Page 112 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

More Fabric

Posted on April 8, 2008 by Joyce Makes Art

I thought I would share some of the fabric I've been working on for Art & Soul with y'all. I've been working with some muslin and silk for the last few days, and the results have been a lot of fun. (For you knitters who are here looking for my progress on Juliet, this fabric will be cut up to use in fabric collage, but I'm starting to think some of these pieces would make wonderful linings for knit purses.)

This is a blue piece, done in a sort-of-shibori, style of dyeing I have been obsessed with for the past year. This is a natural (unbleached) cotton muslin, that is perfect for this process.

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Here is a pink piece done using a modification of the same technique.

And this is my favorite, so far, of the silk pieces, done using my crackle dye technique.

This is a close up inset of the same piece.

This is the perfect time of year for fabric dyeing in Alabama. The days are cool, with beautiful blue skies and blooming cherry trees and wisteria. It makes me wish I could take everything outside and dye all afternoon.

Getting Ready For Art & Soul

Posted on April 6, 2008 by Joyce Makes Art

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I know I usually blog a lot on weekends, but this weekend, I've been dyeing fabric and ribbon (in between childrens' birthday parties) to get ready for Art and Soul in Hampton, Virginia, the first week in May. In addition to getting the supplies together for the classes I'm taking, I'm putting together supplies for the class I'm teaching, Dyeing to Collage, and trying to put a few things together for my vendors table.

I've been putting together some little packets of my hand-dyed ribbons for the fabric artists to play with.

I've also been dyeing some fabric for my own use, and have been overdyeing some black and white fabrics as well, to use in fabric collage. I seem to be on a purple streak right now, and I really like the results. I'm hoping to find time to do some fabric collage this week.

I haven't forgotten my knitting. I guess the gray knitting is the counterpart to the purple fabric. The Gothic Scarf is growing longer.

I'm also about halfway down the neckline of Juliet. Strangely, when I went to my LYS yesterday, another woman was knitting Juliet, and had just finishing binding off the sleeves, so I got a preview of the fit — I'm doing this in a size medium for a slightly looser fit — and I think it's going to be perfect (okay, I always think that until I realize I'm a disaster at gauge, but a girl can hope, right?).

Is it just me or do the Knit Picks option needles wear your hands out? I love the flexibility the give me, but my right hand really starts hurting after just a few of these 200+ stitch rows. I'm hoping to get the bodice of Juliet finished down to wear the lace starts, and then work on that as my airplane knitting on the way to Art and Soul.

Swatching for Juliet

Posted on April 2, 2008 by Joyce Makes Art

I've finally put aside my Gothic Scarf for long enough to swatch for Juliet.

I swatched and I swatched and I swatched. Since the pattern calls for a bulky yarn, I started with my yarn double stranded. I'm using Rowan's RYC Soft Tweed yarn for this project, but I must have been having a yarn blank out because it looked like a worsted weight to me. So, I double stranded it and swatched.

No good — I was getting 12 stitches to 4 inches, not 14 as the pattern demanded. And, I didn't like the fabric. It was too thick. Having looked around on Ravelry and realizing this was actually a bulky yarn, I decided to single strand it. I started at the pattern's suggested needle size of 10.5 and got a huge piece of fabric, about 5 1/2 inches at 14 stitches. I knit gauge swatch after gauge swatch, finally ending up just a smidge over four inches on US 8 needles.

Are you sensing a theme here? All of a sudden, it seems like everything I'm knitting is gray. The scarf, the sweater — I assure you it was not intentional but I do love gray- the moodiness of it heading into spring. Although the RYC yarn is completely different from the baby alpaca I'm knitting the scarf from, it is a unique and wonderful yarn, spun from a blend of wool, silk, and rayon.

The question is, though, will Juliet be perfect, custom fit after all that swatching? I'm notoriously bad at sizing. So don't hold your breath.

It’s not what I’m supposed to be knitting…

Posted on March 31, 2008 by Joyce Makes Art

It's not what I'm supposed to be knitting. I really meant to swatch for Juliet. Or, I was thinking I might pull my Manos Silk/Merino shrug off the needles and swatch for a different pattern — I was knitting it double stranded for the Anthropologie Shrug. But, that muds up the colors too much, so I found a couple of interesting patterns I thought would work well and I need to swatch to see which is the best match for this yarn. Hot Lava looked pretty good. This basic pattern from Lion Brand looked pretty close to what I really wanted — something simple to set off the pretty yarn. And then there was Amy King's Sprout, another simple pattern sure to set off my pretty yarn. So, the point here is, I had stuff I was supposed to be doing.

But nonetheless, I'm suddenly obsessed with a scarf. A scarf of all things. I thought I had sworn off scarves after a flurry of scarf-making activity a few years back nearly did me in.

This one is sort of amorphous, but I'm very pleased with it so far. The yarn is a a chunky baby alpaca from Misti. I purchased several skeins of gray, along with some pink and a deep rich red, thinking I would make a scarf with long, horizontal stripes. But, when I started the scarf, on the plane ride to Disneyworld, it seemed to have different ideas of its own.

I started with some offset garter ridge rows, and a simple yarn over pattern to create the eyelets. I had some vision of perhaps dyeing pink silk ribbon to run through the eyelets. I picked it up tonight, and after a few more rows of garter, decided to do a wide rib, 5×5, all the way along the scarf until it was long enough to finish with another garter/eyelet border.

Again, the scarf had other plans. Instead of the wide ribs, I've ended up with little 5 stitch by 5 row boxes (I'm sure there must be a technical knitter's term for this), which leaves me with almost a patchwork look. It's hard to see in the picture, but it has nice texture and the scarf has a very structured, almost a gothic architectural look to it.

I'm torn between seeing how far the boxes want to go before they turns into something else or swatching for Juliet. The relaxation of letting the yarn dictate what the scarf will become is irresistable.

Knitting & Art

Posted on March 30, 2008 by Joyce Makes Art

It's rare that I have a post the encompasses both knitting and art, but this weekend has been special. I have three round robin books in my possession — two from pock-et-ful and one from the color round robin. I worked in the pock-et-ful books this weekend, Lou McCulloch's and Kathy Was's books, and have some scans to share.

Both Books are really wonderful — little gems with a vintage feel and some beautiful art.

Kathy's book was filled was wonderful pages made from watercolor paper. The front page in her book is called Along The Road. The pocket page, on the back, contains a Robert Frost Poem called "Never Again Would Bird's Song Be The Same," which seemed to fit this piece perfectly.

Lou's book was a bit more difficult to scan — a tiny treasure of a ledger book, Lou asked us each to pick a letter and use it to illustrate a friend. I chose "M" and my "baby" Oliver, who likes to talk so much about how he is mine and I am his Mommy, and I can't love anyone else as much as I love him, because he is mine. So, this is my MINE page in Lou's book.

The pocket is a glassine envelope, collaged and stamped with the word "Mine." Inside the pocket is a tiny collage, done on a piece of metal screen.

I had such a good time working in these two books! They're on their way to Karen now, and then overseas to Sue and Kim in England.

In Knitting news, thanks to Smashing Puffin's suggestion on Ravelry, that she had heard Big Wool, the Rowan yarn I used for my Anise sweater, would "grow" if I washed it, I'm able to wear Anise — sort of. As you may recall, Ansie was a victim of either bad gauge or middle aged spread, and really was a better fit on my nine year old than on me when it was finished. I took Smashing Puffin's suggestion, and immersed Anise in a tub full of water, then blocked. The result is a significant improvement. I can wear Anise, and she is warm and comfortable! But, I am still unable to finish her with buttons in the double breasted fashion that was intended, because it pulls the stitches too much and makes the whole sweater look unpleasant. Still, I'm happy to be able to wear this sweater, at least for casual wear. Ellie is still looking forward to inheriting it.

Finally, an apology. For some unknown reason, Typepad is inserting these ridiculous gaps into my posts, even though I cannot see them in the draft form and there is no apparent way to correct them. I have asked them for a fix, and hope to be posting again without gaps soon!

Color Inspiration

Posted on March 29, 2008 by Joyce Makes Art

There is a lot of color in my world right now. A lot!

Call me a color geek, but I find it to be incredibly inspiring. It inspires the yarn I dye, the art I make, even the food I cook. Just look.

It's really wonderful. I love Alabama in springtime! The sky is incredible, my garden is blooming after all the rain we've had lately, and I can wait to dig the perennials and get my mulch down to keep all that moisture in!

Lots of pretty yarn coming this week when I stock on Thursday at noon. This is just a sample.

I'm excited, also, to be collaborating with my dear friend Meagan, who makes some of the most sought after cloth diapers around, at this week's stocking. She's made diapers, and I've dyed some yarn to coordinate, and there are going to be some cute little cloth diapered babies floating around!

Would it make everyone happier?

Posted on March 28, 2008 by Joyce Makes Art

Do you think the world would be a happier place if everyone could have socks like this?

Somehow, I envision handing over a pair each to the leaders of warring factions and creating world peace. It's simply impossible to be sad or angry with squishy pink and green striped socks on your feet.

Here they are again. Just because I love looking at them.

These socks were a lot like a good book. It was hard to see them come to an end. I rationed out the last few rows — only let myself do a few each day over morning coffee and at night. But finally, today, it was time to finish them. And best of all, they are a perfect fit. The joy of socks.

When I went outside, with my accomodating seventeen year old photographer, the sky was almost as photo-worthy as the socks. Here it is — pre-thunderstorm Alabama sky.