Joyce Makes Art

The Winner of the Playsilk Blog Giveaway is.....

StatenIslandSusie from Ravelry gets two lovely Elliebelly playsilks for her best friend's daughter.  I can't think of a better way to welcome a new baby to the world!  Susie, send me your address and they will be on the way.

Thanks to everyone who commented.  If you didn't win, but would like to try some, playsilks are very easy to dye at home.  You can buy silk blanks inexpensively at Dharma Trading.

I have a tutorial on crackle dyeing -- an easy way to get the beautiful color patterning on my silks -- at Paula Burch's website, here.  It is surprisingly simple.  You ca also fool around with Tumeric, like I did here or find any number of sites with instructions for easy Kool Aid dyeing on the web.

Yarns I'm Dyeing To Knit With

I am dyeing and dying to knit with the follow yarns:

• A new sport weight 65% Cashmere/35% Merino blend yarn I happened upon and grabbed a pound of to experiment with.  I am insanely crazy about the first two test skeins I dyed.

I am thinking that I will use one skein for Mary-Heather Cogar's Simple Things scarf.

I am seriously thinking about devoting the second skein to the Eleanor Cowl from Knitty.  I am hoping this yarn will live up to my expectations when I knit with it.  I love the blend.  I'm also considering doing a larger version of Simple Things, alternating knitting with both skeins.

• Elliebelly Merlin Merino -- an experiment, since I don't often work with predominately orange colorways, but wanted one with just hints of green and purple mixed in with the hot colors.  I'm exceedingly happy with this as-yet unnamed colorway. 

I haven't made a final decision about what to use this yarn for, so I would welcome any ideas you might have for it!  I am giving serious consideration to Regina Satta's Thanks Socks pattern, which would have the added benefit of letting me practice my rusty German, since it is written in both English and German.  It's a free knitting pattern on Ravelry and although I would have to monkey with the sizing since my yarn is a slightly heavier weight, I think it would look great in this pattern.

What yarns are you dying (or dyeing) to knit with right now?  It's summer, if you're in the south like I am, it's incredibly hot.  Little, light weight projects like these are irresistable for this time of year.  What do you have in the works?

[If you are looking for the Playsilk Blog Give Away, make sure you scroll down to the next post.  And yes, all photos from others are used with their permission.]

Elliebelly Playsilks - Some for Ollie's Pre-School and Some for....You! (Blog Give Away Inside)

I recently bumped into Ollie's wonderful pre-school teacher, Miss Sadhna.  We had not seen each other for a long time, but she was his favorite teacher and I was really happy to reconnect.  When Ollie was there -- it's a Waldorf School, I dyed Playsilks for the younger classes and sometimes taught the older children to dye.

Playsilks are big squares of hand-dyed silk that kids use as capes, as water beneath their boats when the're playing, as fairy wings, as blankets for a quick nap, and on and on and they are wonderful.  They are an integral part of Waldorf education.  All of my kids loved them when they were small.  The last set I dyed for the school is getting old, so I promised Sadhna I would do some new ones for her and, I dyed up two extra to send to a lucky reader as a Blog Giveaway. (Who doesn't love sharing their favorite toys with their friends?  Certainly not me!)

If you have a child or grandchildren who you think would enjoy having a couple of silks to play with (and let's face it, Moms have been known to tuck these underneath a coat or jacket for a little extra color), leave me a comment below telling me something about who you want them for, you own playsilk experience, or anything else you would like to mention.  Comment between now and Sunday at noon -- I'll use a random generator to pick the winner.  Make sure you leave your email address so I can get in touch with you if you win!

Changing Things Up At The Elliebelly Knitting Blog

As several of you have noticed, thanks to the lovely Kelly at Seventeen Stone, I have a cool new blog design.  Kelly was incredibly patient and seemed to intuitively understand what I wanted.  She was so easy to work with!  Thank you Kelly.

I hope you all like it as much as I do!

To celebrate, I'm going to do several giveaways between now and the end of July.  Yes, there will be yarn.  Possibly some of the Elliebelly "Melted Crayon" on Naiad Organic Merino I'm in the middle of dyeing for myself.  Certainly some crackle-dyed Elliebelly Playsilks.  I'm also planning to write up my Cabled Afghan pattern, and will offer it for free at some point during this time period.  And any other cool stuff I decide to share with my friends.  Maybe some art.  So click the orange RSS feed bottom on the left side of the blog to add me to your reader, or remember to check back in a couple of times a week.  Because of my crazy schedule, there is no predicting when or for how long I'll do this.  Just a little bit of summer fun for y'all and a great way, in fact, the only way to score some Elliebelly this summer.

Knitted Swatch Complete. Gauge Perfect. Oh Joy!

I am a good person.  I will surely go to heaven when I die.  For I have swatched.  I have swatched and gotten gauge.  Not only did I knit the full number of stitches called for, surrounded by a garter stitch border, I blocked my swatch after it was complete.  Yes, surely I will go to heaven.

Even if I don't make it to heaven, I have high hopes that Ellie's fall sweater (the Tiny Tea Leaves Cardigan, knit in Madeline Tosh's Vintage Merino) will fit because my gauge is perfect.  It's perfect after blocking.  And this must be a good omen from the knitting gods that all is well.

I am fascinated by this yarn.  I don't think anyone does single color variations as well as Madeline Tosh.  I adore her yarns.  This one is a superwash merino, and it has an odd texture, almost coarse but not unpleasant.  The surprise came when I washed my swatch and it softened up nicely into something you would want to rub against your face.  Hopefully I'll get to spend some time with Tiny Tea Leaves this week.  I can't wait to get started, now that the swatching is done.

Enough (Knitted) Ruffles for Ellie

Ellie kindly agreed to model the finished "Enough Ruffles for Joyce" scarf so you all could see her new short hair.  And of course, I couldn't resist playing with Photoshop just a wee bit.

 

The scarf is, of course, still all blue.

 

I'm incredibly happy with the way it turned out.  The cashmere is fantastic, the color just right, the pattern, as promised, enough without being too much.

I am as happy with the scarf with the tails worn long and hanging down as I am with it wrapped double around.

And, the scarf even appears to have magical powers.  It knocked Ellie straight out asleep when she put it on after arduously playing the role of model for me.

Knitted Shrug Love

She loved it. She looked beautiful in it.

The two best things you can say about a knitted garment!

This is my Mom-albeit at 6:30 am in the Hartford Airport-wearing the Dream in Color Shrug. While I feared it was too big, it turned out to have the perfect elegant drape on her and she could not have looked more graceful.

The only thing more fun than knitting the Shrug was seeing her try it on for the first time.

Another Reason Knitting Is Good For Your Soul

Knitting is good for your soul.  Anyone who knits can tell you that.

And here is yet more proof for that proposition.

This lovely yarn is being sent to some wonderful knitters who sent money, generous amounts of money, to the Red Cross to support tornado recovery.  To thank them for their thoughtfulness, they are receiving some of the newest Elliebelly colorways.  Starting at the left side with the paintbrush colorway and moving clockwise, they  include Good Day, Gulf Shores, P. Campbell, Kaleidoscope (not new, but oh so much fun for me to dye again!), Grapevine, and Steampunk.

Knitters always seem to be involved in helping others, and it's particularly gratifying to see this small amount of yarn turn into help for people who are trying to restart their lives.  Thank you knitters!

Knitting The Dreaded Ruffle Increase Row

K1p1k1 into each stitch is going to make one heck of a major ruffle around the edge of this scarf. Doing it 200 times borders on insanity.

Fortunately, this makes for perfect airplane knitting. I'm partway there and a just announced hold on board due to mechanical difficulties bodes well for the odds that I get all the increases done today.

Cashmere. Lots and lots of robins egg blue cashmere! This is turning out to be the scarf of my dreams!

My Gauge Swatch is Too Big

My swatch for the Tiny Tea Leaves Cardigan isn't just too big; it's WAY too big.

And this, in a nutshell, is why I always have to swatch. Not the "three rows and I'll eyeball it" kind of swatch I often convince myself is sufficient. No, I need to be doing full on, blocked swatches if I really expect my garments to fit.

Tiny Tea Leaves calls for a gauge of 20 stitches and 28 rows = four inches. My gauge, on the size 7 needles the pattern calls for, is 5 1/2 x 51/4.

Disaster averted. You can be certain I'm going to carefully swatch until I get this one just right, and, all of my projects from now on!