yarn – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

New Year, New Yarn

Posted on January 3, 2017 by elliebelly

Happy 2017! It’s a new year, full of new promise. In my case, that’s knitting promise. This is the year I’m going to finish my impossibly complex fairisle sweater, I’m going to knit with all of my cashmere this year, and mostly, I’m going to have lots of fun doing it! And, to get things off to just the right start, I have a new Elliebelly yarn to tell you about. I like yarns that combine silk with wool. It has to be just the right amount of silk: shine and softness, but enough wool that the yarn is still cushy and has great stitch definition. And, of course, it has to be the right wool. I’ve been lucky enough to have success with some silk-involved yarns over the years. But I’ve had difficulty finding just the right worsted weight single-ply. That is, until now! I’ve finally found it, tested it, and fallen in love.

Elliebelly's Pussy Willow in the Vintage Silver Colorway — Vintage SIlver

This is Pussy Willow, 273 yards a skein, worsted weight, and I’m hopelessly in love! It’s got a nice tight twist — essential in a single ply yarn. You’ll see it kink just a bit in places, which is exactly what you want to insure it will knit up nicely. And color. Wow! Color is the real reason I like having silk content in a yarn. Yes, it does soften the blend, but it’s real virtue is the way it makes color so intense and beautiful. I’ve dyed it up in several colorways and it never has a bad hair day.

Elliebelly Pussy Willow in Supernatural; Worsted Weight Silk/Merino Yarn — Supernatural

I am really looking forward to knitting with Pussy Willow this year! It has so much potential. I’d like to have a basic cardigan in this yarn, but also, I’m thinking it may want to become a cabled scarf, a chic little cowl (maybe in the new Grimoire colorway), and a pair of very fun, soft mittens. Endless possibilities with this one! I hope you’ll fall in love with Pussy Willow too!

All of these colorways will be available in our first shop update, when Elliebelly reopens this month. But just a word of warning, because I’m a very small, one woman dyeing operation, like all Elliebelly yarn, it will be available in limited supply. To stay in touch and be the first to know about the details of our reopening store stockings, take a moment and sign up for our newsletter, in the box at the top of the page.

Catherine Are You Weeping on Pussy Willow — Catherine, Are You Weeping?

Progress…

Posted on September 13, 2016 by elliebelly

I'm progressing on my Paint Brush Hat, which is now well into the colorwork.

And, my Sjølingstadkofta sweater is also breezing right along. I'm a bit further along than in the photo, below. I've finished the collar ribbing and the portion of the collar that is knit flat, and have now joined in the round and added stitches for the steek that is in my future. I'm knitting on new-to-me needles that my LYS recommended, Hiya Hiya Sharps, and although I didn't like them at first, we are now BFF. They make immaculate increases and wrap & turns (especially when it comes to lifting the wraps to hide them, which I do this way).

Packing for travel is always a huge challenge for me. I'll sacrifice just about anything to get my yoga mat and my knitting into my small rollaboard and carry on bag. But, my current three works in progress all contain multiple, large balls of yarn. The hat has five, and they are all still huge at the point. I can manage just two along with me for the sweater, as it's fingering weight and they'll last. And my Grannie Annie has four balls of yarn, although at this point, they're all about 1/3 of their original size.

I've been negotiating with myself over who comes along with me this week. I've got too very long flights. I'm frankly a bit nervous about running into trouble with Sjølingstadkofta, so I don't want to travel with just one project. I think Grannie Annie, which takes up less room, likely gets to come along, while I leave the hat at home. I hate to do that as it's a wonderful pattern and I could finish it on this trip, but it's just too large at this point. Hopefully I can knit a bit more of it at home and take it along to The Plucky Knitter's retreat, Glamping, at the end of the month.

More Knitting With Blue Faced Leicester

Posted on August 19, 2016December 19, 2016 by elliebelly

On the heels of yesterday's post, I thought it would be fun to share more of the projects, like yesterday's Little Plum Shawlette, knit in Blue Faced Leicester yarn by the incredibly talented group of knitters who have been helping me test yarns.

These test knits use a variety of different BFL based yarns. The cowl on the top left was knit in Elliebelly BFL Superwash. The brown portion of the floral socks is knit in Elliebelly BFL Sock, the same yarn used in yesterday's shawlette. The red mitts are knit in Elliebelly BFL Aran, the original BFL yarn I dyed and still my favorite yarn to knit with. The green socks are knit in Elliebelly BFL Constant, a yarn I was originally hesitant to dye because of its high nylon content. I convinced myself to try it because of its potential to result in super strong socks for kids, but ironically, it has become one of my favorite sweater yarns as well. The nylon in no way alters the feel of the BFL and the yarn resists pilling and takes color beautifully.

For Ruxton, the green shawl in the upper left hand corner of this collage, we are back to BFL Superwash Sport. I adore this yarn and it's paired perfectly with this pattern, which is such a clever, textural knit. The red sweater is knit in Elliebelly BFL Cash-Silk Sock, a blend of 70% BFL, 20% Silk, and 10% Cashmere. It took only a couple of projects, this being one of them, to convince me this yarn was a keeper and compared favorably to other luxury blend yarns. The sweater with the large cable down the front is knit with two fingering weight yarns held together for a marled effect. One of them is the ever-versatile BFL Sock. Definitely not just a sock yarn. The lacey blue sweater is also knit from BFL Sock.

Conclusions? You should all run out and find some yarn with Blue Faced Leicester and knit with it. Now. Seriously, it's wonderful yarn. And fortunately, you won't have to go to England to buy some like I did originally. Although Elliebelly yarn isn't being sold currently, there are a number of good commercial and indie options for buying BFL and I encourage you to enjoy the experience of knitting with it.

The first purpose I envisioned for this yarn was diaper cover pants for babies who were cloth diapered. It's fabulous for that purpose, and if you want to see some of my earliest dyeing and favorite projects, you'll find a few pages of adorable projects for babies on Ravelry.

A Simple Knit Scarf

Posted on August 18, 2016December 19, 2016 by elliebelly

One of my favorite fibers to work with is the wool of Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) sheep. It is a long fiber wool and quite light, so it produces soft yarn with the additional benefit of a pretty sheen, much like wool fiber that is blended with silk. It produces a strong fabric that is perfect for socks and has long been a staple of British knitters, but it was relatively unknown here 16 years ago. I first stumbled upon it on a trip (because I visit yarn shops on family vacations. I just do) and picked some up to use for diaper covers for my daughter. And I was instantly hooked. It became one of my favorite fibers to knit with and later, to dye.

BFL is increasingly well-known to US knitters. Canadian and American raised BFL is spun into yarn along with its counterpart from Great Britain. Lately, I've been testing different blends and spins of BFL yarns to try and come up with a few favorite yarns. And, I admit, it's virtually impossible, because I like them all. This project is the Little Plum Shawlette and it is knit in BFL Sock, a 100% fingering weight yarn, not treated with superwash, that is primarily intended for socks but is versatile enough to work for scarves and other accessories.

Over the years since I first discovered with it, I've knit frequently with Blue Faced Leicester and the results are always pleasing.

A quick note about the purple scarf pattern. It was released the month that Prince died and the designer's description of the pattern made it impossible for me to pass up, especially since I had some yarn on hand that I had dyed in my oldie but goodie Purple Rain colorway:

I have loved Prince since the 1980s and was so sad to learn that he died suddenly. This shawlette has stitches that each commemorate a song by The Artist. I get that this is MAJORLY dorky, but when I was between designs, Michelle from Bo Peep Fine Yarns messaged me suggesting a Prince commemoration. So, when you’re a knitter, you knit, and when you’re a fan, you fangirl (yes, that’s a verb….my 12 year old daughter knows.) So, this is me fan-girling in an utterly mortifying way, no doubt!

This must be made while watching Prince videos or listening to his music. But you knew this, anyway. If there’s any desire for a KAL, let me know…although I’m probably one of only 3 Prince knitting fans!

There are 6 elements that commemorate Prince in this design, from bottom to top:

1 – Purple Rain drops
2 – Diamonds and Pearls
3 – Doves
4 – Doves again because this is my favorite song.
5 ”X’s” for “Kiss”
6 Seed stitch…it works round and round and is a a cool kitty. And I love it.
7. As an afterthought, the shawlette is skinny, just like Prince!

Vacation Knitting — A Wrap Up

Posted on August 5, 2016 by elliebelly

Knitting on vacation is a joy. And an agony, when you don't have the right tools. Midway into our trek through Glacier National Park, with nary a yarn store in sight, I realized that the 6" DPNs I have brought along to knit Vitsippa, my fairisle hat, on, were going to be too short to accommodate all the stitches once I finished up the ribbing and added additional stitches called for in the pattern to begin the stranded portion of the hat.

So here I am, rather unattractively sweating and knitting away, trying to recover from the hike up the Highline Trail, whilst coming to the sad realization I'm going to have to put Vitsippa away until our return to civilization. The view was compensation (and if you've read my earlier post, the knitting really liked the view too).

Next, I pulled out my Oak Park, renamed Glacier Park in honor of the trip. Oak Park is a triangular shawl, knit in a devious pattern that is constantly shifting. I had been looking for a pattern for my three skeins of The Plucky Knitter's Cachet (aran weight cashmere) in Slumber, my most prized yarn, for a really long time and was so happy when a friend suggested this pattern. I was one repeat in when we emerged from hiking the Swift Current Trail in Many Glacier and made our way on up to the Prince of Wales Lodge on the Canadian side of the park, only to discover that they served a very nice tea.

I knit away on Oak Park/Glacier Park for the rest of our hiking time, and ended up just shy of three repeats in at the end. It's an absolutely lovely pattern and precisely what this yarn wanted to become. I'm going to be so happy with it as soon as it isn't 90` that feels like 100` degrees with the humidity in Alabama. (Let me digress and say it was 40` when we flew out of Kalispell, Montana, and I really wish I was still there!)

Amazingly, there was a yarn store when we made it to Whitefish, Montana, our last stop. And, a day of rain that was perfect for exploring town, eating some delicious crepes, watching the huge logging trucks roll in filled with freshly cut timber, and stoping by the local yarn store, Knit 'n Needle where the lovely proprietress encouraged me to pick out a circular rather than longer DPNs. I fell in love with the store yarn, Polka Dot Sheep, and engaged in a little stash addition. And we discovered that the fabulous Huckleberries we had been picking and eating along the trails were used for all sort of pastries in town. What a wonderful place to end our trip!

Armed with my new 16" circular needle, I returned to Vitsippa on the flight home. After picking up a few stitches that had dropped off the overloaded DPNs, I was back in business. Sorry about the bad airplane lighting on the picture, but I'm so excited about the colorwork on this one that I can't wait to share it. That's The Plucky Knitter's Oxford in Waxing Poetic (the gold) and Bedrock (the gray). I love knitting fairisle and am really enjoying this one!

Truth be told, I love my day job and our life in Birmingham, but there is a little part of me that would love to remain under Montana's Big Sky, knitting and hiking. It was a wonderful vacation and it reminded me of decades ago trips with my grandparents, which not too surprisingly, featured hiking and knitting, along with some fishing. It's fun to come full circle like that.

I can't end this post without a few trip pictures. First off, this lousy camera phone picture of a BEAR who was swimming casually across a LAKE about 40 feet away from us as we drove to the trailhead to hike Bertha Lake in Canada. It was a moment — we could see him skimming through the water, magnificent and large.

Hiking in the alpine meadows was spectacularly beautiful.

And being able to see the waterfalls and lakes, as well as the animals and flowers, made it worth several of the more challenging, steep portions of the trails. I would do it again in a heartbeat, knitting and all!

Attached I-Cord Bind Off

Posted on July 16, 2016 by elliebelly

I am here to tell you that the precise amount of time it takes to pick up stitches along the rather expansive neckline of a Mithril sweater and then do an attached I-Cord edging is the same as the amount of time it takes to watch Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix. It was a complete match and a happy coincidence, because I did it all in one go. Unfortunately, because I ended this adventure at 2 am, I'm a little bit brain dead. I'll do a post later these week and leave behind breadcrumbs for anyone who wants some thoughts about using this technique. I'm very pleased with it and found it to be surprisingly easy to do, including the join at the end.

I'll leave you with a photo of my happy hunters, Wingus and Dingus, enjoying a surprisingly pleasant (i.e. not blastingly humid) Saturday and some incredibly vibrant colors going on in my garden this morning.

Adventurous April KAL: The Third Yarn Giveaway

Posted on March 5, 2016 by elliebelly

This week's yarn giveaway for the Elliebelly Adventurous April KAL will let you get a head start on organization for the KAL. To win, set up your project page for the KAL on Ravelry. Here's mine, as an example.

If you haven't set up a project page before, it's easy. Go into Ravelry and find the pattern you are going to knit, then click on the link to start the project. Once you create your project, you can click edit to adjust the details, for instance giving your project a name and showing an April 1, 2016 start date. You can do this even if you haven't picked a pattern yet, by naming a project and choosing a personal pattern (not in Ravelry) as your pattern for now, with the ability to go in and edit it once you decide.

The most important thing to do? Tag your pattern with ElliebellyAdventurousApril2016 (all one word) and Elliebelly. On Saturday, I'll search the tags on Ravelry and randomly select winners from those who've tagged their projects this way, so it's important to get it in there exactly right so that your project shows up in the search results. There will be some yarn included in this giveaway that is worsted weight for those knitting Rye as well as some fingering weight for those planning on doing Zigzagular or other traditional sockweight patterns. Put enough info into your project page so that I know which weight of yarn to send you if you are one of the lucky winners!

If you haven't signed up yet for the Elliebelly Adventurous April Knit Along, all the details you need to know can be found in the Ravelry group. Leave a comment below if you need any additional help and I'll get back to you. You don't have to have Elliebelly yarn for this KAL — knit with anything your heart desires. But, I'll be doing a few more giveaways this month to insure there is Elliebelly yarn available to help out those who want to knit with it.