art equals happy.: .Spinning

.Spinning

June 27, 2017

#teamau16 :: Spinning & Shop

There were nearly 300 posts in our team's hashtag last year! Whoa! Here's a peek at some of them. :D Well done everyone who participated!

Posted at 01:53 PM in .AlterknitUniverse, .Spinning, collaboration, Etsy/shop talk, talented friends | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 26, 2017

Tour De Fleece 2016 :: Shop Talk & Spinning

Write text here...

Posted at 01:33 PM in .AlterknitUniverse, .Spinning, SHOP Events Classes, videos | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 11, 2014

Southdown Pencil Roving. :: Wool on The Wheel.

Something new and fun I've been playing with is spinning up singles. They are harder than they look, and take a lot of getting used to, but very satisfying when you see the bobbin filling up so fast! I finally felt like I had the technique down enough to try some thicker singles and got out my delicious 100% British Southdown. I ordered a bump of this for the shop, knowing that I'd find something great to do with it. Originally I thought I was just going to make similar yarns to my BFL collection, but with a different fibre. Nope. Sometimes things change for the better.

Southdown is a little more robust and perfect for pencil rovings. My tension is still a little tight and I absolutely can't watch anything while I spin this (audiobooks and podcasts only) but there is so much joy in the fat fluffy twists and filling up 4 bobbins in a few hours (and knowing I don't have to ply them!) that makes Pencil Roving a new favourite of mine. Just take a look at this big stack of full skeins that I produced in under a week:Don't you just want to cuddle it?! These are going to look so great dyed, I can already tell. Thinking I'll have to sell these in 100g skeins because they are so thick and juicy. Yum yum yum. Fibre Diet.

Love, Kimxo

Posted at 10:00 AM in .Spinning, .Wool on the Wheel, Etsy/shop talk, SHOP about making, SHOP Products, workspace | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 21, 2013

Another little update. :: Shop & Handspun

Yes! Look at all these beautiful yellows and purples just in time for knitting that perfect autumn hat! There's rather a lot of new colours in Chunky and Worsted weight (NEW!) up in the shop right now.There's only one or two skeins of each of these so grab 'em quick! There were shown during my final show, and are some of my favourites.

You might even spot a couple *NEW* test ranges. Like slub...

I'm travelling up to Birmmingham this week for a business trip with Hobzy! So all orders will ship out on Friday as usual, but I might not get to e-mails untill Thursday. Love, Kimxo

Posted at 01:02 AM in .NaturalDyes, .Spinning, Etsy/shop talk, SHOP Products | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

June 26, 2013

Final Shop as seen by Amy. :: Shop & Camberwell.

Amy did a wonderful job at snapping some beautiful photos of the shop at the Camberwell Degree show. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, and give you an overview of the whole space soon. I just love these too much not to share right now!

Thanks Amy! Kimxo

Posted at 10:18 PM in .Markets, .Spinning, Camberwell BA, Etsy/shop talk | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

May 10, 2013

A Striped Hat. :: Spinning & Knitting Adventures.

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!

Posted at 10:49 AM in .KnittingAdventures, .Spinning, knitting, photographs, style | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

May 02, 2013

Happy little hat. :: Spinning & Knitting Adventures.

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

Posted at 05:27 PM in .KnittingAdventures, .Spinning, knitting, my life, style | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

April 24, 2013

Purple Medieval 2ply. :: Wool On The Wheel.

Hey! It's Wednesday! Sometimes I do what I like to call 'Wool On The Wheel' on Wednesdays. Pretty much I share with you a yarn that I've spun up recently. Sometimes it's actually 'on the wheel' when I photograph it, and sometimes I share the end result. This week I want to wet your appetite a little bit for a shop update that's in the works.

This yarn was my first real experiment that turned into a new Collection called 'Medieval'. It's a sock weight 2ply yarn and completely natural! Dyed BFL fleece with natural dyes (here, Logwood, the purple!) is mixed with natural brown and grey BFL to create a more 'earthy' and 'old world' colour and texture.Originally I was inspired by the elaborate garments shown in paintings of Royalty at the National Portrait Gallery- but I also wanted it to be a bit more down to earth, so I started watching programs set in that era (and also fantasy like King Arthur and Game Of Thrones) and found that there were a lot more knitted and handmade looking garments in the lower classes. I love the big stitching on jackets especially.

Anyway, I digress. This yarn brings back all those feels. It's an absolute pleasure to spin, although because it is so skinny, it takes me AGES to get through one batt of fleece and even longer to fill up one bobbin. I like to imagine a slower pace of life and the spinning for a need (i.e. a family member needs a pair of socks because they got eaten by a dragon or something... haha) rather than a want. I usually listen to Shakespeare radio plays or watch Merlin while I'm spinning this.

Pictured above is the skein tied with some White fleece. I washed and fixed it with this in place so I could see if the dye ran. It didn't!

There will be four colourways of this wool up for sale in the Shop soon. Are you excited? I'm excited!

Above is a close up of the yarn, with a little cheeky bit of turquoise that weasled it's way in to this particular skein. Naughty!

Lots of Love, Kimxo

Posted at 04:45 PM in .NaturalDyes, .Spinning, .Wool on the Wheel | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

March 08, 2013

Gradient Cowl. :: Spinning & Knitting Adventures.

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

Posted at 10:00 AM in .KnittingAdventures, .Spinning, Etsy/shop talk, knitting, SHOP Products | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

February 27, 2013

Just for fun, Blue. :: Wool On The Wheel & Spinning.

Wool on the Wheel this week is something I spun up just for fun. :] I bought a big bag of reduced turqouise wool/synthetic mix fleece (months and months ago) & it's been really fun finding projects for it- it's such a great colour. The only thing about it is that it's not 100% natural... which is kind of my thing. But I'm not one for waste either. This is mixed with a soft BFL in a grey to tone down how bright the turquoise is. it's also got bits and bobs of other things... kind of my favourite thing to do- just add a bunch of other little bits to keep it interesting.It feels like a DK in most places, but might be more on the chunky side. Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet... maybe a hat or a cowl? It's so soft!