Knit projects & dye garden plans | West Wales

Welcome to the first episode of the Nellie and Eve podcast.

This is where I’ll be sharing my knitting and crochet projects, chats about wool, yarn, sheep and natural dyeing and snippets of life on a mountain in West Wales, UK.
Hope you enjoy.
Warmest wishes
Helen

Pattern links:
Links to patterns featured in this episode take you to Ravelry. Each garment can be found on the designers website page also.

‘Dead Easy Sweater’ by Karin Fernandes
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/dead-easy-2

‘Albers’ Slipover by Clare Mountain Manipon – Pattern release date 21st May 2024
https://www.ravelry.com/designers/clare-mountain-manipon
Yarn: Nellie and Eve
Limited Edition Shetland – Natural
Trysori-treasure – Cloud & Teal

White Mountain Light Sweater by Midori Hirose
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/white-mountains-light
Yarn: Nellie and Eve
Dales 50:50 – White Sheep
Single Farm BFL – Petal/Dreaming of summer

Easy Ribbed Pullover by Annie Lupton
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/easy-ribbed-pullover
Yarn: Nellie and Eve
Dales 50:50 – White Sheep
Single Farm BFL – Natural

WIP idea:
Fleur Sweater
https://www.sandnes-garn.com/2403-06

Audio from ‘Capcut’ – Nature (Acoustic) 3R Music

Best quality viewing:
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Website: https://www.nellieandeve.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nellieandeve/
Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/yarns/brands/nellie-and-eve

[Music] [Music] hello and welcome to the Nelly and Eve podcast episode one hello I’m Helen thank you so much for joining me on this first first episode I’m a natural yarn Dyer wol Spin and tutor and owner of Nelly and Eve plant dyed Yarns and you find me here today in my studio in West Wales UK I use British and locally sourced wool um to create natural Yarns and use plants and Botanical extracts to impart color on the fibers um this podcast will be about about my sharing my knitting and crochet projects as well as my latest whips and little Snippets of life here on a mountain in Wales so in this episode I’ve got three finished projects to show you um I’ll chat about um my whip ideas and um then I’ll take you into the garden and show you my plans for a new die Garden which is another work in progress as you’ll see um coming up soon so I’m just going to grab um some tea before me before we start lemon and ginger one of my favorites right okay so um I am wearing my first finished object to show you and this is the Alba’s slipover it is such a lovely design um it’s stranded color work three colors you hold only two colors at any one time along which I think is fairly doable for a color work um garment and um what can I say about this the actual design is beautiful inspired by Annie Alba’s Creations um the pattern itself for me took me out of my comfort zone ever so slightly and that’s because I am used to um top down yolk little bit of detail here and comfy stocking it which you can see one of the garments here very similar to this kind of thing so this is the dead easy um um pullover by Karen Fernandez I love this it’s absolutely gorgeous but I obviously was up for a bit of a challenge and this one didn’t disappoint is fantastic um the pattern is by a designer Claire mountain manipon and she’s boast in the UK and this pattern is going to be released on the 21st of May um over on her website and on rivalry too I believe um it took me out of my comfort zone because of there is not any stocking NE stitching here um and the color work is fun but there’s a little bit of flat color work here when you divide four the um armhole going up through the shaping of the neckline and that just took me a little while just to get my head around flat color work I’ve usually only ever done it on in the round um and there’s a pearl stitch that happens on the right side of that too so you just have to kind of think opposite to what you’d normally do in the round but again once I got my head round that absolutely plain sailing the other technique that I hadn’t ever tried before was Italian bindoff which is on the neck here and um on the um armhole too something that I usually swerve and now that I’ve done it I don’t know why I swerved it it’s I was actually a real joy to do I really enjoyed it and now I feel um fairly confident to do it again which is why I pushed myself and you know it’s sometimes good to get out of your comfort zone I guess um have another little technique under the knitting belt hey so that’s the Alber slipover um it’s doesn’t use that much yarn surprisingly as well so it’s a really good project for if you’ve got um the odd single ske lying around somewhere and you’re not quite sure what to do with it this used um about 70 or 80 gr of each color and the three colors I used were for the main color I used my limited edition Shetland in natural and then the two colors I used were from my trasor treasure collection and they are teal and cloud and so that is the Alba’s slip over it gives a really nice fabric it’s not too dense which I enjoyed and to get gauge with these Yarns I used um a 3 mil needle and once again that’s out on the 21st of May so the next um finished object that I have is if you’ve seen me on Instagram you might have seen this um on my page there I’ve been working on this um probably back in February time February March yeah it was kind of like a spring knit for me and this is white mount light by Midori hiros of ronculus fame um a super pattern really really concise it has lots of information in it for you and sizes that go from kids right through in the one single pattern which is really lovely so you don’t have to purchase another pattern if you wanted to make it in um a lot huge range of sizes um it’s got a great Ragin sleeve detail and I went for the roll neck and I used two Yarns held double for this to create the fabric engage in the pattern and the yarn I used was Dale’s 50/50 in white sheep um along with my single Farm bfl in E petal or Dreaming Of Summer I can’t remember which but that gives it this mild effect which I actually really like cuz it gives you color without it being solid which I’m I really like I really enjoy this so that is the White Mountain light sweater nice boxy fit slightly oversized um but still with a bit of drape in it because the Yarns held together just give the one is um they’re both full ply but one is ever so slightly Slimmer finer and it just gives it a nice a nice drape so that is the um the second finished object I wanted to show you and then the third one is another sweater and another bottom up sweater and another sweater that I’ve used yarn held double I was obviously on a bit of a DK Mission and couldn’t find what I was looking for in my collection um um but I’m really really really enjoyed knitting this so this is the easy ribbed pullover by Annie Lupton and as you can see the lovely pattern repeat gives this really nice design I almost think faux cable I don’t know what you think um and you got a setting sleeve here sorry excuse me drop sleeve here you’ve got this really nice simple neckline that happens on the bottom as well you’ve got this simple neckline gosh I’ve SE just seen a mark on it where I’ve been wearing it so sorry apologies and again and simple sleeve detail too and the yarn I used was my Dale’s um 50/50 in white sheep and single Farm bfl in natural and it gives the texture is really soft and squidy and there’s a slight Halo to it which I really love so so that is the easy ribbed pullover by Annie ltum and I’ll put all the details below for you as well so you can go and check out their patterns there so that’s the finished objects um so I’ve got to this stage now where I have finished my test knit that I did for CLA and I don’t know about you but I am not a seral Works in progress put everything in various project bags around the house that is not me so I don’t have anything to jump on to now um and because I can’t concentrate on too many whips at once I don’t I don’t know about you are you that person too um it means that I haven’t got anything to jump on to but it does mean that I can happily um Swatch away to my heart’s content and hope that that kind of guides me which it usually does so um the idea I have is for my version of the Flur sweater now this is a lovely design by um sandes gum but I don’t think you can buy the pattern separately to the yarn um I’m not sure um if you do know that then please let me know in the comments um and that’s okay but um I’ve got loads of yarn and I’d really like to have been able to purchase the pattern separately but no matter I’ll try and do my version of it so the pattern um requires crochet and knitting which is rather interesting and you have um a motif floral Motif design on the front and on the back and then and actually on the sleeve and then you knit the neckline hemline and cuff um and it’s just really pretty I’ll just put I’ll put it here for you to show you and the details will be below so you can head over there and have a look at that too um my version I’d like to do some type of floral Motif on the front and back but I’m going to knit the sleeves and I’m hoping that that may be an episode slightly quicker um project so less MO leaves to um crochet together so that’s the idea um but what I definitely know is that I’m going to use this color yarn next and this is um gorgeous rust color which I absolutely love um so whatever the project is going to be it’s going to be in this color it might be the Flur my my my um take on the Flur sweater although might actually be a cardigan so I’m not sure we’ll have to get on swatching over the weekend and see what happens um but definitely in this color um I’m one of the reasons why I’ve chosen this other than I really enjoy this color right now is that I’m trying to knit um ahead of the season I don’t know about you but I’ve always found that really hard to do so you know I’m I’m nearly Always In Summer thinking oh crumbs right I really need um a light uh garment to wear and suddenly it’s too late for that or that I’m in Winter and suddenly I want um a lovely brand new sweater warm winter and um not the right way around is it so uh this year I’m trying to do winter Autumn winter in summer and summer spring and summer in Winter let’s see how I go with that so so part of my idea with this color is that I’m going to make something for Autumn winter which is the right way around isn’t it but it’s just a bit crazy because we’re barely into early early summer here in in Wales so it just feels a bit odd but there we are anyway that is the idea I have for that so there’s my finished objects and um a bit of work in progress chat the other work in progress I’d like to show you now is my plan for the die Garden my new die Garden um you’ll see when I show you it’s definitely a work in progress but I’ll take you over into the garden now I’ll see you there so this jungle is what is going to be the die Garden um this used to be a veg plot as you can see there’s not been very much veg growing in this for a while cultivating a lovely collection of buttercups at the moment but these beds are going to be divided I’ve dug out some already we divided into five separate beds much more manageable um and then all the top soil has to come off because it’s pretty poor quality and start again um and and I’ve got a time frame for this it’s going to take a lot of work but we’ve got new wood coming for the borders to border everything that’s coming soon so got a lot to get on with before then on this side on this side here this what was flower B but again is now butter cups and fox scares um again will be divided into five um and the beds will come out to where these bamboo canes are and then I’ll have more D plants in here but also um some lovely flowers for um for cutting so all my um favorite annuals Cosmos Etc and um some perennials too in that bed and then hopefully this will be really nice space to come and get inspired by all the lovely D plants a good place to work and I’m looking out my studio window be nice to observe what’s happening down here so that is what is going to be the die Garden in my defense it has been really wet over the last few months and um I’ve been busy preparing for um shows yeah right good excuse huh yeah but it’ll get done slow and steady there we are it’s a nice day for it though out here today so in the greenhouse I have got some seedlings growing they actually need putting on now um we’ve got saw wart perennial Cor opsis ladies bed straw there’s some weld um that is D copsis I’ve um sewn some more tajer tees and um we’ve got more copsis here which needs planting on this is tanzy this is indigo and this is Mada this is what Mada looks like and lovely Cula so I’ve got lots of these seedlings and they’re all ready to putt on now and they’ll stay in here and in the Cold Frame and when the new die garden beds are ready then I’ll be a have to plant these out so that’s all for this episode thank you so much for joining me I really appreciate it and I hope that you’ve enjoyed this episode um if you have then I’d appreciate um a like and um subscribe let me know that you’d like some to see some more all of the yarn that I’ve uh discussed here you’ll find all the information there on my website Nelly and eve.com you’ll also find ways of how to subscribe to my newsletter there where subscribers get exclusive discounts and uh first sneak peeks of everything coming up and um if you want all the latest news and kind of daily stuff going on then you can always find me over on Instagram Nelly and Eve thanks again for joining me wherever you are have a lovely day you take care I’ll see you soon bye-bye [Music]