Page 40 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

Random Things + Swatching A Cable Pattern

Posted on August 1, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

I'm a little bit frustrated with my swatching efforts, so before I get to that, two random things to start your morning.

1. I just discovered the NYT's Only Ice Cream Recipe You'll Ever Need, and it is a keeper! Even better, they have a chart of the best way to do add ins. I wanted to make basil strawberry ice cream, and it would never have occurred to me to whiz up the sugar and the basil in the Cuisinart before adding it to my custard mixture. Genius!

2. I just discovered that my Mom, in her late 70's, is now on Instagram. How do things like that happen? Will I be this cool when I'm her age? (Probably not. I'm not that cool now.)

3. Swatching. It's a little bit perplexing to try and count all those mashed in stitches when you are swatching for a cabled pattern. I do like how my swatch has improved with proper care, though! Here it is as knit, all scrumbled up together. This is for one of the new sweaters in Rowan 58, Glacier.

Here it is after blocking, all relaxed and happy.

The best I've been able to figure is to put a gauge over the swatch, pin its edges, and then stretch the swatch apart to count stitches. And, doing this makes me happy, because I am good. Pattern gauge is 20.5 st = 4' and I'm getting 20 stitches to 4", so I think I can work with that. Row gauge is good as well. True confessions: A lot of the knitters I know are amazing and really good at this stuff. I'm not, but I'm okay with that. I'm a working Mom of four. I give myself permission to do my best and enjoy the process of knitting even when I flame out. But, I adore this yarn (Snug Bulky from The Plucky Knitter) and I have high hopes for this project. I WANT this sweater.

Although I want to knit some on the last square this weekend (and I did sneak in the cast on of a new project I'll show you when it's a little further along late last night), I'm also going to cast on Glacier and get to work on the first piece next week. I can't wait!

The Last Square

Posted on July 31, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

Forgive me for a moment of self-indulgence, but it's a milestone in my knitting. I've cast on for the last square in my daughter's Barn Raising Quilt.

Only a deathly inexperienced knitter would have decided it was a good idea to knit a quilt from sock yarn. Seriously, what was I thinking?

I started knitting this quilt on October 6, 2008. I know that because of this blog post and really bad photo. It was the week I took my oldest child, now getting ready to start his second year in law school, to look at colleges in New England. Even then, I seem to have some self-awareness and characterized the idea of knitting a quilt with sock yarn on size 2 needles as a bit "loopy." Um, yeah.

My intention from the start was that I would knit the squares in between and around other projects. I wanted to finish in time for my daughter to go off to college, and knew I would need a lot of time for the finishing work — putting all those tiny squares together. I'm not sure I had a seven-year trajectory in mind, though. On the plus side, even with the finishing work, the quilt should be done in plenty of time to be a birthday present or graduation gift during her senior year.

As I look back on this project, two things come to mind. First, I started this project in the early days of Ravelry (I had joined a little more than a year before I started this project, in July of 2007). It was back when I bought books to access patterns. Larissa Brown's Knitalong, the book that contains this pattern, is a lovely book that is still on my shelf. I can see it as I type. But, I rarely use books for patterns anymore. Ravelry has radically changed my knitting life in so many ways.

Second, as I look over my squares and see how much their quality has improved as time progressed, I'm forced to reflect on how much my knitting has grown in those years. After learning to knit as a young child and effortlessly knitting some fairly complicated sweaters and blankets as a teenager, I put my needles down when I went off to college and rarely knit until my third child, she who is eagerly awaiting this quilt, received a knitting kit for her fourth or fifth birthday. I knit it for her, thought it was fun and decided to knit another scarf. I haven't been without multiple projects on my needles in the decade since then. I've learned a lot in that time (see, Ravelry, supra.) I never imagined I would knit fair isle, intricate lace, or bold cables. I never knew the acrylic of my childhood would give way to the most amazing array of cashmere, blue-faced leicester, silk, linen and fantastic merino yarns.

I'm grateful for my knitting years as an adult. This quilt fills me with a profound sense of happiness and accomplishment — feelings I hope my sweet child will take with her as she goes off to begin her own adult life. Of course, it may be premature to count my blessings here. I do still have that last square to finish.

Really. A Hat.

Posted on July 29, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

And just like that! I have a fair isle hat.

Peerie Flooers is one of this most enjoyable projects I've ever knit. I'm delighted with the finished hat, which is like a little piece of art. It fits perfectly and it's beautiful!

I've spent the evening stashing up for stranded knitting. Because there is no pointing fighting it when you catch a fever like this! I'm planning a Northport Hat, but also eyeing all of the Rowan 58 Sweaters.

Travel & Knitting

Posted on July 27, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

The last two weeks have involved living out of one of these.

One great thing about traveling a lot is that you learn how to pack. I can get clothes for a week, plus my yoga mat, in a roll-on-board bag that is sized to to fit overhead on even the smallest airplane. But knitting is a different story.

After years of trying out different bags, I finally settled on a Longchamp Le Pliage bag that sits on top of my carry on bag and holds an IPad, my purse (I usually take a clutch – a 3.1 Phillip Lim Bag that is the perfect size) and my knitting. The variable, of course, is the knitting. I always like to travel with multiple projects in case of emergency (I'm looking at you Jet Blue, and the four hours without water or knitting I once spent on a runway in your care) and this bag is flexible enough to handle that.

The picture above is my knitting bag for the last two weeks of non-stop travel. In addition to the quilt square you saw in the previous post, I worked on two additional quilt squares and did the cast on for a cashmere shawl I've been meaning to get to for quite awhile.

I spent most of my time on my Drachenfels Shawl, which finally got to the third color.

And, my new found love of colorwork is untarnished, if anything I've become addicted. The Knit Companion iPad program was a wonderful help in keeping the pattern straight.

By the end of my flight last night, I was into the decrease rounds. This hat was intended as a training exercise/swatch, but I'm really happy with how it is turning out.

I’m A Square

Posted on July 26, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

One more square (almost) done towards my Barn Raising Quilt. The end is in sight! Just a few more to finish.

Fair Isle

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

Knitting in color is amazing – much easier than I thought it would be. And it’s addictive, it’s very hard to put down. It’s infinitely interesting to knit row after row and watch the pattern emerge.

I’m already planning additional fair isle projects, another hat and a sweater. It’s a wonderful surprise to try something you thought might be too difficult and to make a success of it!

The Start of Something Special: Colorwork and the Knitted Hat

Posted on July 19, 2015December 21, 2016 by Joyce Makes Art

It's my maiden voyage into colorwork! I have been absolutely obsessed with Kate Davies Peerie Flooers hat pattern since the first time I laid eyes on it. But I've always felt it was beyond my skill level.

With a coupon at hand, I was able to inexpensively pick up a smorgasbord of Rowan Fine Tweed colors for practice. My goal is to learn to knit fair isle style, with both hands. This is new for me, so I was quite slow in completing what you see above, the border of the hat. Just above the point I've completed, the hat will burst into a multi-colored garden of stranded knitting.

This is Ophelie's beautiful, completed version, which was my inspiration. Ophelie teaches colorwork in Australia, so her version is beyond incredible. And, since she has been very sweet about giving me advice, I feel like I'm getting a wee bit of the benefit of her teaching, without going to Australia. But, wouldn't that make for a fun knitters' retreat?

My goal is to use my test version to work out the technique and learn the pattern, before committing to knit with the beautiful Plucky Knitter's Oxford base yarn I've been collecting for this project.

A few early observations:

I'm concerned that my cast on edge is not stretchy enough to be a very effective hat. I used a longtail cast on, something that I often do for hats with a nice result, but here it seems loose and flabby. I wonder if the fact that one jumps immediately from the cast on into a stranded 2×2 rib impacts on the stretchiness. Or perhaps it's just because I'm a loose knitter, and may need to go down a couple sizes for the cast on (although that would sadly put me at size 0 needles). Either way, I need to seek some advice from the experts on Ravelry in this regard.

I've managed to learn to knit a bit with my left hand (I've been a thrower since I learned to knit and I don't think that's likely to change at this point), so I can manage two-handed knitting for this project. It keeps the yarn from tangling, and I like that. One piece of early info I gleaned from some experienced fair isle knitters, is that the strand of yarn held in your right hand will be dominant if you are knitting with two hands. Since I can't yet purl with my left hand, this means that that the purl stitches in the border were knit with the yarn in my right hand, and they are dominant, rather than retreating as the purl stitches normally would in a ribbed border. I wonder if this contributes to the stretchiness issue? Whether it does or not, I see the need to figure out how to purl with my left hand before I go much further.

I had an abortive effort at simple color work six years ago. I knit a hat that was meant for my 18 year old, but was too small for anyone except the six year old when it was done. I didn't know that I wasn't supposed to pull the color that wasn't being used tightly when starting a new color, so I ended up with a teensy, tiny hat. With this project, I'm making the effort to stretch out the stitches along the right hand needle every little bit in order to keep those floats of yarn nice and loose. I'll only know if I've succeeded when I'm done. But I'm optimistic. At least I have some understanding of what I need to do here to produce an adult-sized hat.

And looking ahead to the next row, there is the issue of catching floats. The pattern repeat often goes 7 or 8 stitches, so I'm going to check out a few resources on catching floats to make sure the back side of my knitting stays nice and neat.

Now that I'm twelve rows in, I'm reflecting on why it took me so long to give this a try. It's surprisingly easy and very addictive – I've had great difficulty putting this project down to go to sleep at night since I cast on a few days ago. So jump right in and join me! I'd love to have company, particularly now that I'm getting to what may prove to be a more difficult part of the hat.