Page 27 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

Adventurous April, The KAL (and How to Score Some Elliebelly Yarn)

Posted on February 23, 2016 by elliebelly

It may be a little bit early to put your pants on, but the Elliebelly Adventurous April KAL is on! And, it's not too early to clear your needles, pick your pattern and acquire your yarn (more on that below).

To rehash the basics, we start on April 1, you can knit with any yarn brand (but I'll have a number of opportunities over the next few weeks to score some Elliebelly), and you don't have to finish by the end of April. We knit together for the fun and the friendship.

Sign ups for the KAL are in the Elliebelly group on Ravelry. You need to be a member of the group and signed up for the KAL to be eligible to win any of the yarn giveaways (more on that below), but it's easy to sign up and we'll never spam you or share your info around on the internet, because we're not like that. So go here to join the Elliebelly group on Ravelry if you aren't already a member, and then let us know you'll be participating in the KAL in this thread.

This year we are knitting socks, and there are four categories, a simple sock, Zigzagular, Rye, and a category for people who want to knit a sock pattern of their own choosing. It wouldn't be Adventurous April without a little bit of anarchy!

And, the first giveaway! The sock patterns we are knitting will work with both variegated and solid/semi-solid Elliebelly colorways. What are your favorites? Perhaps an older colorway that hasn't been seen for a long time? What would you really like to knit with in the KAL? Leave your pick in the comments below by Friday, and I'll select one to dye, just for you. (Remember, you need to be signed up for the KAL to win).

If you're new to Elliebelly, what are some options for seeing the colorways? Go to the Elliebelly Yarn page on Ravelry and look around. Or, you can click here and see all the Elliebelly that is stashed on Ravelry. Although it's important to remember that colorways will look different on different bases, this should give you some ideas. And if you really want to go down the wormhole, you can go the Elliebelly website and type "dyeing" into the search box at the top of the page. This will let you scroll back through my many posts about dyeing over the years.

I'm looking forward to you ideas about colorways and your comments. So come on and sign up for the KAL! It's (almost) Adventure Time!

Knitting and Knitting Along

Posted on February 20, 2016 by elliebelly

I've been lucky enough to come across a group of knitters who are willing to do some test knitting in exchange for yarn. As you might expect, this has been a bit of a gift to me as I tend to be a little bit anal compulsive particular about how the color placement in the yarn I dye works out when knit in the wild. As soon as I can convince my children, including the photographer one, to be cooperative, I'm going to get photos of everything and throw a ~*~KnItTiNg FiEsTa~*~ on the blog, but until then, I did want to share this one quick shot from breakfast this morning.

This is Lurlene (the orange scarf around my neck; the knitting is progress is the hat from yesterday's post), knit by Raveler Midnghtdolphin in Elliebelly BFL Cash-Silk Sock in the Phoenix colorway. I fell in love with this pattern as soon as I saw it, and even though it had only been knit a few times, decided to take a chance. It is a beautiful piece of knitting and a perfect pattern if you have any of the Elliebelly sock yarns on hand, although I particularly like it for Angel and BFL Cash-Silk Sock, because of the shine and softness. You should knit yourself one!

On to the KAL part of this post. The annual Adventurous April KAL on the Elliebelly group on Ravelry is on again this year and planning is under way. We are sock knitters this year — simple socks for first timers, a more piquant project for the brave, and a heavier weight sock as well. A number of you have voted in the polls, which will be closing tomorrow, Sunday, night. So if you haven't voted yet, make sure you get in there today. It's a close vote in a couple of places.

If you don't have any Elliebelly on hand to knit with in the KAL, now is your chance to get some. We welcome knitters who knit with any yarn in our KAL, but since you can't purchase Elliebelly at the moment, I'll be having some giveaways over the next few weeks to help out anyone who is new to my yarn or has plowed through their stash already. Make sure you check in on the blog every day, as I'll be randomly offering some chances to snag sock yarn. I'm looking forward to knitting along with everyone, come April!

Test Hat

Posted on February 19, 2016 by elliebelly

I am excited to be testing a new hat pattern for Faiza, whose patterns, HandSoOn Knits, are really extraordinary. If you've missed them, she's the designer of Rumors of Snow, the amazingly textured and colored BIG shawl and some hats with lovely architecture to them. So I was incredibly flattered when she asked me to test her upcoming hat pattern.

It's written at a DK weight, so I'm knitting it with the Plucky Knitter's Sweater (in the Antiqued colorway). It is a very pleasant knit, and without giving away the surprise, it has a very clever construction that makes it one of those patterns where you want to knit just one more row before putting it down and find out you've knit several more inches quite without realizing it. I'm about halfway done here and hope to snatch a little bit of time away from regularly scheduled activities this weekend to finish it. Or at least come close.

Birmingham is surprisingly springlike today, but I have an end of the month trip planned with the baby girl to look at New England colleges. I am going to take this hat along and give it quite the work out. I think it's going to be warm and pretty and I strongly encourage you to stalk Faiza for its release!

Dyeing Round Up

Posted on February 15, 2016 by Joyce Makes Art

In between knitting row after row of sleeves, I've been doing a little dyeing. Want a quick peek at what I've been up to?

January and February seem to be the months where I'm the most focused on dyeing new colors, as I'm planning what I want to knit in the year ahead. My first priority this year has been working on a linen silk blend, so that in addition to the sweater plans you've already seen, I can have some pretty colors for a lightweight shawl and a simple cowl to wear this summer. Lady Mary, on the left, isn't a new color, but it's new on this base yarn. Chateau, on the right, is completely new, and intended to take advantage of the blend of silk and linen.

I've also had blue on my mind. This soft blue with lavender-gray undertones is called Frostbite. It's dyed here on an aran weight Blue Faced Leicester, and is intended for a pair of cabled mittens.

I love gray. And I love dyeing gray. I wanted a dark gray that looked like a solid, but with the light hitting it in places, rather than flat and solid. That proved to be a little bit of a challenge. After a number of attempts that didn't work, I set the problem aside to think about. I finally mixed up this new color, which I'm very happy with, this is Anthracite on Elliebelly's BFL Constant, a new sock yarn.

I love the Castlestone Gray I'm knitting my summer sweater in, but I also wanted something that was a little bit deeper, something like the gentle patina your grandmother's silver flatware gets over time with love and use. This color, Vintage Silver, is show here on Sea Silk, but I like it so much, I've been dyeing it up on all sorts of bases and it's a strong contender for the color I'm going to choose for this year's knitalong. (Quick note: we do a KAL every April on the Elliebelly group on Ravelry. This year, there will be several different sock patterns to choose from. There are polls up now and we welcome everyone to knit along with us, whether you plan on using Elliebelly yarn or something else. There will be a few chances to win some Elliebelly in March as we all clear our needles for the KAL. Please join us for the fun of the no-deadlines, no stress knitting adventure we have planned).

This new color is called Berlin Flea Market. I have a beautiful hand embroidered wool shawl I purchased years ago. I love the background color and wanted to see if I could get close on Wool. This is my final version, dyed on Blue Faced Leicester. I have plans for a fall sweater in this color.

I hope you enjoy this quick look at some of the dyeing that has been occupying my free time for the last few months. Now that we are closer to the start of the Adventurous April KAL, I'll be dyeing some old favorite sock colors, and experimenting with a couple of new ones.

Sleeve Island

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Joyce Makes Art

It feels like it has been forever, but it has only been half of a sleeve. It's a pretty hefty sleeve, but still, every time I hold it up to my arm, I notice that it hasn't gotten any longer. It's a knitting black hole.

I always tell myself, "oh, I've only got the sleeves left, I'm almost done," when in fact nothing could be further from the truth. I've already knit an entire skein into this sleeve. The sleeves will be at least a third of the knitting on this sweater, not just an itty bitty little task before finishing. It's sort of like child birth, I never seem to remember. And with all of the fidgety thought process involved in the direction to "increase one stitch on each end and take into pattern," it's much slower than knitting the body pieces.

Despite all that, I'll confess to you in confidence that I'm really enjoying the sleeve knitting process. The mental exercise has reinforced my belief in the accuracy of studies like the 2012 Mayo Clinic one that conclude knitting keeps your brain working. Watching the cable form and expand out across the increased stitches is wonderful. And, one day, I will have sleeves.

***

Knitting sleeves always makes me think "sleeve island," as one of my longtime knitter friend calls it. This ALWAYS makes me think of Gilligan's Island and I end up with a terrible earworm. Want an earworm of your own? Then watch this.

Oh Look! A Sleeve (in progress)

Posted on February 10, 2016 by elliebelly

I'm exceptionally pleased with the start of this sleeve!

First off, it is no longer huge. I have a nice, slim fit. I am not usually magic with numbers, but I seem to have succeeded here. As written the sleeves were enormous gaping maws a little bit big. I would have known that if I had read the comments from other knitters, but, um, no. I did not do that. But we are started up again, this time one at a time instead of two and the fit is nice and tidy. Please keep your fingers crossed that my math holds up at the armholes.

Second, the sleeve is a set of pretty complex cables. I'm not sure if I can fully explain, but you can see it best in this picture of the body.

The body consists of five "bands" of a nine stitch cable and it's border. The cable is a sort of convoluted one that crosses over and back and makes a cool interlocking chain. On the sleeve, there are only three cable bands. But, you increase every few rows, and are told to work the increased stitches into the cables when possible. I'm not experienced enough for that to make a lot of sense, but after doing a lot of research, I realized that I had to make up the "outsides" of each side of the sleeve and add the proper stitches in. It's really not as easy as it sounds until you get the right pictures in your mind — what you have to do is oppositional to what you see on the charts. But it seems to have finally clicked, and so far so good.

It's slow going, but I would really like to get this sleeve finished by the end of the month. Along with this hat, which I had to cast on for yesterday.

The pattern is a very clever new hat that Faiza asked me to test. If you've not seen her patterns before, she is the designer of the delectable Rumors of Snow. You won't want to miss the hat when it's released! I'm knitting it in Plucky sweater, in the Antiqued colorway.

Progress On My Habitat

Posted on February 6, 2016 by elliebelly

There is progress being made. Not progress on a sweater (although there is that), but progress on my tree house knitting room. The rest of the family only thinks it's a sun porch that everyone can enjoy. It's actually going to be my knitting nook, complete with a comfy chair and really good lighting.

I live with one (adorable) husband, four children, two dogs, and five cats. I like the fun and frenzy of family, but the clutter, not so much. And as every knitter knows, some (or perhaps most) of the clutter is mine: leftover balls of yarn, a project bag that needs sorting out, swatches, and other remnants of a knitter's life. But, I have a plan.

When my (adorable) husband announced last year that our back deck was beyond its useful life and I had to do something about it, I dutifully went to work. Well, not me personally, but we live in one of those neighborhoods where people are very helpful, and before you know it, I was connected with just the right people. Our backyard has been in the sort of carnage you see in the top left photo for the last few months, but under the watchful eye of Harry the Maine Coon Cat, the plan is coming together. I'll be able to cook outside, which should give me lots of extra knitting time due to the ease of grilling and the proximity of knitting in the fabulous empty room with no clutter at the moment, just a few steps away from the grill. I guess it's because it's still being built, but it looks so calm and peaceful and I love the view of the trees. Hopefully in the next few months, I'll get to show you pictures of knitting in my clutter free zone treehouse room. I can't really imagine a quiet, private space after 25 1/2 years of raising children, but every time I look at this space, it feels like my own private retreat!

And it couldn't come at a better time! I'm on sleeve island with the Glacier sweater that I've been knitting for Millennia since last fall. Just at the start of sleeve island, the second time around on this project, so I could use some peace and quiet to get through all those cables with increases and decreases. I may just pull a folding chair out there and knit away!