Joyce Makes Art

Stocked !

Despite the rigors of life as a ballet mama -- running from work, to the studio, and then dashing home to sleep before repeating the process, I've managed to stock some yarn for you today at Elliebelly!

Don't feel too sorry for me.  I've obviously found some time to spend in the studio dyeing yarn.  It was a welcome refresh from our compressed schedule until the Nutcracker run is over.  As much as I am enjoying Ellie's excitement over the ballet, it felt good to get a little time in to play with color and yarn!

Today's colorways include --

 

 

 

 

The yarns this week are Blue Faced Leicester and Organic Merino.  The store stocks at Noon, Eastern Time.  Please come by for a look!

A Very Handsome Baby

My sweet friend Hayes, a consumate knitter and sewer, and the person who got me interested in dyeing yarn and helped me regain my childhood knitting skills, just had a new baby.  He's sweet, like all of her children, and irresistibly beautiful.  He looks far prettier than most of my babies looked when they were "brand new" and I've been eyeing these pictures over and over again.

Here he is, all dressed up in an outfit Hayes knit from some of my yarn.

Isn't he just the cutest baby, with the most wonderful expression on his face?  If there is anything more wonderful that a brand new baby, I'm not sure I know what it is -- although I have to confess, the bigger kids are pretty awesome too.

Thank You, Sweetheart

We had a debacle this week.

I came home from Ellie's Ballet rehearsal Monday night, went downstairs to do laundry, and noticed that there were water and soap bubbles gushing out from underneath my studio door.

OMG!

The Judge and I stood and surveyed in horror.  Sinks overflowing, soap everywhere.  It was a disaster.

I pulled my first all-nighter since my early years as a young lawyer in a big Washington D.C. law firm.  I'm here to tell you I am now officially too old for that kind of thing!

The carnage was major.  The water had seeped through all of the drawers on either side of the sink and their contents were a total loss.  The carpet in the storage closet was (and still is!) soaking wet.  Everything on the floor was a ruin.  (Thank goodness all of my yarn is stored in built in wooden cubbies, so it was off the floor.

The floor of the studio itself is tile, so it is intact, but again, the water did a lot of damage.

"Ollie" the Judge asked the five year old, "do you know anything about what's going on downstairs?"

"I'm not the one who couldn't turn off the water," was the answer of the guilty party.

So are you wondering why this is a "Thank You" post?  Herein lies the thank you.

This

and this

My studio had gotten so cluttered over time that I could barely walk around in it.  Now, it's all clean.  Some of it is even reorganized!  And, I've filled up several large boxes of supplies I wasn't using to share with some local schools and even Ebay a bit for some extra Christmas money.

So thank you Sweetheart, my darling Ollie who just wanted to know what would happened if he filled up the double sinks with soap and water.  If Ellie is my muse, Ollie is my make it happen guy.  He always tells me, "Mama, if you can think it, I can build it."  And in this case, he really did.  I've been wanting to get the studio under control and create some space for myself for several months.  Ollie made it a reality overnight.  Thank you, Sweetheart.

Dyeing and dyeing and....dyeing.

I agreed to do some custom dyeing for a few people earlier this month, and have been busy dyeing ever since.  I finally finished up this morning.  The last few skeins are in their last rinse bath and will be out hanging in a few hours.

It is always fun seeing the colors emerge, and especially fun when dyeing lots of different colorways on the same yarn.  All of this yarn is the British Bulky Blue Faced Leicester, which is very hard to get and a fabulous yarn.  It's not as bulky as a true bulky weight -- I think of it as more of a heavy aran.  I love using it for baby sweaters and am toying with the idea of doing some for Ollie -- his new favorite color is green and I think he needs a sweater.

This is the yarn from two orders that I packed up this morning.  It was fun laying it all out on the table.  I sort of wish I had put out all of the yarn and created a room of yarn and photo-ed it from high up on a chair or something.  But it's fun still, getting this much all at once.

Almost Done

Isn't it going to be pretty? I still have to seam the shoulders and then pick everything up to do eight rows of garter trim and then I'm done! I'm so excited.

What I Did Tonight

We drove back up to Hartford tonight for an early morning flight back home. I decided to start a pair of baby booties while we watched some bad tv.

The pattern is from a book called Simple Knits for Cherished Babies. I saw them knitted up on my visit to Metaphor Yarns and immediately fell in love. The gentle knitters at Metaphor had used darling little skeins of Lorna's Laces Angel - an Angora/Lambswool blend. Obviously a quick knit, these booties are very sweet and fun to knit.

Square Two

This is the start of my second square for the Barn Raiser knit quilt. This is my own Juliet sock yarn in the Nadia colorway (if you like it, there is a bit left for sale in the batch I did for www.knitwitch.com ).

I think I've decided to do most if not all of the quilt in my own yarn. It's a lot of fun to see how the yarn knits up in this most unintended use!

Colleges & A Knitted Square

There was a moment during the Williams College information session where I thought the teenage boy just wasn't going to make it. It was when they mentioned that knitting was offered as an intercession class.

Knitting is everywhere in the Northeast. Handknit hats, scarves, I even saw a great dress in Harvard yard today. And ravelry knitters too-introducing themselves by their screenames and giggling.

That's a lot for any 18 year old boy to cope with - even one who can knit. But I'm pleased to say he came through. He has acknowledged the importance of wearing a hat up here and likes all of the schools.

I'm looking forward to having him up here. Of course I would never impose by coming to visit, but I am going to have to return frequently to Metaphor Yarn in Shelburne Falls (my purchases of local yarns there will have to be an entire post after I get home and can photograph it all). Nice people those knitters at Metaphor!

Today's picture is a completed but not blocked first square for my barn raiser quilt. A fun knit. I can't wait to pick the next yarn. I'm thinking about doing it all in handpainted yarn.

The first day. The first square.

It's our first day away: beautiful fall color in New England and really good sushi. It's really a shame to be up here and not have the chance to sightsee and walk around.

The good thing, however, about having lots of meetings and consultations to attend is the knitting time.

The picture is the start of square one for my Barn Raising quilt. It's the perfect east to carry around project, with the increases providing just enough to hold your interest. I'm really looking forward to knitting the squares for this quilt, even though the idea of knitting a quilt on size 2 needles seems a little bit loopy.

So We're Off....

The boy and I are off and looking forward to seeing a few New England colleges.  I'm also really looking forward to seeing the child who has already flown the nest and is going to school up there and meeting with his teachers and caregivers.

Hopefully if you are reading this, I am happily knitting away while we fly.

I'm going to start with arm two of the Manos Silk Shrug.  Here is the first arm -- the arm that would not end.

I am not making this up -- the more I knit, the shorter it gone.  It was incredible.  And the full arm is actually bigger than the fronts of the shrug, combined.  Just miles of stockinette with not a lot of interest, even at the decreases and shaping, but it is really pretty.  So on to arm two.

In the meantime, I lost the last two balls of this yarn and ran out yesterday to replace them.  Then, I promptly found the time I thought were lost.  This yarn is so pretty that I'm hoping I will have enough left over to do a little shrug called Miho for Ellie to wear at ballet rehearsals. 

The Barn Raising knit quilt I mentioned in my last post really took over in my imagination, and I quickly skeined up some sock yarn I have been hoarding for some time -- not quite enough for a pair of socks but perfect for this quilt -- to take along.  This is my Nadia colorway.

I also dyed up a couple of ounces of another colorway I want to include in the quilt to take along and can't wait to see how the squares look.

Finally, I can't resist showing you how the mohair yarn from yesterday, the yarn I'm going to use with the handspun coiled yarn for my scarf, looks after winding.  It's so pretty.  It is all the colors in my little cottage garden right now.

It has been so hard deciding what to take along on this trip.  I'm anticipating lots of time to knit while in meetings and such.  Even walking out the door, it occurred to me that there was the cardigan I wanted to start for Ollie....  Patience is the lesson I continue to learn from knitting, but I still wish there was more time!