug knit up last fall — one of the dancers at my daughter's ballet school was wearing it, and it was beyond-words-amazing. I always have lace anxiety (really, you keep count with kids chirping about homework, the Judge whining about "where's my dinner," and a Blackberry that goes off incessantly with work) but decided to tackle it and see what happened.

Things are always much more manageable after you start, right? The 30 rows of ribbing zipped by in the dentist's chair (the pattern is knit from cuff to cuff). The yarn is just fabulous. It's soft, the knitted fabric is squishy, it's everything I like best in Cashmere. And the lace is a simple 11 stitch 20 row repeat. With only five sets of 11 stitches and a few extra on each end to the row, this pattern is very do-able, even for someone tackling their first lace project. So much for the anxiety!

I'm midway through the second lace repeat and finding this to be lots of fun to knit. But, I'm going to set it aside to pick up the afghan for the next few evenings. It now has the benefit of being large enough to snuggle under while knitting. And it's so soft and inviting that the time has come for me to finish it off and make it available to the whole family.

Drum Roll Please

Posted on February 12, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

And the winner of the silk hankies is…….

……#10 – Kathy.

You have Ollie to thank for pulling your number.

Please email me with your shipping address and I'll put your silk hankies in the mail to you. We'll all look forward to seeing what you knit with them.

And if, like me, you are curious about how silk fibers are worked from cocoons, here is a fascinating (and quick) video showing cocoons being stretched over frames in a store in China.

Little Copernicus is Done

Posted on February 9, 2011 by Joyce Makes Art

I just finished knitting the Little Copernicus sweater, and I'm so excited that I can't wait for daylight and the chance to take good pictures to share it with you. I need to show it to you now. Right this minute. It is so tiny and cute!

Here it is, all done, and in need of a good blocking. I'm hoping it's small enough to dry overnight, because I can't wait to sew on the tiny mother of pearl buttons I purchased for it.

The yarn is Elliebelly Pixie Merino, dyed in a Paintbrush colorway. Here is a close up shot, so you can get a better idea of how the yarn works in this pattern and how nicely the picked up rib edging contrast with the stockinette body.