kimley knits

I actually have more than one finished object that I haven’t blogged about yet! So, here’s the first one. A rather belated Christmas gift for my mom (I gave them to her at the end of February…) Everyone loves Monkey socks! I’m still working on my own Monkey socks but hopefully those will be done sometime soon.


PATTERN: Monkey by Cookie A. from Knitty Winter 2006
YARN: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock – Lightweight in the Puck’s Mischief color way
NEEDLES: Addi Turbo Lace US size 2

Well, I’ve been woefully neglecting my sad little blog here. Life sometimes gets in the way of the fun stuff but I have been knitting a bit. Although it was gift knitting so I couldn’t blog about it right away but now I have some stuff to show.

Here’s one new FO – Fetching Mitts for my dear friend Janel. These mitts are such perfect gifts. They are quick and easy and everyone loves them!

Some of you may notice that Janel is wearing a Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival T-shirt – yeah, she’s a fellow fiber geek! It’s always fun to knit for those who really appreciate it.

PATTERN: Fetching by Cheryl Niamath from Knitty Summer 2006
YARN: Knit Picks Andean Silk in Lettuce
NEEDLES: Takumi Bamboo DPNs, US size 6

The NY Sheep & Wool Festival – aka Rhinebeck – was a lot of fun. I got up at the crack of dawn which for those of you who know me is not something I do with any zeal. It better be something pretty damn good to get me out of bed before the sun rises! And it was…

I took the bus up with the Big Apple Knitters Guild. We got there around 11am and the festival was in full swing. I suspect quite a lot had already been sold out!

I managed to do a bit of damage although I wasn’t quite as crazy as I was at Maryland Sheep & Wool fest. I found myself both overwhelmed and underwhelmed at Rhinebeck. There was so much stuff that I had a hard time deciding what to buy but on the other hand, I didn’t really see a whole lot of stuff that I hadn’t seen before so there wasn’t that “I better buy this or I’ll never see it again” feeeling.

Here’s what I managed to stuff in my bag…

A much needed large niddy noddy. Now that I’m wheel spinning, my one yard niddy noddy isn’t big enough for the large skeins I get from the wheel. This one is a basic Ashford. I’d hoped to find something a bit more interesting but couldn’t find anything else that I liked. This one wasn’t expensive so it will do until I can find something groovier.

Some spinning fiber:

From Cloverleaf Farms:
Merino-Tussah in “Red”

Merino-Tussah in “Purple”

Merino-Tussah in “McKenzie”

From Foxfire Fiber & Designs:
Really heavenly baby camel tussah silk – this stuff is to die for. It was expensive so I only bought 2oz. Yummy!

From Brooks Farm:
Acero (superwash wool/silk/viscose)

From Golding:
A .45 oz purpleheart pinwheel spindle. I didn’t have any really lightweight spindles so now I can attempt some real laceweight.

And, of course, the obligatory critter sightings…







And don’t ask me what this Roo was doing there but he sure was cute! Anyone ever spun Kangaroo fiber???

Well, I had such a flurry of blog posts and then dead silence for over a month! What can I say. I freelance and suddenly got a ton of work… Plus my camera decided to act up on me so I’ve been having trouble getting good photos. But here is a new project that I started a few weeks ago. I joined a KAL on Ravelry and immediately got behind. I’ve been wanting to try my hand at colorwork so this seemed like a nice small project to start with – Eunny Jang’s Endpaper Mitts:

This is also my first time using Koigu – mmmmm, nice! I’m still having trouble getting the tension even while working with the two yarns so this is definitely a learning experience. Not sure how much I’ll get into colorwork but I like to at least try things.

Tomorrow I’m going to the NY Sheep and Wool festival in Rhinebeck! I’m a little worried about melting my plastic. It’s a good thing I’ve been working a lot lately!

Lately I’ve been enamoured with all things Habu! If you’re not familiar with them, they are a Japanese textile company that makes some of the most luxurious, intriguing and unusual yarns. Most people seem to start their Habu experience with the Kusha Kusha scarf kit since it’s a small project and not too expensive ($24 U.S.). And it uses their silk stainless steel yarn and who wouldn’t want to check that out!

The silk stainless steel yarn is much softer than I thought it would be and has a lot more drape than I thought it would but at the same time you can sculpt it into a myriad of shapes. It’s endlessly fascinating. Check out this video from Amy at Knitty

A few blog entries with Habu content definitely worth checking out:
– Fluffbuff’s photos from a recent Habu trunk show.
– This amazing Kushu Kushu Jacket from Knitsane.
– This beautiful scarf from coloursknits

FIBER: 80% Merino/20% Tussah from Chameleon Colorworks
WPI: varies but averaging about 10-13wpi
YARDAGE: 214 yds.

This is the first semi-decent handspun I’ve made on my wheel. I don’t know the name of the colorway (Janel?) so I’ve named it “Fruit Loops” since it reminds me of the cereal that I haven’t eaten since I was in the single digits. It’s still pretty uneven. The second bobbin was much thinner and more consistent and you can really see the difference in the two plies. But these colors are so crazy bright that it just makes me smile.

This is what’s on the wheel now:

This is another merino/tussah blend that I bought at the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival from Cloverleaf Farms. The colorway is called Seamist and I just love it!

PATTERN: Wisp by Cheryl Niamath from Knitty Summer 2007
YARN: Rowan Kidsilk Haze in Heavenly – less than a skein
NEEDLES: Addi Turbo Lace in US size 6
MEASUREMENTS: 8.5″ wide by 57″ long

This was a super easy knit and perfect for summer since it was so light weight. I had about 85-90% of one skein left of the Kidsilk Haze and I tell you, you get a lot of mileage out of one skein of this yarn. I would have liked the scarf to be a tad longer but I had trouble ripping the Kidsilk Haze from my previous project so I wasted a bit on that. Lesson learned – make sure you know what you want to knit with Kidsilk Haze as it’s nearly impossible to frog. It’s also a bit difficult to work with at first but once I switched from regular Addi’s to the Lace Addi’s that helped enormously and eventually I got used to the yarn. Other than that, it’s a beautiful yarn.

The edges came out a bit wonky. I’m not sure that I used my new blocking wires properly. But I think it’s a pretty scarf and will be nice for early Fall and Spring.

I finished knitting Wisp yesterday and now I’m blocking it with my fancy new blocking wires which were an awesome b-day gift from my dad.

Earlier today I plied up my two bobbins on my spinning wheel and here it all is soaking in the water. And can I just say that I will never ply on a spindle again! As I had hoped, plying on a wheel is so much easier. I still have plenty of love for the spindles – just not for plying on them.

In case you think I’ve neglected my spindles for the fancy new wheel… This is all of the Funky Green merino/tencel fiber – spindle spun and ready to be knit. I still love the spindles too! I ended up only getting 368 yards so not enough for any of the lace scarves in Victorian Lace Today. But that’s OK. I’ve got plenty to make the Branching Out scarf from Knitty. First I need to finish Wisp which is almost done.

It’s starting to look more and more like yarn! I’ve finally got to the point where I’ve got a decent rhythm going and am not stopping and starting. I figured out that a large part of my initial problems were due to not having my drive band and scotch tension set properly. I was having trouble treadling and the yarn was being pulled in much too quickly. Now I’ve got it working so that I can focus more on my drafting. It’s still uneven and I still need a lot of practice but I feel like I made a big leap now that the settings are better suited to my needs/skills.

Feeling a bit more confident, I moved onto another fiber – this is a merino/tussah blend from Chameleon Colorworks (of course! – it’s good to have a friend in the fiber biz!)

I’ve got 4oz. of this so I split it into two batches of 2oz. and will hopefully use this for my first plying effort. Stay tuned 🙂