Page 129 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

Wanna See My Mail?

Posted on June 26, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

It was a pretty amazing mail day here. I thought I would share.

First up, a package from DJ Pettit. DJ, I love you!

DJ took a picture of my daughter, played with it in Photoshop, and used it as the main image in the most amazing purse I’ve ever seen. It’s actually a piece of art I’m going to carry on my shoulder.

The picture doesn’t even begin to do justice to all the amazing detail work in this piece. It’s so pretty! You just have to run your fingers over it to appreciate the quilting and the little piece that give the design so much depth and subtlety in person.

Here’s the back.

I feel so lucky to have it! And if that wasn’t enough, I got a package from Shanna in Japan.

Shanna sent…..FABRIC!

It’s fabulous! I was so excited to pull it all out and look at it! And the twill tape with hedgehogs she sent along with it is too much fun.

Here it is all spread out.

I’m hoarding Echino fabric so that I can do a Japan-inspired fabric collage book. But I think the sunflowers and ladybugs are going to have to be a cute jumper for Ellie. Ewwww! I may actually have to sew some clothes instead of doing fabric collage. I’m not sure I can dust off those unused skills from my childhood, but this is the kind of fabric that makes you think about calling in sick to work for the week and getting on with it!

Thanks Shanna and DJ! It was a truly wonderful mail day!

Morning Hodgepodge

Posted on June 25, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

My Aunt emailed me last night, and asked when I go to work. I assure you, I do (a girl has to have money to buy yarn and art bits), but sometimes it’s a struggle. The weekends are never long enough to do everything I want to do. Here’s a little wrap up of some of the creative mess that took place in my house this weekend. Mom, if you’re reading, it also explains why the house is going to be a ~~frigging disaster~~ little bit unorganized when you get here on Friday.

First off, spinning. It’s never far from my heart.

This

is now two ounces of this funky thick and thin.

This was also a big yarn dyeing weekend in my house, as we had fall sweaters to dye for and I’m in the middle of working on a new little venture (you can see a sneak peak here although it isn’t operational yet). The pink/purple/green yarn towards the front is the new superwash merino I’m working with and I confess to being totally in love with the way it sucks up the color (and the idea that I won’t have to worry about the little kids’ sweaters felting this year).

I’m especially happy with this sock
yarn, called Fate

and with this as-yet-unnamed (Miss Ellie can only work just so hard in any one weekend) bulky merino

While all the yarn was batching, I spent some time looking at patterns online, and stumbled across this incredibly wonderful blog, Saartje Knits. In addition to being one of those blogs you could get lost inside of reading everything, Saartje has some great free patterns, including her bootees and a cool Noro hat pattern, both of which I printed out and want to start in on soon.

The ten week plan is marching on. For those of you who asked, it’s a sort of embarrassing diet, but if you must know, I do the Suzanne Somers low carb variant. I’ve been told it’s close to South Beach. I like it because I can eat all the fruit I feel like I need to eat, and whole grain pasta and breads in moderate amounts. Essentially, it steers me towards the foods I’m inclined to like the most. Since I’m not a white bread kind of person, a couple of fresh veggies, a good salad, and meat as sort of a side dish suits me just fine. For instance, tonight’s dinner is braised lamb shanks, spinach & roasted garlic, and caprese salad. I’ll add on couscous for the kids. Bed time snack will be a big dish of blueberries, fresh from the farmer’s market. After I had Miss Ellie, and was hunting around for a way to take off baby weight, a friend on my Parents Place Pregnancy board suggested this diet and a bunch of us went on it together. It worked great that time, and again after my fourth baby was born. I’m hoping it’s also the cure for the onslaught of middle-aged sluggishness and excess tummy that is afflicting me. The key for me seems to be getting off of sugar.

The Giotto tank is happy to have progressed it’s necessary one inch for the week. I knit it while reflecting on the importance of taking time for oneself. No pictures, but I’m a little bit nervous that I am noticing a proficiency with the moss stitch/ribbon yarn issue on this front side that is not evident on the back. At least this first little bit is compact and even in a way that the back of the tank isn’t. I’m hoping I won’t feel compelled to rip out the back and reknit it after I finish the front, because I really am hoping to wear this tank when my ten week plan is up!

The Ten Week Plan

Posted on June 22, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

I have a ten week plan. Really, I do. I’m not much of a planner, but I have one. But before I tell you about that, did you know that if you spin at a T-Ball game, it makes you a really strange mom? Some people will look at you like you are very odd. But some women, mostly the right kind, will be inexplicably attracted to the spindle and will come over and ask what you are doing and if you know where they can learn. Nice women. And you will have new friends. Really.

Bet you couldn’t guess, but this is what I did at T-Ball Thursday night.

It is the prettiest copper and tan Blue Faced Leicester and it is spinning up very nicely. And I really do have some new friends.

As for the ten week plan part, well, it is sort of embarrassing, but is because I need a ten week plan. I need to spend some time getting in shape and eating right and relaxing or else middle aged malaise is going to overtake me.

When I started the Giotto tank, I actually fit into the size 34 I was making. But the tank has fallen by the wayside and become one of those "I’ll get to it later" projects. And I’ve gotten busy and managed to get out of shape to the point where I don’t think it would fit.

But, the tank has good sense. You see, it’s knit in Moss stitch. Colinette’s Giotto, a ribbon yarn, in moss stitch.

It’s pretty agonizing in some regards. The needle wants to go through the cool fizzy edge of the ribbon and you have to be very careful. Plus, did I mention that it is Moss stitch?

But all that time that it takes to knit in Moss is going to be my ally. I finished the back tonight and casted on for the front. If I knit just 1 1/2" a week, it will be done in about ten weeks. So I’m going to knit my inch and a half, eat some healthy food, get a little exercise, and plan on fitting into the Giotto tank (and feeling much healthier, thank you very much) just about the time it’s done. The tank is going to give me my ten weeks. I’m not sure you could call it a knitting diet, it’s more of a "knitting inspired plan for lavishing more time and attention on myself." I feel it working already.

T-Ball & Yarn Dyeing

Posted on June 21, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

T-Ball, the newly discovered pleasure of my four year old, has been cutting into my yarn dyeing time, so I’m going to remedy that this morning by showing you pictures of a few of the new yarn colorways I’ve been dreaming of and dyeing. Two in particular are making me happy.

First is an Alpaca Merino blend, that, quite frankly, would be yummy if you randomly covered it in mud and rinsed it off. It is soft and sedutive and has a pretty halo without being hairy. I like it especially in this colorway called "Fluffy" that is destined to be a vest come fall for my favorite little T-Ball player.

This second yarn is something I’ve been doing try-outs for, for quite a while. I wanted a nice worsted weight superwash merino that could be used for slightly heavier socks that could be (gently) machine washed. After several false starts, I finally found the right yarn. It’s soft and nicely spun, and it’s American-milled. I like how it takes up the color, and although I intended to start with socks, this first batch I’ve dyed up it going to be a sweater for a friend’s new baby. Having been reassured by the wise women at the Wooly Wonder Forums that I can knit a diaper cover out of superwash wool (I’m told it will need to be lanolized a bit more frequently but will have the benefit of being machine washable and not felting), I think I’ll add in a nice summer diaper cover for the baby as well.

The good news is that there is a T-Ball game tonight! Ollie can engage his new passion. The Judge can get out his glove and remember his glory days in law school as Mr. October. Personally, I’m going to be content to sit in my prissy pink field chair and do a little knitting while I cheer the team on.

Fabric Painting

Posted on June 19, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

A couple of people emailed to ask about the handpainted fabric I used in Ellie’s She-Mootah, so i wanted to provide a little bit of information. This is a MESSY process, so I don’t have much in the way of in progress photos or a formal tutorial, but I thought I would comment on some of the things I do.

I start with some hand-dyed fabric. I’m very fond of PFD (prepared for dye) kona cotton. It’s nice and it keeps its hand when painted. I crackle dye my fabric for starters (my tutorial on crackle-dye is linked at the top right-hand corner of this page), but I use a tonal range — maybe just two colors and in pale values. The fabric I’m using here was done in a yellow ochre and a soft brown with just a hint of green in it.

Tonight I used a lot of different stamps and some punchinella on my fabric, but you can stencil, free-hand paint, foil, emboss — the range of techniques you use depends on the use you are going to make of the fabric. Since this fabric is likely to be washed and dried, I used techniques that could be set and my favorite fabric paints, Lumiere’s from Jacquard.

I start with a piece of about 2 yards of fabric, and I tend to visually divide it, very roughly, into either thirds or quarters so I will have coordinating fabrics to work together. Sometimes I use a totally different color palette on the different areas, but tonight I decided to use essentially the same one in all areas, thinking I would use coordinating solids and stripes with the fabric. So here I am, already in progress and I snatched up the camera for a sec.

Although you can’t tell here, I started by stamping, using different stamps, in white all over the fabric.

After the white layer, I used different stamps in different areas, starting with fairly large stamps, then going to medium ones. Usually I try to mix up the sizes of stamps and colors, because I like that sort of unique, different placement effect you get with random stamping, but the sizes seem to unify the fabric.

Tonight I stamped a lot until there was good coverage, sometimes I have a lighter hand. The point is to just keep going and do whatever pleases you. I tend to conceptualize it as being a lot like doing a background on a canvas. At this point on a canvas I would probably glaze over it and them overstamp before doing the collage work. Here, I can either leave it at this point, or dry it and set it, and then put it in a light overdye bath for the glaze effect and more stamping.

Here are my finished, at least for now, quadrants. The lighting is awful because I was snapping these around midnight in the very low lighting in my dining room, but you can get some idea of the design, if not of the colors.

Coffee Cups

Pears

Fruit Slices (this one looks great in real life, sorry about the dreadful picture)

Chairs

Dots

Posted on June 17, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

This is my entry for this week’s Wednesday Stamper theme, Polka Dots.

Today

Posted on June 16, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

Today was one of those gorgeous, perfect days. It started with a trip to the farmers’ market, which meant homemade chocolate covered caramel for the kids and a visit with a women who was spinning beautiful yarn from her hand-dyed roving for me. I am so sorry I didn’t have my camera with me!

On the way home we stopped at a couple of yard sales. I usually limit my purchases to old books or photos, and other ephemera that I use in my collage work. But I was stunned to find this very cool looking bag today.

Something about it immediately caught my eye. Is it the quirky little flight attendant meets Stephen Colbert drawings?

It is funny and kitschy all at that same time, and I guess that’s what got me. It had almost a Zakka feeling to it. It had a couple of little smudgey places on the outside, but they looked easy enough to clean off, so I took it home.

It was very easy to wipe the two or three little smudges off, and I was stunned to discover that the interior and the front pocket were both pristine. Clearly, my little bag had never been used. But what was it? This was my only clue.

A little bit of research revealed that "Transversion" bags were made/sold by a company called NYC Loop. They were sought after, expensive, & almost impossible to get one’s hands on. There was even a similar print one, in a style I didn’t like nearly as much as mine, on Ebay. Not bad for a $5 investment. Now I’m torn between keeping it and selling it on Ebay. But I really want to keep it.

Next up on the day was a visit with my dear art friend Kathy McElroy. Kathy was my first roomate at an art retreat, a fellow member of the Altered Art Divas, and one of the sweetest people I know. She brought her son and his fiancee and another son’s children to lunch. The Judge made burgers and they were gooood! Kathy’s grandchildren were the perfect age to play with my littles. By the end of the day, I wasn’t sure it was going to be possible to get the kids to separate! We spent the afternoon at the zoo.

We saw the flamingos

and this sweet little fellow who wandered past our table in the water play area, looking for food.

Kathy’s kids and grandkids are all wonderful. We were tired but really sorry to leave them. The final success in our day of small, happy events was this.

This is She-Mootah. She-Mootah is Ellie’s companion for Ollie’s Mootah. She-Mootah is made from some fabric that I dyed, painted, and stamped on. There is just a bit of hand-embroidery (mostly because I don’t remember much, although I was apparently pretty good at it as a child) and eyes made from my favorite buttons. Ellie seems very happy. She has dressed She-Mootah up in a piece of old lace and is taking her everywhere.