Dyeing – Page 24 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

Procrastination

Posted on April 22, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

I am procrastinating.

I have still not finished packing my supply boxes for Art & Soul East, which have to be off in the mail on Monday (due to some logistics involving my day job interfering with art). Because it is literally impossible for me to condense my studio into one small box, I am doing other things — important things, but procrastination never this less.

This is how my scatter of potential "things to take along" looks right now.

About the only thing I have done is to bag up pieces of fabric with coordinating trims for use in my Leslie Riley Fabric Book class.

I have, however, dyed yarn. Pretty, pretty yarn. One of my friends emailed me the other day and addressed me as "Miss Pretty Yarn." It cracked me up at the time, but really, it may be one of the biggest compliments I have ever received!

Here are two of the new colorways I’ve been playing with. They aren’t reskeined yet, so you don’t get a view of all the colors mixed up — they’re still in place as dyed, but it gives you an idea. This first one is called River.

And, this one is called Flying Tiger.

In knitting news, well, I have something of an embarrassment on my hands. I started my Purple Rain socks. I’m using a pattern from the new Interweave book — I’ll have to tell you the name later, as the book is in my office. I had this bright idea. On Friday, I had a chance to see Bill Clinton, way up close, before he made a speech in Birmingham. I knew it would involve lots of waiting, so I decided to start this sock. Mistake . I got through the cuff which was easy enough and started onto the charted pattern. On the last needle in the first row, someone announced that the plane was landing and it was time to move. Um, move? With four sock needles dangling from my had mid-stitch? The only possible result is the several goofed up stitches (never try moving somewhere between the sl 1 kwise, k2tog, psso and the (k1 p1 k1) all in the same st) I need to try and untangle — I’m afraid this one may be beyond me.

I’m also nervous that the pattern may not be what this varigated yarn needed. Oh, the agonies of knitting socks. Hopefully, it will have given way to the ecstacy by my next post!

This is where I am…..

Posted on April 18, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

My computer has lulled me into complacency. It has been a really long time since we have had any problems to speak of. But our cable modem is out and RoadRunner (after over an hour on the phone) said they couldn’t come out, even to look at it for three days. So I am reminded of how vulnerable my little cyber-world is, although i am currently hooked up to a neighbor’s computer.

No computer gave me a lot of time to knit last night and I’m about two-thirds of the way done with my market bag, which is my modification of the Alterknits pattern, but done to use up some leftover skeins of Peace Fleece.

I have forgotten to show you this week’s yarn on Midday Faire, and if you don’t mind, I’m going to show you a few different pictures because it has been color nirvana around here. First off, this lovely Merino, in which one ply takes up the dye at a different rate leading to some beautiful play in the colors.

And then, there is this lovely little piece of fluffy goodness:

Best of all, if you are in stash acquisition mode this week, there are still a few skeins left, including one last skein of the Geisha sock yarn and some cotton. There are also some very cool stitch markers here and here.

I am knitting on the bag and doing other silly things like sorting and labeling my horrendously large collection of circular needles, because I am really supposed to be putting together my class supplies for Art & Soul East, and I’m overwhelmed. I’m only going to be there for three day classes and one night class, so you would think I could cope. I’ve printed out some images for Terry Berg’s poloroid transfers class and dyed some roving for Belinda Schneider’s felting class. I’ve also picked out some of the fabrics and trims I want to take along for Leslie Riley’s fabric book class. But I seem to keep putting off the real work of putting together basic supplies and negotiating with myself to see which of my favorite pairs of collage scissors and how many different pigma pens get to make the trip with me. I have to pack everything up and send it all on in the mail to Karen, who is driving, since I have to fly in directly from a business meeting, and I’m concerned that the folks at TSA might have issues with suitcases full of little tins of paint, so the safer route seems to send it all with Karen. You would think a woman who can marshal four children into taking their allergy medicine and doing their homework every night could manage this small feat, wouldn’t you? I think I’ll go to bed instead.

Saturday, in which the Maine Coon Cats contemplate knitting and art

Posted on April 15, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

Hermione is dreaming of learning to knit socks.

As best as I can tell, she believes that she can absorb the entire process through osmosis if she naps at the keyboard. I wonder if she’s going to insist on using the cashmere? She seems to be that kind of cat.

Hermione also helped me out today by playing art critic and helping me decide which collages needed hanging.

Harry (the dark blob in the lower left) was far too concerned with his immaculately groomed coat to be one whit concerned with new art going on the walls. He sort of reminds me of the other man I live with. (hi honey!)

The kittens were also more than willing to help out with reskeining some yarn that I dyed. I graciously declined their help.

It was a good day to be a cat in our house. But then, I suspect every day is a good day to be a cat in our house. In fact, in my next life, I believe I would like to be a large, happy, fat cat, who lives with a family a lot like ours where there are always important jobs for a cat to do.

It’s Tuesday, Which Means There Is New Yarn….

Posted on April 10, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

***Before posting, a note: If you have come here looking for the ribbon I dyed to share with other collage artists, please scroll down to the next post and leave your name there. I’m going to draw a name to share the ribbon with Wednesday night.

Now, back to today’s regularly scheduled business. Yarn.

It’s Tuesday, which means I am listing new yarn for sale at Midday Faire.

Today’s colorways include:

Aran Weight Blue Faced Leicester in the Coalition Colorway

Merion Roving for my spinning and felting friends in Melon Ball.

Peace Fleece in Pink and Brown

And still more! I’ve also made some stitch markers from sterling silver wire and Swarovski crystal.

Thank you for letting me show off some of my colorways. The profusion of colors in my cottage garden has left me with nothing but colors in my head. But, you know what’s in my garden this morning? It’s the Judge’s birthday (46), and I was awakened by my four year old exclaiming, "Mama, there are meat eaters in the garden!" And there were! Thirty plastic tyrannosaurs and a sign that says "Happy Birthday, you old fossil." Happy Birthday Honey! I love you.

Dyeing For Socks

Posted on April 8, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

Most people dye eggs Easter weekend and we actually do that too. But mostly, I’ve been dyeing sock yarn this weekend.

This is sock yarn for some of my oldest and dearest internet friends, a group of women that were all pregnant together in 1998, when my third child was born. She was my first pregnancy after the internet really got going — my first two are much older — and it was really different. It was wonderful to have 24/7 access to a group of kindred spirits who were all in the same place in their lives. Apparently we are all still in the same place, because we’re all going to be knitting socks together. The stuff these gals knit is absolutely amazing. I can’t wait to see the socks, because everyone is going to have the same yarn, a superwash Blue Faced Leicester that was the subject of lots of the dyeing in my house this weekend. But, everyone is going to pick their own pattern, and we’ll get to see how it all knits up!

Here is the yarn, in my Purple Rain colorway.

I still haven’t selected a pattern for myself, so please, if you have any suggestions, leave them in them comments!

Mistakes & Happy Endings

Posted on April 7, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

I was dreaming about showing y’all my new market bag this weekend. Or at least showing a close to finished version. It’s what I’m doing with the rubber tubing from the earlier post — my plan is to turn the tubing into handles and have a really sturdy felted bag to use at our farmers market, which starts up in a few weeks.

You know what I did? About 5" into rounds of 150 stitches, I realized that I twisted the stitches when I did the join. Arggghhhh. How did I knit for that long without figuring it out? Well, I had stored my circulars in a really pretty silk needle case, and it required me to bend them around themselves to fit. When I took the needle out to knit with, it was pretty kinked up. I thought I was being extra-careful because of all the twisting. I wasn’t. I discovered it while knitting during the conversation after a dinner party last night.

After thrashing myself for being so lazy, I straightened out the cable (easily done by setting it in a bowl of very hot water for about thirty seconds and then smoothing it) and cast back on. All you get to see is this:

Hopefully there will be more progress soon, but this has the feel of one of those black hole knitting projects already.

In far more exciting news, my friend Ramona came home from spring break in Paris and brought me this:

It came from the Anny Blatt store. And most amazingly of all, Anny Blatt was there when she bought the yarn and she met her! She bought the yarn thinking it would make up into a wonderful little tank for summer, and I think that is just the right project. Isn’t it lovely to have friends who are knitters who go to Paris?

More jewelry news too. In the second class, I completed this bracelet, which goes with the earrings I made and showed you earlier in the week. As a completely self-taught beader (I only went that direction because of some felting projects that required beading and then one thing led to another), this class opened a lot of horizons and I can’t wait to incorporate some of what I learned back into collage work, and specifically, into a couple of artist’s fat books I’m in the middle of working on!

There are two other things I want to show y’all. One is really odd, and one is really beautiful.

This is the odd thing:

I asked the 16 year old boy to cut up carrots to go with the roast, and this is what he left for me. It is strangely sculptural. I would like to think it is his teenage attempt at communicating to me that he sees beauty and value in art. Do you think it’s an over-reading? After living with teenagers, I sometimes find myself grasping at straws.

The beautiful thing is this — I am managing to grow lilacs in the deep south.

Lilacs don’t grow in the deep south. But I baby these two, just outside my front door, and this is the fourth year they have bloomed for me. The scent is incredible. I’m starting to notice that I grow all the same things in my garden that my Grandmother and Mother loved best. I grow roses and iris and gardenias. I manage a small strawberry patch. We have three peach trees, which is a feat in a small urban yard. My Mom loves lilacs. I can’t even count the number of times she talked about how she remembered them from her childhood in the east and how much she regretted that they wouldn’t grown in California. So I grow them, for my Mom, even though she is still in California, and can only see them in pictures.

A Boy And His Cantaloupe

Posted on April 2, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

Sometimes, it’s amazing how happy your Dad can make you just by walking in from the grocery store.

Yes, that is a cantaloupe in his arms. He was so overjoyed that the Judge had to cut it open immediately and feed him. It’s lovely having little children. They get so happy about such little things, in ways I have completely lost. The joy of having this little monkey in my life is beyond belief.

I celebrated the beautiful weekend in part by playing with some new colors on my yarns. I’m getting ready to dye sock yarn for the sock-a-long I’m doing with some of the other gals from my old parents place board, from when i was pregnant with Ellie. I did two new colorways on sock yarn. This one is called Geisha.

And this one is Secret Garden. It isn’t reskeined yet, but you get the idea of what the colors are going to do.

I really like both of these colorways for socks, but then I kettle dyed a new bulky weight merino I’ve been playing with in these colors and fell in love.

I’m undecided right now as to what to do for the sock yarn, but I’m leaning heavily towards a kettle dye. I’m having a terrible time deciding!

These yarns and several others, including a few skeins of blue faced leicester, will be available for sale at Midday Faire on Tuesday at noon, Eastern time. Come take a look and let me know what you think about the colorways.