This is just the beginning! Join in the Yarn Quest by grabbing a pattern here. It's all organised by Tania Richter. You follow along a story as you knit- and the choices you make determine what happens in your knitting, you roll the dice to determine your fate and your double-knitting charts! It's nerdy and I'm obsessed!!!
My cousin is having a baby! As soon as I heard, I got excited about knitting baby things. After searching all my books, I realised that I don't have that many baby patterns. So- to Ravelry I went. There are a lot of fun projects in my queue now, hehe. Here's the first project I completed. It's called: The Frantic Mama Knitted Soaker. I chose yarns from my stash, little bits of this and that. Did a little swatch and then started. We didn't know if it was going to be a little lady or a little man, so I thought reds and oranges were pretty neutral and kick ass! Made the little gradient stripes from scraps of sock weight yarn I had. The great thing about this pattern is you can knit it plain or spice it up as much as you want. And each one will look totally different!Plus the little leg ribs are so cute! And look... surprise!Little secret heart included. :]It's just so tiny and adorable. I can't get over it! Kimxo
This hat is made with the same pattern as This One. The big difference is that's it's made with my Self Stripe Handspun. I gave mum 100g of it, and asked her if she'd make me up a sample so you could see the stripes when it's knitted up. Funny thing is, we were doing a market that weekend, and ALL my stock of it sold out! Haha. So now we have a beautiful hat with a discontinued yarn (it's not naturally dyed)- but good news is Mum wears this during the winter and always gets compliments, so that's good. :]
I really like it, it reminds me of a watercolour drawing. We added a little 'Art Equals Happy' pin badge (get one here!) onto the turned over bit of the hat. Love it!
This little hat was made up of some precious Handspun of mine. I had originally intended this yarn to be used in a jumper, but that project got scrapped. It was also pretty similar to some of the Self Stripe yarn that I made for the shop, that needed a sample. :] So we picked a favourite and much loved pattern and made up this little cutie.I really love how versitile it is, and how WARM. That's the thing with 100% wool. With all the imitations out there you can forget how wonderfully soft and warm a real wooly hat can be.
It's so amazing to be able to dream up a fibre, mix it up, spin it, and then knit it up. Every single time it's unique and different and super special. This one has really subtle stripes of ligher yellow and then some tweedy bits of red and mustard. Thanks for letting me share. :] Kimxo
I've had quite a few people ask me about the Gradient Yarn that I've spun up especially (One and Two). They wanted to know what it looked like- well here you go! This is a Cowl that my Mum made, with her xmas pressie from last year. You can really see the changes in colour, and the slow progress from pink to purple.The Cowl pattern is a simple K1P1 with a little increase on the ends- then sewn together. We just made it up. Haha. It's the warmest, snuggest, lovliest thing ever and Mum wears it all the time- especially outside to markets in the wintertime.I am very very tempted to spin up some for myself & knit one up. Maybe in yellows and browns? Would anyone like to see these in the shop? The yarn by itself with a pattern or the finished object? Let me know!Kimxo
These socks have such a nice story behind them and in them! I started these about a year ago on my friend's canal boat. (post here) The yarn was given to me as a present and I was really into samples and small colourwork patterns at the time. I mean, I'm still into that stuff, but I just had such a big itch to go kind of crazy. I was also covetting some dainty stocking-type socks that I was seeing in vintage pattern books. The kind that are misshappen and knitted on the tiniest of needles and have intricate 'clocks' worked into them. While working on the first sock (The mainly brown and pink, post here.) I knitted in little elements of whatever I was doing at the time.I've always loved the idea that a crafted object tells a story- that with each stitch, you are weaving in a pattern of emotions and thoughts. These socks took me the better part of a year to complete (finished in December 2012) and I love that I can pick out what I was doing, and read it like a story.They also look a little wonky and funny, but they fit SUPER GREAT! I wore them to the Knitting And Stitching Show last year and got loads of compliments. haha. A great, special project. I'm kind of sad to see them finished now, actually. Perhaps I'll have to start a new pair for this year? Kimxo
These socks turned out super wonky because I was using odd needles and it was over a long period of time. I also kind of rushed the foot of the second sock (we've all done that, right?). It's the same pattern I used for my Grandma Socks.Using different yarn made a HUGE difference- it's not as soft and the gradient is so messy. I just eye-balled it and was lazy with unpicking if it didn't look good. In hindsight, I feel like I should've NOT done the random lines of colour & made it a more uniform stripe. or something. But enough with the negatives...The souls of the feet are my favourite part. Super tiny stitches and the colour change. :] This is a design I love and designed a couple years ago, when I first started playing around with Fair Isle.Anyway, you win some and lose some, hey? It was a good learning experience. Kimxo
Hello! Remember when I made these for a dear friend of mine? Well, Bowen is getting bigger now and growing into them. :] They are still pretty big though, but he just looks soooooo cute! Jen sent me these photos of him & said I could share. Enjoy the sweetness...Eak! kimxo
These happy little socks are off to go and live with thier new owner, Beth. She's a sweet girl in my Illustration class that asked for custom designed socks. :] She loves comfy and mix-matchy and fun. Here is a photo of her little tootsies all cozy and warm in her new socks with shoes!Something blue, with a little bit of gold sparkle. Something like the night sky. Maybe a moon or star on the heels! And darker heels and toes and cuffs.These were super fun to make, and I sort of designed them as I went, only with a vague idea of what would go where. The purple accent on one sock is made with handspun that was a little bigger than the rest of the yarns, so the sock is a little bigger there- but I think it adds a fun variation. :] All wools are either handspun bits and bobs that I had lying around or 2nd hand wool.
To learn more about my handkint socks, check out the shop. There are three pairs up for grabs! And if you wanted to order a custom pair, shoot me a little e-mail.Lots of love, Kimxo
We had a pretty good weekend at Spitalfields Market, with the We Make London people. Right now I'm just busy updating the shop with socks and badges and things. :] Thought I'd share some photos of some socks that went home with a lovely couple (they said it was going in someone's stocking!!! Exciting!).You can read and see more about these new types of socks right here. Bear with me as I update the shop this week. :] Love, Kimxo