Knitting – Page 54 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

The First Night At Serenbe

Posted on September 22, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

We’re at Serenbe — it’s incredibly wonderful. The setting is beautiful and it is always so nice to be with good friends!

Before I tell you about it, I want to share a couple of pictures Elizabeth emailed this afternoon from our Yarn Harlot adventure.

This is the three of us, Karen, me, and Elizabeth, standing in front of some of the beautiful roving upstairs at Knitch before the speech.

Here we are, waiting in the auditorium. And that is me, holding up what appears to be a gargantuan sock, although in reality, it is sized for (I hope and pray) a nine year old girl.

I have never seen so many people knitting socks in one place before!

Shifting gears, we arrived at Serenbe, somewhere south of Atlanta and in the middle of nowhere, late in the afternoon. It’s a wide open stretch of farm land with cows and lots of other animals roaming around.

It is really beautiful. There are flowers everywhere.

There are beautiful roses all across the grounds, and the scent of roses, mingling with mint, which grows in abundance.

We have a series of rooms in the Lake House. The rooms are cozy and nice, but best of all, we have a large interior room and lots of screened porches to laze around in. Tonight, we did a quick project together, and then put together our memento books — the books I did the pages I pictured earlier this week for. The art in these books is incredible. I’ll try and post photos of as many of the pages as possible later this week. Here is a photo of me, Robin, and Karen after we got settled in.

We walked over to the main house, where the restaurant and our classroom are located. On the way, we discovered that there are lots of creatures, big and small, populating the grounds. I’ll leave you with two favorite pictures.

First, this beautiful butterfly, who was difficult to photograph — he led me on a merry chase into the sticky bushes.

And second, for Ellie, who wants a goat — an entire herd of them came running out to great us as we passed their enclosure.

It has been a long and lovely day. I’m going to sleep now, so I can get up bright and early for our first class tomorrow.

Yarn. Yarn for Sale.

Posted on September 21, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

I’ve been a bad blogger this week, but it has been quite a week. I’ve been working away from home, which always gets me a little out of kilter. I did manage to hear the Yarn Harlot speak Wednesday night in Atlanta. I even got one of my books signed. I was at the tail-end of the autograph line (you can imagine how exhausted she was after speaking and signing books for 700 people), and although Stephanie was clearly showing signs of being a famous author on a multi-city trip, she was still nice and funny.

Pictures should be forthcoming shortly, since Elizabeth was smart enough to bring along her camera. The speech was great. The amazing thing was running into SO many people from Birmingham, including a whole crewe from my local yarn shop and a really great woman who lives around the corner (lunch date. she’s going to help me with spinning, too). It was a fun night in the middle of a hectic work week!

This weekend I’ll be off at the Serenbe art retreat. We’re leaving late afternoon. While I’m gone, please visit my shop and buy some yarn. It will give me no end of happiness to boss around the Judge, who is going to be shipping your yarn while I’m gone, so he can see just how much detail and attention is required to make a pretty package, do labels, and get the right yarn in the mail. (Hmmmm….on second thought, you may want to wait until I get home on Monday.)

Seriously, there are some nice skeins of silk and cashmere and some very pretty blue faced leicester over-dyes in the Elliebelly at Hyena Cart shoppe this week, with more on the main site. So please do drop by.

Lazy Weekend

Posted on September 16, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

It’s what passes for a lazy weekend in our house. We’ve been playing all weekend long.

I always play with yarn, but have been playing with it in somewhat different ways this weekend and doing things like this, which probably appeal to no one but me. But I’ve been amusing myself greatly with strange photography.

Ollie wanted to paint, which suited me just fine because I had some pages to work on.

He’s the only four year old I know who prefers Golden’s to store brand paint and likes to use pure pigment to watercolor with. Clearly, I’ve created a monster.

While he painted away, I worked on my pages for the Serenbe retreat with Catherine Moore that Shirley has put together for next weekend. I can’t wait ! I showed you the background paper I painted for my pages earlier last week, and here are the backs in progress.

We’re also still bathing in the warm afterglow of two birthdays. Proof that you can rock a teenagers world was the grin on our 17 year old’s face when we tossed him the keys to his first car. It’s a 1999 Jeep Cherokee, with 92,000 miles on it. The money he’s been saving towards a downpayment will have to go towards new tires. You would think we had given him the moon!

I survived Miss Ellie’s nine-year old sleepover party. Her friends are all angels and we had lots of fun together. The highlight for me was serving them tea, using my china and linens. The girls rose to the occasion. Everyone drank tea, tried the cucumber sandwiches, and then switched over to pretzels and chicken salad on croissants.

It seems to be very nice, being nine. Especially when you have new socks to look forward to!

Sock Progress, Dyed Yarn, & Art

Posted on September 13, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

I’m very linear today. I have to stay focused because the soon to be 17 year old (he who got on the school bus with my car keys in his pocket this morning) has given me a birthday dinner menu that starts with oysters for appetizers, moves on to lamb roast and baked potatoes, with a greek salad, and finishes up with a chocolate mousse cake. This will require huge organizational skills from a working mom on a Friday, so I’m focused and linear today.

(1) Sock progress:

I’m going to break down here and confess to being in love with this socks. I’m sorry that they’re running dead on gauge, which means they will fit Miss Ellie, but not me. Just a simple little basic stockinette sock, but oh so pleasing in this yarn!

(2) Dyed Yarn

I think I have neglected to do more than mention in passing that I’m having a special fairytale-inspired yarn week at Elliebelly. Please come by and take a look! There are some gorgeous silk and cashmere colorways, along with blue faced leicester, Merino, and Peace Fleece. I’m particularly fond of the sock yarns in Baba Yaga and Princess and the Pea.

There are lots of yarns to choose from, with more being stocked today and tomorrow. I would love any input you have on which of these colorways you would like to see incorporated into my fall line.

(3) Art. I am so excited! The weekend after this, I’m taking classes from Catherine Moore with my art-sistahs. We’re making a fatbook for the retreat weekend. I decided to do the background for my pages from one large sheet of watercolor paper. I’ve been layering on it all week and it’s just about done. Here is a picture of it in progress, and I hope to have the finished pages to share by the end of the week.

True Confessions

Posted on September 10, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

My children’s favorite joke goes something like this: Q-How many kids with ADD does it take to put in a lightbulb? A-Let’s go ride bikes.

They like it, to some extent, because it is true of their mother. You’re about to find out just how true.

I decided I needed to ‘fess up to all the knitting projects I have started. This will NOT include planned projects, like Teddy’s sweater (waiting on just the right pattern) or my Koigu mittens (waiting on needles). This is only actual, in progress, knitting. I would go oldest to newest, but that would ~~make it clear what a totally deranged woman I am~~ be too depressing, so you’re getting them in random order.

I’ve been dying to make this hat ever since I saw the pattern. It’s perfect for waiting for Ellie at Nutcracker rehearsals. I got no further than casting on, when I realized my circulars were too long and my new Knitpicks Option needles, for some unknown reason, don’t include a 16" cable. Must run by the knit shop and get Addis.

Why don’t pictures of this yarn ever look as pretty as the real thing? This is my Handmaiden Seasilk Scarf, being knit in a basic feather and fan pattern. I love this scarf. It’s for a dear friend who I don’t get to see enough of. I’m really enjoying this one. It’s a simple, relaxing knit. But I do need to remember to put in a lifeline because I’m sure to screw up the pattern at some point.

The Rock and Weave sock. I love this sock. I love the yarn and I love the pattern. Maybe this sock and I need to have a mental health day at the Botanical Gardens?

Hmmm…..I didn’t even want to include this, but it is true confessions day. This is some of my first handspun yarn. I was just fooling around and decided to knit with it. Silk, Merino, Corriedale. It’s all there. What is this?

Memory’s Cabled Purse. I loved this when I saw it. But, the pattern has errors and I haven’t been able to get a corrected pattern from the store that wrote it. I think I’ll try driving out there this week, and if I still can’t get it, I’ll look around for a substitute pattern.

A kitten for my niece. How pathetic is this? All I have to do is stuff it and sew it up. She’ll probably be 12 before I finish it at this rate.

Undulating Rib socks in my own Purple Rain Blue Faced Leicester yarn. I really don’t like the yarn in this pattern. Actually, I do, but this is one of those patterns that requires more concentration than I can give a sock with a four year old on my lap. What I don’t like are the mistakes in the pattern. I’m going to frog this and give it a try in Knitty’s Monkey pattern, which I think will be easier to memorize.

Vintage Velvet in Muench’s Touch Me. Need I say more? I need to go down one needle size and they’re in the mail, although I should have gotten them last March when I realized I needed to go a size down.

Socks for Ellie in superwash merino. I’m hoping to work on these some this week. I’m in love with watching the colors knit up.

Ew. Yucch. It’s Lion’s cashmere & gauze ribbon scarf. I thought it looked great in the picture. I’m less than overwhelmed with it in person. In fact, it’s off its needles and on a holder. I’m not sure the outlook for this one is good. The picture seemed so romantic and pretty. The reality seems like overstuffed Victoriana, and not in a nice way.

Lizard Ridge (from Knitty). It calls to me. It’s a siren song. The pattern seems designed for surviving endless ballet rehearsals with Miss El. I’m planning on digging into this one with a vengeance, as rehearsals have now started and I have lots of Noro stashed for it.

Finally, and currently missing in action, is Ellie’s Cahaba River Jacket. It’s almost done, but it needs to be lined. Donna, who wrote the pattern, has taken pity on me and has the jacket and fabric to cut out and serge the lining for me, so I can knit up the neck bits and line the jacket. It’s going to be adorable on her and I can’t wait to finish it.

So — that’s true confessions from me. I challenge all of y’all to do the same! Confession is good for the soul. And it doesn’t seem as bad as I was afraid it would be. In fact, I think I’ll go cast on a couple of sweaters I’ve acquired yarn for and have been planning….

If you find yourself bored and in need of a yarn fix this week, please stop by my Hyena Cart store at http://www.hyenacart.com/elliebelly . I have a week long fairytale-themed yarn stocking going on, it starts on Monday at noon. There are lots of new colorways, inspired by my favorite stories. I’ve been working on these yarns for the last six weeks and am excited to be offering them, so please drop by for a look. There is cashmere, blue faced leicester, merino, silk, alpaca — a little bit of everything. Come check it out!

Knit Night

Posted on September 7, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

Last night was knit night at my local yarn shop, In The Making. It’s the first time I’ve made it there — in fact, the first time since last spring that I’ve made it out to knit with the girls.
It was wonderful! Suzanne, the Sock Queen, was there, knitting socks in the most beautiful shade of blue Jitterbug from Colinette. Shirra, a/k/a Purl McKnitty, was there with her Mom. You have to go check out the little Pirate Hats she made for a swap! MJ a Ravelry friend who owns a very cool sounding yarn store in New York was in town for business and we got to meet there! MJ was knitting Monkey socks in a really pretty blue to purple colorway of Jitterbug that I forgot to ask the name of. She has motivated me to pull out my Purple Rain Yarn and cast on for Monkey.

MJ brought me this fabulous Schaffer Yarn. It managed to slip its label so she didn’t know the colorway and had to just give it away. Lucky me! It is even more beautiful in person!

Instead of working on Rock and Weave, like I had planned, I started Ellie’s superwash socks. I dont knit with my own yarn enough! (so much yarn, so little time) It was a real pleasure to watch the colors take shape.

I’m hoping to make a lot of progress on these socks at Nutcracker rehearsals tomorrow.

My project for tonight is to give sheep a bath.

My friend Joyce Darby brought me over this sack of fleece a few weeks ago.

I put it aside, not quite sure what to do with it. But, Stephanie had a great tutorial on how she washes roving on her blog, so I adapted it to some things I had on hand. I put it in a big plastic tub and have been putting it through rinses to get the muck out. Tonight, I’m soaking it in some mild soap. Look at how pretty its little curly pieces are.

I think this is a sheep Joyce is thinking of acquiring for her farm, so I’m hoping to find some time to play with the fleece this weekend and see how it spins up.

Success!

Posted on September 5, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

Third time was the charm. I remembered the button holes. I remembered the extra rows. And, armed with experience, I did a picot edge castoff. Here is the cuff for the first of my Rock and Weave socks, and just a wee start on the second one.

The yarn, in case you haven’t seem me rave about it, is Colinette’s Jitterbug sock yarn in Popsicle. I adore this yarn. I want it in EVERY colorway. It’s genius. Mine came from one of my favorite local yarn stores, In the Making. Donna, the owner, is really nice and has started mail ordering yarn, if you want some and have any trouble finding it. With cooler weather hopefully coming soon, I’m hoping to make these socks a priority so I can wear them when I’m in Connecticut in early October to visit my #2 son, who starts school up there today!

I’ve also been on a dyeing spree. Starting on September 10 (next Monday), I’ll be having a week long stocking of fairytale-inspired yarns at my HC shop. Different yarns every day, including cashmere, silk and several luxury sock yarns, in addition to some great Blue Faced Leicester and Merino yarns. I have several colorways that will be available this Thursday, as well, including some of the Eire cashmere I showed you earlier this week, the new Mordechai colorway,

Painter’s Pallet,

and more yarn in the Retro Kitchen, Orchard, and Girl Power colorways, to keep all the nice peeps who asked for more of them happy. Please come and shop with me on noon Thursday when all the new yarn stocks.