Joyce Makes Art – Page 25 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

Overdyeing: Can You Change The Color Of Yarn You Don’t Like?

Posted on October 19, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

A knitting friend came to me recently with two different types of yarn. She was no longer in love with the colorways she had purchased some time back. The question was, could her yarn be overdyed. While the answer hinges on a lot of variables, the short answer is, yes and we did it!

I thought I would share a bit of the process with you, in case you find yourself in a similar situation. The yarn pictured above is Handmaiden's Seasilk (I had to try hard not to judge anyone who would want to overdye such gorgeous yarn!)

This is Blue Sky Alpaca's Alpaca/Silk blend. I started by gently untying the skeins to cut a few test strips of each yarn.

We selected the gray overdye for the Seasilk and the Blue for the Alpaca/Silk.

Into the dyebaths they went. First, the hot pink Silk/Alpaca.

And then, the Seasilk.

Obviously, this process is not for the faint of heart. But at the end of the day, the search for new colors was a success, and due to careful soaking and washing to open the fibers and strip off any finishing products that might have prevented even dye uptake, the results were incredibly lovely. The hot pink became an incredible, deep, rich blue and the Sea Silk a gray with undertones of lilac and lavender.

In each case, the yarn dyed up true to the sampling we did. Although you have to weigh your dye to give this type of replicated result rather than measuring, which is easier, in the long run, it is worth weighing your dye and recording recipes by weight not measurement, to attain the predictability. And in order to overcome some rather strong colors, I mixed a very strong dye bath, using almost twice as much dye by weight as I typically do.

As a comparison, the photo below shows the blue overdye lined up with some undyed skeins that went into the same dye bath. You can see the influence of the pink on the resulting blue.

I like the colors so much that I've order some bulky Blue Sky Alpaca in the same bright pink to see if I can overdye it into the beautiful deep blue color for another Outlander Cowl. (Oh Claire, your knitted items are so beautiful.) (<= If you don't know what this refers to, you really should consider watching Outlander, just for the beautiful knitted costumes from the Scottish Highlands.)

Life is too short to knit with bad yarn, and the same is true of color. If you don't like it, overdye it.

My Shetland Lace Shawl and the Virtue of Alternating Multiple Skeins When Knitting with Malabrigo

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

When last we visited my Shetland Lace Shawl, I had just realized that I should have been alternating skeins as I knit, because they were clearly different. I immediately commenced a program of switching skeins every four rows. The tip of the scarf definitely has a more "mustardy" appearance than the rest, but I'm hoping that it won't be obvious — at least not to anyone other than me.

Um, it's pretty obvious. I know this, but I keep hoping it will go away. Worst case, I will resort to a gentle overdye to try and unify the colors.

One tip: had I wound all of the skeins into balls before I began, I think I would have been forced to confront reality. In the future (and I've got a red Malabrigo sweater about to come up in my queue), I'm going to wind everything in advance and try to avoid convincing myself it will be okay. You can see from the balls wound that this was never going to work out without alternating the skeins.

However, I'm eternally optimistic, and this project is no exception. I pulled it out of my bag at brunch this morning for knitting show and tell with my Mom, and everyone around us ooh'd and ah'd. Perhaps I caught the problem early enough and it will all work out after all. It is definitely lovely up close!

Knit It Now: Stephen West’s Honegart Hat

Posted on October 11, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

This is my favorite hat of all time, possibly my favorite knitting project of all time.

I made it back in 2011, but it was a rush job as cold weather set in for a child who was going to school up North, and I didn't get decent pictures at the time. Thankfully, the child returned, and with him the hat. I pulled it out with some other winter things this morning and remembered what a brillant pattern and fun knit it was, and wanted to share it with you all.

This hat is knit in two different sections, which gives you endless possibilities — solids, variegated yarns, you name it. I dyed Elliebelly Alpaca & Merino just for this project. The honeycomb portion of the hat is so much fun to knit that I pulled over at a farmstand on the way back from the beach, and knit much of it while eating fresh peach ice cream and watching the tourists. I couldn't wait to finish it.

This hat is at the top of my "must knit it again" list and I recommend you try it if you are looking for something a little bit frisky but well within the capabilities of a advanced beginning knitter with a couple of projects under your belt. (I mean that in the realistic sense — not in the way some well-meaning experienced knitters who have forgotten what it's like to be knew to sticks and twine will tell you the lace shawl is "really easy" or the heavily cabled pattern is fine for a new knitter). Like all of Stephen West's design, it is slightly edgy but imminently practical. And, it's really warm. Return of the Polar Vortex, anyone?

Outlander Knitting

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

Outlander knitting is suddenly everywhere. And for good reason — as the weather turns colder, who wouldn't want a huge, chunky knit cowl to keep you warm? There seems to be lots of demand on Etsy for all sorts of Outlander-wear and patterns are cropping up all over Etsy.

This cowl, my version of The Gathering pattern by Kalurah, is already in use by my Mom, as our weather turned cool over the weekend. It was knit on size 35 needles, with Elliebelly Bulky Merino held triple stranded.

I also wanted to try knitting one on larger, size 50 needles. I used one skein of Cascade Magnum to knit this one up.

Although it is lovely, a sweet, teenage child seems to have claimed it, so I'm going to try a third for myself, double stranding the Magnum and going a bit shorter in length so it settles over the shoulders like a shrug. Knitting with the size 50 needles is good brain candy, especially since I've got some lace on hopelessly small needles going on at the moment.

The Gathering pattern, as the other host of Outlander patterns cropping up on Ravelry, is simple and forgiving. And like the issue is Scottish independence, what's old seems to be new again — these styles seem very of the moment and I have the feeling we'll see them worn everywhere before it's over.

What Was I Thinking
Subtitle: This Skeins Don’t Match

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

In the whiskey-foxtrot-tango category of bad things I've done as a knitter, comes this unforgiveable mistake when knitting with hand-dyed yarn: not alternating skeins as you knit. I know better. After all, I dye yarn myself and understand that even with great care, handpainted skeins aren't going to be a perfect match. And Malabrigo Yarn, which I love as much as life itself for its beautiful colors, is notorious for throwing skeins that don't match, even in the same dyelot. Which is to say, anyone with an ounce of sense who is knitting with Malabrigo knows to swap skeins every few rows.

But, in my excitement at starting this project, I … forgot. This is Evelyn Clark's Shetland Triangle Lace Shawl, and I have been wanting to knit it for a long time. It's a simple lace pattern, knit in DK weight yarn and I chose the indescribably delicious Arco Iris colorway in Malabrigo's Silky Merino yarn. I had four skeins.

You can see right off in the picture that although it isn't horrible, the second skein down from the top has a lot more bright yellow in it than the rest of its cadre. So, you guessed it, that's the one I started knitting with.

Midway through the fourth repeat, I realized I hadn't changed out skeins. No problem, I told myself, those skeins really were well-matched, and I would be just fine. I would start alternating now. So I pulled out the next skein (as a well prepared knitter I had wound multiple skeins into balls so I could switch off carefully throughout the shawl) and beheld this incredible horror:

They don't even look like the same colorway. The one on the right, the skein I started out with, is not even in the same universe as the one of the left, which I am currently knitting from. Quel disaster!

Here I am, about four rows into the new skein (this photo has the truest colors of any of them — I do love Arco Iris). One could almost convince oneself that it was all going to be okay. That despite carelessness, just this one time, the knitting gods were smiling, and it would all work out.

However, I have learned that such hopes typically get smashed a couple of inches in. I haven't made a mistake like this in years, actually, in seven years, since this sweater, which I knit in 2007, showed a clear line between skeins. You can't see it well in this cleverly staged photo, but particularly in the back, there was a line of demarcation that was as clear as the Berlin Wall.

Already, my thoughts are turning to clever strategies like a gentle, unifying overdye to tone the different skeins into submission. I could, and probably should, frog this back to the first repeat and go forward in a more knitterly fashion. But I'm going to hold my breath and see what happens.

What I’ve Been Dyeing

Posted on October 1, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

This post is just eye candy, pure and simple.

I've been doing some dyeing, and thought you all might like to see it. For the most part, I've been doing two- skein sets so I can do a hat and mittens for my children who seem to shamelessly lose their hats and mittens every year who adore and cherish everything I knit for them.

I've been wanting color, like this Blue Faced Leicester, perhaps because our later summer garden is a riot of color and it's infectious.

Although most of it is for the kids, this more muted bit is for me. It's dk weight cashmere that I've dyed up — some of it is reskeined and some not but it's all the same, and I intend to make something wonderful with it, perhaps a long scarf to wrap around my neck this winter, or a shawl. This is the time of year when weekend soccer games give me lots of extra knitting time, so I'm glad to have all of this ready to be knit up!

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.