Eskimimi Knits knitting blog

the Eskimimi Knits blog has been a little bit quiet these last few days as I have been industriously experimenting, working and constructing various tools, so I can bring you this:

Eskimimi Knits yarn

I want to thank everyone who posted words of encouragement and support at giving dyeing a go.  I have worked hard this past week to develop techniques and practices that help me to make the kind of yarns I’d like to be able to buy.

 I have been skeining, winding, dyeing, mixing, heating and designing all hours of the day and night and was up until past midnight last night putting the finishing touches to the yarn, adding ball-bands, etc.  Now that everything has been photographed, checked and re-checked a million times or more, I’m slightly giddy to present to you my little shop

Eskimimi Knits yarn shop (click to visit)

I’ve been trying out all sorts of colours, mixing and blending, dyeing and handpainting, and I am really very pleased with my resulting yarns. I have managed to get the level of saturation I have been looking for, as well as some more subtle blends.  I love colour so very much, so this yarn just ticks all of my boxes. The reason I wanted to dye up some yarn in the first place was because I just couldn’t find the fresh colours that I craved as a knitter.

Selection of yarns I have dyed

It was also a bit of a thrill to see my yarn page on ravelry as I begin to enter the yarns that I have dyed into the Ravelry database, for people to search, discover, and (hopefully) stash:

Eskimimi Knits yarn page on Ravelry

So, I’d now like to declare the Eskimimi Knits yarn shop officially open. I’d appreciate any feedback, thoughts, etc that you might have.  What do you think of the yarn names, colour choices, etc?

It’s so exciting for me that I am in danger of overwhelming you all with pictures, so I’ll limit myself to one last one and not give into the temptation of posting pictures of every single skein of yarn.

Eskimimi Knits hand dyed yarns

I hope that you’ll be able to pop by the shop and have a look around.  And again, thanks to everyone for their encouragement, and thanks to everyone who pops by now and again to read this little blog of mine.

During what will go down in my personal history the ‘yarn drought’ of Late September 2009 I found myself slowly working towards my last ball of yarn.  It was always going to be the very last ball of yarn I tackled, because I had made up my mind that it was decidedly unlovely, and something I did not want to resort to unless I had to – like the very last dry, stale biscuit as the stock cupboard runs dry.

mystery yarn from my early days of knitting

The yarn itself is not unlovely – it should be perfect for the season with its rich autumnal hues, but I am just so useless at working with it.  I have tried many times – I cannot count the occasions on which this has been frustratingly unravelled and put back into the cupboard for ‘another time’.  It was bought when I was but a brand new seedling with my single pair of needles, and I could see all of the possibilities of the forest of knitting laid out in front of me for the first time.

The fibres, the weights, the colours. A yarn shop was like walking into a grotto of jewels, as colours danced from the walls and treasure troves of tone and hue sat in baskets on tables.  The choice was almost endless, and choosing a single colour all but an impossibility.  

the Painted Lady

This was too much… Of course I wanted a ball of yarn that was more than one colour, who wouldn’t? I saw this yarn and thought of Jaffa Cakes and the Red Admiral butterfly dancing around a summer meadow with his Painted Lady.

I didn’t understand what ‘pooling’ was, and this single skein and it’s many attempted blotchy outpourings scared me off of hand-painted yarns as I slowly and painfully learned that lesson many times over. Now – I know that many knitters love pooling – there is a long and on-going thread on the Ravelry Knitting and Crochet forums that will serve as proof of this fact, but it’s just not for me. I like to make the decisions with my knitting, not let the yarn decide what is going to happen, but I’m trying to find a compromise with this skein. It’s been my companion for long enough now for us to have reached a compromise, I feel.

I have asked if it would mind applying itself attractively to the Marialis End-to-End scarf from 101 One-Skein Wonders essentially a very simple feather and fan scarf with a moss stitch border. It’s not too pretty at the moment, but I’m hoping this is just the misshapen and lumpen caterpillar that it will unfurl its regal wings like a Painted Lady when the time comes for it to be blocked. Either that or turn into some Jaffa cakes – ether one would suffice.