knit – Page 4 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

Works in Progress

Posted on January 11, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

The week I go back to work after the holidays is always a bad week for knitting (as much as it is good to be back with good friends and getting the job done). I manage to get in a bit of knitting when I wake up and a bit at night, so this week wasn't a total knitting loss. But progress was slow.

Thea Coleman's Vodka Lemonade pattern is my most challenging project at the moment. It's a sweater pattern knit in The Plucky Knitter's delicious Crew yarn, a merino/cotton blend. That is the collar that you see above. It's knit in seed stitch. I'm in the decided minority of knitters who enjoy knitting it. It's slow going and time consuming, but it's very pretty. At this rate, it will take me quite some time to finish the collar before I get on with the body of the sweater, but I don't mind at all.

Paddle Mitts are a Tin Can Knits pattern. Like the other patterns I've knit from this designer, the pattern is straightforward and the finished item is utilitarian. And I have managed to create a small disaster with what should have been a simple project. I decided to use my favorite skein of yarn, this beautiful skein of Plucky Scholar, which is a worsted weight blend of cashmere and merino in a rustic spin.

That would have been just dandy, had I seriously contemplated the fact that Scholar was a bit heavier than the yarn the pattern was written for and sized down, but no, I did not. That was okay in the body of the hand, where the ribbing made it work. But there was drama with the thumb and I overcompensated with rapid decreases after picking up the stitches for it. I've pulled that all out and am starting over for a thumb that works with the rest of the mitts. This will go into the man-sized pile for gift giving, darn it. I hope I have enough yarn to do a second pair for myself.

When The Plucky Knitter introduced her first collection of patterns, All Bundled Up, last weekend, I enjoyed looking them over and admired several enough to add to my Ravelry queue of patterns to knit this year. I even contemplated buying yarn for one of the sweaters in the near future. But then it hit. The Sugarloaf Infinity Scarf pattern was so tempting. It was written for my favorite yarn, Snug, and it just so happened I had the perfect colorways for it in my stash. So on my needles it went, and it's unusual little rib was an enjoyable knit while we watched a move on TV last night (The Life Acquatic with Steve Zissou, which you should watch if you haven't seen it and like slightly snarky, self-indulgent humor).

I have plans this weekend to work on my Olivia wrap, and I wanted to get in more work on Vodka Lemonade's collar, but I'm afraid Sugarloaf has captivated me, and may end up as the attention-getter in whatever time I have this weekend. Fortunately, it's cold outside and there is a lot of appeal to sitting inside where it is warm and this is hot tea and I can knit.

New Year’s Knitting

Posted on January 3, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

I wanted to catch you all up on the knitting I have planned for the month of January. I've joined The Plucky Knitter WIP Wrangling KAL, the goal being to finish Plucky projects that were started before the new year during the month of January.

I started Olivia at the end of November, but promptly set her aside to get some final holiday knitting done. Fisherman's Rib has been slow going for me, but I really like its plump, cushy effect. I'm hoping to spend some quality time with Olivia and conquer the short row technique necessary to finish her off this month.

Because I'm like this as a knitter, I hit a Cast-On-All-The-Things streak the last two weeks in December and set up a number of other projects to include in the KAL:

I'm knitting a second Nevermind Hat in Plucky Snug. This one is for me.

Vodka Lemonade is a sweater I've wanted to do forever. I've cast on in Plucky Crew — a cotton/merino blend. Although there is about zero chance I'll finish this in January, I'm hoping to get a good start.

I'm in love with Paddle Mitts and am doing mine in Plucky Scholar. The stripes on the hands will be in a different weight Plucky yarn, but I'm optimistic that it will all work out.

Some of my precious Plucky cashmere is going to become a Lina Hat. I'm not overjoyed with my cable cast on, but I've decided to assess it tomorrow and rip it out for a fresh start if it sucks as bad as I think it does seems to need a little help.

Wish me luck, ok? January is always a busy month at work for me, so this may be my knitting for several months, rather than just January. I'm really happy to have it all on my needles and ready to carry with me for delays and lines.

Finally, a sad note to the start of the year. Longtime blog readers (that would be you, Mom), know that we have four cats. Our beloved black cat Squirt, the oldest of our cats, passed away peacefully but suddenly. I'm going to miss his affectionate nature and loving support for my knitting — he enjoyed the holidays and was especially fond of having me sit on the couch for hours at a time and bat balls of yarn around for his pleasure. I'm going to miss him a lot, but am really glad he sat for one last family photo shoot a couple of weeks ago.

My Cables & Lace Capelet: Not A Success Story, At Least, Not Yet

Posted on January 2, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

Cables and Lace Capelet was a pattern I wanted to knit as soon as I saw it. It had this Outlander/Scottish Highlands vibe and looked like it would be great to throw on as I walked out the door for yoga or coffee with friends. The pattern photo looked great.

(c) Berroco

I walked into this one with my eyes wide open. There were a couple of red flags: The pattern was an older freebie and of the 15 finished projects besides the sample, virtually everyone commented on size problems, as in the finished project was way too small. One commenter said it fit her 10-year old.

When my gauge swatch, properly blocked and all, revealed that I was going to have an extra 10" or so around, I figured that would make the fit just right. And, of course, I was wrong.

It looked good finished and blocking. (Blocking tip: I no longer weave and clip my loose ends before blocking, they will stay in place more firmly and look neater if you wait until after you block. So you can see my tails hanging in various places).

I was still a bit worried about the length, but I was delighted by how the lacework opened up and how good the stitch definition on the cables was. The biggest worry, though, was the collars. I had carefully knit them to pattern legnth, but upon wet blocking, the weight of the yarn seemed to urge them onward into expansion. They looked huge. I carefully patted them back into shape, but they insisted upon growing, no matter what I did.

As it turns out, they're at least twice as long as they should be. And the shoulders too are overlarge. As you can see below, they slip off, instead of giving a nice snug fit.

And I mentioned that the collar had grown ridiculously long, right? It's a horror show.

Despite these flaws, I love the capelet and I love the yarn (Madeline Tosh). And, I'm incredibly glad I didn't do the finishing work on the collar before blocking so that I can try to fix it.

My dilemna is choosing among the two potential solutions I see. The yarn is superwash, so I could just pop it in the dryer and hope for the best. I've never done this before, but I know that it works in theory. My biggest concern doing this is that I'll lose length, which is perfect right now, as opposed to circumference, which is the problem. And, really, does anyone think that donkey ear collar is going to shrink enough? I should have known that a yarn this bulky would expand beyond what the swatch predicted.

My Second option is ripping back to before the start of the collar, faking another lace repeat with reduced stitch count to give me a better fit in the shoulders, and then knitting a collar that is about half what the pattern calls for, knowing it will block out. This is probably the safer option and I'm leaning that direction.

So what would you do, gentle knitters? Any advice about superwash yarns and the folly of knitters who don't trust the pattern and listen to what their gauge is telling them? At least future knitters for this pattern will know that in my case, the pattern was written perfectly and the proper gauge, properly blocked in the small size would have produced a perfect fit for my size medium body.

What Did You Knit This Year?

Posted on December 27, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

[Click on the photo collage to see the larger version]

This is my knitting year in review, or at least most of it.

2014 was a really good year for knitting in my house, likely because our Iceland trip spawned the need for lots of warm things early on and once my hat and cowl mojo got into gear, it never left me. It was also the year I conquered lace, starting with Pale Pink Shells, knit during the Olympics, and continuing onto Rainbow Fish and Lida. I started Lida during a trip to South Carolina in May and didn't finish her until September. She became my constant companion, knitting a row here and there in the carpool line or the doctor's office, and I love wearing her as much as I loved knitting her. I also knit a Citron, the oldest unknit pattern in my queue, from my favorite yarn of all time, Elliebelly Moth and Goat, a silk/cashmere blend that I dyed into a sunshine-y color, just when I needed some sunshine in my life.

Speaking of favorite yarns, late in the year I discovered The Plucky Knitter's yarns and fell in love. Some people got up early to shop on Black Friday. I sat in front of my computer and bought Plucky. Lots of it. My first project was a Nevermind hat in the Plucky bulky cashmere blend called Snug. My second project, which I only speak of with great difficulty, was a pair of beautiful merino mitts that were almost done when I stupidly left them in the Atlanta airport, never to be seen again. I've got an Olivia shawl in the works in a worsted Plucky yarn and plan to cast on several more projects this week to get me through January and February in Plucky yarn. Because I am in love. Plucky has great yarn, beautiful colors and the most incredible customer service.

2014 has been a great knitting year. Looking at my collage, I've decided I need to up my photography game in 2015, so my poor knitting models darling children can all have that to look forward to. 2015 will be a year filled with cashmere, sweaters, happy knitting, and it will, of course, be the year I start my Christmas knitting early. I'm starting in January this year. Really.

Bad Things Happen When I Go Away

Posted on December 13, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

I should have known it was going to be a bad trip, right? For openers, within minutes of my getting on the first plane, husband sends a series of photos that demonstrate that my months of careful training of the puppy are all going out the window. Immediately.

He taunted me with photos all week: dog on table, dog on bed, dog in the trash. I should have known it was going to be a really bad week. And it was, at least in a knitting way, because this is the last photo we're every going to see of my Ferryboat Mitts, knit in my beloved Plucky Knitter Trusty yarn in Corduroy.

I finished the first mitt and started on the second the night before I left, hence the fabulously bad hotel room lighting photo. But they were lovely. I couldn't stop trying them on in progress.

(Airplane lighting, even worse than hotel room lighting).

I answered a work-related call in the Atlanta airport as my flight home was boarding. Typically, I would have had better sense than to combine those two, but it was an important call. By the time I sat down on the plane, I realized I didn't have my knitting. A kind stewardess told me I had time to run back and get it. The gate agent wouldn't let me off, but said she would go get it. Predictably, she came back 30 seconds later, telling me it wasn't there and that I had to get on the plane.

Despite the efforts of some kind Ravelers and other friends to track it down, my knitting is nowhere to be found. So RIP wonderful mitts that would have kept me warm, along with my favorite copper stitch markers. Somewhere around gate T3 in the Atlanta airport, my knitting is cold and lonely. I feel sure it misses me. And I feel really sad.

Outlander Knitting and The Polar Vortex

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

With rumors of another polar vortex-like episode of cold weather headed for the deep south, I decided I needed a quick, but densely warm cowl, to get me through the next few weeks. I've knit several cowls that mimic the look of Claire's beautiful Sassenach cowl, as she works her way through the Scottish Highlands in the Outlander series, and I decided a modified version would be just right.

This pattern is so easy that I knit it during a drive yesterday (I was obviously a rider, not the driver), and had it ready to wear by evening. The yarn is Bulky Blue Sky Alpaca and I held it double-stranded. I used three skeins of yarn for this cowl, dividing the last skein into two even parts. The pattern is very simple: Using size 35 needles, Cast on 16 stitches using your favorite provisional cast on (I like Lucy Neatby's, using a crochet hook, which you can see here). Knit in garter stitch, i.e. knit every row, until you are almost out of yarn. You will finish the scarf with Kitchener stitch, for a seamless join. To do this, you need one length of yarn (no double stranding for this part), that is three times the width of your work. Even if you don't like to Kitchener, you can manage it for 16 stitches, and the result will be well-worth it.

For the larger cowl worn by claire — one that is long enough to twist around your neck a couple of times or spread out along your shoulders, you will want a longer cowl than this one. The modification is simple — this cowl is very bulky because of the double stranding, but using the same quantity of yarn, held single, you can produce a longer cowl that is easily wrapped around your neck.

Finally, a word about the yarn. Recently, I overdyed a sport weight Blue Sky yarn in this same pink colorway for a friend, and got a lusterous result. That yarn had silk in it, and I thought that might be responsible for the sheen of the yarn. I was curious as to whether I could replicate the result in a yarn that lacked the silk content. I tried it with this bulky yarn that is 50% Alpaca and 50% wool and you can see the result in the picture at the top — it's a deep, shimmering blue. I'm as pleased with the cowl as I am with the yarn, and look forward to staying warm through out the coming weather event.

Outlander. Late & Grudgingly. (But Happy About The Knitting!)

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

My Mom has been a huge fan of the Outlander books for at least a decade. I have to confess that I've feigned polite interest, but the plot has never grabbed me enough to convince me to read it.

One word suddenly changed that: Handknit.

Or rather, it didn't convince me to read the books, but instead, to watch the show, because I was told the knitting was beautiful. And it really is! Claire's ubiquitous and stunning cowl is something I had to knit for my Mom, also named Claire, right away. After searching through the available patterns (clearly, it's just a big ring of garter stitch, but I wanted ideas — should it be a mobius, should there be shaping, etc. etc.) I settled upon The Gathering as a good place to start and cast on.

The lovely purple edge is this provisional cast on, which I prefer to the one the pattern suggests. The yarn is Elliebelly Bulky Merino, held triple stranded to give it the necessary bulk. Although the pattern calls for size 50 needles, I didn't have any on hand, so I'm trying it with my size 35 needles, the largest I own. I'm not sure it will give the loose drapey knit of Claire's cowl on the show, but it seemed worth a try.

My plan is to knit until I am just about out of yarn and then use a three needle bind off, rather than Kitchnering, because I'm lazy like that.

This pattern is the easiest possible knit, and seeing how nice it looks now, part way done, I'm pretty sure the biggest challenge will be giving it over to my Mom when it's done.