Joyce Makes Art

Monday Morning Photos

Here are a couple of promised photos.  First off, Ellie's Be Sweet skirt in progress.  My fingers are crossed on two accounts -- first it is looking, um, a wee bit small.  I'm thinking it may end up being for my niece.  Ellie is hoping not.  Second, you can see I've spaced some random eyelets in the yoke.  I've dyed some ribbon, and plan on tying some bows up there.  At the time, it seemed like a very fashionista idea.  Now, I'm hoping it's not going to look silly, because, if it does, what the heck am I going to do with all those "holes"?



Next picture:  The silk/cotton yarn (Cocoon) that I showed pictures of myself painting in a post over the weekend.  I'm in love with this yarn, in fact, I'm off to look on Ravelry for a pattern as soon as I'm done here!





I'll have several skeins of Dover for sale this Thursday at noon if you like it too.

And, my last picture for the morning (and definitely my favorite) is my sweet baby girl, helping me bring yarn in from the drying racks this weekend.

Concrete Angels & Silk

I owe y'all an apology -- I don't have a finished picture of the silk/cotton yarn I was painting in my last post.  And that's really a shame because it looks beautiful!  I've been reskeining it all afternoon (by hand -- my electric skeiner is here, but i haven't had a chance to set it up yet) and it's simply gorgeous.

I do have a picture of a hank while it was drying.  That will have to be my tease for now.  I promise real pictures later this week, and maybe a swatch, although I haven't decided what to knit with it yet.

That picture simply doesn't begin to capture the sheen of this yarn or how pretty the colors look when the yarn is reskeined (usually a better idea of how the knitted fabric will appear).  I've never seen a silk/cotton blend before this, and I'm pretty much wholeheartedly in love.  I can't wait to see how the linen/silk blend dyes up too!

So now I'm hoping that just the right pattern will present itself.  Maybe some kind of summer shrug or wrap.  I thought I might swatch to see if I can get the gauge for the pretty Blue Sky Alpaca cardigan pattern that I've always wanted to make but never actually done.  Suggestions welcome!

I've also been working in two round robin books.  This is the concrete angels book from the pocketful round robin.

I've got the little collage sitting on top of the pocket in the scan, but it actually slips down, and you can see a bit of the pocket behind, where I used watercolor to stamp a floral design into the pocket.  The words at the bottom that you can't quite make out are the definition of baggage, and I underlined the secondary meaning, " a pert, willful young woman."  Hmmm......

Tuesday I'm off for Los Angeles, so there's not a lot going on around here other than preparing and packing.  I'm hoping to get in a little bit of night knitting with one of the knitting groups out there, if my meetings don't run too late at night.  Ellie's Be Sweet skirt is about two-thirds done (yes, I owe y'all a picture of it too), so I'm hoping to finish it on this trip.

Painting Silk Yarn

I wanted to share a little bit of what is going to be happening in my studio this weekend.  I'm painting silk yarn.  Wonderful, luxurious, can't-stop-touching-it silk yarn.

I like to paint silk yarn with brushes -- I tend to "pounce" the paint into the yarn, a bit like stenciling, rather than stroking it on the yarn.

I pad my table out with newspapers and old beach towels, then I paint directly on top of the plastic wrap I use for batching the yarn.  With less absorbent wool fibers, I paint on a rack over one of my big marbling trays, but the silk wicks the dye so quickly, that painting directly on the plastic wrap works very well here.

Although I'm using a large sponge brush in the picture, I prefer my soft bristle brushes, which seem to give me more control over where the color is going.

In addition to pure silk, this weekend I'm working with some silk/linen and silk/cotton blends -- enough to jump start a little bit of summer knitting.  I love how all of these fibers take color, so it's bound to be lots of fun.  In the pictured yarn, I have started with some extremely concentrated jewel tones, and balanced them out with an very pale robin's egg blue.

Here I am stroking the dye on -- you can see how that leaves white patches behind.  Pouncing the brush gently up and down to push the dye into the fibers is a much more effective technique.

 

The first skeins will batch overnight and on into mid-afternoon out in the sun.  I've painted these yarns with Procion Mx dyes, so they batch at room temperature, without steam heat.  I'll follow that process with the silk/cotton blend yarn pictured here and probably with the silk/linen yarn as well.  For the pure silk, I'll return to acid dyes, and steam the yarn after painting to set the color.

Pictures of the finished yarn tomorrow or Sunday.  I can't wait to see how it turns out!

A Day of Pictures: Swatching for Ellie's Skirt while Babies Sleep

It is a pretty day here.  A day of full sun that started with an early visit to the farmers market.  There are beets roasting in the oven (they smell stunningly good), a bowl of blackberries macerating in sugar, and a breakfast room table that is covered in torn scraps of paper, glue, and paint (I collaged, the kids drew horns on people in the newspaper.  I worry about them sometimes).

It really is pretty, so pretty I decided to have a day of pictures.  This pretty.



It's a pretty day for yarn too.  It must be pretty, because my seventeen year old, he who winds for movie money, stopped in the middle of the first skein and said, "this is really pretty yarn!"  That has never happened before.  It was a day-maker.  Probably a month-maker.  It may just be that his best friend's girlfriend crochets, which means having a mom who dyes and spins is suddenly cool.



I've been having a hard time with my knitting lately.  Just when I want to knit on something, I can't find it or I can't find the directions.  Despite my massive organizational overhaul of the house, knitting is still out of control.  Even my swatches have been bad.  This week, I swatched for Ollie's Bamboo socks, my fall cardigan, and Ellie's Be Sweet Skirt.  The first two swatches have been repeat failures.  So we will only discuss the Be Sweet Skirt, which is going to be gorgeous.  here is the swatch.



This is some bamboo I'm going to use for the waist band.  I think she's too big for an eyelet ribbon tie, so I'm going to do an elastic band at the top (you can see the garter ridge that I put in the swatch to make sure it would work to fold the band on).  I'm hoping to get started tonight and then take all my yarn along to knit on the drive to Arkansas for Catherine's wedding.

I've stashed some Be Sweet yarn for the skirt, and have some silk I'm going to dye to work in with it.



Isn't it pretty?  And lastly, I have to show you some "baby" pictures.  Ollie was napping with the Judge.



Isn't he sweet?  You can barely see the Judge, snoozing away obliviously in the far corner of this next photo, but I don't think the kids ever sleep. I don't remember naps being this much fun when I was little.



I'm off to roast some okra and zucchini and stuff some squash blossoms with goat cheese for dinner.  I'll saute the beet greens to go with the beets and maybe sear a little bit of tuna or some scallops to go on the side.  I love long, lazy summer days.  I hope you enjoy all the pictures!

Elliebelly's Pixie Merino Yarn

My Pixie Merino is a feature yarn on Ravelry!  I'm pretty excited about that (it doesn't take a lot).

Pixie is a worsted weight superwash merino, that knits pretty quickly into socks and is soft enough for clothing.  I had the idea of putting my little "egg" of yarn into a nest, so I did this graphic.

 

If you're looking for the yarn, you can find it here.  I'm trying to take the sold yarn out of stock at least once a day to keep it neat, but forgive me if it starts to have lots of sold stuff on the page.  I've also got more to stock in the store over the weekend.

I hope you like my silly little egg of yarn.

Bits & Pieces

Bits and pieces for today:

• I made a charm for my friend Shanna, using an absolutely adorable picture of her son Seamus.  My soldering still pretty much sucks, but I'm getting better.

• Sometimes I worry that I think too much.  On the back, I tried to take some little bits from some yarn colorways I know she likes and artfully arrange them in a little design with an "S" in it.  Maybe I need to stop trying to think so hard.

• I've dyed two of my favorite colorways ever.

 


    I'm debating which one to knit with myself.  I keep looking at them and thinking I want to do myself a      soft fluffy hat in the blue/green (Lariat), but I love how the colors play together in the multicolored yarn (Honey Flower).  I think it would make a fabulous skirt.

• I found out today I have a collage piece published in the summer 2008 Somerset Studio Gallery Magazine.  My piece is on p. 38 and it's called Mystifying Oracle.  It's done on top of an old Ouija Board and I'm surprised they took it as it's not a style that seems within their mainstream.  I really love this piece though and am so happy they published it.  It got a nice big half page display.

• Having recommitted to running, I'm about to go to bed so I can get up at 5:15 and go run.  I'm not particularly excited about that.

Going Gothic

I took some time out tonight from dyeing and rinsing and otherwise getting fabric and silk ribbon ready for Art & Soul to participate in one of my favorite weekly artists' inspirational challenges, the gothic arch challenge.  I love working in this framework and even though I'm busy, busy tonight, I decided to steal away a few moment to complete a simple one.



This week's theme is Paris, a city near and dear to my heart, as I spent a great deal of time there while I was going to school in Germany.  It took me a long time to warm to the French and especially to Paris, but I remember the exact moment.  It was an incredible moment of generosity.  Two friends and I were walking to the train station after a weekend in Chartre.  A man, working in his front yard, pruning his trees, cut us a large branch from his cherry tree and handed it to us, motioning that we should eat the cherries.  The cherries were delicious, the gesture of friendship irresistable, and by the time we returned to the station and were on our way to Paris I was convinced that France was a fine place to be.

The image of the little boy perched along the (horizontal) Eiffel Tower is one of my favorites from Karen Owen's wonderful collection of collage sheets.

Now I'm leaving Paris and returning to dyeing fabric.  I've been working on Kona Cotton tonight (and prepping some silk jersey and organic cotton yardage) and using my multi-bath crackle dye technique.  And please, knitters, don't be afraid that I have abandoned you -- I'm working on the colorway for May's Sock Club yarn, which is a delicious blend of Suri Alpaca and Blue Faced Leicester.  I added 15 new Club slots today -- 10 three month slots and five for the six months of yarn.  There are still a few left, you can sign up for one here.



 


   

In need of yarn?

Find yourself in need of a little yarn this week?  *snicker*  i'm having this little yarn stocking party, Thursday at noon, eastern time and I just might be able to help you out a little bit.

http://www.hyenacart.com/elliebelly 

I went sort of gaga this week -- I couldn't stop dyeing.  It's a sort of something for everyone kind of week.

For starters, not yarn, but I have playsilks.  If you don't Waldorf or Montessori school your kids, you may not know what these are -- big 35" squares of hand-dyed Habotai silk.  Wonderful for play.  But as this time of year, I always try to stock some for Easter basket liners. Nix on anymore of that nasty shredded plastic, um, grass.

 

I have several colorways in Blue Faced Leicester, including some from the Paintbrush series. And, for all the one-skein wonder devotees, I have several one skein listings this week as well.

 

If you want to make baby blankets, mittens, scarves, or pants or a skirt for a child, I've dyed some superwash worsted weight Merino. It's incredibly soft!



For eco-friendly knitters, there is some organic Merino yarn this week.



And, for the sock knitters among you (c'mon, if you're aren't already one, you know you want to be), two great colorways on Blue Faced Leicester luxury sock yarn.



These pictures are just a sample of all the fun I've had dyeing in the last couple of weeks.  You can come by and look at the previews anytime -- the yarn will all be available for purchase at noon on Thursday, here.

Facing The Music

Honestly.  What was I thinking?  An extra-small?  What delusion led me to believe I was going to stuff my post-fourth baby body into a size extra-small knit?

Aside from the fact that I will never wear it because it is so small my nine year old is only going to get a year or so out of it because it's a wee bit too tight here and there although I could fit into it if I really wanted to, it's really pretty and I like it.  All it lacks is the buttons, which I will undoubtedly be putting on for Miss Ellie's benefit.

Lacking models, I've tried laying it out on the floor and hanging it on the door to get pictures, but they don't really capture this sweater's charm, so you'll have to use a little imagination.

Ellie is going to really enjoy this one.  *Sigh*

In less depressing knitting news, due, undoubtedly to the fact that it has no sizing, the knit bowl I worked on earlier this year, but never photographed in its finished state is really one of the wonders of my life.  It's perfect for holding....yarn.  That's my Be Sweet stash, to be exact -- yarns I've been collecting to make Ellie a sweet little skirt from every changing yarns.  She will probably wear it with my the Rowan sweater.  She will probably look adorable and even stylish doing it. *Sigh*

Those of you who are particularly astute will notice that the bowl is in fact sitting on one of the matching pair of bamboo end tables I purchased on sale at Garnet Hill in December.  I explained to the Judge that we really needed something to hold books and kids-stuff, and placed them in opposite corners of the room.  He has yet to figure out that the tops come off and provide.....extra yarn storage.  In the living room no less.  And lots of it.  These tables hold my entire, extensive stash of Cascade 220 for Noni Bag knitting, as well as lots of handpainted yarns.  I smile everytime I walk past them.

What I Am Doing

This is what I am doing today:

(1) Dyeing

I am dyeing Sea Silk. It is my dream yarn -- part silk, part spun seaweed (Seacell).  Its manufacturer claims it has antimicrobial and skin softening properties and I'm prepared to believe just about anything of this yarn.  Although I have adapted some of the spring colorways for it, including Katie and Pellucidly, I'm also doing some colorways just for this yarn, including Sea Maiden and Mystery. (all pictured below).

This yarn is beyond heaven.  I'm going to be adding it and a Seacell/Merino sock yarn to the line up.

(2) Knitting.

The Rowan sweater is done and only needs finishing.  It is also too small.  I am sad.  I have actually avoided blogging for the last several days because I am so sad about it.  Anyone out there a size 2 with skinny little arms?

Pictures to follow.

(3) Stuff.

Taxes -- the bad part, but other than that, making lots of soup and pouring over the Disneyworld book with our two littlest ones to plan a trip there for part of spring break while the Judge takes our oldest to look at colleges.

I've also got  a round robin book from pocketful to work on this morning, and am letting the glaze dry on my own book  for the new colors round robin so I can send it out either today or Tuesday.  So, while there aren't too many pictures this morning.  There will be a lot more over the weekend!