Knitting – Page 47 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

Planes, Knitting, and a Surprise for Ellie

Posted on June 24, 2008 by Joyce Makes Art

Today was a travel day for me. I flew from Birmingham to Los Angeles for a meeting.

This is me, early in the morning.

Ollie, my five year old, picked this bamboo yarn out months ago and has been asking me ever since when I was going to make him some socks with it, so I decided to make that my project on this trip. I swatched and cast on, using a sock recipe from Ann Budd's book, and knit all the way to my transfer stop in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas is a sort of weird place. There is the seductive music of slot machines wafting around the airport. And everyone seems to be about the entertainment industry. I plugged my computer into a recharge stand and the nice guy sitting next to me turned out to be a Michael Jackson impersonator in a show called Legends who was flying somewhere for a job interview. And when I sat down in the waiting area, I bumped into…

David Archuletta from American Idol! We had never watched it before this season, when Ellie and I caught it a couple of times. We really liked his songs. He was as nice and self-effacing in person as he seemed on the show, and was sweet enough to write out an autograph for Ellie.

And, I got a good bit of knitting done when we were lined up to board the plane.

My cousins picked me up at the airport (both with knitting in tow — I'm going to have to snag pictures this week) and we had a really wonderful drive and early dinner. It was wonderful to get to see them!

I've made good progress on Ollie's sock today. The bamboo/merino blend has an unfortunate tendency to split, but it makes a really nice fabric. I had originally swatched it on size two needles, but thought it looked too flimsy. I like it much better on size zeros and am really enjoying them now.

Monday Morning Photos

Posted on June 23, 2008 by Joyce Makes Art

Here are a couple of promised photos. First off, Ellie's Be Sweet skirt in progress. My fingers are crossed on two accounts — first it is looking, um, a wee bit small. I'm thinking it may end up being for my niece. Ellie is hoping not. Second, you can see I've spaced some random eyelets in the yoke. I've dyed some ribbon, and plan on tying some bows up there. At the time, it seemed like a very fashionista idea. Now, I'm hoping it's not going to look silly, because, if it does, what the heck am I going to do with all those "holes"?

Next picture: The silk/cotton yarn (Cocoon) that I showed pictures of myself painting in a post over the weekend. I'm in love with this yarn, in fact, I'm off to look on Ravelry for a pattern as soon as I'm done here!

I'll have several skeins of Dover for sale this Thursday at noon if you like it too.

And, my last picture for the morning (and definitely my favorite) is my sweet baby girl, helping me bring yarn in from the drying racks this weekend.

At Least I’ve Got Good Help

Posted on June 16, 2008 by Joyce Makes Art

The clutter that is my knitting needle collection is a disaster. Needles everywhere. But, never where I can find them when I'm looking for a certain size.

I've got Knit Picks option needles, but I hate the dumb case knit picks made for them. I have both the binder and the little stinky plastic pouch, and in my mind, anyone who can create such great needles should be able to do better when it comes to a case. I also have a pretty good sized set of Addi Turbos, some straights including my beloved Lantern Moons, and a lot of double pointed needle sets.

Saturday night, I decided to stay up into the wee hours and get it all sorted out and into some neat cases I had purchased for them.

I had good help.

That's Hermione. She guarded all the needles while I worked.

Here is the disaster.

I decided on a Della Q silk bag for my Addis. It's the bright pink you can see pictured in the first photo. For my DPNs, I got a cute little roll up pouch from Katie Fleck (Blue Kitty Designs) on Etsy. I'm hoping to score a Tip Divinity set for my Option Needles, so for now, they're in a tote bag. My straight needles are in rubber vases (you can see them in the bag of the picture). Now I would say I have at least a 50/50 chance of being able to find the needles I need.

I am also loving this yarn bowl from Rising Sun Earthworks, which helps to keep the cats at bay while I'm knitting in the living room. (This is some of the yarn for Ellie's skirt). It's a world full of wool around here!

Most of this week, I'm away for work, but I have managed to do a bit of dyeing and have some really pretty Sea Silk 60/40 set to go on sale Thursday at noon. I also dyed larger batches of 12-ply Lorelei Silk Cashmere and some of the Pixie Superwash Merino, so they are available instock. I hope you will come by and take a look — there are links from the Hyena Cart store to both the Elliebelly Website and to Elliebelly at Etsy, so if you've having a bit of an early summer knitting funk, there are lots of silk and cotton yarns, and in addition to yarn from sheep and goats, to make you feel happy.

A Day of Pictures: Swatching for Ellie’s Skirt while Babies Sleep

Posted on May 31, 2008 by Joyce Makes Art

It is a pretty day here. A day of full sun that started with an early visit to the farmers market. There are beets roasting in the oven (they smell stunningly good), a bowl of blackberries macerating in sugar, and a breakfast room table that is covered in torn scraps of paper, glue, and paint (I collaged, the kids drew horns on people in the newspaper. I worry about them sometimes).

It really is pretty, so pretty I decided to have a day of pictures. This pretty.

It's a pretty day for yarn too. It must be pretty, because my seventeen year old, he who winds for movie money, stopped in the middle of the first skein and said, "this is really pretty yarn!" That has never happened before. It was a day-maker. Probably a month-maker. It may just be that his best friend's girlfriend crochets, which means having a mom who dyes and spins is suddenly cool.

I've been having a hard time with my knitting lately. Just when I want to knit on something, I can't find it or I can't find the directions. Despite my massive organizational overhaul of the house, knitting is still out of control. Even my swatches have been bad. This week, I swatched for Ollie's Bamboo socks, my fall cardigan, and Ellie's Be Sweet Skirt. The first two swatches have been repeat failures. So we will only discuss the Be Sweet Skirt, which is going to be gorgeous. here is the swatch.

This is some bamboo I'm going to use for the waist band. I think she's too big for an eyelet ribbon tie, so I'm going to do an elastic band at the top (you can see the garter ridge that I put in the swatch to make sure it would work to fold the band on). I'm hoping to get started tonight and then take all my yarn along to knit on the drive to Arkansas for Catherine's wedding.

I've stashed some Be Sweet yarn for the skirt, and have some silk I'm going to dye to work in with it.

Isn't it pretty? And lastly, I have to show you some "baby" pictures. Ollie was napping with the Judge.

Isn't he sweet? You can barely see the Judge, snoozing away obliviously in the far corner of this next photo, but I don't think the kids ever sleep. I don't remember naps being this much fun when I was little.

I'm off to roast some okra and zucchini and stuff some squash blossoms with goat cheese for dinner. I'll saute the beet greens to go with the beets and maybe sear a little bit of tuna or some scallops to go on the side. I love long, lazy summer days. I hope you enjoy all the pictures!

My Find

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Joyce Makes Art

Look at what I found! We've needed a buffet forever and this one happens to be a perfect match for the antique table and china cabinet my inlaws gave us for our wedding. It's perfect.

Look at all that storage space! You could get silver in the top drawer, linens in the deeper drawer, and trays and pitchers and silver bowls behind the doors. It's amazing.

But, I know you know me better than that. Look closer. Behind those doors? Inside the drawers?

Ssssshhhh! Don't tell the judge. He think it's just some harmless piece of furniture to help with dining. Little does he know how much yarn I can get in there! Six kilo cones and a number of skeins in bags behind this door alone.

Isn't it marvelous? What a find!

I think it is the best yarn storage solution ever!

Seeing Red

Posted on May 9, 2008 by Joyce Makes Art

I'm seeing red today. One is a good kind. The other isn't.

The good kind is Joanne's Red Book from the Colors Round Robin. It's really a series of small canvases, not a book. Joanne has sent them with holes pre-drilled, so that they can be hung as one large piece when they are complete. I love the idea and the art is beautiful.

I had so much fun working on my background — layers and layers, that at the end, after working through several collage ideas, I decided to stay with an abstract graphic. It's very unusual for me and I enjoyed it so much, especially because I got to see Joanne at Art and Soul while I was in the middle of the piece, and came home from our visit with just the right inspiration to finish it.

The other kind of seeing red is bad. Very bad. I took my Juliet sweater with me to knit on the plane. I got my set up rows done and started my lace on the way up. I left the sweater, with the two extra balls of yarn on top of the dresser in our room.

I tend to get sort of messy and disorganized at retreats and I didn't have time to pick up my knitting all week. By the time I had finished throwing away trash (lots of packaging from the supplies I brought along to teach my class) and packed everything back up Monday night, I realized my yarn was no place to be found (thank heavens Juliet was still sitting there!)

The only thing I can figure out is that I accidentally put my two balls of yarn out with the trash and I'm so made at myself that I'm seeing red.

This leaves me two balls of yarn short for the sweater. I could just smack myself. If anyone happens two have two spare balls of gray RYC Soft Tweed that they want to trade or sell, please leave me a comment! Until I find more yarn for Juliet, I'm going to console myself by working on a Sea Silk scarf in a fan and feather pattern, but honestly, how dumb can a girl be?

Juliet’s Bodice

Posted on April 15, 2008 by Joyce Makes Art

This is Juliet's bodice.

I'm really happy with it! The RYC Soft Tweed yarn is a blend of wool, silk, rayon and nylon, and it is a pleasure to knit with.

I've decided to garter on down for a few more rows before I start the lace, which is an (I hope) simple six row repeat. I'm going for a sort of empire look, as opposed to starting the lace any higher. Hopefully I'll finish the garter and be all set to do the lace while flying to Art and Soul. I don't knit lace often, because it can be hard to keep track amidst all the "mommy, I need a drink" that goes on around here.