Joyce Makes Art

My Progress on Tiny Tea Leaves & Another Winner of Yarn

Two things on tap for tonight:

(1)Peppermintmochamama on Ravelry was my pick to win the Elliebelly Merlin Merino yarn that was the weekend giveaway.  Really, I can't begin to tell you how hard this was and how much I wanted to give everyone yarn.  Such beautiful pattern choices and great purposes for knitting.  You guys are all wonderful!  Amy, send me an email with your address and I will send your yarn on to you.  You should get it in plenty of time for the knit along, starting on August 13!

(2) Finally, I have pictures of my progress on Ellie's Tiny Tea leaves cardigan.

The bodice is done -- I'm about 2" below the sleeve join -- so now we are just on and on with the stockinette for a while.  The photo does not do justice to the lovely, subtle colors in this Madeline Tosh yarn.  LOVE.

*There will be one last quick yarn give away this week, probably socks so be thinking of patterns, and then I'll get onto the serious details of the knit along.  I hope you are planning on joining us.  If you are looking for yarn, you can occasionally find someone selling some here.

 

 

Elliebelly Knit Along Announcement & Elliebelly Give Away (Merlin Merino)

We are closing in on the start of the first ever Elliebelly knit along, which will begin on Saturday, August 13.

If you haven't already, pick out a pattern!  This is a free style knit along -- you knit the pattern of your choice using any Elliebelly yarn.  Along the way, we'll have fun, prizes, and knitting support.  I'm looking forward to featuring everyone's knitting on the blog so we can all see each other's works in progress.  What a great way to get some late-summer-anticipating-fall-knitting started!

Still wishing you had some Elliebelly in your stash?  Here's a bit to help out.  A quick giveaway to give faithful blog readers a quick chance.  This is two skeins of Elliebelly's Classic Merlin Merino in "Fire Dragon."  Merlin is a 3-ply merino and there are about 560 yards in the 8 ounces up for grabs here.  Post in the comments, telling me what you will use this yarn to knit in the knit along and I'll pick a winner Sunday night, so get your posts in quickly!

A Winner, A Winner! Elliebelly Cashmere/Merino Yarn For Sara!

Talk about making it hard on a girl -- so many wonderful pattern choices for the give away yarn, that I've been reading through them for several days now without making a final selection.

The yarn, as you likely recall, is this cashmere/merino blend, with around 370 yards in a dk weight.

I'd really like to have a skein to give to each of you, you clever knitters!  So many wonderful pattern ideas.

At long last I decided to rule out a couple of my favorite pattern selections, either because it didn't seem to be enough yarn or because the pattern called for a different weight.  This has, however, inspired me to dye a bit more yarn to give away before we start the Elliebelly Knit Along (we all knit with our Elliebelly yarn using different patterns), so that I can have the fun of seeing these beautiful patterns get knit up.

After much deliberation, the winner of the yarn is Sara, who proposed knitting a Dew Drop Cowl with the yarn. Such loveliness!  Sara, please shoot me an email with your address in it so I can speed the yarn along to you.

Some of my other favorite pattern ideas included the Koigu Ruffle Scarf, the Sagebrush Shrug, and the Hoopla Shawlette.  But I have to confess, I liked every single pattern that you all linked to!  It is so easy to get lost in Ravelry with so many great patterns to check out.

In addition to these patterns, if you have any favorites that you are dying to knit, leave me a comment below and I'll see if I have some yarn to dye that might work for it.  Although I originally planned on announcing the Knit Along at the end of July, I may push back a week to give myself time to get this last yarn out to some of you sweet knitters.  There is a bit of advance notice about the Knit Along here.  I would also love to see if anyone already has a plan for what they are going to knit in the knit along, so feel free to include your intentions in the comments!

Elliebelly Yarn Give Away #2

Yarn give away #2 is for four ounces of a new yarn I've been playing around with.  It's a sport weight 65% Cashmere/35% Merino blend yarn.  Four ounces have approximately 370 yards.

The yarn is dyed in the classic Elliebelly Paintbrush style, for a stained glass effect that is lovely in linen stitch, perfect for simple lace, and equally pretty in a basic stockinette or garter stitch.  I've been hoarding my sample skeins for myself, but I can't wait to see this yarn knit up, so one skein is up for grabs.

How do you win it?  Post in the comments and tell me what you would knit with it.  Whichever pattern selection hits my whimsy gets the yarn.  And, just in time for the start of our knit along at the end of July!  Make sure I have your email address so I can contact you if you win.  Post your comment before midnight on Friday July 22.

If you're looking for some pattern ideas to get you started, a few that have caught my eye lately, and that I'm considering for the knit along include the Norie Slouch Hat, the Annis Scarf, the Summer Shawlette, and April May Wristwarmers.  Some days, I have no idea how I lived before Ravelry gave us the ability to find so many beautiful patterns so easily!  Happy hunting!

Foxfire Yarn from Springdelle Farm, Dyed by Elliebelly

Two and a half years ago I spent a fantastic week driving through Massachusetts and Connecticut with my oldest son, looking at colleges.  And, of course, it was sort of a yarn collecting trip as well.

One of my favorite acquisitions with a soft yarn from a small Massachusetts farm, Springdelle.  The yarn was spun from Cormo, Silk, and Alpaca into a DK weight with a pretty halo.  It has sat there -- too pretty to use -- since I brought it home.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to dye it before knitting with it, using a paintbrush technique.  Such a lovely yarn!  I swatched it in stockinette, and can't decide whether I like the right side

or the wrong side

better.  The colors are even more amazing up close.

I'm awfully fond of how the reverse stockinette looks.  I'm not quite ready to commit thought, thinking about swatching in linen stitch and perhaps with some patterning.

So, I've got two skeins of 190 yards each in search of a pattern and really, no clue of what I'm going to knit with it.  If you have any suggestions for a pattern that would put this yarn to use, I would love to hear them!

Elliebelly Yarn Giveaway Winner

Wow.  107 commenters interested in winning some Elliebelly yarn.  I have to confess, the number took me by surprise.  I appreciate all of the comments, and had a lot of fun reading through everyone's holiday weekend plans with my kids.  They wanted to give yarn to everyone, and with so many comments, it wasn't really possible to pick, so we decided three things.

• We would use a random number draw to pick the winner.  [They REALLY wanted to give yarn to everyone.]

• The winner turned out to be the first poster, Quinn.  I loved her post about building a ramp for her baby goats and liked her vision of this yarn: "seeing those colors appear as stitches on the needles would be like knitting candy!" Quinn, send me your address via email and I'll pop your yarn in the mail to you.  I can't wait to see what you knit with it!

• There will be more yarn giveaways.  Stay tuned here or join the Elliebelly Ravelry group.  Since there is no way to purchase Elliebelly at the moment, and so many of you have said you would like to join the knitalong -- knit any pattern of your choice using Elliebelly yarn -- I want to get a little bit more yarn out there for those of you who didn't have a chance to purchase any.  I'm planning to start the knitalong towards the end of July so stay tuned for a few give aways between now and then.

Blog Giveaway: Elliebelly Hand-Dyed Organic Merino Yarn 8oz.

Ooooh!  Don't you just love a giveaway?

This one is for 8 ounces of hand-dyed Elliebelly Naiad organic Merino yarn.  Leave a comment -- share something about your plans for the holiday weekend, your plans for this yarn, or anything else you care to comment about and I'll let my kids pick out their favorite one Wednesday evening.  Make sure you comment before then.

Whether you win (or sadly not), consider joining me in an Elliebelly knit along.  So many of you have commented or emailed me to say you are hoarding your precious Elliebelly instead of knitting with it.  Momofana on Ravelry suggested: "Love it! You should do a KAL too. There’s too much Elliebelly hiding in closets and not getting any love. It wants to be worn!!!"  And that is definitely true in my own stash, as well.                                                                                   

I thought that instead of doing a traditional knitalong, where we all knit from the same pattern, we would do a knitalong where we would use our favorite Elliebelly, while knitting different patterns.   You know from my earlier post that I have a couple of different yarns I want to use.  I can't think of anything I'd rather do than knit along with some of my favorite knitters, and perhaps offer some special "encouragements" along the way to participants.  Stay tuned for details later in the month and start thinking about patterns!

Ellie's Tiny Tea Leaves Knit Cardigan

Here is the start of Tiny Tea Leaves.

It just couldn't be any cuter.  I'm knitting this sweater, which is meant to be Ellie's fall cardigan, in Madeline Tosh's Vintage hand-dyed superwash Merino yarn.  The pattern starts at the yoke, and is knit all in one with raglan sleeves.

Progress on this one is going to be slow, but it's so much fun to knit I'm going to have to make time for it.  There are lots of beautiful examples of this sweater on Ravelry if you want to see it knit up without waiting for me.

P.S. - Make sure you check back in over the holiday weekend as I'll be posting a giveaway for some hand-dyed Elliebelly organic Merino yarn.

A Quick Note -- A New Knitting Blog You Should Be Reading

I just discovered Assemblage, the coolest little knitting blog I've seen in a long time. The author seems to be an Australian knitter who draws much of her inspiration from a Japanese aesthetic.  A fabulous scarf knit from Habu's silk wrapped stainless steel yarn caught my eye, and I couldn't stop browsing.  If you want a little bit of eye candy for the holiday weekend, I think this is just the thing!