Page 132 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

The Altered Workshop Round Robin

Posted on May 20, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

My art journal has come home from over a year away. It traipsed all around the country, back and forth, on it’s travels through the studios of my best art friends. It was a simple concept — I made a big piece of felt and sort of wrapped it around lots of loose pages made of different papers and fabrics. The exterior was a plain brown, but when you opened it up, the interior of the felt had been patterned with jewel toned mohair fibers and I sewed little Swarowski crystals and tiny bells inside of it. The idea was that the simple exterior would open up to reveal a cacophony of art and sound and texture and color.

The journal succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.

See? It’s sort of plain and simple. When I opened it, I saw this.

It was like Christmas and my birthday all rolled into one when I began looking through all the art my friends had made for me! It’s beyond perfection.

First, there was this piece, from Karen O.

Then, pieces from DJ

the sadly blogless Kara

and Lou

Judy felted fantasy fish for me.

Joanne quilted

Chris gave me words

And Andi offered inspiration.

Vicki made this incredibly beautiful piece.

Catherine made this fabulous clipboard called Play Day

Shirley made two very beautiful pieces.

and Caroline painted.

And this is my original piece, that I started the round robin out with.

It was a wonderful round robin. I’m sorry it’s over, I’m happy to have so much beautiful art to look at over and over again and to touch and think about. I can’t wait for the next round robin to start!

Posted on May 18, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

I have lots of yarn to show you tonight. I’ve been dyeing yarn all week.

Some of it is cashmere for a special "private party" later on this month.

Some of it is an incredibly beautiful mixture of colors found in copper and the various patinas it takes on. This is a lovely, thick organic Merino that I just love to feel.

And some of it is sock yarn. I’m still having an affair with sock yarn. If all goes well, this yarn will be Father’s Day Socks for the Judge. If all does not go well, the socks will be a Christmas present.

And here it is swatched. I’m showing you this (even thought it’s almost midnight and i had to scan it instead of photo it so the colors look very washed out) because I’m just so tickled about the way the colors work out together in the swatch. It’s not an exact science, but even with the socks which are about double the number of stitches per row, I should still get nice little bands of color.

I’ve been in that sort of long, dark, tea-time of the soul phase of
knitting with all my works in progress. Despite knitting steadily,
there seems to be little if any progress. Certainly nothing that
warrants photos. I’m still working on the back of the Ophelia
Colinette Tank — the moss stitch pattern is beautiful and it takes
forever. After ripping lots of the Cahaba Jacket out (due to pattern
error — I should be more gracious but am not feeling particularly
gracious) I’m about back to where I was and ready to head for the home
stretch. I’m dyeing some necessary bits and pieces to put together the
handles for the market bag. And my undulating rib socks are getting
the occasional row here and there. In other words, I am the
quintessential ADHD knitter, lots going on but little to show for it.
I hope to have some pictures for you by the end of the weekend.

Yarn. New Yarn.

Posted on May 17, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

It’s a yarn kind of night here. And it’s going to be a yarn kind of day tomorrow. I have lots of yarn to play with and am at long last expecting kilos of Blue Faced Leicester to show up, so it should be a ~~yarn porn orgy~~ fun few days around here!

I did three colorways for Midday Faire this week. I apologize for not remembering to post about it on Tuesday when I stocked it, but there are still a few skeins left if anyone is interested. The bottom picture is the last of my beloved Suffolk Yarn, which I’m hoping to be able to get more of this summer, as I love how it dyes up.

I am off to grumble now. I had a depressing interlude at my local yarn store this afternoon. Actually, it started last Friday when I went in with Ellie’s Cahaba River Jacket , which did not look right to me. I neglected to photo, but here’s the explanation. The jacket is knit all at once on round needles, and you sort of section it off to do the right front, then the back, and then the left front. I followed the instructions, I believed in the freaking pattern, and it was….wrong.

You know all those people who tell you to trust the pattern? I am here to tell you gentle readers, Don’t Do It!

I just knew that pattern was wrong. But, on Friday, the gal in the store assured me the big flap in the middle of the right armhole was for the collar. I mean, c’mon. I knew. But she seemed so self-assured and she lined it up just so and I thought maybe I was just a moron. I finished the right front, and the back. And then I got to the left side and the directions just said to "reverse the shaping" and when I reread the directions they clearly did not make sense.

So, I went back in this afternoon. Sure enough, I had the original version of the pattern. Errors included. Rip. Rip. Rip. All the way back. Days and days of back. I was too traumatized to take photos, but I assure you, it was mounds of knitting.

And, to add insult to injury? Just as I walked back into my office, I got a phone call. It was my LYS. I had left my yarn (The ball was cut off to facilitate frogging and re-knitting) there. I am off to grumble in hopes that by tomorrow, I will be feeling surprisingly Scarlett O’Hara-ish and can reclaim my yarn and finish up the jacket over the weekend.

Turquoise

Posted on May 14, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

I’m a little bit late with this week’s TURQUOISE theme for Wednesday Stamper. This is my piece for Andi’s Bits and Pieces round robin journal. The minute I saw this metal plate, I knew it was what I wanted to use for my piece.

It was hard to get a good photograph of this piece. The words at the top read "at first it was hard to say who was the most surprised at the discovery." The small metal doodah at the top says "laugh."

Tag, You’re It.

Posted on May 13, 2007January 4, 2016 by Joyce Makes Art

Miz Carla tagged me with the meme that’s going around. I have to list seven random facts about myself and then tag seven other bloggers. Here goes:

1. I was born in St. George, Utah.

2. I wear glasses.

3. I cannot draw ANYTHING. I suck at drawing.

4. My first cat’s name was Licorice. Currently, we have five cats.

5. My grandfather is still my hero and role model.

6. I will have been married for 19 years this October.

7. Of my college friends, I was the one everyone thought was least likely to grow up and get married.

Ok, the challenge here is going to be finding seven people who haven’t been tagged yet. Here goes: Lou, Audrey, DJ, Maija, Selena, Susie, and Joanne.

I also have a little bit of show and tell for you. I’m been knitting a big "market bag" — I wanted something that Ellie and I could carry to our farmers’ market outings this summer. I’ve been loosely basing it on the pattern in Alterknits, although obviously the colors and patterning are different and I’ve rolled the top of my bag and given it a broader brim that the body of the bag. I felted it up last night and think it is going to be awesome when it is finished. Now to add the handles (the book used plastic tubing with words stamped on it and I’m going to try something similar) and see if it holds up. Here it is drying under the watchful eye of Mr. Squirt.

Lutrador

Posted on May 12, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

Today, more pictures from Art & Soul, as promised.

These pictures are from Leslie Riley’s "Stitch It" class, which involved working with Lutrador, the stiff sort of underfacing found at the bottom of upholstered furniture and mattresses. In the morning portion of the class, we painted, burned, stamped and otherwise tortured the Lutrador to create our background pages. Leslie taught her method for transferring from transparencies to fabric, and we spent the afternoon decorating our pages.

Although I viewed this more as a technique class, than as a finished project sort of thing, I did end with a small book of pretty (if rather hastily decorated — i always seem to talk to my neighbors too much in class) pages. Here they are.

Once Upon A Time

Today, Yesterday, Tomorrow

Kapitel

The Good Part

The End

The class was a lot of fun, and Leslie is a gifted teacher. I was sorry to hear she isn’t going to be teaching next year, but I hope the fact that she is focusing on her personal art means that we can look forward to some good new articles and maybe even a book from her.

Hold The Presses! It’s Here!

Posted on May 10, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

It’s here! Stop the presses, it’s here!

In the mail, waiting for me today, was the new book, Charmed Knits, Projects for Fans of Harry Potter.

I’m afraid it’s apology time to all of my works in progress. My lovely Ophelia tank, knitted from Colinette Giotto. I’m stunned by both how long it takes to knit in moss stitch with ribbon yarn and how beautiful the result is.

Ellie’s Cahaba River jacket — I’ve picked it back up in the last week and made several inches of progress.

And my undulating wave socks.

I’m apologizing to them all. I’m in love with Harry Potter Knits. I can’t decide what to make first. I love Ron’s Animal Crackers Hat (p. 144) and am tempted to start there. But, the School Sweater (p. 89) is subtle and charming. The Quidditch Socks (p. 62) are a temptation. And I want the Invisibility Shawl (p. 48) for myself. Ellie and Ollie have both put in requests for basic Weasley Sweaters (p. 2)

There is going to be some glorious summer knitting in anticipation of fall in my house. Admittedly, we are among the ~~lunatic fringe~~ faithful — the people who let their kids skip school to see the opening day of the new HP movie or let them stay up until midnight to nab the book at a local store at the first possible minute. My birthday plan for this year calls for us all to go out at midnight to pick up multiple copies of the book and spend my entire birthday reading it. I hope we’ll all be wearing HP sweaters, or at least scarves, by then. I’m off to devour all the details in the book!